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Here are the early December highlights.

Spaetzle with roasted Brussels sprouts and cranberries. A little feta.

Two (kind of) single-serving portions of mac & cheese.

Wheat & buttermilk bread.

Two-tomato and fennel soup. F&W recipe.

Sautéed "power" greens (silly name) and chick peas. Roasted acorn squash with feta.

And that's the round-up!

A Sunday in November

Date nut bread.

Meat & potatoes, mostly

My favorite kind of food is real food.

Here are two examples.

Pumpkin, part 2, which is fancier

It's hard to photograph a sauce, but this one, despite the lackluster pics, was amazing. Pumpkin and kale.

And then finished with toasted hazelnuts and chèvre.

And I tried a new multi-grain bread: AP-flour, white whole wheat, rye, cornmeal, oats, sunflower seeds. Ridiculously easy. Also really pleasing. 

I served the pasta with a side of asparagus. It looked pretty, as asparagus nearly always does.

And the bread...

Finally, a little candlescape, shades of the season.

Pumpkin, part 1

Saturday was WVU football and pumpkin scones, KAF recipe. With white chocolate and cappuccino chips. Super delicious.

Savory more than sweet

And quite delicious. Zucchini cornbread.

I cut the sugar by half and skipped the decoration on top that the recipe suggests. It turned out pretty enough, I think.

Cooking and baking are very satisfying,

I find.

Last week I made a lovely Swedish almond cake for a meeting at work. The second pic shows a piece on a plate on my desk. You can just see the mess.

Next up, something very healthy: tuna + butter beans (my new favorites) + spinach + asparagus + red onion + tomatoes. Here it is in stages:

Today I made two loaves of the white whole wheat bread. Slightly different sizes, you'll note, because the pans were different. Anyway: one loaf to eat, one to freeze. 

Finally, tonight's dinner: spinach salad with dried cherries, feta, and pecans; orzo salad with sautéed onions, dates, spinach and parmesan; and a very nice pumpkin soup. I used the Mayo Clinic recipe, so, yes, very healthy, though I cooked the onions in olive oil. Also, I added some curry to cut any sweetness.

Just chicken

Yet pretty, in its simplicity.

First, grilled chicken with a very nice side of pan-roasted white beans, kale, and walnuts (recipe from Food 52, kind of) along with some roasted tomatoes.

And then grilled, as before, along with yellow squash and zucchini over basmati rice and some more tomatoes and garlic.

Simple as can be.

It feels like fall

And cooking is headed in that direction too.

Here's a soup of butter beans, spinach, onions, garlic, rosemary.

Italian bread, made with KAF 00 Italian flour. Pretty good, especially with roasted garlic.

Thanks to some farmers' market tomatoes, I made a very nice marinara with mushrooms. Kale added, last minute. Whole wheat gemelli.

Finally, today's bread, my new favorite, a white whole wheat loaf. Terrific.

A gentle rain

this morning... and a roundup: various things, shades of green.

Basmati rice + chicken + green beans + scallions + oh I can't remember what else.

Gemelli with swiss chard, tomatoes, pistachios.

Wild rice, farro, baby kale, mandarin oranges, dried cherries.

"Silky" zucchini soup. Food & Wine recipe. 

Meeting and greeting

This past Sunday I hosted the MFA meet-&-greet. Now my house is mostly very clean.

No grilling this year. Instead, five (yes, five) salads:

Mixed greens with feta and pecans. My vinaigrette.

Wheat bulgur and corn salad. 

Rice salad with edamame, pistachios, dried cranberries.

Chick pea and parmesan salad.

Watermelon, tomato, feta salad.

I also made some beer bread.

And then there was some fruit.

And some brownies and chocolate chip/espresso chip cookies. The Hello Kitty cookies I did not make. Alas.

Finally, a couple of pics of the table.

Whew. That was a lot. But a good time, I think.