Twice Baked Butternut Squash

Do you ever have foods that you wish you liked more than you do? I feel that way about winter squash. Almost every year, at least once I get totally sucked into the total Autumn festive-ness that is the winter squash table in the produce isle. They are colorful and comprise all kinds of fun shapes and textures and just seem to embody everything that I love about fall! And so I promptly forget that I don't really care for them, buy a couple and then inevitably it goes like this: I cook up the first one with all kinds of excitement, feel disappointed after the first bite, wonder how in the world I can dislike something that looks so darn pretty and then struggle through the leftovers.

This is precisely what happened a week or two ago when my weekly grocery trip landed me with an acorn squash and butternut squash. The acorn squash is the prettier one so I cooked it first. (Do you see how my mind works???) I just roasted it in the oven and ate it with a little butter and salt and pepper. It was "okay." I think I still have some of it in a tupperware on the bottom shelf of my fridge. Since the acorn squash was a little anti-climatic, that poor, plain butternut squash has been hanging out by itself for a couple weeks in my produce basket.

Yesterday, being my day off, left me feeling inspired to cook something nice for dinner for my sweetheart and I. He is not a picky eater and likes to be adventurous once in a while, so he is a good person to try out new recipes on. I looked online for some ideas on what to do with that butternut squash and low and behold, found an idea that looked fun on the Martha Stewart website. It turned out really good. Jeff approved and proceeded to eat 3/4 of that squash all by himself (and it was a big butternut!)

The original recipe was for 6 squash! I only prepared one. I will put the original quantities below. Just cut back accordingly on the proportions depending on how many you do.

Twice-Baked Butternut Squash


6 butternut squash (or about 9 lbs)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon nonfat sour cream (I used the dairy-free Tofutti brand, which substitutes beautifully)
2 tsp paprika
6 fresh chives, cut into 1/8-inch pieces
3 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs, lightly toasted (Used gluten-free ones and they worked great)

- Heat oven to 450 degrees with the rack in center. Cut the squash in 1/2 lengthwise, remove seeds and fibers and sprinkle with a little of the salt and pepper. Fill a roasting pan with 1/4 inch of water and place the squash in, flesh side up. Cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the flesh is tender.
- Reduce oven heat to 425 degrees.
- Remove the squash and cool until you can handle it. Scoop out the flesh, leaving about 1/4 inch with the skin so it will hold its shape.
- In a bowl, combine the flesh and all remaining ingredients except the breadcrumbs with a hand mixer or potato masher so that it is smooth and creamy. Spoon the filling back into the squash skins, top with breadcrumbs and bake for another 20-30 minutes until heated through and slightly browned on top.

For my seasonings, I used my Penzey's Smoked Paprika and added in a little chipotle seasoning. So my dish was a little bit spicy. If I could eat it, I might have added in a little parmesan cheese to the breadcrumbs on top. This would also be really delicious if you were to make it sweet instead of savory and mix in some cinnamon and nutmeg and a little brown sugar with maybe some toasted walnuts on top. Yum!

I have actually found my first squash dish that I will definitely make again and that makes me happy. I hope you enjoy it!

Celebrations!

Quite a few years ago, right after college, I read Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster. Although I liked the book, I remember very little of it except that the last chapter was about the discipline of corporate celebration. That chapter stayed with me more than any other in the book because it took me by such surprise. Celebration isn't what I had expected to learn about after working up the nerve to read about about the spiritual disciplines!

I was thinking about that chapter earlier this week as I was able to join one of my closest friends and her husband and a large group of people to celebrate the adoption of their new son, Simon Theodore. I can think of few things more worthy of a wild celebration than the gift of a child. And this child in particular has quite a story, as do his new parents. It has been a privilege for me to get to share in a little part of their journey over the last several years.

AND... I got to make dessert for the party! I re-arranged my work schedule and took off a 1/2 day of work to bury myself in flour and buttermilk and lemon zest and Rice Crispies and Hershey's Special Dark Baking Cocoa. I borrowed my old roommate's standing Kitchen Aid Mixer, which we used to affectionately call, "The She-Beast" because of its weight and awesome mixing power! The She-Beast and I cranked out a chocolate cake, a carrot cake, lemon-vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, plain vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and last of all, because the food theme was "kid foods," some Rice Cripsy Treats. Whew!

(And I am feeling quite proud to say that this bounty of desserts was all produced in my tiny little 6'x8' kitchen!)

Here are a few pics...

Before:




After:




My dear friend, the star of the show, and me:

Russian Tea

I really think that one of the sweetest blessings in my life are my girlfriends! The Lord has truly blessed me with some remarkable women to share life with. This afternoon a couple ladies from my office came over for tea. We ate fun, girly foods and drank tea and chattered away for a couple of hours. I was struck by what a precious thing it is to work with ladies like these. They love the Lord and approach life and work with open hearts and speak truth and encouragement to me on a weekly basis. I've been feeling a little overwhelmed this afternoon, to the point of weepiness, with how rich my life is because of the women, inside work and out, who share it with me.



Sigh... Dash away a couple stray tears... Enough of being sentimental! Lets talk tea!

A friend shared this recipe on her blog and I thought it would be fun to try it out this afternoon for our little tea party. Aside from the fact that it made my house smell wonderful, it tasted AMAZING! Enough so that I went back out to the store tonight to get some decaffeinated black tea so that I can make another batch this evening.

At first sip, the tea tastes like a good, spicy apple cider, but if you pay more attention to it, the predominate flavor is actually pineapple, which is fun. Here you go :

Russian Tea

5 1/2 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tsp whole cloves
3/4 cup sugar
5 black tea bags
Juice from 2 oranges
Juice from 1 lemon
1 - 6oz can pineapple juice

- Boil water, cinnamon, cloves and sugar for 1 minute.
- Add tea bags and steep, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Strain out spices from tea and add juices.
- Serve hot or cold.

(If you want, you can keep the strained spices and citrus peel and simmer them in some water to make your kitchen smell lovely for the rest of the afternoon!)

That's all. Hope you all have a lovely week!

Beefy Chili Stew Yumminess...

Recently I have noticed several gourmet spice shops popping up around town. Other than perhaps the cool kitchen gadget stores, few establishments make me happier than a good spice shop! I could spend an hour just walking around and sniffing jars and daydreaming about my kitchen. The cool thing with most of these stores is that you can buy most of the spices in really small quantities, which makes it fairly inexpensive to try stuff out.

I "just happened" to be driving by Penzey's Spice Shop late Saturday afternoon and somehow 4 little 1 oz jars of Chipotle Powder, Ancho Chili Powder, Adobo Seasoning and Smoked Spanish Paprika hopped into my purse on the way out (paid for of course!!) Just a few days before I had dog-eared a chili recipe on the Cooking Light website that caught my attention because it uses beef stew meat instead of ground beef and I liked the sound of that.

So... Monday morning I set out to take my spices for a test drive and give this new recipe a whirl! HERE is a link to the actual recipe as posted on the Cooking Light website.

However, I ended up making a bunch of changes to the seasonings and I improvised on a few ingredients so below is a recipe that I almost feel like I can call my own.

Jenny's Beefy Chili Stew
(Using the word "beefy" makes me giggle... Don't ask me why)

1 1/2 tsp canola oil, divided
1 1/2 - 2lbs pounds beef stew meat (depending on how beefy you want it)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped, roasted anaheim peppers (I had these in my freezer from the farmer's market and they were awesome! You could replace with chopped bell pepper or some kind of canned pepper)
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
2/3 cup cabernet sauvignon or dry red wine
1 1/2 T brown sugar
2 T tomato paste
3/4 tsp ancho chili powder
1 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 tsp adobo seasoning
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp fresh, chopped oregano
1 - 28 oz can whole tomatoes, in juice, roughly chopped
1 - 15 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 - 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 - 15oz can sweet corn, rinsed and drained
Salt to taste

(** I know that looks like a lot of ingredients, but the whole thing came together pretty fast)

- Add canola oil to a hot pan and brown the stew meat. Toss into the crock pot.
- Add onion (and bell pepper if using) to the pan. Saute 3 minutes. Add minced garlic and saute another minute.
- Add wine to the pan and scrape up any of the browned bits.
- While it simmers gently, add the next 9 ingredients (through the oregano) and mix.
- Pour over the stew meat in the crock pot and then add the remaining ingredients.
- Cook on high for approximately 4 hours or until meat is tender.
- Garnish with chives, cheddar cheese, sour cream, Fritos (if you are my dad!), etc.

And if you are interested, I learned a few new facts about the spices I bought thanks to an extremely knowledgeable clerk:
Ancho Chili Powder - Ground, dried Poblano chilis, ranges 3-5 out of 10 on a heat scale
Chipotle Chili Powder - Ground, smoked, dried Jalapeno chilis, about a 6.5 out of 10 on a heat scale
Adobo Seasoning - Typically consists of garlic, onion, black pepper, oregano, cumin and cayenne

Enjoy!

My Little Pumpkins...

My sister posted these yesterday from their trip to the pumpkin patch... Makes my heart ache because I can't be there for stuff like this. But are they just the cutest little pumpkins you've ever seen or what??

These sweet faces make me so happy!






I have a new chili recipe simmering away in the crock pot as we speak. Hoping to get it on here in the new few days if it turns out good!

Happy 1st day of November!