Quinoa with Butternut

My husband teases me that I remember my life through food. And he's right. "Remember when we were in that little town in Mexico and we ate the fish almondine in the palapa on the beach," I'll say. Or, "was that the time that we ate the tacos de mariscos with the baby octopi? All of my memories seem to be centered around food.

I've been considering starting a blog for a while now, but I haven't known which aspect of my life to focus it on, and I think that the best blogs often have some kind of recurrent theme or focus (not to mention good writing, the development of which is part of my motivation here). I've thought about writing about my pottery, but it doesn't seem like enough of a constant. Given the fact that I structure my memories around food, it makes sense to do the same with my blog. And I'll always have something to write about. After all, I'll always be eating, if not cooking.

I thought dinner last night was going to be fairly simple to make. Tilapia and a side dish of quinoa and butternut squash. It ended up being more complicated than I'd anticipated, though that was surely compounded by the fact that I also grilled chicken (that wasn't going to keep much longer) for a chinese chicken salad today. Oh, and I made a big batch of Oven Caramel Corn, which I avoid making more than once a year because I have absolutely no restraint when it comes time to eat it. As we were eating our dinner, I mentioned that it took a bit more time than I had thought, and Clay said, incredulously, "You read 'Coconut-crusted tilapia with apricot dipping sauce' and thought 'easy'??"

The fish was not as good as I'd hoped, but we all loved the side dish, which was quinoa with roasted butternut squash, parsley, and walnuts. I adapted it from a recipe for butternut squash in Fine Cooking Magazine which I have in the past mixed with pasta for an awesome main dish. This version is delicious and so healthy that in spite of all the caramel corn I ate yesterday, I still managed to score an "A" on my nutritional intake on Calorie Count.

Quinoa with Butternut Squash, Parsley and Walnuts

1 cup quinoa
1 butternut squash
1/3 c. chopped parsley
1/3 c. toasted coarsely chopped walnuts
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper
zest from one lemon

Preheat the oven to 450. Peel, seed, and cube the butternut. Toss it with the olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Put it on a rimmed baking sheet or pizza stone. Roast for 20 min., stir, then continue roasting about 10-15 min. more, until tender and lightly browned. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the quinoa, put it in a pot with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover, and cook about 15 minutes more, until tender and the germ that curls around the edge starts to spring out. Gently toss together the quinoa, the parsley, walnuts, lemon peel, and squash, adding more salt and pepper to taste. Last night I didn't have a lemon, so I used orange peel, which was also delicious.