Dark Days Challenge Fatigue

Ok, so I have to admit to being just a little tired of finding things to do with squash and greens. Not tired of eating them, just getting weary of finding new ways to cook them. But, just in time, Green Bean Dreams came through with an enticing-sounding recipe for a Roasted Butternut Squash and Carmelized Onion Tart. So, that will give me something new to try this week.

Of course, it isn't necessary to always try new ways to cook some of the vegetables that are readily available this time of year. Nothing wrong with returning to the standards. Last night, I sauteed an assortment of greens with garlic, onion and some red pepper flakes. And that was a nice simple accompaniment to our main course. Our niece from Oakland was in town visiting. She and her sister who lives here in town joined us for dinner and I made an old favorite, Chianti-braised Stuffed Chicken Thighs.



The chicken pieces are stuffed with a combination of a locally made sweet Italian chicken sausage, egg, bread crumbs and herbs. Then, they are braised in chianti, chicken broth and crushed tomatoes. All local except for the herbs since I am such a non-gardener that I can't seem to even grow some basic herbs. Oh, and the chianti was Italian. I used The Art of Simple Food recipe to make the fettucine for this recipe with a mixture of unbleached and whole wheat flours and I have to say I don't really know where those came from - other than from the bins at the New Seasons store.

Today, I was able to go again to the Hillsdale Farmer's Market and now I have these goodies to look forward to working with in the next week or so:
I don't have a plan for the young carrots, but am open to suggestions. I know that my Beef Bourguignon calls for them, but we've just had that recently. But, perhaps some similar kind of braised something or other or a stew.

I forgot to mention that, for our dinner with the nieces, I made Royal Romance cocktails, a recent "Drink of the Week" from another of my regular reads - Married with Dinner. They were quite wonderful tasting and beautiful to look at as well. Grady, who is not a cocktail drinker particularly, bulked his up with extra passion fruit juice so even he enjoyed this one.