We've switched to the Broad Ripple Farmers Market. Too many vendors have left the Binford market - they're done for the season. We'll go back next week for the last weekend to stock up on Annie's lamb jerkey. Then, sometime this winter we'll have to find Terry to get another supply that'll last til the market starts up in the spring. We love the shagbark hickory syrup and the persimmon folks at Broad Ripple. But, my favorite has to be Jacquie's. They've got the BEST pestos ever. Last week we bought a container of mushroom/truffle oil pesto. This week they were out of that so we bought cilantro lime and asparagus. Since we'd munched away half of the mushroom pesto on Triscuits, I needed to re-create the recipe so we could have pasta with mushroom pesto. Fortunately, the ingredient list has to be in order of quantity. Good starting point. Mushrooms, pine nuts, olive oil, romano, garlic, truffle oil. Are the mushrooms roasted? Chopped and sauteed? Chopped and put in raw? Are the pine nuts raw or toasted? What are the actual measurements? The thought process was that mushrooms have a considerable amount of moisture so it's best to cook them in some way. I chose to chop them finely in the processor then saute them in olive oil (8 oz box buttons.) I didn't toast the pine nuts but probably will next time (1/3 c.) Added in about 2/3 c of finely shredded romano and a clove of garlic. Then, about 1T of truffle oil. Once all of that was nicely blended in the processor, I poured a stream of olive oil in until it had the right consistency. Mine was almost as good as Jacquie's. And, at about $4 for two times the quantity we bought, it was a LOT less expensive.

Along with the pesto and rigatoni, we had filets with gorgonzola mushroom sauce and butternut squash with fruit. The butternut squash was about half of a 2 lb squash. It was leftover from making autumn vegetable soup. I cubed the squash and tossed it with about 8 diced dried apricots and an equal number of diced prunes. Then, I made a sauce with about 2T of butter, 1 t curry powder, 1 T brown sugar, 2 t lemon juice and tossed everything with the sauce. I baked it at 400 for about 30 min. The apricot flavor was wonderful and the butternut squash tasted almost like candy. YUM!