Dark Days Challenge Week 13: Things I Love

The hubs' and my Valentine plans were thwarted Saturday night by Mother Nature. We were planning to follow our tradition of staying in, making Rachel Ray's "You Won't Be Single for Long Vodka Cream Pasta" and creme brulee, watching movies and drinking some several bottles of wine. But, he was sent to Marshall County to cut fallen trees out of roads and out of the way of power lines. So, I found myself home alone on Saturday night, but I decided to make the most of it.

I bought some Sierra Nevada Porter, put on some Santana and went to cooking. I made the Winter Squash Carbonara I planned on making last week, and man, was it worth the wait.

Butternut Squash Carbonara (from Closet Cooking) -- I LOVE this blog, btw.

1/2 pound pasta
6 slices of bacon (cut into 1-inch pieces)
2 cups squash, cut into small pieces (I used blue hubbard)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 Tb. sage, chopped
about 1/3 cup of turkey or chicken stock
pepper to taste
2 egg yolks
2 Tb. heavy cream
1/4 parmigiano reggiano

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a pan. When the bacon begins to brown, add the squash, garlic, sage and pepper. Toss to coat in bacon grease. (I added the turkey stock here, because I thought the squash was still too hard. I cooked it in the stock, covered, for about 15 minutes to soften it up a bit.) Mix the egg yolks, cream and parm in a bowl. Drain the pasta, but reserve some of the water. Add the pasta to the pan and toss. Remove the pan from the heat and wait for the sizzling to stop. Add the egg mixture and toss to coat. Add a bit of the pasta water, if needed. Garnish with more sage and serve.

So, by myself, I sat down to a FABULOUS dinner, which I loved. Drank a delicious Porter (which complimented the sweet and salty of the carbonara perfectly, I might add), which I loved. And listened to Santana Abraxas, which I love. It was a LOVELY Valentine's Dinner, nonetheless.

Afterwards, I crawled up on my bed, put in a movie and snuggled up with my cat, Alley.

The pasta was made from flour from Reed's Mill Flours and eggs from Breezy Knolls Farm, both in Monroe County. The blue hubbard was purchased late last summer at the Capitol Market. (The farmer who grew it actually sold it to me. I can't remeber what farm, but the guy was quite a character.) The bacon and the turkey in the turkey stock were from White Oak Ridge Farm in Phillippi, WV. The garlic was from Spangler's Greenhouse in Monroe County. The eggs in the sauce were also from Breezy Knolls Farm. The sage was from Kroger's, but was organic. The cream and the parm were from Kroger's, but wasn't organic.