Butternut Squash Puree

I made this in the middle of my tamale making adventure, while I was waiting for the chicken stock to cook and the corn husks to soften. I bought a butternut squash almost two weeks ago on a whim and kept putting off doing anything with it.

I got this recipe off of The Pioneer Woman blog. It couldn't be simpler. She took about a million really beautiful pictures, and I don't even want to try to compete with them, so you will have to check out her site if you want a visual on this.

Basically. Cut a butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds and membranes. Place the halves, cut side down on a baking sheet with about an inch of water. Bake for about 30 minutes (until soft when pierced with a fork) at 350º F.

Scoop the softened flesh out of the skin into a bowl with half a stick of butter, cut into pieces. Mash up and add 2-4 tablespoons maple syrup. Put the whole mess in the blender and puree until smooth. Voila Deliciousness! This can easily be cooled, refrigerated and reheated over the next couple of days.

Day Fourteen & Squash Blossoms

Breakfast: Polenta, fried with onions and an egg, overeasy.

Lunch: The last of the tabouleh and grapes.

Snacks: A handful of peanuts (Now they are gone), part of a piece of Irish Brown Bread. (I think it's gone bad.) A glass of Just Cranberry Juice Ingreidents: Filtered Water and Cranberry Juice Concentrate

Appetizer: I harvested the last of the bounty of the Summer planting from my community garden. I had one pumpkin, a couple of squash and a bunch of new squash blossoms because of the rain. I was sad to pull everything out, but it is time to move into fall. Also, I was excited to try cooking the squash blossoms, as I have never cooked flowers before. EM, who is my gardening partner came over after we spent a couple of therapeutic hours amending and tilling our soil (hacking at it with a hoe, and tossing dried blood and compost everywhere) for the next planting this weekend. We brought the blossoms home, cleaned them, stuffed them with the Queso Blanco cheese that I made a couple days ago, mixed with grated Goat's Milk Cheddar that I had lying around and chopped basil from my the plant on my porch, dredged them in egg and flour and fried them in oil. They were delicious. My brother MW said that he was going to brag about them to George at work who is always talking about the good food he is eating.

Dinner: After the squash blossoms we had some Quinoa with onion, red pepper, tomato and chicken. Since that was not quite filling enough and we felt wasteful not putting the huge amount of oil used in frying the blossoms, DR fried up the leftover polenta, some onions and red peppers that were about to go bad. It made for a pretty tasty little meal. For dessert we finally finished the Chocolate Chip Cookies that have been plagueing me since the project began, thanks to EM & MW for their help.