Author name: Angela Baker

I roasted a Butternut Squash one morning this week in order to make flax-seed meal squash bread (tastes much better than it sounds!).  It was doubly nice, because it  warmed the chilly house and the smell of roasting squash was so yummy. 

The bread only takes 1 3/4 cup squash, so i had quite a bit leftover.  My mom had told me how much she and dad liked the butternut squash gnocchi recipe from a recent issue of our favorite magazine (below).  So, I thought I’d give it a try. 

 

The gnocchi were easy to make (and less fiddly than Martha’s recipe).  Firecracker and I whipped up a batch really quickly (while Tum-Tum slept and Little Hen did watercolor painting).  We made a little bit of a floury mess, but the results were delicious!  I made it a one-dish vegetarian meal by serving the gnocchi with sauteed shallots, walnuts, and peas – all tossed in melted butter and loads of fresh-grated parmesean.

Others who are enjoying the squashy goodness of fall – Soule Mama…you?  If you’re loving the abundance of squash this fall and have a good recipe, please share it!  I am always looking for recipes to use up the pile of winter squash under my kitchen table!

Edit – A couple of folks requested the recipe.  Here it is:

2 cups roasted butternut squash (or check out Sunset’s website for info on microwaving a squash)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp each white pepper and nutmeg

3- 3 1/2 C unbleached flour

3 tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

freshly ground black pepper

Directions: Combine squash, salt, pepper, nutmeg.  Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time, until soft dough forms.  Turn out and knead 10-12 times, adding more flour if it’s too sticky. 

Divide dough in 4 pieces, and roll each out into 3/4 inch thick rope.  Cut into 1/2 inch slices, and set aside on a floured baking sheet.

Heat a pot of salted water to a boil.  Boil gnocchi until they float to the surface (about 4 minutes), and then cook another 30 seconds.  Remove from the water and toss with melted butter, cheese and black pepper [Here is where I added the sauteed shallots and walnuts. I blanched the peas in the cooking water, and added them as well – maybe two handfuls of peas and one handful of nuts.]

This recipe is copyright Sunset Magazine 2008.

Earlier this week, I got around to making my Caramel Spice Pear Butter with some of the pears from our Hood River trip.  I’ve been fiddling with the recipe for years, and think i finally got it perfect this year – the right balance of homemade caramel, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.  One batch uses 22 pears, so our stash is significantly reduced.  The rest will be eaten fresh, go into vanilla pear pie or pear-gingerbread cake (This recipe is so scrumptious, and I make it for Thanksgiving especially, but can’t take the credit for it, it’s all Martha) .

 

I love the luminosity of pear butter.  It has a glow that you don’t get from apple butter.  Not to mention the wonderfully slightly grainy texture that I like so much.  As soon as we’d finished canning the jars and they cooled, we popped one open and had gobs on fresh banana bread.   It’s also delicious between gingersnaps, on pumpkin bread, or to glaze a roast chicken or pork roast. 

Hope you have a peaceful, blessed Sunday.

Two friends recently had babies (both big healthy boys 9lb 9oz, and 10 lb 14 oz!) and I signed up to bring them dinners.  Wednesday was a marathon of baking – black bean and carrot stew with brown rice for both, beer bread and ginger chew cookies with plum jam filling for one family, and olive oil bread and apple crumble pie for the other (one family had an egg allergy, so i had to make no-egg bread and dessert for them)

 I forgot to soak the beans overnight, so I did a quick soak at 8 am, and was cooking all day until i left to deliver dinners at 5:15pm!  Needless to say, the next night I made spaghetti, opened a jar of homemade sauce, and a jar of homemade applesauce, and that was dinner!

SouleMama,  Domesticali, Big and Little, Little Faces Looking Up, Rose Garden, Smitten Kitchen, PleasantViewSchoolhouse, and Red Dirt Mother have also been baking yummy things with apples recently. In case you’d like it, here’s my apple pie recipe (makes two 8-inch pies):

Angelas Apple Crumble Pie

2 crust pie dough, rolled out, and put in the pie tins, and returned to the fridge to chill. (I use 2 cups flour, 2/3 cups lard, 1tsp salt, and enough ice water to make a nice dough.  You could use butter or shortening to make it veggie or vegan, respectively, but lard makes the flakiest, best crust)

10 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar (if apples are less tart, you can reduce this amount)

for the crumble:

1 cup oats

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg (I use Penzey’s East Indian, which is quite strong, so you may want more if you use another brand)

1/8 tsp cloves, ground

1 stick butter, cold, and cut into small cubes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Toss the apples with the 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar.  Set aside.  In a medium size bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, spices, and butter, using hands to cut the butter into the mixture until small pea sized pieces.

Divide the apples in half, putting half into each pie shell. Next, divide the crumble mixture in half and packed into the top of each pie. Bake in preheated oven until top is browned and apples are soft, about 40-50 minutes (you may need to cover the crumble with foil at the end to prevent over-browning.)