Squash Tacos by Smitten Kitchen

A long, long time ago, but I can still remember, how that music used to make me smile.... Well a long, long time ago in November or something, I said I was going to put up a recipe for Squash Tacos which are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. But I didn't. I know everyone was probably weeping for opportunities lost when I didn't follow through, but happy day!, here is the recipe.

This is a Smitten Kitchen recipe. I love the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I got it out of the library about a year ago and loved it so much I decided I had to buy it. Then one afternoon, I went to Mom and Dad's and there was a copy of it sitting on Mom and Dad's table. Mom had bought it for all of us to share. She said it could stay at my house unless she wanted it. Although this might not reflect well on my generosity or ability to share, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook has resided in my personal stash of cookbooks ever since. It hasn't budged out of my house. But it has been well used. I have made more recipes from there than any other cookbook this year. I love it. It is methodical, precise, but encourages improvising. And she has a little kid, a tiny kitchen, and a blog. So that pretty much makes us the same people. (Except for that book deal....)

So Squash Tacos. Maybe you won't like them. And if you don't, I am sorry for your loss. I eat these for lunch every few weeks. Rotating them out with fish tacos, sweet potato fries, and salads. The joy of being a housewife! Fabulous lunches.

Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos with Queso Fresco
(Do not let the title worry you)

Serves 4-6

3 pounds spaghetti squash (one large or two small)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Sixteen 6-inch tortillas
One 15 ounce jar of black bean, well rinsed and drained
4 ounces crumbled Queso Fresco, feta, or Cojito cheese
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (or flat leaf parsley)

(Now seriously, this is an easy recipe once you get it all together in your mind. Roast the squash, dump in some lime juice and Mexican seasonings and salt, warm tortillas and prepare the toppings. That is the recipe in a nutshell. But just to make it look complicated, here is the long form recipe, copied shamelessly from Smitten Kitchen.)

Cook Squash in microwave or oven--
          To cook squash in microwave, pierce squash with a knife about one inch deep all over to keep it from bursting. Cook at high power fir 6 or 7 minutes. Turn squash over and microwave until if feels slightly soft when pressed, 8 or 10 minutes more. Cool the squash for 5 minutes.
           To cook the squash in the oven, cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and roast the halves facedown in an oiled backing pan for about 40 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

When squash has cooled to workable temperature, scrape the squash flesh with a fork, loosening, and separating the strands as you remove it from the skin. Discard skin (and seeds from microwave version). In a small dish, whisk lime juice with chili powder, cumin, coriander, and salt. Pour over the squash strands, and gently toss them together. Adjust seasonings as you wish.

Heat a dry, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Warm and slightly blister each tortilla, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer with tongs or spatula to platter. Assemble tacos, 2 T black beans, 2 T squash mixture, 2 T of crumbled cheese, and a few pinches of onions and cilantro. Dash with hot sauce if desired.

Ta-da! Done.

Now, if you live in the back of beyond like me, just use feta and don't worry about the cheeses whose names you are a little unsure of pronouncing correctly if you were to ask for them in the grocery store. (Actually, our local Wal-mart does carry queso fresco off and on.) Feta is yummy and works for Greek salad or any other salad as well, which makes it worthwhile. I don't know queso fresco or cojito. What other recipes to use them in?? So I stick with feta. Feta and I go way back. Also, you can just warm your tortillas in a lump sum in the oven or microwave if you prefer. Smitten Kitchen is not looking over your shoulder.

Justin tolerates these, but he is not enthusiastic about these. So I save them for myself. I make everything up on Monday morning, and it all keeps nicely in the fridge through Thursday or Friday, when it is all used up. I have a very high tolerance for repetitive lunches, as long as I love them.

Attempt at Family pictures

We had a quiet weekend. This was Lindsey's second last weekend in NNY. Lindsey's return flight to AK left last Monday, so last weekend was her last weekend. Then United cancelled her flight ("at hopefully no inconvenience" to her) and couldn't get her on another flight until a week later. (She was a little inconvenienced, surprisingly.) So we got to enjoy a second last weekend with her. We played games, talked to the kids, had some good old friends over, and had a swell time. However, I did not take pictures of these happenings. So instead, I will put up pictures of my attempts at family pictures. Family pictures rarely come out the way I think they should, despite repeated attempts. Kids make funny faces, look at other people, put hands in front of each others faces, and generally act in non-statue-like manners. Which is exceedingly annoying for those of us who wanted them to "Stay just like that!" The resulting pictures turn out to be mild chaos. They are a little too true to life for my liking. I don't want to send out a picture of Justin and I telling the kids "If you stick your tongue out in one more picture...." while Gilbert gets Orianna in a headlock style hug, Elsie tries to wiggle down, and Lily stares off stage left to see what is happening out in the kitchen. Ah well.

I fall back on collages. 

But oh! I love these rowdy kids of mine. 

Icy Pictures

The weekend before Christmas, we had an ice storm.Three days of ice pellets and freezing rain. For a week or two, ice and snow carefully coated everything, making our little prosaic world up here look like all the best pictures of idealized American winters. Fortunately for the trees and buildings, we have had some melt since then. Not before a few barns and lots of chimneys went down though. Despite the technical difficulties of ice on everything, it is beautiful. Especially when sunshine returns. A glittering world against a winter blue sky.

 Ice is magic. 

(As long as you don't have to drive or walk on it.)

Owen feeding cows

The lane behind the barn

Ice coat on an alder branch

Poor beasties!

They weren't too worried about it though. 

Owen was sorting cows/calves the morning it really started icing, so we went up to the corral to help. Standing in the freezing rain with little needles of ice hitting my face wasn't comfy, but I couldn't help relish in the thought of "This is what ranch wives do. I am pretty much a ranch wife." Unpleasant situations can always be livened up if you can make them somehow romantic. Like crying as a teenager--I always had to focus on crying or else I would think about how sad and heartbreaking it was that I was weeping and cheer myself right up. 

Icy barbed wire

Snowed in creek 

Some weed or other. I was amazed by the strength of these weed stems. I would have thought they would be lying on the ground. But they stood. A little crookedly, but they stood.

Look at the thickness of the ice! And still they didn't break. 

After the storm had passed, it was freezing cold and windy, but so brilliantly blue. As soon as I stepped outside, I could hear the branches in the wind. Clinking gently together like some gigantic wind chime. 

One side of the sky was blue, blue, blue. The other side had this dramatic gray cloud. 

Grainy snow with cat tracks

Isn't the blue amazing in these two pictures? No editing even. 

Snow sculpted on the silo

Lowering winter skies

The clothesline 

Sun in clouds

Mom and Dad got this little laughing squirrel from my great aunt when she went into a nursing home. It is next to the front door, laughing it's little stone head off at the cold. 

After an absence...

This space has been very quiet.  (This is what one of the bloggers I read occasionally says when she hasn't written in awhile.) Ha! Rather, I would say, this space has been silent like the tomb. Not even one little, tiny post out of me for over a month and a half. I hate to disappoint you all, but this lack of writing has nothing to do with any thing life altering happening over here in our Cotten lives. Just general busyness, things to think about, things to do, and then, that paralyzing thought that "I haven't written a post in ages! There is too much to catch up on!" In order to start blogging again, I have decided to tie that particular paralyzing thought up in a little box and ignore it for awhile. In other words, you will not know all the ins and outs of our life in the past month or two. I will sum it up quickly. It got cold. Then colder and snowier. Then colder still (-28F). And snowier still (about 2 to 3 feet on the ground now). We got sick. Then sicker (hand, foot, and mouth) and missed Thanksgiving. Then we got better. Lindsey came home (hooray!) and we had our special meetings and special visits. Then two fun and busy holiday weeks with family and friends, (ongoing). At this moment, it is 10 below zero and blowy and snowy. (Our high today was negative 9.) Health wise, we are dealing with a cold, but have high hopes of reigning victorious.

There! All caught up. Despite the cold (temperature and head), all this friend and family time is a pretty great way to start a new year!

Here are a few fuzzy pictures of supper at our house tonight. Philip and Rachel bought pizza and brought it over here while Mom and Dad's house was clean and ready for gospel meeting.

The enthusiastic table

Lincoln, pinkin. 

2013/2014

It is a new year. A lovely, full-of-possibilities year. I am so full of optimistic cliches at the beginning of a year. Chock full of them. Intentions, expectations, hopes, and resolutions buzzing around in a happy hum, with only a few chinks in which sentimental cliches about the year ending can squeeze in.                        

                                                

2013 was a good year. Not momentous--no new babies. No promotions. No life altering trips to south eastern Asia. It was just a plain good year. There was a nice mix of highs with enough lows, to keep us from getting smug. But thanks to my faulty memory, when I think about the past year, I mostly remember the highs. And even some of the lows that I can remember have become good stories. A pleasant blur of life. 

A year worth living. 

And here is a new year. 2014! All ready to be made wonderful. I hope it is a beautiful year for all of you. 

A year with more memorable highs than lows.