Pine nut squash lasagna

Part of Harry's self-created therapy has been to go through our collection of food magazines to create a list of the recipes he wants to try after his jaw works properly. I guess it has given him hope. While I have been out eating a crusty New York bagel and cream cheese or chowing down on my beloved Chinese food, Harry has been looking longingly at food magazines meticulously cataloging. He even went so far as to watch our young friends, Jack and Tera, and I as the three of us had steak one night at our house. He made wonderful side dishes he could eat and ate fish without complaint.

Food magazines can be a blessing and a curse. You love looking through them when they come in the mail or you buy them at the grocery store. You get them home and you page through looking at the photographs, all the while dreaming about cooking some recipe that looks fabulous and knowing full well the odds of your actually doing that are slim, The magazines pile up and you try to forget about them. They make you feel guilty, but you are too busy to take them seriously.

Fortunately, Harry has taken the time to find some wonderful recipes in these magazines that have helped him get through this difficult time. He cooks up something new and edible for a man with a plastic palate a couple three nights each week. (lasagna pictured) It has been great for me, sort of like having at a good restaurant with a changing menu right in my own home. We have become particularly pleased with some of the fish recipes and, as we all know, eating fish three times a week is highly recommended. Tomorrow night our friends, Pete and Lee, are coming for dinner and Harry is cooking fish Veracruz, tortilla soup and arroz con leche. (pictures later.) Recently Pete cooked us a delicious Harry appropriate meal of quiche and creme brulee.

Needless to say, eating like this is a real treat. When I was a child my dear mom had a limited kitchen repertoire. She cooked a predictable bill of fare each week. Monday was mince and potatoes, Tuesday: fried chicken, Wednesday: creamed tuna on toast, Thursday: fish sticks and Friday we splurged and had take-out chow mein. Mom did not have the time to cook creatively. She worked hard all day and came home each night and proceeded to cook a meal for seven people. We ate a lot of packaged foods in those years; scalloped potatoes in a box and brownies, also from a box, were our family favorites. After I left home Mom started as a housekeeper for a couple who were both doctors and their children. She began to experiment with magazine cooking, encouraged by the doctors who had a nice collection of food magazines they had never cooked from.

My ex-husband, Jerry, and I loved to cook from Gourmet magazine when we entertained. In the early very poor years of our marriage, we would splurge on buying a new spice from the spice rack at the grocery store to add to our limited collection. We had many successes and many failures with Gourmet Magazine as the years went by and we could afford more spices. It took the failures to learn what recipes were the ones to try and which ones were the ones to stay away from. I learned to love the entertainment aspect of dinner parties in those years; the dishes, the candles, the linens and flowers and especially the guests. I have many wonderful memories sitting around the dining room table laughing, talking, debating with our dinner guests. Good food is important and people are more important.

When I moved from my house on Abbott after 25 years, I had seven sets of dishes, scores of table lines, candle holders and colored napkins. I also had boxes of Gourmet magazines which my friend Lee says I should not have thrown out because Gourmet Magazine died when we were living in Mexico. I got rid of my collections when we moved out of the big house into the condo. (I did keep the Waterford crystal goblets that were a gift from my ex-husband's family however.) Harry and I then proceeded to buy two new sets of dishes that matched the condo. Any excuse to buy dishes works for me. In October, when we return to Mexico for a month, I will be able to bring home the set of Mexican dishes and glassware I bought. Just where I will put these acquisitions since I have little cupboard space or basement as I did on Abbott Avenue is the question I have yet to answer.

Our stack of food magazines collected over the years had been out of control here in our condo. Food and Wine, Cooks, and Eating Well filled up our coffee table lower shelf. Harry took control of the stacks, bound and organized them and we have not had a bad meal yet. I am ready every night with the candles, the appropriate dishes for the meal, table linens and my fork. Just think what it will be like when he gets that jaw working again! Make your reservations early, seating in this small condo is limited.