Yesterday, Nick & Sylvie came over for a hike and dinner in our hood. Nick came along to look at the biblical plague house last week and despite more than one introduction, our realtor called him Neil at any opportunity she got. I don't even know one person named Neil - except for "Neil with the deal" from the mattress commercials.
First we walked from our front door into Griffith Park for a vigorous hike. After an hour or so it started getting both dark and cold so we walked down from the hills to our Albertson's and bought supplies for dinner.
On the menu, something I've never made before: Butternut squash cannelloni with toasted hazelnuts.
Neil made the attractive salad accoutrements on the left. This is the type of talent I've never had in the kitchen; I can make it taste good, but making it pretty is a whole other impulse that for some reason I do not have.
The recipe called for 4 lbs of butternut squash, baked with sage and shallots then mashed. The sauce (made in my favorite wedding registry item -a red Le Creuset dutch oven) was pretty easy - saute diced shallots and garlic until they brown in bacon grease, and then pour in some chicken broth and white wine to get the burnt bits off the bottom and incorporate them into the sauce. After it reduced, I poured the sauce over the cannelloni and topped it with fontina cheese, diced bacon and toasted hazelnuts.
Sylvie toasted the hazelnuts on the baking tray and MJC kept everyone's drink refreshed.
Here is the finished product (below). It was a good dish in terms of flavor, but the filling was pretty mushy. I think maybe I should have baked the mixed filling before I put it into the noodles and baked them? Not sure.
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Dad was complaining last night about his friend Penny, who thinks she is a wonderful writer, and had edited something Dad wrote-he felt wrongly. I said, you don't think any one is a good writer. He said yes I do, Dickens, Mark Twain, and Emily, I think Emily is a wonderful writer. I agree, and I wonder if I could send your blog address to MY friend Penny, who as you may know teaches creative writing and is always looking for other good writers.
Say hi to Neil.
(PS You know Neil Deasy, Carol Brown's father)
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