run the road
one-pan meals and new things to make with squash
Hi, friends. The hungry maw of capitalism has kept me busy recently— I’ve had to pick up an extra day per week at my job, so I am scrambling to get this written in between work hours and cooking and other chores that can’t be postponed (no one look at the dust on every surface in my house, please). Most of my free time has been otherwise occupied by frantic creative writing, knitting while watching movies or Babylon 5, and eagerly awaiting the week’s episode of Severance. I hope you all are taking care of yourselves as best you can, too.
I was running around downtown for my secondary job recently and had to pause for lunch. I was in Yaletown craving a sandwich, figuring I wouldn’t have to walk more than a few blocks, and on Pacific Boulevard I found Obanhmi, which was delicious and pretty reasonably priced for the area. I got the lemongrass chicken, but I am also intrigued by their tofu take on the classic. A friend who tried bánh mì for the first time a few years ago was telling me about it and he said, “I wouldn’t normally describe a sandwich as mind-blowing, but this sandwich was mind-blowing.” I am inclined to agree, which is why I don’t get bánh mì as often as I really want to— I don’t want it to feel like it’s lost its magic.
We went to Hiran and Tara’s housewarming in Maple Ridge the other weekend; their place is in a newly built complex, and one of the things included in the package is a catered party within the first six months of living there. Hiran is a chef and many of their friends also work at the restaurant, and I’m sure it’s really nice when you’re someone who’s always making food for other people to have someone else just show up at your house with a bunch of stuff for you and your guests to eat and drink. The highlight for me was the assortment of bubble teas! For texture reasons I’m not a fan of the tapioca pearls, so it rarely occurs to me to go to a bubble tea place, but I loved the mango green tea.
Valentine’s Day is a holiday neither Jeff nor I tend to make a big deal about, but because we both had to work that day, I told him I wouldn’t be mad if he came home with some flowers— just because it’s nice to have flowers around the house, you know? He did (and as you can see above, they were perfectly to my taste), and I ordered us the fantastic brussels sprouts pizza from Scratch Kitchen in Deep Cove, because we were not foolish enough to try to go out anywhere at the last minute. This is a white pizza with onion jam, lightly caramelized brussels sprouts, parsley pesto, and walnuts, and it is utterly perfect.
The superbowl is not something I get excited about, ever, but it is a good excuse to make and eat some weird fucking dip, and that is something I can get behind. I discovered this buffalo cauliflower dip last year at this time, and liked it so much we’ve made it for several non-football-related occasions since then. I’m not into blue cheese (like once a year I’ll try a bit, just to make sure, and the best I can usually do is ‘not horrendous’) so I use crumbled goat feta, which feels like a nice middle ground between the sourness of blue cheese and the mildness of cow’s feta. Obviously tortilla chips are the go-to here, but you need some crunchy fresh veggies to cut through the salt, too. And then it feels altogether like a meal rather than a skeezy bar snack.
I had a big butternut squash that had been aging on the counter for awhile, and needed to be cooked. As some of you may know, although I love the flavour, I’m not the biggest fan of squash in some contexts because of its texture, and usually tend to put it in things where it’s puréed, or roasted until the edges are crispy, or maybe shredded and cooked down in a risotto. I found this red curry noodle soup which makes sort of a coconut-squash broth with lots of ginger. I followed the recipe by peeling and chopping the squash first, but if you’re like me and end up puréeing the whole shebang at the end because you cannot abide a partially blended soup, this would work just as well by roasting the squash first and then just scraping it out of the skin into the pot, or taking one of the five or so containers of previously roasted squash out of your freezer. Not that I constantly put roasted squash in my freezer and then forget about it, or anything. I roasted a little cauliflower for serving, since I had some left after making the dip. Also, I am so sorry if you don’t like cilantro, because it is what makes this dish go from good to excellent.
Because the squash was so large the soup only used half of it, so while making it, I roasted the other half to use later in the week. Wanting to try something new, I thought this brown butter orzo looked easy and good. I’m a big fan of orzo for the way it cooks up a little like risotto, but without the fuss and time of standing in front of the stove stirring it for 20-30 minutes. I made a half batch, but even that I felt could have used more orzo for the amount of squash it called for— though maybe it was just because my squash was mashed instead of cubed, so feel free to use your own judgement. I wanted a slightly brighter flavour than the homey sweetness of brown butter and sage, so I chose pecorino over parmesan, added lemon juice as well as zest, and used thyme and parsley leaves rather than fresh sage. There was also some leftover brown butter balsamic vinaigrette in the fridge, some of which I tossed with frisée leaves to put on the top, and some of which I stirred into the orzo at the end. It was fantastic, and if you aren’t sick of squash this late in the winter, definitely give it a try.
This white bean tomato bake is something I tend to default to when I know I need to go grocery shopping, because it’s tasty, fast, and uses pantry ingredients. It lends itself well to whatever produce is lying around becoming wilty and sad, too. I had some tomatoes that were getting too soft for anything but sauce, so I scaled back the tomato paste and cooked those down in the pan before adding the beans and cheese. A quick green salad and some toast on the side are the perfect choice for serving, just like the recipe suggests.
I don’t have much else to share, because I’ve been falling back on other convenience meals when I’m busy with work, or Jeff’s not home and it doesn’t feel worth it to make a big dinner just for me. Frozen Cheemo pierogi— the spinach, onion, and feta ones— cooked in the cast iron with a lid on like dumplings and served with lots of sour cream (and a sprinkle of fake bacon bits that have been in my pantry since two apartments ago). Hot salami slices fried like bacon and eaten in a sandwich like a BLT. Sheet pan chow mein with roasted salted peanuts on top. I don’t know, man, we’re trying our best out here.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations are greatly appreciated. As I mentioned in my previous newsletter, because I haven’t been on social media much lately in order to try and avoid doomscrolling, I don’t have anything cute and fun to share. Instead I am linking to my friend Claire’s recent newsletter that is about the National Endowment for the Arts— the changes to which are directly relevant to her grantwriting work and the many institutions that rely on its funding — but is also about a lot of other things relevant to many people’s lives right now. It is a powerful read that is full of concrete things a well-meaning and angry person can do to help, and I highly recommend it.
…Okay, fine, you can also have this.