Canada’s own Monda Rosenberg retired as Food Editor of CHATELAINE, Canada’s largest circulation magazine, in 2009. She was responsible for the magazine’s entire award-winning Food section, including writing and recipe development of over 2,000 recipes a year and overseeing food photography. Before joining CHATELAINE, Monda Rosenberg was Food Editor of the Toronto Star for five years. Monda has received an impressive number of food writing, styling and publishing awards including the Nabisco Food Writer’s Magazine Food Editor of the Year Award, the New York Art Directors Award for Food Styling and the General Foods Nutrition Writing Award. She has been president of the Ontario Home Economics Association and president of the Toronto Home Economics Association for a double term. A frequent guest on national television and radio shows, Monda is the author of The New Chatelaine Cookbook, two Vitality Cookbooks, the Quickies series of 7 cookbooks and Chatelaine’s Wonder Foods. This seasons hearty vegetables make it a budget treat to eat local. Part of the comfort eating I long for on chilly nights comes from heaping up my plate with substantial root vegetables - squash and sweet potatoes, for example - and all those other glorious vegetables that make a late season trip to a farmer's market a true joy. Another plus - these incredibly healthy late harvest veggies marry beautifully with chicken, even simple roasted chicken, so you can do a complete oven dinner with hardly a speck of work. SQUASH MATES This is the time of the year that the word “squash” takes on a broad meaning. As a matter of a fact, even the section in supermarkets piled high with strangely shaped gourds outranks most other produce sections. Giant hubbards with their flame orange flesh are at the top of the flavor meter. Getting into these big bruisers can be tricky. If you can squeeze the Hubbard into the microwave, cook on high a couple of minutes to soften the skin so it can be easily stabbed with a big chef's knife. Then back into the microwave for a few more minutes to make it easier to slice into sections. Scoop out the seeds. Put a few pieces of both hubbard and chicken in the oven together. Spice up the chicken with poultry seasoning, or sage and rosemary. When the squash is tender, roughly mash and jazz up with chopped fresh basil and butter, a swirl of pesto or cumin and curry powder. Now that's an easy super good-for-you dinner! Why not cook extra of both the chicken and squash. Cut them into large cubes and use for a creamy pot pie. Starting with a jar of Alfredo sauce or a can of cream of mushroom soup and using a puff pastry crust will fast forward the prep considerably. Then again, pastry's not the only way to crown this ultimate comfort casserole. Make the filling and heat thoroughly on top of the stove. Then pour into a deep pie plate and cover the surface with thick slices of garlic bread. Bake until the bread is golden browned. For a new riff on an old fashioned roast chicken dinner, heap acorn squash halves with a savory bread stuffing. Fast forward this by using a stuffing mix or sauteing onion and celery and adding croutons and poultry seasoning. Bake right alongside a whole chicken rubbed with butter, sprinkled with coarse salt and stuffed with fresh rosemary or sage as well as a cut-up orange or two. The insipid looking spaghetti squash takes well to microwaving so it can be toss-up ready in minutes. Pierce the skin, and microwave until fork tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Half lengthwise. Spoon out the seeds. Draw a fork lengthwise through the pulpy squash and you will see it separate into strands. Don't be dainty with this step - you may have to become downright aggressive to get it to separate into stands. Voila - you have now created the lowest cal "spaghetti" anyone can feast on. Top with leftover chicken pieces heated in a robust pasta sauce or toss with butter, lots of Parmesan, green onion and sage or fire up with jalapenos or hot chili flakes as a flavorful match-up for sauteed or roasted chicken. Or add chunks of cooked chicken to the spaghetti squash with enough sour cream to make it creamy, but not fat heavy. Herbes de Provence or tarragon are good seasonings here. VEGGIES GALORE Fortunately vibrant peppers are still at good prices. For a fast fajita saute, slice and saute up with onions. Remove, then brown boneless thighs or breasts. Return the veggies. Generously sprinkle with cumin, coriander, chili powder, garlic powder and cayenne and cook through. Wrap up in tortillas if you want or accompany with rice, sliced avocado and sour cream on the side. Luckily enough, red peppers can be roasted in the same time it takes to bake boneless chicken. Gently pound breasts or thighs. then spread with pesto or tapenade and add grated gruyère or crumbled feta. Roll up and roast beside halved red peppers. Mix the succulent roasted red pepper strips with rice and peas and Italian seasonings. Big bags of peeled garlic are a terrific buy in some supermarkets now. You can pick up a bag of 30 to 40 peeled cloves for less than a head of lettuce. It's a snap to use these to create a very good version of the famous French baked chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Just cover the bottom of a slow cooker or big braising casserole with whole garlic cloves. You’ll need at least 20. Add a layer of chicken pieces. Sprinkle with a rounded spoonful of dried tarragon and then douse with a cup of white wine whisked with a dab of Dijon plus enough chicken broth to cover. Let it simmer away part of a day or bake at least 2 hours. You wind it up by smashing the soft garlic into the broth and the result - a very "haute cuisine" tasting sauce. When I see a gargantuan head of pristine white cauliflower that you only get this time of the year, I can't resist it. Teamed with chopped apples you can't get better partners for chicken in a creamy coconut curry. Use the beautiful gleaming baby eggplant and crimson tomatoes in your regular ratatouille recipe - but instead of stove top simmering, place in a oven dish, top with skin-covered chicken breasts and bake till golden crisp. All those marvelous chicken juices sink into the vegetable melange. Don't confine parsnips to a mashed destiny. Slice lengthwise and toss with olive oil. Mix with slim carrots and roast on a big baking sheet with chicken pieces. Liven up with slivers of sun-dried tomatoes at the end. Brussels sprouts tossed with lots of fresh dill, are a smart match for chicken seasoned with five-spice powder. Remember that the best temperature to bake sweet potato fries is 375F ( 190C) which is also the best temperature to roast chicken. So slip a pan with boneless breasts or thighs in the oven along with the pan of fries and they’ll be done at the same time. Try a shake of chili powder and salt or Montreal steak spice on the fries. While you may never have thought of cabbage and chicken in bed together, if you are a cabbage roll fan you have to try them with ground chicken subbed for the usual beef. Better yet go for a deconstructed version where you make up the filling and layer it between leaves of partially cooked cabbage, just as you layer a lasagna. Now that's guilt-free comfort cooking.