Southern comfort

Last night my friend Lesli came over for dinner. I made butternut squash soup, roasted asparagus (again), and chicken cacciatore (a.k.a. Hunter's chicken). The butternut squash was so hard to chop! I used my Chinese cleaver knife and seriously had to put my back into it, taking a few seconds to catch my breath between chops. What a work out for the arms! Next time I am buying pre-cut butternut squash.







Lesli baked a Derby pie! Apparently it's only eaten in May, for the Kentucky Derby. Did I mention that Lesli is from Kentucky? And she has a delightful Southern accent to match it too! So the Derby pie is similar to a pecan pie, but instead of maple syrup it's got chocolate chips. The ingredients are a pie crust, and a mixture of flour, eggs, butter, sugar, chocolate chips, and chopped up pecans for the filling. Oh, and bourbon! Except this time she substituted vanilla extract for the bourbon. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it's absolutely delicious!