Butternut Squash Tarte Tatin

Holy mother of God, this is freakin' incredible. I might even dare to say it's quite possibly the best dessert I have made all year (and I'm allowed to say that being that there are only 2 weeks (!!!) left). Um, yeah. Thank you Matt Bites for making my life a thousand times better by inventing this heavenly creation of butternut squash goodness. My life is now complete.

And you could say I'm biased, as butternut squash is probably, by far, one of my top 5 favorite foods. But others can attest. It was a hit at a Christmas dinner party potluck last evening. Some went back for seconds. We had to restrain ourselves to make sure everyone had their equal share. After my first bite, I honestly wanted to run away with the rest of it and my plate and have it all for myself. No. I would never do that...

The smell of this baking in the oven almost killed me. And almost didn't make it to the party in one peace. Roasted butternut squash with a caramel cinnamon nutmeg butter sauce on top of a buttery, flaky pastry crust. This was my first time working with puff pastry! I was scared for so long (just like the phyllo dough) but it wasn't bad at all. In fact, this may quite possibly be the easiest dessert I have ever made. You just have to roast the squash before hand, melt some butter and sugar in a pan, add the spices, put it all in a square pan, and place the puff pastry square on top of it. And then you invert it like an upside-down pineapple cake once it's done. SO SIMPLE. I had never made a "tarte tatin" before and this surely won't be the last. It kind of reminded me of a caramelized, crisp cinnamon roll but better. Wayyyyyy wayyyyy better.

I'm in love.

Butternut Squash Tarte Tatin

Serves 8, apparently

Recipe from Matt Bites (thank you!)

4 cups butternut squash cut into 1-inch cubes
1–2 tablespoons canola oil
a pinch of salt
¼ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg
1 (about 8-oz) sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed

For the squash: heat oven to 400˚F. Toss the squash cubes in 1–2 tablespoons of canola oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and roast until tender, about 30-35 minutes, turning once during baking to insure even cooking and browning. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the caramel.

With the oven still at 400˚F, move the oven rack to the top position.

Melt butter over medium heat in a nonstick skillet, stir in sugar and cook until golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes, swirling skillet often. Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg; pour caramel into an 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan. Place roasted squash over caramel. Unfold the puff pastry over the squash and fold any excess pastry down the sides of the pan and under. Prick the pastry with a fork all over and place in already hot oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate, being careful not to burn yourself. It’s hot! Cut and serve. I imagine it would be fantastic served alongside some vanilla bean ice cream and/or some whipped cream. But hey, I don't want you to piss your pants. That's your decision.

Winter Woodland Baking Inspiration

Winter Woodland Christmas Cake

Winter Woodland Gingerbread House

The faux wood grain!

The owl!

The mushrooms and leaves and acorns and squirrel!

Done by this lovely blogging baking artist, Torie Jayne.

I am so inspired.

That is all.

Roasted Butternut & Green Bean Salad

My favorite salad to make this time of year.

And any time of the year.

Thanks to my lovely friend introducing this recipe to me one night as it was accompanied next to some pumpkin ravioli, I have made traditionally made this awesome salad around the holidays for the past 2 years now. This year for Thanksgiving was no exception. It's simple, healthy, and tasty with the tang of a homemade garlic mustard dressing. The recipe calls for pine nuts but since those things have been more expensive than gold lately, candied pecans, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds do the trick just fine. Dried cranberries or fresh pomegranate seeds would also be nice in this. Some crumbled goat cheese, perhaps. But butternut squash and spinach = two of my top favorite things in life. I couldn't live without them. And you shouldn't either.

Roasted Butternut & Green Bean Salad

recipe from here

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and cut into 3cm wedges

1/4 cup olive oil

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

24 ounces green beans, topped, halved diagonally

1/4 cup more olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp dijon mustard

5 ounces baby spinach leaves (or more?)

1/2 cup nuts (pine, walnut, pecan, pumpkin)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Place the pumpkin, in a single layer, on the prepared trays. Drizzle with the light olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and tender. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, cook the beans in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until bright green and tender crisp. Drain. Refresh in a bowl of iced water. Drain well.

Whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, garlic, combined vinegars and mustard in a small bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Place the squash, beans and spinach in a large serving bowl. Drizzle with the balsamic dressing and gently toss to combine. Sprinkle with pine nuts and serve immediately.

Ginger Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Goodness gracious. Only 14 more days left of school for the semester and then I can officially say I survived 1/4th of dental hygiene school. I am so damn proud of myself and the progress I have made and all of the new skills I have acquired. Jumping into something I pretty much knew completely nothing about and (surprisingly) excelling as well as I have been. It's a good sign. Waking up at 6:30 most mornings, full days at school Monday thru Friday, has been a bit of an adjustment. Granted, it could always be worse, but it ain't easy. (This is also a nice reminder.) But really though, time has flowwwwwn by. Unbelievable.

That being said, Thursday mornings are the only weekday morning that I can "sleep in". My body's internal alarm clock doesn't really understand that concept, but at least I try. Usually I end up going for a long run, hitting the books, grabbing something quick to eat, then heading off to class to take radiographs in the afternoon. But today I decided I wanted to change that up a bit.

I got up. I did some yoga (my back and legs are thanking me--thank you, yoga). Meditated. Then meditated upon what to make for breakfast. Pumpkin. Ok. Oatmeal. Not again! Hmm, how could I make it even tastier than normal? I KNOW! BAKED pumpkin oatmeal!

I think I might explode.

I actually recall seeing several recipes in the past for pumpkin baked oatmeal and always thought, who has a darn hour to wait around for that thing to bake? When I'm hungry for breakfast, I'm hungry, dangit! I didn't think I could be able to handle it. But today I made myself.

It wasn't so bad.

It was worth the wait.

Warm. Comforting. Gingery. Pumpkin-y. Raisin-y. Nutty. Delicious. Healthy. Goodness. Pretty much just like pumpkin bread pudding. And there are caramelized bananas on the bottom as a nice surprise, too. Is it breakfast, dessert, or a breakfast dessert? I'll let you decide.

And now I can save myself some time in the morning by not having to make a pot of my usual pumpkin oatmeal! Awesome.

(I just now had my second serving of the day as a dessert warmed up with a few bites of The Penny Ice Creamery's brown butter spiced pecan, winter squash, and brown butter sage ice cream. They are wonderful compliments to any Fall-related dessert, let me tell ya. I kind of died and went to heaven.)

(Oh yes, and I do in fact take pictures of my breakfasts on my front porch in my pajamas for the entire neighborhood to see. I hope they find it as entertaining as I do.)

Ginger Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Makes approximately 4-6 servings

Adapted from here

canola oil cooking spray

1 Tbsp ghee

2 large yellowish-green bananas

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup dried fruit (I used half raisins, half chopped dates, and a little chopped crystallized ginger)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp chai spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups almond milk

1 cup pure pumpkin puree

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat an 8-inch square or round baking dish with cooking spray.

Melt the ghee in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced bananas and cook for about 2 minutes, gently flipping to evenly brown both sides. Add cinnamon and maple syrup and let the mixture boil/thicken for about 30 seconds. Spoon the bananas into the bottom of the dish in an even layer. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the oats, dried fruit, nuts, brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin puree, egg, grated ginger, and maple syrup.

Stir the oat mixture into the milk/pumpkin mixture. Pour over the bananas in the dish.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375, then turn up the oven to 400 and bake for another 15 minutes until the top is slightly crisp and browned. Optionally, if you dare trying, you could bake the entire thing at 400 for probably about 25 minutes and be okay, I just wanted to make sure the center would set and not be gooey/raw. It's up to you.

Allow to cool a few minutes before serving. Tip! Great alongside a dollop of vanilla or plain yogurt.

Greek Leek, Winter Squash & Spinach Pie

It is just me or are phyllo dough recipes popping up everywhere during this holiday season?

I swear. They're everywhere.

For the longest time, I have to admit, phyllo dough has intimidated me. I'd see people buying it all the time at the grocery store I worked at, assuming these lovely people were going to go off and make some delicious Greek spanikopita dish for dinner because that was the only thing I thought you could use phyllo dough for. And I was envious. And, like I said, intimidated. I wanted to make spanikopita SO BADLY but for some reason couldn't bring myself to purchasing two-hundred tons of fresh (or frozen) spinach, a fat block of feta, and this phyllo dough stuff.

So in the meantime, I just bought the frozen version already made to go into my oven from Trader Joe's. Thank you, TJ's. I love you.

Well, anyway, about a month ago, I found a great recipe to make an appetizer involving pumpkin (out of that lovely pumpkin recipe book I raved about not too long ago), phyllo dough, peanut butter, mango chutney, and curry paste. They sounded too good to be true. So I made them for a Halloween party. They definitely turned out delicious, a little pain in the butt to make because of the phyllo dough, but so worth it.

And then I had trillions of phyllo sheets leftover that I wasn't sure what to do with.

So I stuck them in the freezer, and a few weeks later, I came upon this wonderful recipe from the NY Times that caught my eye: a Greek Pumpkin and Leek Pie.

Oh my gosh. YUM! Pumpkin, leek, feta, herbs, and phyllo dough! Sounds like a pimped out pumpkinized version of spanikopita that would be so much more amazing. Of course I modified it a bit. Only had one leek on hand so I used frozen spinach, and didn't want to peel and roast an entire pumpkin so I used part pumpkin puree from a can, frozen winter squash puree, and roasted a few pieces of a buttercup squash. OMG.

Admittedly, the phyllo dough still isn't my best friend. But that'll come with time. It's a gradual relationship. Regardless, it turned out delicious and as good as I had hoped. Would be a great vegetarian main dish for any time this fall/winter.

This is my new favorite.

I still have about 15 sheets of dough left though. Help! Help me find something to do with it. Please?

Oh and of course I pimped it out with an amazing winter salad cause that's how I roll.

Mache salad greens, roasted parsnips, avocado, green beans, persimmon, and pomegranate.

Greek Leek, Winter Squash & Spinach Pie

(It's better than spanikopita!!! I'm telling you!)

Makes approximately 8-10 servings

Adapted from NY Times "Greek Pumpkin and Leek Pie" recipe

2 1/2 pounds of a combination of pumpkin and squash puree, and roasted buttercup squash chunks

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large leek, white and light green part only, cleaned and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 cups frozen chopped spinach

1/4 cup dried dill (or fresh if you have it)

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)

2 jumbo eggs, beaten (or 3 large eggs)

Salt & freshly ground pepper

12 sheets phyllo dough

1. Combine all the squash in a bowl, mash with a fork (I left a few chunks of the buttercup whole). Stir in the herbs, nutmeg and feta. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick frying pan. Add the leeks. Cook, stirring, until tender and just beginning to color, five to 10 minutes. Add the spinach and garlic, and continue to cook until fragrant for a few minutes and until the water from the frozen spinach slightly evaporates. Remove from the heat, and add to the pumpkin. Beat the eggs, and stir into the pumpkin mixture.

3. Brush a 10- or 12-inch tart pan or cake pan with olive oil and layer in seven sheets of phyllo dough. Place them not quite evenly atop one another, so that the edges overlap the sides of the pan all the way around. Brush each sheet with olive oil (or a mixture of olive oil and melted butter) before adding the next sheet. Fill with the pumpkin mixture, and fold the edges over. Brush the folded-over phyllo with olive oil, then layer five more sheets of dough over the top, brushing each with olive oil (or a combination of melted butter and olive oil). Crimp the edges into the sides of the pan. Pierce the top of the pie in several places with a sharp knife. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes until the top is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Recrisp the crust if necessary in a low oven for 10 to 20 minutes.