Dinner: Chorizo-stuffed acorn squash

So, I have to give credit where credit is due. Real Simple magazine and their website have more or less saved my first few weeks at home with the new hubby. If you need help, too, check out: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/month-of-dinner-recipes/

When I first picked up the magazine with "Month of Dinners" on its cover, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I felt deep in my bones that it was going to be important for my up-coming domestic life.

But giving me a list of ingredients is about as good an idea as giving my cat a ball of string. She will probably strangle herself, and I will feel like strangling my husband. After I edited and simplified each of the recipes for the week suggested by Real Simple, taking out ingredients that I don't like, or he doesn't like, or that just sounded too strange, we headed to our local supermarket, where we had to purchase crazy sauces and vinegars (considered "basic" by the magazine) and all the other actual food bits. If the grocer was out of something, I had to improvise on the spot! Can you imagine my fledgling inner chef's mental gymnastics!? This is where I picked out basil instead of the called-for parsley, and instead of cooking collards as a side for one dish, decided artichokes would be more fun.

But on to the chorizo. The recipe called for cured chorizo, chopped. The guy at the meat counter didn't know what cured chorizo was. So we just found some chorizo. Turns out, cured chorizo is hard sausage (I think...still not sure). But I bought regular ground chorizo. And basil. So tonight while I was half-grieving over whether or not we would have something eatable for dinner, hoping I hadn't absentmindedly reset the timer on the acorn squash to cook the bulgur (yea, didn't know what that was until a week ago), and doing the math wrong and putting two times as much cheese in (not that that is a bad thing!), I was in slight panic mode.

But I cooked those acorn squash and Bam! Dinner. 

                                          Hubby approved! Photo credit to him.

You can see the original recipe here. My only real (however accidental) changes were the fresh chorizo (which I cooked through before adding it to the bulgur/cheese mix) and chopped basil instead of parsley.