Soup Is All I Want

I'm about up to my ears in words. At this point in the magazine's cycle, I'm going over I couldn't even tell you how many stories per day. You would think I'd nothing left to say.

Squash-Apple Soup: from Back to Basics by Ina Garten

1 pound butternut squash
2 apples
1/2 cup onion
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
dash cayenne pepper
2 to 4 cups chicken stock

Topping:
squash seeds
almonds
olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel the squash and apples, chop them along with the onion. Mince the garlic. Ina suggests roasting the vegetables with olive oil and salt and pepper for 30 to 45 minutes at 450 degrees, but I didn't have time so I just sauteed them for 10 to 15 minutes until browned and softened. In retrospect, it probably would have worked out better to roast, but sometimes you sacrifice quality for sanity. Puree the sauteed vegetables with some chicken stock until smooth. Put the pureed vegetables back in the pot, add enough chicken stock to thin out the soup to a desired consistency. On medium-low heat, bring soup to a simmer. Add curry and cayenne pepper, along with the salt, adjusting to taste. Let simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the seeds and almonds on medium-high heat with olive oil, salt and pepper until the seeds are crunchy (8 to 10 minutes). I also added some garlic powder given to me for Christmas by my friend Lindsey. Serve soup topped with seeds and almonds.

Alternative Spaghetti and Meatballs

I knew I was saving a post from Maria for a good occasion. To be dramatic, my life is in total upheaval. To be realistic, I'm busy packing up for a move this weekend. Meg and my apartment was broken into a couple weeks ago, and for the moment, we are in diaspora. I'm at my parents' in the burbs, she's with Eric (and his two roommates). We travel back and forth spending a couple hours here and there sifting through piles of belongings and packing things in boxes. I've cooked maybe twice in the past two-and-a-half weeks, I even took photos, but I can't find the right cords or the memory card, I run out of underwear every other day it seems, and I've been wearing the same pair of jeans and five T-shirts for 20 days. But here is one thing that keeps me sane: food. I'm plotting out jamming some strawberries and making shepherd's pie and boeuf bourguignon and biscotti and and and. Sigh. This weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy this health-minded meal straight from Maria over in Indiana.

This is another recipe from the awesome Kroger coupon and recipe book. I'd never had spaghetti squash but remembered reading about it here on Food Eaten. I decided to give it a try. Kroger, sadly, only had one squash left. It had a few blemishes on the outside but it turned out to be perfect on the inside. I was a little nervous about the directions. I remembered Lainey saying she'd cooked hers in water, but this called for baking. I called my mom for advice, but she'd never used spaghetti squash. It ended up working well. But once again, I had to the use cardboard mozzarella cheese. This recipe originally called for meatless meatballs, but I love my turkey meatballs.

Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Meatball Marinara 1 large spaghetti squash Turkey meatballs 1 jar marinara sauce Optional assorted vegetables (I was too hungry by the time I was doneto make extra veggies) Grated Parmesan cheese Mozzarella cheese to taste Preheat over to 350 degrees. Slice spaghetti squash in half. (I wish I had a video of this, it's not as easy as it sounds. Thoses uckers are tough!!!) Use a spoon to scrape out seeds and pulp, discard. Place squash halves face down on a foil covered pan and bakef or 1 hour. While squash is cooking, prepare turkey meatballs (see early blog post). When squash is done cooking, gently scrape the meat out of the squash with a fork and place in a baking dish. It really is magic, as Lainey pointed out. Top with marinara sauce, meatballs, mozzarella cheese and optional sauteed vegetables. Return to over just until warmed through and cheese is melted (unless you have fat free which will never melt). Top with Parm and enjoy!

Fall Soup in Summer

I realize now may not be the best time of year for a hot soup, particularly one that features butternut squash. But this soup, dios mio, my favorite ever. The recipe is tweaked from one on 101 Cookbooks, always reliable. I tend to think of cooking and even baking as a creative activity on line with writing, painting and music. But it's so easy to create a new dish by just tweaking one or two ingredients, it almost doesn't seem fair. Change is the natural progression of a recipe. Each person puts their imprint on lasagna, they pass it on and the next person makes a tweak here and there. There are infinitessimal ways to make one single meal. In that way cooking is like language. (Allow me to put my nerd glasses on.) Change and creativity are what I absolutely love about language. Living language is always in flux, adding new words, dropping old ones. There are a million and one ways to communicate what would amount to the same utterance, and each person does it differently, and (even more fascinating) each culture does it differently. There are rules to language (and cooking), we know the rules and then we break them. It's beautiful. This all got me to thinking about creative process. I mean, there's not much creative energy in substituting Holly's adzuki beans with cannellinis, and the only reason why I did it was because I didn't have adzukis. I tend to think of anything creative as something that requires a lot of energy. But maybe that's completely false. I think creativity can be simple. Look at "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," for example. That is a song we sing to children. It's a simple tune, but it's lovely. The original Mozart diddy goes off on a much more complex tirade, but the melody is still there. I think we make creativity into something impossible. I hear things all the time like "I could never paint that." Sure, you can't paint that, but you can paint something. Along the same lines, I wonder how much of the truly creative, original stuff is born out of necessity. I tend to think of creativity springing from a wealth of money, love, happiness and time. But maybe it really springs from depravity.

Enough of my high-brow tangent. All you really want is the recipe.

Cannellini Butternut Squash Soup: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon coriander 1 teapsoon dried red pepper flakes 1 teapsoon salt 1 onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, diced 2 cups butternut squash, peeled and chopped 3 cups chicken stock 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes 1 15-ounce can rinsed cannellini beans In a medium skillet, heat oil on medium heat. Saute cinnamon, coriander, pepper flakes and salt for a few minutes. Toss in the onion, and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and squash, stir to coat with oil and then add the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until squash softens a bit. Using a potato masher or a large fork, break up the squash a bit. It doesn't have to be a puree, just a little less chunky. Add the tomatoes and cook for a couple minutes. Then add the beans. Continue simmering for about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and spices. Serves 4.

Spaghetti Squash = Magic

Now that I've taken account of the contents of my pantry, I realize empying is something that has got to happen but will be impossible to complete before Saturday. I have a potato in there that has probably established roots--I was too afraid to look.

I did a decent job of emptying out these jarred Mediterranean items. I've had the capers for well over a year (probably why they don't taste good anymore). But in the process of cleaning off my counter I discovered an amazing new gourd: the aptly name spaghetti squash.

There are so many just weird things this earth produces. Gourds are kind of weird in general. And the spaghetti squash is definitely not the weirdest out there. But it's pretty sweet that you can boil a halved and de-seeded squash just like pasta, let it cool a bit and then scrape the sides and it looks like spaghetti. The flavor of this squash is really mild, so it goes with any sort of sauce you might put with regular, wheaty pasta.

Spaghetti Squash with Tapenade: from Food and Wine 1 spaghetti squash 1 cup coarsely-chopped almonds >1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted 1 tablespoon capers couple sun-dried tomatoes 1/4 cup scallions 3 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper handful or so crumbled feta cheese You'll want to toast or blanch the almonds if they aren't toasted already. So pre-heat the oven the 350. Toast whole almonds for 5 to 7 minutes, then pulse in the food processor until coarsely chopped.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil--both halves of the squash will need to fit in the pot, so make sure it's big enough. Slice the spaghetti squash in half and spoon out the seeds. Place carefully in boiling water and simmer until al dente--about 12 minutes. Remove and place upside down to cool while you make the tapenade. Once cooled a bit, using a fork, scrape the insides. It will magically form little strips of squash--don't ask questions of Mother Nature, just enjoy.

In a food processor, pulse pitted olives, capers, tomatoes, scallions, lemon juice and a bit of olive oil (anchovies also often go in tapenades).

In a bowl, toss the squash, almonds, feta cheese and tapenade with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with salt a pepper. Serves four as a salad.

And I'll confess here that I am not at all a fan of tapenade. I've made variations before, and I just don't like it, so if you're looking for a good alternative to that sauce, toss squash with feta, salt, pepper, almonds, lemon juice, olive oil and some herbs.

Squash Chutney

I made something last night that sort of stank up the entire apartment. Megs and I were vegging on the couch, having a laugh riot about the Daily Show. I took a whiff. I think potent would be a good word. I don't know that it necessarily smelled bad. Megan described it as Easter eggs, which makes sense because there was a whole lot of vinegar going on.

Alright, so what is chutney and why did I decide to spend three hours making it? When I think chutney, I think India (though I do not recall having anything similar to it while there). It does typically have Indian spices and ingredients (i.e. mango chutney flavored sometimes with cumin/coriander/etc). There's a lot of room for variation, which makes me excited to give it another go. In briefer terms, I'd call it the Indian version of salsa.

When I saw the recipe on a blog, I realized it would be a good way for me to use up the rest of my squash. And I actually had all of the ingredients necessary to make it, except that I used balsamic vinegar instead of white wine. (Thus the crazy black color of the sauce.)

Unfortunately, this hors d'ouevre is not about instant gratification. The chutney will be sitting in my fridge for a couple weeks while the vinegar ferments. I'll give you an update in March, but so far it looks delicious even if it doesn't smell so. Squash Chutney: 1/2 butternut squash

4 medium cooking apples (OK, all I had were Galas, whatever)

1/2 large onion

1 1/2 cups raisins (red or white, currants or sultanas)

2 cups combination of brown and white sugar (the recipe I followed used more white than brown, I just happend to measure out more brown than white, I'll let you know in a couple weeks if that was a bad thing)

2 cups vinegar (using different vinegars will lend a different flavor, I predict that balsamic will be very overpowering of the rest of the spices, I think the choice would depend on what other ingredients were in the chutney and what vinegar you had on hand, probably don't use whatever you've got under your kitchen sink, unless it's a last resort)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon coriander

1/2 tablespoon sage

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Peel and finely chop squash, apples and onion. This may take a while, so turn on some music. I recommend cooking to Jamie Cullum or the new Andrew Bird.

Toss the fruit and vegetables into a big ol' pot. Pour in your vinegar, sugar, herbs and spices. Bring it all to a boil then reduce to a simmer. It may appear that you don't have enough liquid to boil and properly cook everything. Don't worry, the fruit and vegs will cook down almost immediately. So simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring periodically. Warning: Do not stick your nose straight above the pot, the vinegar will burn. It's done when the sauce is thickened about to the consistency of molasses.

Matt Wright served this with a baguette and soft cheese, and it makes me want to eat it through the computer screen. Variations will be the best part of this dish. Tomatoes, mangos, apparently coconut is popular, citrus, I nearly added garlic to this one. And then there's the herbs and spices. I think a citrus chutney would be good with some jalapeno. I mused for a moment about putting in some mushrooms but decided against it.

Would Have Been Better With Shrimp

I suppose it makes sense that when you are uninspired, everything you make is also uninspired. I made an attempt to rally myself last Tuesday. I feigned excitement when I saw a photo of a delicious pasta dish. It could have been so good. I'll blame the health food market I stopped by on my way home that doesn't stock shrimp. So what we're in landlocked Nebraska? This is America, and I want my semi-exotic seafood priced at $5 a pound. I'm being sarcastic. But this dish would have been a lot better with shrimp (versus tofu). Vegetarian Pasta: handful spaghetti 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, chopped 1/2 butternut squash, diced 1/3 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped (because mushrooms go in everything) 1 cup chicken/vegetable stock 1 cup dry white wine or marsala 1 teaspoon dried rosemary 1 cup tofu, chopped (or 1 pound already-cooked shrimp) 1/4 cup cream (to thicken) salt and pepper to taste parmsan cheese (to salvage) Start out by bringing a pot of salted water to boil. Cook spaghetti according to directions. Penne pasta would also work well with this dish. Melt butter in sauce pan on medium high heat. Saute onions for a couple minutes. Then throw in the garlic, squash and mushrooms and continue to saute for several more minutes, until the onion in translucent. Add the stock and the rosemary, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the wine. Simmer until squash is nearly cooked through. Add the tofu/shrimp while still on simmer. While stirring, add cream slowly until sauce thickens a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Guest Chef: Maria

I love when I don't feel much like cooking and Maria sends me photos and recipes. She must know when I'm uninspired or when it's so freaking cold I don't want to step outside. (I need a good soup, and this one looks pretty good.) So here's another dispatch from Maria. A few days ago I was stuck with that age-old question, what should I make for dinner? I assessed what I had in my pantry and fridge and decided to Google "squash and white beans" (Ed note: I never thought of that, such a good idea.) That's my fall back when I don't have a meal planned and only have random ingrediants. I came across this soup from Marth Stewart (never really felt one way or the other about Martha--don't tell my mom that, Maria). I didn't have celery, onion, diced tomatoes or leaf-shaped cookie cutters (who does). However, I did have the broth, squash, and beans. To make up for the onion, I added some frozen onion and bell pepper mix (frozen veggies aren't as good as fresh, but they keep longer and are cheaper, says the poor grad student). While digging around my freezer I realized I still had some containers of frozen leftover turkey from Thanksgiving (Woah, Maria). I'm not a big turkey fan so I just never got around to using it. We stuffed our turkey with spinach pesto so I figured it would taste good. I dumped it all in a pot (kind of following Martha's directions) and it turned out great. My boring bread was toasted and buttered and square-shaped. Ed. note: I actually think Maria's soup looks better than the photo of Martha's soup, frozen veggies aside (we all do it). Squash and White Bean Soup: 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 celery stalk, strings removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1/2 cup) 1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup) 1 garlic clove, minced 1 1/2 pounds (about 2 cups) butternut squash, peeled and seeded, fleshcut into 3/4-inch cubes 1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained (optional) 4 cups low-sodium canned beef broth 4 thin slices sandwich bread 1 cup canned great northern white beans, rinsed and drained Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a medium pot over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add celery; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add onion and garlic; saute, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in squash and tomatoes; cook until liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until squash is tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a leaf-shape cutter to cutleaves from bread (Martha is freaking ridiculous, just toast and butter it); arrange on a baking sheet. Brush with remaining tablespoon oil; bake until just golden, about 10 minutes. Add beans to pot, and cook until they are warmed through, about 2 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. If you want to thicken this soup, I would recommend using corn starch with cold water and adding it while the soup is simmering. If you want to throw in turkey, like Maria did, I would throw it in with the squash if it's already been cooked and just before the veggies if uncooked. Or, if it's not boneless, you could throw it in with water and do up some old-fashioned turkey broth. I think the tomatoes are totally skippable on this recipe. So-so canned to tomatoes would add an acidity that won't pair well with the savory squash.

Maria Cooks, Part 4

Editor's note (I've always wanted to do one of these): This is a slice from the life of Maria who is studying for a master's in criminal justice at Indiana University in Bloomington.

The butternut squash is next. I (Maria) was making dinner the night before I left for St. Louis. I hardly had any food left in my fridge, and what I did have was somewhat random. I had half a butternut squash left so I decided to follow the directions on the sticker. I cut the squash in half so that two spoon-type hollows form. I spooned out the seeds and other mush. Instead of baking in the oven I cheated and did the microwave. I put an inch of water into a glass baking dish and put the squash skin-side-up in. I microwaved for about 8 minutes. I then turned the squash over and spooned some butter and brown sugar into each hole. Microwaved for two more minutes. Delicious! I had just a tiny bit of lettuce and baby cucumber left, so I made a salad. The dressing was olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey and lemon juice.

I also had a small portion of basmati rice and tikka masala leftovers. I had sauteed chicken, asparagus, red peppers, orange peppers and broccoli, then added the sauce. It was restaurant-quality. The meal was all over the place but very tasty.

Editor's note (can't help it, the last one was so much fun): Here's a photo of Maria to appear online until Maria requests that I remove it (and replace it with a photo from New Year's last year, yeah, don't make me go there). Will she kill me for this? She posted this photo on facebook, so I assume it's OK for public viewing.

Squash and Mushroom Salad

The last couple months living in Thailand I spent Sunday afternoons wandering somewhat aimlessly around the streets of Bangkok. There were a lot of lonely moments mixed in with awe at the busy-ness of life going on around me. I would go to these 5-story, giganto malls and pretend that I could afford to shop at Gucci and Prada. Kinokuniya bookstores were the jackpot though. I can recall one day finding this Jamie Oliver cookbook at one bookstore and started drooling over the photos of food not involving rice that graced nearly every page (I do adore Thai food, but I couldn't get used to rice three times a day). I bought the book anyway, knowing I barely had enough room in my suitcase for something I could easily get in the U.S. Coming back from Thailand sort of turned a new leaf in my life in the kitchen (and out of it). I had spent months without even a kitchen sink or a hot plate in my apartment, and now I had my mom's newly remodeled kitchen and three family members not-very-excited about trying out my culinary inventions (excluding my mom, sorry dad, truth hurts). But since then, my Jamie Oliver cookbook has been collecting dust. Admittedly his recipes are slightly ridiculous--I remember making a page-long list of ingredients I had never heard of to look up later on Wikipedia. But last night I cracked it open and made "dumbed down" variation on his Roasted Squash, Proscuitto and Pecorino Salad, using the rest of the squash that was going to go in the quiche ...

Warm Squash and Mushroom Salad: (for one, so adjust as necessary)

1 cup butternut squash (or in my case, buttercup squash) 1/2 cup coarsely chopped mushrooms 1 tablespoon buttersalt, pepper and coriander to taste mixed salad greens parmasan cheese vinaigrette-based dressing Add butter and butternut squash to pan on medium-high heat. Add salt, pepper and coriander while you are sauteing. Saute until the squash becomes lightly browned on the edges (5-8 minutes). Add mushrooms and saute until the vegetables are browned and cooked through (2-3 minutes). Remove from heat and add to greens. Sprinkle with parmasan, pecorino and/or romano cheese. If you don't already have a vinaigrette dressing, you can easily make one mixing olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinagre on a three-to-two ratio--so 3 tablespoons olive oil, two tablespoons vinagre, etc.--and add salt and pepper to taste.

Autumn Risotto

Here's another Italian dish from my repetoire. Risotto is one of my favorites, probably because of the abundance of parmasan cheese (ask any of my roommates--I'm obsessed with it). And I make a kick-ass risotto. However, this batch was one hitch kick shy of amazing. My theories on the less-than-stellar performance: 1) no meat, sausage or pancetta adds another element of savory, but I didn't have any, 2) I accidentally grabbed vegetable stock instead of chicken stock at the store, and 3) I totally spaced out on adding the sage, so the only seasoning was parmasan cheese, not necessarily a bad thing, just not all it could be. I also made a rookie mistake of confusing butterCUP squash for butterNUT squash. Who named these? (Butternut squash is yellow, buttercup squash like a small, green pumpkin).

Even so-so risotto couldn't ruin my Monday night. My Monday-night ritual involves coming home from work dragging myself outside for a jog (made significantly better by the addition of Coldplay's Viva La Vida to my music collection), after which I cook a something new and then sit down to watch Gossip Girl. It's beautiful.

Squash and Apple Risotto: (adapted from Food & Wine and Giada di Laurentiis)

4 cups chicken stock

3 tablespoons butter

2 ounces pancetta

1/4 cup diced onion

1/2 butternut (or buttercup) squash

1 1/2 cups arborio or short-grain white rice

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used marsala, which is not at all dry, it was alright since a lot of the other ingredients are a bit sweet)

1/2 cup chopped apples

1/2 cup grated parmasan cheese

1 teaspoon dried sage (you could experiment here with other fall-ish herbs/spices, thyme for example)

salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan, bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat to low while sauteing the vegetables and rice. In another sauce pan, melt the butter and saute the pancetta, onion and squash until the onion is translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat with the oils. Add the wine and simmer until almost evaporated. Ladle in 1/2 cup of chicken stock to the rice mixture and stir until stock is almost absorbed. Repeat with remaining stock. I added the apple about halfway through. The rice should be creamy and tender to the bite. Take off heat and add cheese, sage (or other herbs), and salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Soups On.

Fall is just about here. It is my favorite season, even though I get horrible hayfever. I just love putting on sweatshirts, being comfortable in jeans again, sleeping under the covers and the smell of people turning on their furnaces. I also love soup. You can't eat soup in the summer, too hot. But fall, mmm. Butternut squash soup would have be the quintessential fall soup, you know, pumpkins, harvest, halloween.

I have indeed eaten pumpkin soup before, but I have never made it. And my experience with the vegetable is pretty limited to experiments this week and a butternut squash and risotto dish I made a couple years ago. I adapted this recipe from this amazing food blog and a Gourmet magazine recipe. (The Gourmet recipe called for either Turkish or Californian bay leaves. What? Who are these people.)

There's something intensely gratifying about chopping vegetables into tiny pieces. I do not feel the same about chopping acorn squash. The skin is thick. It would have been easier to open it with a hammer. And I did have to roast the squash for a while to soften it. I don't think I would have had the same problems using butternut squash, but seriously, I'm lucking I didn't cut my fingers off.

Also, and this is important. My mom is looking for a good soup cookbook. Leave recommendations in the comments section thanks.

Butternut (Acorn) Squash Soup:

2 small potatoes chopped

1 celery stalk chopped 1 carrot chopped

2 pounds butternut squash chopped

3 cremini mushrooms diced and sauteed

1/2 medium onion chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups chicken stock

Sautee onions with salt and pepper in olive oil until tender in large pot. Add potatoes, celery, carrot, squash and stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Turn heat off and let sit for 10 minutes. Transfer soup to food processor and puree, bit by bit if necessary. Add sauteed mushrooms and serve. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.

These are the remnants from the acorn squash from yesterday's green curry. I couldn't very well let them go to waste. Megan and I both thought it tasted like popcorn (which is practically it's own food group in the Seyler family).

Rinse seeds. Lay flat on baking tray. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper. I used the garlic-infused olive oil that Erica gave Megan (thanks Erica). Bake for 25 minutes at 325 degrees.

Thai Food Is Spicy.

I used to live in Thailand. I loved the food--aside from shockingly horrendous school lunches and a few too-spicy meals. There was a "restaurant" (using the term loosely) on the compound where I lived. The cook's name was Lek, which means small, which she was. Though tiny, she was spunky and spicy. I learned my lesson (ZIP code 46032 on the link) quickly with her food. She and her daughter taught me how to order food that wasn't hot. (It's pet nit-noi, and never forget it). I ate Lek's food just about every night of the week. I had a few staples; green curry was one of them. It's got a bit of a kick to it, but without the chilis, the cocoanut milk adds a savory and creamy element. It's all my favorite spices and herbs mixed together: cumin, coriander, garlic, cilantro, etc. Lek and her daughter Phet also taught me how to order food with proper pronunciation--probably just about the only thing I can pronounce correctly in Thai--ask me, I am an ace at pronouncing green curry with chicken (you'll be more impressed than you should be). Everyone makes green curry a bit differently. It's really hopeless for me to try to immitate Lek's most delicious version. But I had to attempt because Lek would add (when available) butternut squash to the usual mix of vegetables. I have never ever seen green curry with squash. I'm pretty sure I never will. But it is fantastic. Prior to living in Thailand, I had been completely unaware of the versatility of certain vegetables, namely eggplant, mushrooms and squash. I knew if I wanted squash and eggplant in my green curry, I had to make it myself. I followed fairly closely to a recipe by Tyler Florence. However, I could not find any kaffir lime leaves in this fair city. I tried Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, along with Indian, Oriental and a Mediterranean independent grocers. It's likely that Thai Kitchen carries it. I'm not going to include my proportions of vegetables, but I sauteed onions, peppers, those baby corns and eggplant (not on Ty's recipe). I actually used acorn squash, as that seems to be more available at the grocery stores right now. The skin/shell/whatever-you-call-it is pretty thick, and I ended up cutting it in half and roasting it in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper beforehand. I only used half the squash (expect to see the rest of the squash in a different dish later this week). I sauteed it with the rest of the vegetables. I did not use Ty's curry paste recipe--I bought some at the store. If I was to do it again, I would definitely make it from scratch because the store-bought paste was spicy. Seriously. Megan and I started out drinking wine and added water and milk to sate the hot-factor. (Not a particularly good combination). My nose was running a little bit even. It really was good, but I hate how spiciness overpowers the rest of the flavors. So now we have some extra green curry that I don't think I can finish.