Glints of red in a sea of green

Last week I spotted four trees, lined up a row, and their leaves were turning a beautiful shade of red.  I was walking Parker early before work and I looked around the street to see if anyone else noticed what I had.  Parker and I walked, he kind of pranced as corgis do, over to the other side of the street and I stood and stared at the ruby-colored trees.  Could it be?  I quickly snap-chatted a picture to a few friends and captioned it "I found fall in Dallas."  I wish I had saved the picture as proof. A friend of mine in Dallas replied, "Welcome to fall in the South." A few days later, I called my brother, who has lived in Texas and California for the last 9 years, and we talked about how weird it is to live in a place where the leaves barely change and the temps are in the 70's in November. He told me the payoff would be worth it in the winter.  

The last few days have felt more like fall.  There's a chill in the air and it smells different outside.  You know that smell of leaves, football, Oktoberfest beer and sunshine? This past weekend I went to a Beer fest and drank my fair share of Oktoberfest and Stout beer.  As the sun went down, I put on my jacket and thought to myself, I'm chilly! I pulled out my phone to check the temperature and it was 55 degrees. 55 DEGREES people.  My former midwestern-living self would have killed for a 55 degree night.  While I was tougher when it came to wind and cold in Chicago, I've learned to acclimate to the heat here and I'm ok with waiting longer for Fall.  In the past four months I've experienced more change in my life between moving, securing a new job (!!!), meeting new friends and exploring a different part of the country.  Because of this, I'm ok with the lack of change of seasons. 

Big Bend National Park

In my kitchen, I had been holding on strong to heirloom tomatoes, corn, and stone fruits.  As those disappeared from the grocery store I started to buy more squash, sweet potatoes, figs and grains.  Apparently my stomach has big plans for making tons of squash as I came home from the store the other day with acorn AND delicata AND spaghetti squash - but the good thing is, these goods keeps forever.  For dinner that night, I hacked (literally) into an acorn squash and filled it with a quinoa situation.  Using a Food & Wine recipe as a guide, I roasted the squash, boiled quinoa, threw in some goodies, whipped up a dressing and in under an hour I had created quite the autumn-themed acorn squash boat.  Wherever you live, this recipe is sure to put you into an autumn state of mind.  Now, if I can just learn to grasp that Thanksgiving is in two weeks since I'm hosting it for the first time. I better get to menu planning!

Acorn Squash Boats - Adapted slightly from Food & Wine

1 Acorn Squash, halved (could use Delicata, if you prefer)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
2 tablespoons apricots, chopped
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 apple (any kind), diced
1 large shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup pecans, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Brush the cut sides of squash with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season the cavities with salt and pepper. Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes, until tender. When they are soft, remove from oven and brush with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.

2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan place 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water and bring to boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover for 10 minutes. Stir in the apricots and simmer another 5 minutes.  Transfer quinoa to a large bowl and let it cool.

3. In a small dish whisk the vinegar, honey and remaining tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Add the dressing to the quinoa with the apple, pecans, shallot and garlic and toss well.

4.  Set the squash halves on plates. Fill with the quinoa salad and serve. Happy Fall!