We enjoyed Gwen’s lentil stuffed acorn squash so much last week, that I decided to take another spin at it, with quinoa, this time. Especially since I STILL had more squash from that darn Thanksgiving centerpiece to get rid of. Not that I’m really complaining, but those things take up more than their fair share of room in the refrigerator.

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I’ve been holding out on you, and I do not mean with those special Raincoast crackers. I mean about informing you about reaching my goal. Exactly 2 weeks ago, on November 29th, I asked you to help me reach my goal of 1,027 comments, by the end of the year. You have done it, and we reached that goal several days ago. The current number of comments for this blog is 1,044!

Thank you so much for all the kind words, it means so very much to me. Plus those comments help make me feel a little less sickened by how many spam comments come in every single day. Yes, blogs get a ton of spam. I have a spam blocker, and since the end of June, it has blocked 2,832 comments of spam! That is an average of 17 per day. That’s more “real” comments than I get in an entire week! So Annoying (and usually of disgusting nature too!) But enough of that, what I really want to say is Thank You All!

The other things that I used to find annoying were deviled eggs and meatballs. I know, that sounds strange, but when you hear this little tale, you will see why.

I am in the beginning stages of planning an 80th birthday party for my dad. That brings up memories of the 70th birthday party I threw for him. I worked for months; planning the menu, decor, invites, etc. Of course, the food was all “gourmet” and took days to prepare. My gorgeous sister, Sloane, worked long hours but wanted to make something to help. She asked, “Well, could I at least bring some deviled eggs?” I happily replied, “Sure, that would be great!”

She arrived hours early to help set up. The food was all laid out on the buffets; the guests arrived, greeted the birthday boy, chatted, and began to eat. Within minutes, and I do mean just a few minutes, all the deviled eggs were gone, while loads of gourmet food looked untouched! What the heck is it with deviled eggs? Although we didn’t serve meatballs at that particular party, the same thing happens with them! I honestly just don’t get it. But I will tell you one thing for sure, we will have several dozen deviled eggs and hundreds of meatballs at our dad’s birthday party in April, and these are the meatballs I will be serving! [Read more →]

We shall begin with “a dollar short” – Do you ever buy something that you want to keep all to yourself, even though it really needs to be shared? Oh, you say that do it all the time? Yup, me too! Last week, I discovered another one of “those” things! As silly as it sounds, “that” thing is a box of crackers. Not just any box of crackers, but really expensive and amazingly decadent crackers. How expensive? How about $6.99 (at Whole Foods) for a 6-ounce box! That is about $1.17 an ounce or about $18.50 a pound! How many food items are you willing to pay $18 a pound for? Maybe something like jumbo shrimp, prime rib or beef tenderloin. But crackers?

Raincoast Crisps are the most amazing crackers on earth. I have to thank, and then loudly curse, Gwen Ashley Walters for turning me on to them. And when I say me, I mean that I shall be purchasing these ridiculously expensive crackers and hiding them from family and friends while carefully rationing them out for myself.  (This post was written in 2010 – by now, I hope you all know that Trader Joe’s sells knock-offs of these crackers for a fraction of the price!)

Next, let’s address, “a day late” – Two days ago, I posted a recipe in which I used a smokey marinade from Gwen. At the end of that post, I said that the next day I’d put up another recipe of Gwen’s, that I adore. Well, I forgot and put up a lentil recipe yesterday instead. Sorry, here is Gwen’s scrumptious and “easy-breezy” party spread recipe that she made last week for the Les Gourmettes cooking class and served atop the Raincoast Crisps.

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Last night was our neighborhood Holiday Progressive Dinner. A fantastic time was had by all. My name was drawn to go to Tony and Cindy Hancock’s gorgeous home for dinner, and I was one lucky girl. Check out that beautiful holiday table! The food was fabulous too, and the company… it couldn’t have been more lovely.

I made several appetizers for the beginning of the evening, here is one of them. [Read more →]

The other night, our last guest chef of the year at Les Gourmettes, Gwen Ashley Walters, made an outstanding Pepper Crusted Flank Steak with Chianti Honey Demi. I was about to dump the leftover meat marinade down the drain when I stopped short and realized what a great appetizer I could make, using it. We have our neighborhood Holiday Progressive Dinner tonight, and appetizers begin at my house. Here is the recipe I created, using Gwen’s smokey marinade.

And tomorrow, another fantastic and super easy recipe that I am crazy for – a pumpkin appetizer spread – from Gwen!

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Marissa made dinner last night! It was wonderful, and so was the food! To have someone cook for me is pure heaven, and she is turning into a very good cook, so that makes it extra special. Marissa found a recipe on allrecipes.com for something I probably would never have made, a melon soup. I was a bit skeptical, but I didn’t tell her that, and I’m so glad I held my tongue because it was a delightful surprise.  She also made a delicious Guacamumus (avocado hummus) she found online. I will link you to it here on my site, once she gets it posted on her blog…

The original soup recipe is called for Chinese winter melon (dong gua). She could not find that, so she used honeydew instead, it worked perfectly. Also, she added 1 cup of Panko after discovering that the meat mixture was too watery. Finally, I advised her to bake the meatballs first, to brown and flavor them more, and that also worked just right.  Even if this doesn’t seem like the sort of thing your family would like, give it a try, and thank us later!  Plus this seems like the perfect soup to make vegetarian, just substitute tofu for the pork.

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Addiction is a serious subject, and I am not here to make fun of it. That said, the reason there was no post yesterday is two-fold. The first reason has to do with Christmas. It is Christmas’ fault, or the fault of my family’s expectations of what Christmas looks like, that I didn’t have time to post yesterday. It takes FOREVER to decorate this house! And I’m not even half done yet.

The other reason has nothing to do with the “most wonderful time of the year” and everything to do with my newest addiction… My Vineyard, on Facebook. I am here to confess… “My name is Linda, and I am a My Vineyard junkie.”  Your response should be, “Hi, Linda. Do you want me to “friend you” on My Vineyard so that we can play together?”  Then I say, “Oh yes, please do and in return, I promise to send you gifts, and travel to your vineyard every single day where I shall help build your houses, fertilize your vines, and taste your wine!”

OK, now that the business portion of the post is out of the way, on to the recipe of the day. These are a lovely little appetizer to serve to your friends (Facebook, or not!) and family this holiday season. And that is exactly what I shall be doing at tonight’s final cooking class of my fall series at Les Gourmettes, and then again to my lovely neighbors at our Holiday Progressive Dinner on Friday night when appetizers begin at our house. (The main reason I HAVE to finish decorating this house and stop playing that cursed game!)

For convenience, I call for purchased fully cooked short ribs, which I found at Costco and have seen at Trader Joe’s. Feel free to make the short ribs from scratch if you have the time.

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This is exactly what happened – I mean exactly!  I was trying to decide what to do with 2 acorn squash that was a part of that Thanksgiving centerpiece I made. I successfully used the 3 sugar pumpkins last week, but the squash remains. I knew they would be the recipe for today’s post, but exactly what to do with them that would be new and exciting, I had no clue. Acorn squash and exciting don’t really belong in the same sentence… or so I thought!

As usual, I procrastinated and instead went on Facebook to waste time, I mean find inspiration. And inspiration is precisely what I found; in the form of Gwen Ashley Walters! Gwen posted an update on her page linking to her blog.. and what was she making? Acorn Squash! Not just any old squash, but a gorgeous lentil stuffed acorn squash.

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