I love this time of year...the weather is crisp, football is on, and some of the tastiest veg is in season.  About this time, I like to get creative with some of my favorite fall flavors, and I like it best when I can use local and seasonal ingredients.  While some people find the stripey, colorful winter squash fabulous table decor and little else, I find them tasty, appropriate, and perfect for a dish like this.  

Oh, and if you're in Indy and you haven't tried Good the Market's new Smoking Goose products, put your shoes on right now and go get some...their stuff is the best I've tasted.

2 medium carnival or acorn squash 

3/4 c. wild rice, cooked 

2 links garlic or Italian sausage  (I used locally smoked Smoking Goose Garlic Sausage)
1 c. diced onion
2/3 c. diced celery
1T. fresh thyme

4 T. slivered, toasted almonds 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.  Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and turn upside down in 1/2 inch of water in an oven-safe pan.  Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Bring raisins, cranberries, and cider to a boil and then remove from heat.  Allow to stand while you cook the sausage and such in the next step. 

Meanwhile, remove sausage from casing and cook over medium-high until no longer pink.  Mix in onion and celery and sprinkle with kosher salt, then cook for about five minutes, or until veg starts to soften. Mix in the thyme and season liberally with black pepper.   

Mix fruit and cider into the sausage mixture, and cook for five minutes, or until liquid evaporates.

Stir together rice and sausage mixture.  Stuff this mixture into the squash halves and mound up.  Top each filled squash half with 1T. almonds and bake for 30 minutes.

Most decidedly not vegan, but very delicious, nonetheless.

Spaghetti with Spicy Sausage, Fennel 3 ways, and Mushrooms

1 lb spicy Italian bulk sausage (preferably local - I highly recomment 7 sons for those here in Indy)

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 

2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed in a pestle and mortar (or processor)  

1 fennel bulb, frondy tops intact

8 oz cremini mushrooms 

1/2 c half and half 

1 lb spaghetti (the best you can find)

1 c. finely grated parmesan, plus, more to serve if desired

1 c. reserved pasta cooking water 

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Cook the sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink, then mix in the fennel seed and garlic.  Cook a few minutes longer, or until the garlic smells perfect.  Remove the frondy tops from the fennel bulb and set aside.  Cut the stem off of the bottom of the bulb, slice in half vertically, remove the core, and then slice into think strips.  Add fennel bulb to the sausage mixture and stir to coat.  Remove stems, if desired, from the mushrooms and clean with a wet paper towel.  Slice thinly and add to the pan.  Stir again, sprinkle with salt, a generous amount of pepper, and add a bit of olive oil if the mixture looks dry (7 sons sausage is actually very lean), cover with a lid and continue to cook over medium heat for a while, stirring occasionally so as to prevent burning.  

Start your pasta water. 

While the water comes up to temp (do cover it with a lid to speed up this process), pick the frondy tops off of the fennel stalks.  Finely chop and set aside.  

Cook pasta according to package directions.  When pasta is just about done, add half and half and 1 c. cooking water to the sausage mixture.  Stir well and then remove from the heat.  Drain pasta and toss with sausage mixture and frondy tops in the pasta cooking pot.  Return to heat and stir, stir, stir, cooking until liquid dissolves.   Adjust as necessary with salt after stirring in 1 c. parmesan.  Top with additional cheese, if desired.

Labor day called for cheeseburgers this year.  Since we have a newly opened Moody Meats on the northside at Michigan and 106th, I had to give it a try.

Yes, their meat is more expensive.  Yes, it's worth every penny...

We dressed ours up with homemade mayo, ketchup, and pickles, but these burgers would be good plain, too.

 http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-21223-Indianapolis-Food-Examiner~y2009m9d9-Test-Kitchen--Moody-Meats

If you live in central Indiana and have never tried the locally-produced meats, you are really missing out.  Upon returning to our home state in 2004, we started trying to find anything and everything that we could which was locally produced.  Some things were easy (corn and cantaloupe in the summer, for example), but others took some investigation.

We had a lucky find, though, at the Zionsville farmers’ market early on.  We sampled and then bought a package of Royer lamb, and were immediate converts and now permanent customers.  In fact, we liked the lamb so much that we bought a half lamb in 2008, followed by a whole lamb in 2009.  This stuff is amazing.  There was a time in the not-so-distant past that I wasn’t really sure I liked lamb.  Now, I am not only sure I love lamb, but (as is obvious) I cook it quite often.

Royer also raises pigs and cows.  This year, after the smash success of our half lamb last year, we opted for a 1/2 pig, too.  This stuff is also great…juicy, tender, and not as much in need of brining and such to retain flavor and moisture.  The Boston butt cut is a fave among my family and friends for a smoky pulled pork BBQ alongside some cornbread and coleslaw.

Our latest “try” was their ground beef and hanger steak.  Both my husband and I are big fans of the hanger cut and it’s really hard to find around here (well, it was.)  We’ve greatly enjoyed both of these products, with Eric even claiming the Royer ground beef contributed to his “new favorite” burger of the summer recently.

If you eat meat and haven’t tried these Royer products yet, run, don’t walk:  they’re amazing. 

For more info, check out my article here  :  http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-21223-Indianapolis-Food-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Eat-Locally–Hoosier-heritage-pork