My Fancy Weekend by Kerry Smith

Dear both of my bloggy friends,

This weekend I was very fancy. HN and I were very fancy to be more precise. Friday night we had tickets to the symphony (a birthday gift way back when from HN). We decided since we were going to be dressed up anyway, we should have a fancy dinner first. We did, and it was quite delicious. We went to the Brewer's Art, which I was unaware had actual food, their reputation being centered mostly around Resurrection "THE BEST BEER EVER IN BALTIMORE"!!! (not my quote, though I concede it is not bad) But their other food was recommended to me by a friend who knows about such things, so on her suggestion we went. And it was delicious, as previously stated. We started with the pumpkin risotto with sage brown butter (and some wine), then I moved onto steak (ahem, and some wine), which was solidly flavored although I would not order that particular cut of meat again, and HN onto Butternut squash ravioli, with pear and chestnuts and something else that made him swoon. Dessert was some ridiculous chocolate/beer concoction that I want to marry when I grow up.

Properly full to the gills, we headed for the symphony, where as a bonus they did the Mickey Mouse thing from Fantasia. Yay! The other stuff was fun too, but the Sorcerer's Apprentice was def my favorite part. There was a very impressive foreign man as a guest first violin, but being as I am fancy and he is not my broker or my lawyer, I do not recall his name.

Saturday I went to the Waverly market (see the fancy thing going on ?) and procured a Jarrahdale heirloom squash, for which I had very fancy plans. The dude from whom I bought this thing and I had a quick pow-wow on things to try and I gathered the rest of my produce needs and headed home. Being as this was my fancy weekend, I decided to stop and catch sunspots in the grass at the sculpture garden near the BMA. Always a good time.

I went home and put some primer on the living room walls in preparation for their covering with a color we'll just call "I had a temper tantrum and decided it needs to be brighter in the living room" (it worked. Alot, like WOW) and then HN came and rescued me from the boredom and workiness of it all by insisting I join him on a motorcycle ride in the northern direction, possibly to places we'd never been before. It was 75 and the sugar maples are turning, how could I resist?? HN's eagle eyes happened to catch a "Winery" sign, and together with his quick brain that knows how I like the juice, he decided we should stop in for a wine tasting. (Handsome AND smart!) So we did. We came away with 4 bottles, all very delicious. We also came away heading in the wrong direction and proceeded to chart previously uncharted parts of Northern MD for the next 2 hours. I was shocked, as I was *sure* we were heading South. Which should have been his first clue that we were not.

Yesterday I painted a coat on the living room, read/got to know a beer while I admired/cringed at my handiwork and then cooked a very fancy dinner, which recipe I will share below. It was delicious, but chestnut stuffing is a pain in the not fancy area. This might be relegated to "special occasions" or "bored and have time to kill" type dinners.

I used:
1 Jarrahdale squash (picked because it's big enough to stuff and pretty enough to put on the table and serve out of). You could do a couple of smaller ones (acorn), or also a turban squash or a fancy french squash for pretty's sake.

1 package of sun dried tomato sausage from Whole Foods
Forbidden rice (also from whole foods)
Onion
Garlic
Thyme
Chestnuts


Put the chestnuts flat side down on the counter and cut an X in the top. If you don't do this they will explode. (cool but not necessarily desirable)
Put the Chestnuts and the whole squash (seriously don't even try to fuck with this thing raw. It's fortified, just ask the bloody stump of my thumb from when it spat the knife back at me) in the oven at 350. The squash should be on a pan of some sort for easy handling.

After 15 minutes -or when the skins are peeling back from the Xs- take the chestnuts out.

Leave the squash in there.

Start cooking the rice.

Saute the Onion in some Olive oil until translucent on medium heat or so. Add the garlic, and after 1 minute, add the sausage meat, removed from it's casing and increase the heat. Stir occasionally, and poke to break up the meat. Commence peeling and cutting up the chestnuts.

Once the sausage is browned, add the chopped chestnuts to the dish and cover so they can continue to cook and absorb the sausage grease which is delicious and good for you.

Take the squash out of the oven, and be careful its HOT<- fact. Put some gloves on, cut off the top- be generous, you want a big opening. I just hacked the whole top off so it was flat, and then pull out the seedy bits (put them aside to cook later like pumpkin seeds if you want)

I also scraped out some of the interior flesh to make room, putting aside what I get into a bowl. (if it's not soft, toss it in the microwave for 2 minutes while you do this next part)

Mix some rice with the sausage stuffing until you get your desired ratio. I like a little rice, just for looks.

Spoon the sausage/chestnut/onion/garlic/rice into the squash. Now mash the removed squash innards, mix with a little cayenne and some butter and put on top of the stuffing. Put it all back in the oven to cook until the top is browned. 20 min or so. During this time, your squash will also ooze squash juice into your stuffing and vice versa, so it gets extra tasty. Don't be impatient.