Episode 555, or Niantic NOMNOMNOM!

We were supposed to go see Jamie Oliver on Sunday, but his flight from London was delayed or some such nonsense, so we spent the afternoon with Bethany, walking along the beach in Niantic and trying to decide on a recipe from one of Mr. Oliver's cookbooks to use for dinner.

The weather was sunny and beautiful, and although the bulk of fall foliage has peaked around here, the balmy fall is still producing some colorful natural displays.























We did decide to start locally, which we figured would be Jamie approved, so we headed to Scott's Yankee Farmer to see what was in stock.

There were still plenty of sugar pumpkins,



squash of all shapes and sizes,



ALL SHAPES,



and a sweet ol' tractor,



but I digress, back to the squash we went and then off to the supermarket for the fill-in ingredients. Not including these,



the "lemon-esque" fruit we saw at the Stop and Shop, aka Buddha's Hand.

No, we had decided to attempt a squash risotto, with a few shrimp thrown in to make it a "meal" and also because we likes our seafoods.



We prepared a basic risotto portion, and roasted our squash, and then started combining and adjusting according to the recipe.









None of the right things are in focus in that last picture, but I love it anyway.

One of the parts we were most skeptical of was the fried sage leaves that were meant to go on top.



I have to tell you, we were so wrong. I would consider buying fresh sage, frying it, and eating it as a snack all by itself. It was that tasty. The other topping we were supposed to have was crumbled amaretti biscuits, but we had to improvise. Thanks Anna!



All in all we did spend a LONG time getting the risotto to the right consistency, but we had a great time getting there, and it was all delicious when we did sit down to eat.



AND there were even some pumpkin bars for dessert! BARS!



THANKS BETHANY!