Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lazy Saturday Blogging

So far the weekend started out swimmingly with a nice dinner last night and a package in the mail. I am going to share my modified version of this recipe because it was delicious and the boys ate it with gusto. I am beyond exited about that as getting veg into their mouths has been a trial of late. The recipe uses butternut squash, but i am going to substitute many different types over the next few weeks and see how it goes.
butternut squash pasta

For my version I steamed the squash a few days before and stored it in the fridge (such a lovely quick snack for Mama, the squash chunks are awesome cold or hot). Yesterday I pulled them out, in a medium saucepan heated up some olive oil and added a head of garlic (cause I am crazy like that) and a handful of dried herbs (basil and oregano, we are out of sage). Once the garlic was soft I added the squash and sauteed until the squash was heated through, then added the called for cup of Half and Half and some salt and pepper. I used our immersion blender to puree the sauce (one less pan) and added the pasta water to thin the resulting lovely, but thick sauce. (Oh, yeah, put on a pot of water for the pasta before you start the whole sauce making). We mixed the pasta into the sauce and ate it like Mac n Cheese, but I added some fresh shredded spinach for a little bit of 'healthy'. I watched with approval as the boys ate a whole plate. And the adults enjoyed it too. It is a great use of season veg, try it tonight, why don't you?

The package was a little early birthday present from Tim (well, Etsy, but from Tim, you know). I found a great fabric seller and scored a healthy amount of fat quarters and half yards from Heather Ross.
fabric is good
I have come to covet the fabric, but try not to look too often as I cannot resist buying when I do find her whimsical prints. These were a great deal and I am itching to go look at more, but I refrain. I have yet to use the lot that I do have, it feels almost sacrilegious to cut into them.
eye candy
I am so weird with certain things like that. It will all become something one of these days, until then they can be my latest eye candy (and the cotton is so so soft).

Now, off to drink my tea and to do a few other bits. Have you ever tried these teas?
tea
I am finding them a godsend during this dry, windy Santa Ana month. It is the only time of year I have 'allergies' but these teas usually do the trick.

8 comments:

Sereknitty said...

Lovely fabrics! I hadn't heard about those teas, but will definitely put them on my list.

LauraC said...

Thanks for the recipe... I've got some acorn squash and (always) extra zucchini from our CSA and this looks perfect. I've been converting all my mom's recipes over to Tastebook to surprise her for Christmas and it is blowing me away how many zucchini cake and zucchini cookie recipes there are... now I know why!

cinnamongirl said...

Pretty fabric! And, I am going to try that recipe. It looks great!

spajonas said...

mmmm, that recipe sounds amazing! yum!

Maggie May said...

oh my gawd those fabrics are drool worthy!!!! what are you going to do with them?

The Adventures of Carrie, Brook, Finn and Reid said...

I wish I could see the photos, but I'm at work, so I can only comment on the delicious-sounding recipe! MMMMMMMM.....

We are getting butternut squash in our CSA box this week, so I can't wait to try out this recipe. I make a butternut squash lasagna, which sounds very similar to this...bachemel (sp?) sauce, layering with the squash, sage, etc. This sounds amazing though and now that my kids like pasta!!!!!! (yippee!!!), it has opened up a whole new world of cooking...which will hopefully allow them to slowly wean off their Morningstar veggie corn dogs! :)

Bea said...

Those Heather Bailey prints are so gorgeous! I'm trying to decide what to do with my birthday money, you know we have the same birthday, right?? :D

I'm definitely going to try those teas, I need an immune system boost going into the winter, it seems like whatever Robby catches at school I get too! That butternut squash recipe looks awesome, I'm definitely going to try it, something else you might want to get the boys to eat more veggies, I just started making smoothies for us to eat in the morning, I made a banana/mango/blueberry with a handful of baby spinach and some whole milk yogurt and honey, it was so yummy, and Robby loves them!

kat coyle said...

Thank you for the yummy recipe. It sounds like something I would love, maybe just maybe Felix will too. He's very picky about his food. sigh.

Thanks also for the tea recommendation. I've never tried those. This weather gives me a headache and makes me sneeze. Achoo. I just sneezed!