Wild rice-pecan-cherry stuffed squash, before and afters

Now, isn't this just darling!? Yum. I can't wait to dig in. Here is my little creation before and after cooking. If it's as tasty as preliminary bites suggest, I'll post the recipe after dinner.

Stuffed squash, stuffed pumpkin

In ruminating on what to stuff in my squash tonight (the wild rice is cooking now), I recalled a stunning dish I made last fall. We went to an apple orchard for picking and the hay maze and while there, I bought a gorgeous blue Cinderella pumpkin. With it I made Dorie Greenspan's "Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good," and indeed it was. Mine looked just like this except for the blue skin. Think Gruyère, bread cubes, garlic, cream, nutmeg....I added some greens too which was lovely. I'll definitely be making this again this fall as it's such a tasty showstopper.

Battle Squash

Today is perfect, absolutely beautiful outside. Wow! I'm going to get mulching in a sec, but as T is out of town, I'm declaring tonight Battle Squash. Isn't this one a beauty? I don't want to simply roast it, so am envisioning cutting the top off, scooping out the seeds, and cooking some sort of dried fruit-wild rice pilaf inside it. That sounds so nice and fall-like. I'll keep you posted. Yesterday for lunch, I had fresh ricotta with the rest of the Sungold dish as well as fresh ricotta with poached figs. That combo is really something. Also had some shakshouky, the Lebanese eggplant salad that is just great- every bite is such a kick of garlicky eggplant. Yum.

Off to mulch but more later. For today's lunch, more collard cobbler. I LOVE it. Oh, and in Pilates this morning, I recalled a dish I haven't made for ages but always love. You drain and then crumble tofu, season with cayenne, salt, and pepper, mix with black beans, corn, diced red pepper and onion and then cook with soy sauce. It's awesome wrapped in whole wheat tortillas for a hearty burrito. I'll post that recipe this afternoon.