Sunday dinner

There is a steep learning curve to growing your own food when you don’t come a gardening or farming family. I wanted to grow some of my own food. I’ve grown herbs for years; they are some of the most expensive per ounce groceries except for maybe saffron and too often they go to waste. The store packages of herds are more than can be used in a single dish. They usually get slimy and get exiled to the compost pile. So, I grow my own. I designed a special walkway for the growing of herbs. I wanted that path between my car and entry to be inspiration for dinner.

I made a wonderful dinner. I usually start with an ingredient and build out from there. Tonight it was a butternut squash bought for $1 at the farmers’ market. I roasted and then cubed it, setting it aside for when needed. I browned some bacon and once crisp, removed it and sauteed a purple onion in the bacon drippings, adding fresh cracked pepper. Then I added julienned yellow peppers I grew in the garden. I had seeded and chopped and froze the peppers, storing them in a quart sized mason jar for easy use.

I added crushed garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, chopped sage picked from the herb garden, black walnuts and the cubed butternut squash.

I put it over pasta, sprinkled with the crispy bacon and added finely grated Romano cheese. A nice glass of Riesling and a slice of sourdough toast and I am in heaven.