Roasted Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is a wonderful vegetable, and I would love to see everyone use it more.  Many people think of it as a sweet food, but I prefer it to be savory.  My favorite way to prepare it is to roast it.  I then eat it in a pasta dish or in a pot pie type dish

Winter squashes include Butternut Squash, Hubbard Squash, and others with a thick skin.  They are called "winter squash" not because they grow in the winter but because they store well for eating during the winter.  You can use any winter squash for this recipe.  Summer squashes are yellow squash and zucchini, etc.

In Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Laura writes of her ma cutting Hubbard squash into chunks with an ax!  I've never had to resort to that with Butternut.  :)

The easiest way I have found to peel butternut is to just use a good vegetable peeler and peel the squash before you cook it.  Then using a good sharp knife, cut off the ends and cut the whole thing in half lengthwise and then into about 1 inch pieces.  Butternut squash is not easy to cut at first.  If you can cut it into chunks that are shorter than your knife, it goes easier.  Oh, do scoop out the seeds and pulp first!

Preheat the oven to around 425.  (You can use a lower temperature if you're cooking something else.  Just cook longer.)

In a bowl toss with a little olive oil and rosemary, salt and pepper, and garlic.  You can use any other savory spices that sound good to you.

Place on a big sheet pan and cook until the edges are brown and the pieces are fork tender.  This will take around 30 - 45 minutes.  You want the edges to be browned.  That brown stuff is caramelization and is what makes roasted vegetables so good.

Using a wide spatula, take up the cooked squash and place in a big bowl.  I love to then add a bit of broth (chicken or vegetable) or water to the pan to get up the brown bits and let it reduce to make it a little saucy.  Pour this reduced liquid into the bowl with the squash.

My favorite way to eat this is over wide noodles or bow tie pasta with blue cheese on top!  A cheddar cheese will work just as well.  If you eat this with pasta, mix the cooked pasta into the bowl and mix together before serving.  

Add some crusty bread and you have a feast!

Easy Bread!

Do you love fresh bread?  Fresh baked pizza?  But, like me, you are tired at the end of the day, and you feel you don't have the time or the energy to make your own dough. Or maybe you want to eat whole grain, but you've found that things like 100% whole wheat pizza dough is hard to come by. Here is the easiest way I have found to have great bread, to make it cheaply, and to know exactly what is in it because I put it there myself. Yes, I have a bread machine. It is in the closet. Why would I get it out when I can have great crusty, yummy whole wheat bread every day with 5 minutes of work? Here's the recipe. I'll be posting other things to do with it as I can. For now, love the crusty bread!

Master No-Knead Bread Recipe

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 TBL yeast

1 1/2 TBL salt

6 1/2 cups flour – I use whole wheat.*

(You can double this if you want to 13-6-3-3 --which is easy to remember)

Note: I like King Arthur whole wheat best, and I also enjoy their white unbleached whole wheat flour made from white wheat. So far, it is my favorite whole wheat flour. I also like King Arthur because they are employee owned. (They are not paying me to say this.)

dough after it has risen in the fridge-
Note the fancy pie tin top. 

I mix this up in a big plastic container. (I usually have to add more water especially if I use King Arthur.) Stir it with a big wooden spoon until everything is moistened. It will make a very wet dough. Put a loose lid on it. Because it has to be abIe to let gases out, you can't use a tight fitting lid. (I put plastic wrap on and lay a tin pie plate on top because it fits my container perfectly, but for a couple of years I put plastic wrap across it and fastened it with a giant blue rubber band.  When I lost the rubber band and had to find another solution.) Put it in the fridge and leave it for at least 3 hours. It will rise beautifully. When you get ready to use some, just put flour on something (I use the smooth back of a plastic cutting board) and pull or cut some out and knead the flour in a bit until it is smooth and not so sticky. It will last for about 2 weeks.

To make bread, make it into a ball and put it in a skillet or on a pizza stone and let it rise in a warm place at least 30 min. If it hasn't risen any, find some place a little warmer and wait. It will be worth it. Put a little dish of water in the oven while you heat the it to about 425 if it's very thin and maybe 385 if it's thicker. When you put the dough in the hot oven, spray some water on the sides of the oven also.

Sometimes, because I like lots of crunchy crust and not so much middle, I make a thinner bread in a skillet. After I have worked the dough a bit, I put olive oil on the bottom of the skillet , pat the dough out, flip it over and cook it at maybe 450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. As soon as it comes out of the oven, loosen the bottom and prop it up with a butter knife or something that will hold it off the pan so it doesn't get soggy as it cools. I've found that a medium sized skillet is perfect for 2 people. A big skillet would be great for 4.

If you want, you can knead in black pepper and rosemary and sprinkle coarse salt on top. If I have them, I put raw sesame seeds on top.

You can use this master recipe for any kind of bread.  I most often use it to make pizza - on of my favorite food groups!

For a sourdough type flavor, when your dough gets low, just make the new batch on top of it and stir in the leftovers along with the scrapings from the side. It just adds good yeast!

I got this from Mother Earth News several years ago and it has improved my life! 

By the way, in the fridge the top of the dough will have some oxidation and turn gray. It's still fine.  The dough will be good for at least 2 weeks. 

*If you prefer the lightness of white flour then just swap it. I am using whole wheat because it is better for us.

Roasted Vegetables -- Oh My!

For roasted vegetables cut up whatever you have. It could be zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, eggplant, potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash (or any other winter squash), carrots, okra, radishes, onions, whole cherry tomatoes, whole garlic cloves... If it's a hard vegetable like potatoes or carrots, I like to parboil them a bit before the next step. It helps them cook more quickly and they seem to taste a little better.


Next, put them in a mixing bowl and spoon some of your Missy's Special Herb Mixture  on it. Toss it or stir it around. Tossing is way more fun and makes people think you know what you're doing.

Add more herb mixture if you need to. I then add salt, pepper, cumin, ginger, liberal amounts of garlic powder and turmeric, maybe some chilli powder. Really just use whatever you want to try. If you don't have any of the “special herb stuff,” then make sure you add chopped rosemary to the other spices. Toss or mix it up again then put on a baking sheet. I like to prepare each veg separately so I can pull something out if it gets ready before the others. I do put the cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves throughout so they will almost melt into everything else.

If all you have is
salt and pepper, then use just that!

If you use okra, keep them whole or cut them in big or little pieces; all ways will work, but make sure you add it late because okra cooks more quickly than the others.
Cook in your oven at about 425 until things start to brown. You might as well cook two pans worth if you can so you'll have leftovers – maybe. Easy!