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I have to admit, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving isn’t the turkey, it’s the side dishes. I love the potatoes, green beans, hot rolls, squash, and just about anything else that is surrounding the bird. During the fall I don’t find myself experimenting with turkey recipes, I focus on new side dish ideas. I am always looking for new favorites, ways to prepare a soup or vegetable I haven’t tried before. This year my latest favorite is this cheesy butternut squash casserole. It is salt, sweet, and hearty enough to be a side dish at one of the biggest meals of the year.

After my trip to the Greenwich Food + Wine Festival I got thinking more about weeknight meals. I loved Sara Moulton’s and Richard Blais’ presentations, but they didn’t really feature a lot of cheese. However, the dishes they made could feature plenty of cheese. In my year of working with Sargento I have had a lot of fun documenting the popular food trends of food trucks and mushrooms but it really all comes back to the cheese. I am no stranger to cheesy weeknight meals and I wondered if I could take Sara’s and Richard’s dishes and make them a little cheesier, so to speak.

There comes a time every fall when I feel I must, simply must, have a cheesy casserole for dinner. It kind of like the way I crave soup the second I see snow, and want fresh pesto the moment spring flowers bloom. This year I decided to take my craving to the meatless side and make a decadent mac and cheese ramped up with the addition of sweet caramelized onions and earthy mushrooms.

Last weekend I took a little time off from unpacking to attend the Greenwich Food + Wine Festival. Part of my role as a Sargento flavor correspondent this year is to investigate popular new flavor trends that are changing the food scene. Specifically, I am documenting two topics: the current explosion of food trucks, and popularity of cooking with mushrooms. I’ve been having a blast diving into both subjects, sampling food trucks all over the area, and cooking with mushrooms any chance I get. At the Greenwich Food + Wine Festival I was particularly interested in attending the crispy taco demonstration by Richard Blais, and the Weeknights Meals with Sara Moulton.

When I think of food trucks one of the first cuisines I think of is Mexican. When we lived in New York, long before food trucks were a trend, we had a taco truck nearby. I often would roll up in the stroller and buy a whole bagful to bring home for dinner. Since then the food truck scene has exploded and tacos remain one of the most popular cuisines in the market! So, you can imagine my excitement, when I discovered the Taco Loco food truck in my neighborhood the other day. It is actually an extension of the Taco Loco restaurant down the street and just hit the streets about a week ago!

One of the challenges I’ve been enjoying in my year exploring mushrooms with Sargento is incorporating them in to every meal of the day. Mushrooms, I find, are very flavorful in savory meals for lunch and dinner. Grilled cheeses, sauces, and soups taste amazing with a little or a lot of mushroom umami flavor. Breakfast, however, other than stirred into eggs, can be a little more difficult. We know mushrooms taste great in quiche or frittatas, but…what else? Can they be incorporated differently? I wanted to try pairing them with salty bacon, a fried egg, and some delicious cheese. But instead of the ubiquitous quiche I deconstructed it into an easy breakfast bake.

One of the chief complaints among foodie Cooperstonians is that there is a dearth of gourmet food shops in the area. In fact, the closest place they can buy things like fancy cheeses and exotic produce is 90 miles northeast in Albany. To counter that, however, there is a vast expanse of farmland and the farmer’s market is truly one-in-a-million. So, while I’ve been here this month I’ve been enjoying all kinds of delicious corn, squash, tomatoes, and fruit. I haven’t, however, been able to find a single interesting or exotic mushroom. It is sliced cremini, portabello, or nothing at all.