Is it too soon to start dreaming about Thanksgiving side dishes? We only have a little more than a month to go so I’m going to say not.

The truth is, warm, comforting Holiday dishes are so good there’s no reason not to eat them all season long, except that they might fill you out a little too fast. Mashed squash is a great healthy substitution for mashed potatoes when it’s not loaded with too many sticks of butter(I’m looking at you, Pioneer Woman).

This recipe calls for a very specific type of squash: Buttercup squash, otherwise known as kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin. This variety cooks softer and starchier than most other varieties so that it mashes more like a sweet potato but still has that distinct squash flavor to it. You can find buttercup squash at most grocery stores; I find mine at the farmers’ market where it’s probably cheapest at $4 a squash.

Creamy Mashed Squash

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 servings):

• 1 medium-sized buttercup squash
• 6 Tablespoons butter*
• 2 Tablespoons cream or milk*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of nutmeg

*You can also use dairy-free alternatives in place of both of these and make the dish vegan.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the squash in half and remove the filling and the seeds.
3. Roast the flesh of the squash skin-on until it’s soft and scoopable—about an hour.
4. Remove the halves from the oven and wait until they’re cool enough to handle.
5. Carefully scoop the flesh away from the skin and combine it in a mixing bowl. Discard the remaining skin.
6. Add the butter, cream, salt, and nutmeg to the squash and mash it with a potato masher until smooth. For an even quicker and smoother method, put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
7. Transfer the squash to a serving bowl and serve hot.

My favorite part is the pat of butter on top. It reminds me when growing up I would steal the cold foil-wrapped slices of butter from the bread basket at restaurants and eat them plain. This recipe—I hope–is a little more appetizing than that, though.

Even after almost 2 years of eating gluten-free, I’m still learning about places it can be that trip me up. Recently on Ashley’s blog I read that most restaurant fries aren’t gluten-free. Puzzled, I looked it up online and sure enough found a host of explanations why most restaurant french fries aren’t gluten-free, basically summed up by this:

• Some restaurants preserve the fries in between cutting and cooking by adding a coating including flour to soak up moisture and keep them from sticking together.
• If fries are fried in the same oil as battered foods like chicken nuggets, the oil can contaminate the fries with gluten.

Luckily in the few instances I can think of that I’ve eaten french fries I don’t remember feeling sick afterwards. But I don’t need to be told twice to avoid something potentially harmful, especially when they’re so easy to make at home.

This recipe is very simple, with just what I would call the bare-bone ingredients. You can make more flavorful fries by switching up the seasoning. The vinegar in the recipe helps to give the fries a more authentic flavor without overpowering the seasoning. Definitely don’t leave it out, and don’t worry about the fries having a strong salt and vinegar taste because they most certainly don’t.

Oven Fries

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings):

• 2 medium-sized russet potatoes
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• Splash(about 1/2 Tablespoon) vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more for finishing
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. With a sharp knife, cut the potatoes horizontally and then lengthwise into long, thin fry shapes.
3. Toss the fries with the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper until completely coated.
4. Line the fries out on a baking tray in a single layer. Bake for 50 minutes or until the ends are crisp, flipping occasionally to cook on all sides. Sprinkle with extra salt and serve immediately.

Serve with ketchup, obviously. I like Trader Joe’s ketchup because it’s more tart than most others but since I don’t live near one I use Whole Foods brand organic ketchup. Did you know organic ketchup has up to 8 times the lycopene of non-organic brands? Add that to the list of useless facts you’ll never need.

When you’re around Italian cooking a lot, you start to pick up the unspoken rules of Italian cooking. These are the rules that tell you how to pair sauce with a specific shape of pasta, not to pair cheese with a fish dish, and to never put a red sauce over green vegetables.

Lucky for me this isn’t Italian, it’s French. There’s also no red sauce, just whole tomatoes. But I’m not sure that exception would fly in Italy. But what no Italian can deny is that when tomatoes combine with garlic and olive oil magic happens and whatever comes out of the pot will undoubtedly be good.

Green Beans Provencal

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4 servings):

• 1lb green beans, trimmed
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Slice the garlic cloves thinly lengthwise. Add the slices into the hot oil and sauté just until the edges begin to brown.
3. Add the green beans into the pan and toss with the oil. Continue cooking until the green beans cook and darken their color.
4. Slice the tomato into halves and then quarters so that each tomato yields 8 slices. Add those to the pan and toss with the green beans.
5. Continue cooking until the tomatoes blister. Remove the pan from the heat and drain off any water that’s cooked out. Add in the remaining tablespoon of oil, salt and pepper and toss one last time. Move to a serving dish and serve hot.

My original plan was to serve this with spaghetti squash. By the time I finally cooked it, I had eaten all the spaghetti squash and had it with quinoa instead, which is a grain that always reminds me of quinoa. I guess what I’m getting at is that this makes a great dish with any pasta.