Recipe: Sauteed Leeks with Green Peas and Yogurt

This is a completely random compilation of ingredients I happened to have in my fridge, which I needed to do something with before fleeing the city for five days over Thanksgiving.  Luckily, it turned out rather well.  Yogurt does a great job of subbing in for a cream sauce, but caution! You need to eat it quickly or it will begin to break down.  (Alternatively, just wait to add the yogurt until the last moment).  Also, I didn’t do this, but a touch of white wine would go very nicely at the end of this dish.

Recipe: Winter Squash Fall Pasta

An Autumnal Orange Delight

I’m kind of obsessed with winter squash right now.  Something about the gourds, with their almost comical shapes, their toughness, their versatility, their SEEDS…  Oh yeah, and their flesh is pretty tasty too.

Once you get past the fear of chopping yourself open attempting to hack at their outer rinds (I’m scared too, people — grab a fearless buddy or just be very careful with your chef’s knife), they’re really quite simple to prepare, whether roasted or sauteed, fried, or boiled and pureed, they rock.  And supposedly have tons of vitamins, too, if you keep track of those things.

Also: Did you know squash (yes, even pumpkins!) are part of the berry family?

The Last Meal

Simple Goodbye Pasta

Well, the moment has finally come.  I’ve been dreading it for ages, and it makes me terribly sad, but it was inevitable.  I’ve left Madrid.

I’ve been in the Spanish capital for the past nine months working on a Master’s in Communication at a university here.  I hope to combine that work with my upcoming MPH (which I start this Fall) in order to devise a comprehensive way of addressing the obesity crisis from a prevention perspective.

But besides studying, of course, I’ve also just been really enjoying life.  I love observing Spanish culture.  I feel comfortable in it.  And the food’s not so bad either.  So perhaps you can imagine that my heart is a little broken at having to pack everything away and kiss my vida madrileña goodbye.