Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 whole butternut squash
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 large onion
• 1/4 cup chopped cooked ham (optional)
• 1 clove garlic
• few sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 fresh sage leaves
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 qt chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup half and half

Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Place cut-side down and bake in a 400°F oven for 1 hour or until tender.  Cool enough to handle.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onion and ham, then add the garlic, thyme, sage, and red pepper flakes.  Scoop the flesh of the squash into the pot and saute for a few minutes.  Season with salt and pepper then add the stock.

Simmer for 20 minutes, then puree the soup in a food processor or blender in batches.  Add the soup back to the pot and stir in the half and half.  Heat through and serve hot with your choice of toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, crackers or croutons.

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Butternut Squash Pi: Updated!

Pi Day is celebrated on 3/14 (get it… 3.14???) .  We’ll celebrate this year on Friday, March 13, at school.  The math department has special events planned, including a Pi memorization contest where students compete to see who can memorize the most digits, and a Pi(e) baking contest.  So what am I entering? You guessed it! My Butternut Squash Pie.

I have high hopes, I admit it.  Afterall, this pie is a winner!

It won IB Mommy’s Piesadential Debate.

It won Green Bean first prize for pumpkin pies at her son’s school.

The Crunchy Domestic Goddess tried it with a spelt crust and liked it.  (Um, I don’t know what “spelt” is, but I’m assuming it’s healthy.)

This pie won me a “Best In Show” at the Guilford Fair last fall.

And Diane Gardner, a local author, has asked if she can put it in her latest What’s Cooking? book.  I’m flattered!

Nonetheless, I’m nervous.  This pie has humble beginnings.  After all, I forgot to add the sugar the first time I entered it in the Guilford Fair, which resulted in quite a bit of embarrassment and somehow won me a pink ribbon for Honorable Mention, which I still don’t understand.

No matter what happens, the best part is that I made one for us to keep at home, too!

Update! My Pi(e) came in first place! I wasn’t supposed to find out until the end of the day, but one of my students dropped by at lunch time and filled me in, making sure to tell me how much he loved the butternut squash pie.  Yay!

Butternut Squash (or Pumpkin) Cheesecake

Last year, I had a piece of pumpkin cheesecake for the first time, and it was delicious! It got me thinking, if butternut squash pie is so good, I bet I could make a fabulous butternut squash cheesecake! I searched and found a bunch of pumpkin cheesecake recipes, then modified them, added a ginger snap crust instead of a graham cracker crust, and added extra spice.  There was a lot of discussion about how to keep the cheesecake from cracking.  My reaction: Get over it! It will taste good if it cracks anyway, so stop stressing.  My mom’s famous, delicious cheesecake that she makes for every holiday always cracks, but she tops it with cherries, blueberries or raspberries and everyone loves it.

The only drawback that I see to this recipe is that you have to use a food processor to crush the cookies (although you could do that in a big plastic bag with a rolling pin) and puree the squash, and then use the stand mixer to make the filling.  But for something that I’ll only make once or twice a year, I guess the energy is worth it.

Butternut Squash Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

For the crust

• 1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (use the food processor to make them)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then press into the bottom of a 9″ spring-form pan.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

For the filling

• 4 packages cream cheese (8 oz.), room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup butternut squash puree (if you want, substitute with pumpkin or any other winter squash)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 large eggs, room temperature

Beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed in a stand mixer until smooth.  Blend in flour.  Add squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt and beat until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time.  Pour into crust and smooth out the top.  Reduce heat to 300°F and bake 60 minutes.  Turn off the oven and let cool for 1 hour in the oven.  Then transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 4 hours.  To serve, remove the sides from the pan, slice and garnish with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cider Gravy and Twice-Baked Butternut Squash

It’s no secret that I love to have apples with pork.  Every time I make pork chops, cutlets, or a roast, I always make fresh applesauce to go along with it, or I serve some of my home canned applesauce in a pinch.  But when I heard someone on TV making apple cider gravy, the wheels started to turn. 

Apple cider is a part of my heritage.  Actually, it’s funny that growing up I didn’t like apple cider that much.  We’d have it all the time in the fall and I’d get sick of it.  The same was true of maple syrup: when we were making it in March, I didn’t like it.  Now, I really enjoy both cider and syrup, and when I have them, it reminds me of my childhood.  My brothers and I were very little when we started helping my dad make apple cider (and tap trees, too).  I remember how loud the machines were.  We’d take big bins of apples and were always proud to say there were no “drops” (apples that fell off the tree onto the ground) in our cider.  First, the apples would be pressed to remove the juice, then my dad would take the pumice (the skins, seeds, and other pulp leftover) and either dump it in the woods or give it to my uncle to feed his cows.  It was our job to help bottle the cider.  We’d put a clean, new bottle under the spout and fill it, then remove it, put the cap on, and put it in a big wooden bin.  By the end of the day, we were all sticky with cider, bees were everywhere, and we’d help to hose off all the bottles.  When they dried, my dad would drive the forklift down the hill to the farm market and we’d stock the shelves of the cooler with the fresh cider.  Back then, our cider was always unpasteurized.  However, about 10 years ago, there were a few scares when people got E. coli from unpasteurized cider, but not from our farm.  Since we didn’t use apples that fell on the ground, they weren’t exposed to the animal waste on the ground that carries E. coli.  None the less, our customers got scared of unpasteurized cider, and we bought a big machine to pasteurize it.  While pasteurized cider will keep longer, it just doesn’t taste the same to me and to many other folks who are used to the traditional raw cider.  Now, it’s been years since I helped make cider, but every time I drink it I think of noisy machines, being sticky, and bees.

Garlic Pork Tenderloin

• 1 pork tenderloin
• 1 clove garlic, sliced into slivers
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Make tiny cuts all over the pork tenderloin and push the garlic slivers into them.  Rub the oil onto the tenderloin and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes or until cooked through.  Cover with foil and let rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.  Top with the apple cider gravy.

Apple Cider Gravy

• 2 Tbsp butter or roast drippings
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then mix in the flour.  Stir in the cider and chicken stock and simmer until thickened.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Twice-Baked Butternut Squash

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Split a butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds and bake cut side down on a baking sheet for 1 hour at 350°F.  Scoop out the pulp, combine with bread crumbs, cheese, and season to taste.  Put the filling back in the shell and bake for 20 minutes until the filling is lightly browned.

Best in Show!

Not only did my butternut squash pie win a blue ribbon in the “Miscellaneous” pie category, it won the rosette for BEST IN SHOW for pies.  The apple pie didn’t win anything, but that’s okay.  The rosette makes up for it!

My family’s fruit display also won BEST IN SHOW! We got a rosette and trophy! Yay!

Butternut Squash Pie

Finally! This is the recipe I’ve been waiting to post since I began Farmer’s Daughter.  I’ve been making this pie for about 6 or 7 years, and I feel like it’s my best recipe.  My Great-Grandma Rose always made her pumpkin pie with butternut squash, saying it made a better pie.  So, I tried this recipe from my Fannie Farmer cookbook (incidentally, my grandmother Mema gave me that cookbook when I moved into my little apartment over my parents’ garage).  I modified and left things out, like mace (I don’t know what that is and didn’t have any, so I skipped it), and brandy (because, hello! I don’t drink, so I don’t have brandy hanging around the house).

Now my Butternut Squash Pie is made extra special by the fact that we grew the butternut squash this year! I only got two before the bugs destroyed the plants, so the pie is the best way to use them!

Butternut Squash Pie

Split 1 butternut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and remove the stem.  Place squash cut side down on a baking pan and bake at 375°F for about 1 hour, until soft.  Allow to cool, then scoop pulp into a food processor and puree.  You’ll have more than you need for a pie, so you can make a couple of pies or sprinkle the remainder with cinnamon and butter and serve as a side dish.  Or save the extra for more baking, like butternut squash bread.

• 1 cup squash puree
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 beaten eggs
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pie dough for one 9-10″ crust

Preheat oven to 425°F.  Line a pie pan with the dough and crimp the edges.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl with a whisk until smooth.  Pour into the pie crust and bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 300 and bake for 50-60 more minutes until the filling is slightly puffed and the bottom crust is golden brown.  I use a glass baking dish so I can monitor the crust, and if it’s not browning nicely you can put it on the bottom rack of the oven for 10 minutes.  Let the pie cool completely so the filling will set before you cut it.  I think it tastes even better on the second day when it’s cold from the fridge.

One more funny story before this post is over…  A few years back I decided to enter this pie in the Guilford Fair, since everyone who tries it loves it.  I made two, so I could enter one and keep one for us.  We dropped one pie off at the fair, and then later that night I cut slices of our pie for Ed and myself.  Ed tried his first and said “Ab, it’s really bad.”  I laughed, thinking he was kidding.  He wasn’t kidding.  I tried a little bit and knew immediately that I had forgotten to add the sugar! I was upset that my pie wouldn’t do well in the competition, but I was more upset because I had been looking forward to eating it! When we went to the fair, I was completely shocked to see that my pie won Honorable Mention.  Don’t ask how, but the judges must have been sympathetic.  This year, I’m going to enter my Butternut Squash Pie again, with the sugar, and we’ll see how it does!

Update- This pie won Best In Show at the Guilford Fair in 2008!