Sometimes the color of food is as appealing to me as the smell. The bright yellow of crook neck squash is inviting on a cold, grey winter evening. There was a lot of yellow crookneck squash this past summer, which I sliced raw and froze in vacuum sealed bags. Retrieving a bag from the freezer is a little like retrieving a bit of a summer afternoon to infuse into dinner.
While the squash was defrosting, I soaked some oldish dry mushrooms in the leftover champaigne still taking up space in the refrigerator. At dinner time I sauteed the red onion in some butter, and then poured in the mushrooms with the champaigne. I cooked that down at high heat until all the liquid was gone, then added the squash. The crook neck squash is very watery, so I kept it at high heat until it was just about to boil, and threw in a quarter cup of cous cous (to absorb some of the liquid.) Then I turned it down to low, added some seasoning, and let it go for about fifteen minutes. It was delicious before I even tasted it!
