I’m glad you were all so intrigued by Monday’s carrot butter recipe! Sarah brought up a good point – that carrots in a sweet recipe aren’t that foreign of a concept after all… just think of carrot cake. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that? So none of you are allowed to be skeptical of carrot butter any more. Carrot cake in vegan dip form! :)
Today, though, we’ve still got some orange in our food, but it’s not cake (or even carrots). It’s a chopped salad with roasted butternut squash! Mmmm.
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We got our first snow of the season yesterday. I woke up in the morning, changed into my running clothes, and looked out the window… uh ohhh. WHY is the ground covered in 4 inches of snow?! I am not much of an outdoor runner when it’s slippery outside. I took about 10 steps before I went back in, changed into shorts, and went to the gym to run on the treadmill.
First treadmill run of the season in the books! It’s gonna be a loooong winter.
As a side note, our neighbors still had their sprinklers on. What?!
I’m clearly not thrilled about the quick transition to winter that we’re having around here, but it does mean I get to roast butternut squash to my little heart’s content. Our apartment is already freezing, so I’m a happy girl when the oven is on. I’ve already posted a few butternut recipes so far this fall, and I’m showing no signs of slowing down. This is just the most recent way I’ve been getting my fix.
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OMG muffins.
I am trying to concentrate on writing a nice little blog post for you, complete with a description of the flavor and texture of these muffins. But all I can think about is taking a gigantic nutty, squashy, apply bite out of one.
They are so good that all descriptions seem extraneous, and the thoughts swirling around in my head keep getting interrupted by interjections of “MUFFINS!” and “HAZELNUTS!” Funny how I really can’t concentrate on anything, including stringing together a coherent description of these muffins, when presented with the thought of them.
Let’s stick to listing the ingredients – that, I think I can handle. And I should tell you that I am excited about every single one of them.
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Stop! You with the stringy, goopy squash gook halfway to the trash can. Don’t throw it out!
Save that stuff. Save it in a bowl in your fridge all fall so you can procrastinate making this recipe until a lazy Saturday afternoon when you finally work up the courage to submerge your hands in a cold bowl of squash gook.
On second thought, maybe just clean the seeds right up front and save a bowl of clean squash seeds in your fridge for when you want a snack on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Do as I say, not as I do.
But let’s back up for a second. Many people are familiar with roasting pumpkin seeds, especially after carving a pumpkin this time of year. But did you know you can do the same thing with the seeds of any other squash? If you’re like me, you cook with other types of squash much more often than pumpkin. And I love the seeds. Other than cleaning them, they are possibly the best part!
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Mashed squash may not be the most romantic-sounding dish. This I know. But trust me, it is up there with the tastiest!
Each week for my CSA, I get an email containing a few recipes for this week’s ingredients. This was one such recipe, and I knew immediately I had to try it. It sounded quite similar to the spiced butternut squash soup I made last winter – one of my favorites. Butternut squash, onions, apples and spices in yet another spoonable form? Yes please!
These are the squashy version of mashed potatoes. And if you like mashed potatoes, let me tell you how you will feel about mashed squash: you will FREAK OUT. Unlike potatoes, with butternut squash there’s no need to add cream (just a little bit of butter!), because it already has plenty of moisture. Instead, the focus is on flavor. Apples and onions and maple syrup, oh my! Plus a hint of warm spices to round out the dish and make it absolutely heavenly. Seriously. I swoon every time I reheat a serving of these. They are just THAT good.
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