Recipe Review

The newest health challenge for our insurance consists of having one meal a day that follows the new non-pyramid food guidelines. This is honestly much easier than last year's challenge of eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It's been pretty easy to put together a meal that has each of the food groups in proper proportions, so I've been trying to broaden our horizons by trying some new recipes that use different proteins or grains than we normally eat. One I tried this week was Morrocan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash, from Allrecipes.

Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 2 large acorn squash, halved and seeded
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 cup uncooked couscous

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Arrange squash halves cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, or until tender. Dissolve the sugar in the melted butter. Brush squash with the butter mixture, and keep squash warm while preparing the stuffing.
3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, celery, and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Mix in the garbanzo beans and raisins. Season with cumin, salt, and pepper, and continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender.
4. Pour the chicken broth into the skillet, and mix in the couscous. Cover skillet, and turn off heat. Allow couscous to absorb liquid for 5 minutes. Stuff squash halves with the skillet mixture to serve.

I really liked this dish. I thought I had everything to make it, but the night before we had it I was going to soak the garbanzo beans, and I found out that we did not have any, dry or canned. I almost broke my rule about never running to the store to buy a dinner ingredient, but I decided to keep my rule and use lentils instead. It still turned out great. I also didn't use celery since I don't like it and don't keep it in the house. I substituted an apple to add more fruit. I probably didn't add any of the filling ingredients (especially cumin) in the proportions listed, but it's a forgiving recipe. We had it with a glass of milk to add dairy.

It was good enough to be added into my dinner rotation, and it doesn't use meat or chicken, which I haven't been too fond of lately. The added bonus was that Brian heard about the African cookbook that I made in elementary school.

How the Internet Works

The other evening Brian explained to me how the internet works. Before he did that I wanted him to take a quiz on the internet titled "Are You A True Nerd?" I don't think that's necessary anymore.

Organ Lessons

Several weeks ago in church I saw a little announcement in the ward bulletin that a guy in the stake was offering free organ lessons to anyone who could play the hymns on the piano. Brian had been complaining that we never have anything to do in the evenings, so I emailed the guy asking for more information, and he sent me a big long email that included the following: "Experts agree that it is best to learn on a pipe organ first, then transfer that knowledge to the electric organs we have in our buildings. Since I have the second-largest pipe organ in Utah County in my home, that's where we will have the lessons." Brian and I were asking ourselves where this guy lives! We signed up for the lessons and have had two so far.

The teacher is quite the eccentric guy, living by himself with his pipe organ, electric organ, and piano all in the same room of his house, and always talking too much about his illnesses and surgeries. We happen to be the only ones in our class (ha!), so we get plenty of individual work. The first hymn we are working on is..."Sweet Hour of Prayer." It's a good thing I have it memorized from when it was the only hymn I could play--it lets me focus my attention on those pesky foot pedals.

If you ever hear a sampling of our organ skills, don't expect anything like this. We don't have our organ master shoes yet.