Thursday, October 28, 2010

Slings and Arrows, for the arts administrator

To ring in the new Gregorian year, I'd like to recommend this series...


I stumbled across Slings and Arrows somehow. Someone along the way recommended it to me (thank you, whoever you are!!) and I've finally finished the three seasons on DVD. A perfect show for those arts administrators amongst us, the delightful comedy extolls the foibles, earnestness, absurdity and glory of bringing arts to the people.

It follows the creative and administrative teams at the fictional "New Burbage Festival," a Shakespeare festival, not unlike our fine state's Oregon Shakespeare Festival (though I believe it's really modeled after the Stratford Festival.) Complete with lots of great Shakespeare, star-crossed lovers, intrigue, ghosts and great accents - thank you Canadians for your most excellent comedy!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Butternut Squash Egg Casserole

I'm going for it. One blog post each day for the month of November. They say I can be blog free on the weekends so we'll see how that pans out. Speaking of pans, I'll start this month with a nice Autumn recipe. Remember, I'm an improvisor at heart, so this is more of an idea starter...

We recently bought a lovely butternut squash at the farmer's market. I had nothing particular in mind, just know that I love winter squash. Here's what I decided to make with it based on what I already had in the kitchen. It's rather quiche-like.

Butternut Squash Egg Casserole

Ingredients
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 in cubes
1/2 large onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 red pepper (roasted or raw), diced
6 eggs
1 cup of milk
a splash of water
dash-1/2 tablespoon of 2-5 spices (I used thyme, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon)
1/2 cup of cheese (I used monterey jack because it was in m fridge, but swiss, cheddar or even smoked cheese like gouda or provolone would probably work well)
1/2 package of tofu (if desired)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Saute onions in olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Make sure they don't burn, but are soft and aromatic. Add butternut squash and and bit more oil. Add spices. Saute until squash is soft enough to pierce easily, but not so much that it's complete mush. Probably about 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk eggs, water and milk together until completely blended. Also, oil small-medium size casserole dish and preheat oven to 400ยบ. Crumble tofu in with squash and saute for 3 minutes. Add bell pepper, salt and pepper to the squash and saute for 3 more minutes. Transfer squash mixture to casserole. Top with cheese and then egg mixture. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove cover and brown top for 5 minutes.

That's it. Pretty darn easy and yummy. Suggest serving with an arugula salad or other greens.