Acorn Squash

The most exciting thing in the kitchen, is when you have a somehting that is so tasty and delicsious that is healthy and requires no work.
I cut open an acorn squash today, sprayed it with some olive oil, laid it face down on some foil and put in an 450 degree oven for an hour or so.
The quality of the squash was pretty fantastic to start with and I happened to have it in the oven for the perfect amount of time (may 70-80 minutes), but it is so delicious.
I cut each half into fours while the open face was still down on the cookies sheet and when I lifted up the pieces the flesh was falling off the skin (into my mouth).
People are coming over for lunch in an hour and I am afraid that there won't be any left for them!

Tuna Salad 101

It’s 10:30 pm and I just got home after a long day of work and then book club. I am trying not to spend money so I did not get anything to eat after work before book club. I did get a triple shot of espresso over ice, so long story short I am starving and have a wicked headache.

Like I said, its late- and I am tired. I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time preparing food, and even if I did, my options are super limited by the fact that I have not been to a grocery store in weeks.

My cupboard contains: Some chips, pasta, rice, crackers, Tuna

Ah ha –

Tuna is good – that’s a start. I open the can of TUNA, now what?

Seriously, I was debating just eating it out of the can with a fork.

But then opened the refrigerator to see what I could put in it:

My refrigerator contains:

Beer, beer, mayo, pasta sauce that is I don’t know how old, Salsa

Ah ha –

I am tentative though. It seems like a good idea. I dip my fork in the salsa and take a small scoop of Tuna.

DELICIOUS.

You may not understand this, but I have a crazy relationship with Tuna Sandwiches. (why would you know that?) I don’t eat meat, a large majority of the time when I eat out this does not pose a problem at all. But there are certain places esp. airports, roadside gas stations … places where sometimes you have to eat and there are not a lot of options, the only choice I have is a tuna sandwich. And most of the time they are gross. But I end up eating them all the time and it makes me upset to have to pay exorbitant prices for non-tasty food.

To be fair to these places, I have some pretty high tuna salad standards. Generally, when I make a tuna salad sandwich it takes a while. I generally won’t even consider making tuna salad unless I have: celery, onions, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers and fresh dill (or pickles). Then I raid the veggie drawer and chop everything up. If there is open can of olives, water chestnuts, hearts of palm, chop ‘em up throw ‘em in. Then instead of putting mayo in, I put a little bit of olive oil and depending on my mood, some horseradish or balsamic or red wine vinegar. Really whatever is OK, as long its full of chunky veggies and loads of flavor. But you can see why a pre-packaged airport tuna-salad sandwich loaded with mayo pisses me off.

Back to dinner … you can imagine my surprise when this seat of my pants Tuna-salad ended up being so delicious. Whats more, I ended up finding an English Muffin to put it on. The trick is that you have to use GOOD Salsa, I had the Desert Trading Company HOT salsa - I can’t remember the exact name, but its got lots of corn and big chunks of onions, peppers, tomatoes and great spicy flavor. You don’t need a lot, three or four spoonfuls for the can of tuna. Its so easy and so yummy. And I think probably pretty healthy.