Fall Eatin'

I'm going to my friend Elisabeth's tonight for a wine and appetizer get-together- we were all asked to bring a type of wine and an appetizer to pair with it. I am bringing an oaky chardonnay, which is not necessarily my favorite, but it gave me a chance to make a nice rich veggie dish. I was thinking that I wanted to make roasted figs with gorgonzola and rosemary, but the figs aren't at the market this week. Know what there's a TON of? Butternut squash. And onions. It's starting to be fall, I guess, no matter what the weather thinks. Seeing the piles and piles of butternut squash made me feel better about giving up figs. I decided to cook up some butternut squash tartlets with caramelized cippolini onions and goat cheese. If I were a more decietful person, I'd tell you that I slaved over the puff pastry myself, but no, it's store-bought. I'm a great procrastinator on doing school work, but a batch of puff pastry to get out of writing a paper is just not worth it. Here's the recipe-ish (I don't use recipes, so the quantities are approximate).

Ingredients
2 packages Pepperidge Farms puff pastry shells (should be 12 shells)
1/2 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1/4"cubes
1/2 apple, cubed into 1/4" cubes
1 lb (or more) cippolini (or other sweet variety) onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2c. grated parmesan cheese
6-8 oz. goat cheese
1 bunch each fresh rosemary and sage
salt
pepper
olive oil
high-temperature oil for frying the sage leaf garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium frying pan (I used cast-iron) over medium heat, warm up 1-2 tbsp. olive oil. Add onions, sautee until translucent, and reduce heat to low. Leave over heat until brown and caramelized, about 30-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to dry out, add wine, water, or stock 1-2tbsp at a time. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, combine 2tbsp olive oil, squash, apples, and finely chopped rosemary and sage (about 1 to 1.5 tbsp each) and salt and pepper to taste in a glass or cast iron roasting pan. Roast in oven until soft, about 30 minutes.
When the squash mixture is done, remove from oven and set aside.
In a bowl, mix the parmesan cheese with finely chopped rosemary and sage (again about 1 to 1.5 tbsp. each). Set aside.
Bake the pastry shells as directed, but remove them from the oven 4-5 minutes before the instructions say. Hollow out as directed (they come in these pre-cut flats that you bake and then hollow out the middle), and line the bottom with your parmesan mixture. Return to oven and bake for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool 5-10 minutes.
Fill with a layer of goat cheese, then onions, then butternut squash. Top with a small dollop of goat cheese. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the goat cheese starts to brown.
Meanwhile, fry 18 medium-sized sage leaves in your frying oil (I used grapeseed).
Remove tarts from oven and garnish with a fried sage leaf (not pictured).
Enjoy!!!