Winter veggies?

Winter vegetables are a relative thing now that we have better ways of shipping perishable goods.

I have always enjoyed vegetables, but now the winter months are full of the ones from summer that I love so much.  Though the ones from when I was a kid are still a comfort food on a snowy winter day, only now they are fresher.  The baked onions above are sweet, healthy, and delicious.  The Acorn squash has lots of good nutrition for you.  The nice thing is, if you plan a few minutes ahead, you can cook them at the same time.  And it can be any winter squash.

With onions this sweet, I like a lot of leftover olive oil so I can cook with it later and have that nice flavor infusion that the onions give it.  Here I even added some garlic.  I only use the garlic from California because the flavor is so much better in my opinion.  Christopher Ranch grows some of the best.  Also, if you live where you can't get good sweet onions year round, look up Sweet Onion Express.  They always have some in season and ready to ship. 

To make your onions, cut the bottom and top of the onion off, then peal the outer brown, papery skin off.  Place the onions in a baking dish and pour enough olive oil over the onions to reach 1/8 - 1/2 inch up the side of them.  Salt each onion to taste and let them sit while you make the squash. For the squash, cut or knock off the stem. This will make it easier to cut in half. Cut from stem to blosom end with a chefs knife or any long knife that will give you enough length to push from both ends if needed to complete the task. You want both sides to be as equal as possible so they will be finished cooking at the same time. Remove the seeds with a spoon, and scrape any unwanted stringy flesh away if you like. The strings are fine once cooked however. Spread a small amount of oil over the orange flesh and lightly salt both halves. I prefer to use a good Spanish olive oil, grapeseed oil, avacado oil, or sunflower oil, to grease the squash because of the health benifits and good flavor (the grapeseed is the exception as it has little flavor). Place each half, flesh side down, in a lightly oiled baking dish.  (preheat the oven to 350)

Bake for aproximately 45 minutes, or until the squash gives easily if poked with the handle of a dinner knife.  As you can see, I put both dishes in at the same time.  They can be side by side, or each on a different oven rack.

Now you have time to make the meat part of the meal.  If these vegetables get done before the meat, no worry.  Just turn the oven off and serve when the meat is done.  If you have added garlic to the onion dish, you will need to remove these as soon as they begin to brown. 

I served my veggies with sauteed shrimp over wild and gourmet brown rices.

The wine:  I chose a white wine that is sure to please.  Chateau St. Jean, from Sonoma, California.  The 2005 Chardonnay, from the Belle Terre Vineyard, was stellar with even the winter veggies.  Chateau St. Jean is one of my favorites for consistantly providing good wines, and almost anything from Alexander valley, well that tells me that it will really be one I like.  Even if the 2005 is no longer avalible, the newer releases from this vintner and vineyard would be my choice with this meal.