I’ve been craving a lot of thing recently. The cinnamon rolls, brownies, hot chocolate. Given that I have some time off, I’ve actually indulged in baking, but today I wanted sauce. A warm, buttery sauce. Most of my sauce experiments were paired with meat dishes and since we’ve had more meat dishes than I really want in the last few weeks, I decided to try a vegetarian dish with a killer sauce.

I started with roasting some butternut squash and getting a pot of egg noodles going. I though about quinoa or another healthier option, but today was about indulging so I went with the noodles. For the sauce … One shallot, two tablespoons white wine vinegar, about an eighth of a cup of white wine and some chopped sage. My little sage plant is still hanging in there. Every time I think it’s done, it just comes back enough to keep it in the ground. I brought this to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it reduce until there was a thick, almost syrup in the pot.

Once it was reduced, I added some water. I didn’t measure, but somewhere around two tablespoons and then about four to five tablespoons of butter, chopped into pieces and added one piece at a time. I kept the flame super low so the sauce wouldn’t break, and stirred constantly. I added salt and pepper to taste but skipped the squeeze of lemon as the wine I used had a pretty good lemon flavor in it already.

I originally bought the wine because of the label, but go back for it because it is a good wine for both cooking and drinking. It’s not fancy, but it had a nice acidity without hitting you over the head with it, and no grapefruit flavor. Sorry, but I really do not like grapefruit – as a fruit or in my wine.

But the dish. I drained the egg noodles, added the butternut squash then added the sauce and mixed it all together so the sauce would coat the noodles and add an extra flavor to the squash. The results were a resounding success and it didn’t take long at all. For a total experiment it was great and I’m just sorry there aren’t any leftovers.

A cool front came through south Florida and it was downright chilly this morning. I even waited to walk Jessie until it “warmed up” here. Thankfully this bit of brisk weather is fleeting and I should be back to warm tomorrow.

But while it was chilly, I decided to bake. It is a coworker’s birthday tomorrow so a great excuse for a cake. Originally I was going to do a basic chocolate cake with buttercream icing, but I decided I didn’t want chocolate, I am terrible at making buttercream and I wanted something just a bit lighter and more fall like.

I found a recipe for an applesauce cake. This intrigued me. I love the taste of apples, I’ve used applesauce in cakes before (to good effect) and I can pretend it is a healthier version of cake than regular chocolate cake. It also gives me a reason to test run the cake before deciding if I want to use it in a Thanksgiving dinner menu. All very good reasons to bake the cake. And, yes, the birthday tomorrow.

So how did it go? Well, it turns out I didn’t have as much brown sugar as I thought. Confectioners sugar? Sure. Regular granulated sugars? Plenty. Brown sugar? About a quarter cup. Also, apparently my back up bag of flour is whole wheat flour, not all purpose flour. But I figured I would still go for it.

I omitted the black pepper in this recipe. I just wasn’t feeling that adventurous. I also substituted Sugar in the Raw for brown sugar and used plain white sugar with a touch of vanilla in the glaze. But other than whole wheat flour, no pepper and the sugar changes, I actually followed a recipe. I even made Bob his in mini cake so he wouldn’t feel left out.

I really like how this turned out. It remind me a little bit of a spice cake, a little bit of an apple cake and it tastes like you want a fall dessert to taste. The icing was easier than most and really adds to the cake. It’s moist, flavorful and just a little sweet. Bob liked his mini cake and we shall see how it goes over with the coworkers tomorrow.

I got in the mood to cook this weekend. I was going to make eggplant lasagna bundles, but then I realized our Hello Fresh box has eggplant in it this week. So I scoured some recipes and decided to try a Butternut Squash and Polenta lasagna.

Let me preface this with the weather. I’ve been in Florida for six years now and cannot remember a stretch with this much constant, pouring rain. A thirty minute afternoon shower? Sure. A whole day deluge followed by a week of the same? Not so much. I’m pretty sure if I waded into the grass I’d find mushrooms and poor puppy just isn’t getting the walks she needs.

This discussion of the weather does have an actual purpose beyond the explaining why I wanted to spend the day in the kitchen. As I gathered all the ingredients for my experiment I realized I needed rosemary and thyme. Rosemary and thyme are in my garden and I don’t have a stash of frozen or dried on hand. So what is a girl to do? Well … I sent Bob into the weather to acquire my herbs. Aka – I made him go venture forth into the pouring rain, wade through the puddles and bravely harvest some herbs. I figure, I do all the cooking, this was his contribution to the meal.

I started with making polenta. The recipe I used called for a different polenta than the Alton Brown miracle polenta I use all the time, but I decided to give it a try. I chopped my shallots, measured my water and milk, grated my cheese and went to work.

It was looking pretty good, but I probably should have cooked it a little longer. It didn’t set as I expected, but the flavors were still good.

As the polenta cooked I got the squash ready. Peeled, sliced, piled and seasoned into the oven they went.

Next up was the chard and cheese. I know chard goes from massive pile to almost nothing with cooking, but I always get a tad nervous when I start making it.

With a mound like that, do you blame me?
The chard, once cooked down into a handful, and cooled was combined with ricotta and fontina cheeses, an egg and some seasoning. I was ready to assemble.

Layer of polenta (should have been set, but I rushed this part) then the cheese and chard followed by butternut squash and then all repeated. It looked super pretty in the pan.

But a little less so once I cooked it and played it.

However, the taste was fantastic. It had some earthiness from the chard, a little sweetness from the squash and a creamy texture and herbal note from the polenta. I can’t wait to have this for lunch the rest of the week.

Future notes … I’m going to use the Alton Brown Polenta instead of the one in the recipe. It always works and it is just perfect. I may keep the herbs, but I’m going back to the basic recipe for this. Also, I’m probably using more ricotta or a smaller pan than they said. It was almost not enough for that layer. I’m keeping the chard and the roasted squash. I really loved this dish and with fall coming, I think it going to be perfect.

Also, I paired this with a cider – and not just any cider, a kiwi cider from New Zealand.

I wasn’t sure about this initially, but I love ciders, love kiwi and have a particular fondness for fruit ciders. This did not disappoint. In fact, I got a fruit taste, but not kiwi in particular but there was a great, clean cider taste that was perfect. It doesn’t beat the Stella on tap in England, but it does, at the very least, rival the bottled Stella Cidre I get here in the States.