Comfort food makes your clothes not so comfortable

Here's a couple of fall recipes that might hit the spot as we're getting close to the holiday.

Roasted acorn squash salad with bacon vinaigrette

One whole acorn squash, peeled, cut into 1 inch slices, seeded

1 cup of bacon cut into "semi-lardons"

sherry vinegar, 2 tbsp

olive oil, 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp

1 whole shallot, minced

mixed greens, arugala, or dandelion greens

Roncal cheese (can sub Parm-Reg or Manchego)

3/4 cup of pecans, roasted or not

Thyme

Salt

1. Roast the acorn squash (or whatever squash you have, you could also use sweet potato) tossed on a baking sheet with olive oil, thyme, and salt
2. Cut your bacon up and cook it over medium-high heat, stop before it gets crispy, and add the shallot.
3. Emulsify the vinegar and oil. When the bacon is "done," add it and keep on warm.
4. Lay down some greens, then put your squash, pecans (crushed), bacon vinaigrette, and sliced cheese (can do this with a vegetable peeler).
5. If there is going to be a delay in serving, keep your squash in foil so they stay warm.

"Mole" vegetarian chili

There's going to be some skepticism about this, but it's actually pretty tasty.

1. 3 15 oz cans of pinto beans
2. 1 large can of whole tomatoes
3. 1 oz bar of semisweet chocolate
4. 1 tbsp of cumin powder
5. 2 ancho chiles, dried
6. 1 tsp of cinnamon
7. 1 chipotle chile, dried
8. 2 small onions, chopped
9. 2 smallish zucchinis, chopped
10. 3 cloves of garlic, minced
11. salt
12. pepper
13. 1.5 cups of water
14. 1 tbsp of orange zest or orange juice
15. olive oil

Seed, stem the chiles and toast them dry on a saute pan.

Add the chiles, cumin powder, cinnamon to a molcajete (mortar/pestle) and grind to a fine powder.

Brown onions in olive oil over medium high heat in a dutch oven. When they soften, add the garlic for a minute or so.

Add the chile powder. This will stick and burn a little bit, don't worry, you want that. Give it as long as you can stand it, and add the zucchini. Let that soften/sweat a while.

Add the tomatoes, water, orange juice or zest, chocolate, and salt/pepper to taste until the zucchini's done. Then, add the pinto beans.

Simmer. Remember, it's better the next day.

Could you add meat? Sure. I suppose that there are a lot of things that you could do with it such as use that liquid to braise a pork shoulder, shred it, and throw it in. You could add ground beef or pork, or whatever you want. Be creative with it!