Winter Squash Obsession

This is the best thing I've ever done with a butternut squash. The sweetness of the squash melded perfectly with the roasted garlic. It sounds weird, I know, but if you like squash, you won't be disappointed. This recipe will serve 6 as a side dish, pretty easily.

2 or 3 lbs dry winter squash (Butternut, Blue Hubbard or Kabocha would work well. Use any dry squash, but not acorn or Delicata - they're too wet and won't caramelize enough when you roast it)
6 big cloves of garlic
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. olive oil
Salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 325


1. Peel and gut the squash, then cut it into tiny, 1/3 inch cubes. You can be lazy and cut the cubes bigger, but the extra caramelization that happens when you cut it into teeny tiny cubes is worth every knife stroke. Trust me.
2. Peel and roughly chop the garlic. You can use more if you are trying to ward off vampires, or if you're my friend Anna. I would use more next time, for sure.
3. Place the squash, garlic, flour and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl, and stir it all together.
4. Oil the bottom and sides of a large roasting pan. The biggest you can find. Then dump the squash mixture into the pan and pour the olive oil over the top. You can use more oil if you're not watching your girlish figure. It's good with more.
5. Bake/roast for 2 + hours, until the squash is golden brown all over.
6. Serve. Don't expect leftovers, but if you can't eat it all in one sitting, it's very, very good hotted up the next day too.

Feather Bed Eggs

We stayed at the Argyle House on Saturday night, and even though I was terribly hung-over (possibly still drunk?) on Sunday morning, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Well, the boys did; I enjoyed the fruit and a bite of the eggs, but it was a bit much for me. It was so good though, that I had to find a recipe so I can duplicate it here at home, and try it sober next time.

Feather Bed Eggs
* 4 Slices Thick Cut French-Toast Bread
* 1 1/2 cups Grated Pepper-Jack Cheeese
* 1 1/2 cups Whole Milk
* 6 Large Eggs
* To Taste Black Pepper, Oregano (I'd start with about a teaspoon of dried)
* 1/2 t. Mustard Powder
* Butter

1. Butter 4 small ramekins. Butter one side of bread, and place a single slice with buttered side up in each ramekin. Generously pepper each slice of bread and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of cheese. Beat milk with eggs and add oregano and mustard. Pour over the cheese and bread in the ramekins. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. In the morning uncover and place in a cold oven. Set to 350° and bake for 30-40 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove from ramekin and serve immediately.

By the way, the wedding was beautiful. I didn't cry, but it was hard work not to. Tonight, I'll sit down and tell you all about it.

Meditation, with Blueberries, a Photo Essay

My (then soon to be) father-in-law got me a cookbook called "Cookies: a Cookie Lover's Collection" for Christmas in 1996, 6 months before I got married. The inscription says "To Kathi on Christmas 1996, Just a bit of sweetness from a crusty old man to a great daughter. Hope this will stand you in good stead throughout the years trying to keep that hubby of yours satiated. Love, Dave" I haven't yet cooked through the book in its entirety, but I am slowly progressing and would say I've baked at least half the recipes. I have other ways of keeping Lawnboy satiated, but nobody wants to hear about that. I'm just saying that I haven't applied myself to making all the recipes because we've been...busy.

Um, where was I? Yes, the cookies.

Today, our blueberries needed harvesting. I was trying not to make muffins with them, because a)the blueberries are delicious raw, and b)seriously, who needs another muffin? I'm partial to cupcakes. Then Lawnboy and I had a conversation about cheap desserts, and I thought I should bake some cookies. Lo and behold, a recipe for Blueberry Lemon Drops beckoned me and I was able to check one more recipe off the list! I documented the whole thing in photographs for your viewing pleasure. These cookies are quite delicious, nice and tangy with fresh bursts of berries. You should bake them, I mean it.

Blueberry Lemon Drops

2 c. all-purpose flour, + 1 tablespoon for berries
1 c. fresh blueberries
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 1/2 t. freshly grated lemon peel
1 T. fresh lemon juice (don't cheat here, or you'll regret it)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
Oven: 375 degrees

First, go pick about a cup of blueberries. Alternatively, acquire them from your local organic berry farmer. Then, when you get them into your kitchen, stick them into a small, cereal-sized bowl and cover them with about a tablespoon of flour.


Now, go zest your lemon, like this.




And juice it. You can strain the seeds later.


Now you can stick your butter, the sugar, the egg, the lemon peel and juice into your mixing bowl. See?


Beat all that on medium speed for a few minutes, until everything is smooth, light and fluffy.
Not there yet:


Ahhh, here we are!


Now you're ready to add your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Just dump it right in, like so.


At this piont, stir it all together on low JUST until the flour is all mixed in, and it forms a little ball in the middle. Not too much, now, or you'll make them tough. We wouldn't want that.


Now you can take a rubber spatula and very gently fold in your blueberries, trying very hard not to break them up, but also trying to distribute them evenly throughout the dough. It's a delicate balance, but you can do it.


It should end up looking like this. Can you tell that most of the berries are still whole, and they're pretty evenly spaced in the dough?


Now you're ready to plop them onto your greased baking sheet or your preheated baking stone. I used both, but I like how they turned out on the stone. The well loved, messy-looking stone.


You might be wondering how I was able to get to this point uninterrupted. I cheated. Yogurt, pretzels and a high chair.



All that's left is to put them into your hot oven for 12 minutes, take them out, and let them cool down on the racks. I highly recommend cooking each batch a slightly different length of time, because sometimes it's nice to have a darker, well-done cookie, and sometimes you want a squishy, light one. Note we have both. Also note how much effort it took to keep our dirty mitts off these cookies until I could get a picture of the full racks. Man, the willpower in this house is amazing. Especially when I'm standing by the rack with a hot spatula in my hand.



The cookbook said this would make 2 dozen cookies. I'm stingy and make small cookies, I guess, because I got 6 extra cookies out of this batch.

See how easy that was? For goodness sake, what are you waiting for? Go eat!