In my humble opinion, of course.  Truthfully, I am a pie lover, and I have eaten and baked many a pie.  I think I found, at last, my holy grail of squash pies, and Zillah so nicely asked for the recipe a while back, so here it is.

The first thing to note is that this pie is not made with pumpkin.  (Most pumpkin filling you buy at the store isn’t either – it’s sweet potato or a different squash).  If you really want, you can use pumpkin, but you’ll need to drain out the liquid – hang it in some cheesecloth overnight.  It will be nicer, also, if you puree it – pumpkin is very stringy, not at all like the smooth filling most of us expect.  I make my pie with squash – I cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast it at 350 (or thereabouts, depending on what else I’m baking) until it’s completely soft and mushy.  Then I scoop it out of the skin, but some squash skin is delicious and you can blend it all up together.  My favorite varieties, personally, are Kuri, Buttercup, Butternut, and Sweet Dumpling.  Then again, I haven’t tried them all yet . .  .  Also, the sweetness of the squash can vary a lot – the first time I made this the sweetness was perfect, but the next time it really could’ve used a bit more maple syrup.  So taste your squash and adjust as needed.  (You can always drizzle some maple syrup on top of the pie afterward – oh darn, right?)

The big change I made to this recipe was that I left out the heavy cream.  I love cream, but when I went to make this pie I didn’t have any, so I decided to try it without, and it was amazing.  The cream really mellows out the flavor, too much for my tastes, and without it, the squash sings load and clear.

The Best Squash Pie

1 1/2 pounds roasted squash, pumpkin, or sweet potato

1/4 c butter, softened

1/4 c maple syrup

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt

pie crust (I recommend the lard crust from Cooking from Quilt Country – the easiest and most delicious you’ll ever make)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Roll out your pie crust, fill your pan, and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.  (This prevents the crust from falling down when you bake it.)  Pre-bake the crust for about 15 minutes, until just firm.

Meanwhile, mix together all remaining ingredients.  Pour into pie crust and bake for about 1 hour, until the filling is lightly brown and a bit puffed up.  Let it cool a bit, but this pie is at its best served warm.  Even better the day for lunch.

After I started planning our dinners last winter, I was really excited about how well it went. How much calm it brought to my life. (Seriously, every bit helps!) So over the summer I thought to myself, why not do the same with breakfast? I think, after doing it for six months or so now, that a breakfast rotation might be even more useful than dinner.  At dinner, we’re often tired and frazzled and it’s a bad time to come up with a meal on the fly, but many of us aren’t quite with it first thing in the morning, either, and it’s definitely not a good time to discover you need to run to the grocery store for eggs, right?

Here’s what I came up with for our family – I imagine it will switch a little in the warm months, to have less oatmeal and more fresh fruit probably.

Monday – Home fries (chunks of potato pan-fried with sliced onion and any other veggies that seem tasty, such as kale or sweet potato)

Tuesday – Oatmeal, usually with some warmed fruit on top (like berries from the freezer)

Wednesday  – Scrambled eggs, sausage, and sourdough toast

Thursday – Egg-in-the-holes (also known as lamplight eggs or toad-in-the-hole; you cut out a circle from a slice of bread and pan-fry it with an egg cracked into the hole.  A favorite from my own childhood)

Friday – Oatmeal again

Saturday – Challah french toast with warm fruit

Sunday – We were doing Clafoutis for a long time (Julia Child’s recipe), but last week I made a big batch of biscuits and froze most of them.  I think biscuits, eggs, and grits might be our new Sunday breakfast.  (By the way, I love using whole grain flour for pastries such as biscuits.  When your aim is a tender crumb, whole grain flour works in your favor, since it is naturally “shorter” than white flour)

And there’s your week!  I think I may do the same things for snacks.  Yum!

More favorites from here. Outside, winter doesn’t seem to know yet that its last days are here. The freezing rain and mud puddles have their own beauty, as my little girl in rain boots would happily tell you. Inside, I finished this applique for our down comforter cover.  I cut out the pieces last winter when I first read Sew Liberated, and began to work on it at last in January.  (She does two layers of petals, but I decided to keep it a bit simpler.)  A great way to use cheerful scraps.

The ability to wash and dry my laundry (seriously, after nearly a month of being too exhausted, it was a treat to do this quickly and easily). Especially with some new thrift store finds drying on the rack – looking forward to wearing that skirt in warm weather!

Locally grown Mandan Bride corn, cooked and spread out to dry, ready to be ground and made into fresh tortillas.  The simple joy of cooking and cleaning up in my kitchen.  The butcher block you see underneath so many of my kitchen photos – made for us years ago by our dear friend Rob.  There was at least one year where Rob always managed to show up at our house right as dinner was ready; in return, he built us a butcher block.  The joy of friends.

Salad greens, growing under lights inside, ready to be moved out to the greenhouse as soon as the sun peeks back out again.  (The hose that runs from the bathroom sink into the pantry to water these greens is not my favorite, but worth it.)

Loving hot tea from fancy cups (thank you Nana!).  I’m loving Shannon’s post about living mindfully this year.  Wishing you lots of simple joys this week.

Insulating, insulating, insulating. (Yes, that’s wool I’m stuffing into the crack, and we’re covering it with caulk.) Our little helper spent this time playing dress up and pretending to nap (do you see those scrunched up eyes?)  “I’m snoring away!” she declared.

Feeling sick to our stomachs about Monsanto’s new GMO alfalfa being approved for release. If you don’t know, please head here to Food Democracy Now’s petitions, and add your voice to keep this dangerous seed out of our land!  (Alfalfa is open pollinated, which means that if a farmer next door is growing GMO sterile alfalfa, their seed can blow onto your crop and contaminate it.)

Spending a lot of time in the kitchen, enjoying every recipe from last week’s menus with Cooking from Quilt Country (this custard cornbread was so easy and outrageously good!).  Making Oatmeal Bread from the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book, making these Butternut Squash Brownies at last.  Ben threshed out our amaranth, and look at these beautiful red grains!

Welcoming February.  I never would have expected it, but this is one of my favorite months of the year.  The intense cold demands that I wake up, pay attention, and start moving.  A certain bearded fellow in our house has a birthday today, and we’ll also be dipping beeswax candles to celebrate Candlemas. It may be cold, but the warmth from the sun is also beginning to touch us.  No matter how many times during the summer I think we must be crazy to farm while, say, trying to plant an endless row of potatoes with an extremely cranky toddler), when January and February come, I get the itch.  We’re starting cold-hardy seeds already to put out into the hoophouse, and I am so excited for the growing season to begin!

So this week,  I’m Cooking from Quilt Country. (The only exceptions are Monday, Mexican Night and Sunday, pizza night – no Mexican or pizza recipes among the Amish!) The other big shift in our eating these days is that I’m trying to make our midday meal our big meal, and have dinner be lighter. So many of the meals listed below are being served at lunchtime, with a salad and leftovers for dinner.

(don’t you wish your pantry looked like that?)

Monday (Mexican): handmade flour tortillas (the awesome recipe is from Cocina de la Famillia), beans cooked from scratch, and pan-fried Delicata squash
Tuesday (casserole): Pork and Beans, Custard Cornbread
Wednesday (leftovers)
Thursday (soup) Country Potato Soup
Friday (Shabbat) Roast Duck with Saurkraut & Apple Stuffing, Baked Onions with Sour Cream, and Oatmeal Pie (how awesome do all of these sound? I’m very excited.)
Saturday (soup with meat) Split Pea Soup with Ham
Sunday (Home made Pizza with Veggies)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

* * *

Monday (mexican) Flat Enchiladas Sonoran Style (from  Cocina de la Familia) using local dent corn, with garlicky greens on the side

Tuesday (soup with meat) French Onion Soup and steak

Wednesday (leftovers)

Thursday (casserole) Broccoli Pot Pie with lard crust (I made my first lard crust [above] last week – it was so easy and so delicious!  After Nicole pointed me to this article, I knew it was time to start using the leaf lard waiting in my freezer, and I’m so glad I did!  I used the crust recipe from Cooking from Quilt Country, a book I love.)

Friday (shabbat) Warm French Lentils with Sausage, Celeriac Puree, Baked Apples

Saturday (soup) Butternut Squash Soup

Sunday (homemade pizza) Pizza with Sweet Potato, Cheese, & Onions

Hope you have a delicious week ahead of you!

Hello everyone, here are two of the past week’s menus at our house, and I didn’t forget my promise for a nourishing vegetarian soup – Potato Leek is here to rock your tastebuds and soul.

Monday:  “Pasta” Cheesy Emmer, Roasted Cauliflower & Beets, Pan-fried Hamsteak

Tuesday: Soup with Meat Split Pea Soup with carrots, onion, and ham (leftover from Monday)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Casserole Black Bean Tostadas and Pumpkin-Pecan Muffins (both recipes from Feeding the Whole Family, but I made the tostadas by hand – thick and lumpy, but delicious!  And the pumpkin-pecan muffins were awesome.)

Friday: Shabbat Roasted Chicken Breast with simple sauce (from Julia Child), Apple-Walnut Kale (from Feeding the Whole Family, this was sooo good), and a loaf of local bread

Saturday: Soup Three Sisters Stew (from Feeding the Whole Family, it was wonderful to have this waiting in our crockpot at the end of a long day of CSA distributions)

Sunday: Homemade Pizza with Veggies

Monday:  “Pasta” Rye Berries with Pumpkin Sauce (sauce recipe from Eat, Taste, Heal) and Braised Country Ribs with saurkraut

Tuesday: Soup with Meat Roasted Carrot-Tomato Soup (meatless this week, also I roast the carrots as well as the tomatoes)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Casserole Tamale Pie (Beans and Veggies topped with cornbread, basically), and apple-carrot cake, for Martinmas

Friday: Shabbat Pot Roast with Root Veggies, Potato Gratin, and Braised Collard Greens

Saturday: Soup Butternut Squash Soup

Sunday: Homemade Pizza with Veggies

And now . . . potato leek soup.  If you serve this chilled, it’s vichyssoise.  This soup is a favorite in our home – super simple, basic, nourishing, delicious.  If you want, you could use chicken stock instead of water, but it certainly does not need it.  The most important part is to use equal parts leeks to potatoes – the leeks are what give this soup its supple silken texture, and a lot of healthy goodness, as well.  This is a good soup for those recovering from illness (omit the cream for anyone who is sick).

Potato-Leek Soup

2 cups chopped potatoes (scrub them well and leave those delscious skins on!)

4 tablespoons butter

6 leeks, cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces (or as many as you need to equal about 2 cups)

3 cups water (or chicken stock if desired)

1 1/2 to 2 cups sour cream or heavy cream (optional – this soup is amazing with cream, but it doesn’t need it.)

Welcome Elspeth!  I’ve been dying to make the Butternut Squash Brownies you shared last year ever since I saw the recipe, and I’m really excited that butternut squash season is here at last!  What foods are you most been looking forward to this autumn?

I always look forward to fall, mostly because I feel like it’s the time of year when the biggest diversity of foods are available all at once. I like the fact that in September and October you can still hold on to the last of summer—tomatoes, melons, corn—but start working in cabbages and root vegetables, too. I always get ridiculously excited about celeriac—I am a big fan of celery remoulade—and right now, I’m also pretty into fennel. I love making big batches of roasted root vegetables—this is my go-to dish when it starts to get cold. I take whatever’s in the fridge—maybe fennel and potatoes or butternut squash and beets and celeriac—and toss it with some big chunks of onion and garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and some assorted fresh herbs and salt and pepper and voila! Dinner is on the table.

You’re clearly a very passionate foodie – tell us what led you to becoming a locavore?
I first got into local foods when I was 16. I attended a high school semester program on an organic farm, and part of our schooling was to do chores and help out with the animals and planting. At the start of every meal, someone got up and read a poem or said a blessing, and then announced what on our tables was from the farm. That connection really got to me, and when I graduated from college and started cooking at home, buying locally seemed like one of the biggest things I could do to help out environmentally. For me it was the simplest first step—the only way I could imagine starting to tackle what I see as the huge social and environmental crisis in our country that has arisen from losing our connection with the land and people around us. Food is still my biggest focus, and I believe it’s at the heart of family and community, but I’ve also started branching out and started learning about eco-friendly and locally made make-up, clothing, yarn, etc. I guess for me buying and growing local food feels like the biggest, most crucial step in a life-long learning process centered around trying to recreate sustainability and community.

We’ve joyfully watched the local foods scene explode in the past few years here in Massachusetts.  Local meats, cheeses . . . what’s your biggest challenge as a local eater?  What’s your favorite part?

I think right now dairy is a huge challenge for people looking to eat locally. We get our milk through a raw-milk farm about an hour and a half away, as part of a coop. A different family drives each week to pick up the milk for everyone, and recently we also started getting butter and cream. It works, but it’s totally crazy. I really wish we had the option to buy locally produced raw milk, cream, and butter at the store, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Grains also used to be a big challenge for us, but thanks to you guys, that’s changing! We still buy all-purpose flour at the store, but otherwise the CSA has more than met our needs. Thank you!

My favorite part of eating locally has always been the vegetables. My husband is sort of puzzled by me as an eater, because although I’ll eat meat, I rarely buy it and hardly ever cook it. He usually organizes the protein department—for me all the beauty and creativity of cooking is in produce. I love the variety and the seasonality of what you find in the markets, and the feeling that you have to use it while it’s here. Baking is another inspiration—there is nothing like a perfect pie, or chewy cookie, or a dense, moist cake.

Tell me a bit about your photos – you take pictures in film, and then do you scan them for the blog?

Almost all of the photos on my blog are taken with either a Minolta Instant Pro polaroid camera with 1200 Spectra film or a Pentax K1000 with 35 mm film. I am head over heels in love with polaroid—the colors, the blur, the perfectly square white frame. The pentax is better for bigger shots, and gives you a lot more freedom. I tend to use that more for long term projects, as I have to drive 20 minutes and wait an hour to get the film developed. The polaroids in combination with my scanner are perfect for daily shots.

One last question – What is your favorite simple, nourishing meal?

I think I’d have to say a salad. My mother has always made what she called “dinner salads”—big bowls of greens topped with all kinds of veggies, crumbled cheese of some sort, homemade croutons, and some kind of meat. We have adopted the tradition and always have some kind of greens either in the garden or from the farmers’ market in the fridge. My favorites are spinach and arugula, and I was pleased to learn the other day that arugula is one of the only greens rich in omega 3 fatty acids—so a good pick. Depending on the season, veggie toppings will be fresh veggies or things we’ve roasted or pickled. For cheese, I love feta but can’t find it locally, but we often use Great Hill blue cheese (made in Marion, MA). I make croutons with herbs, garlic, and olive oil out of stale whole-wheat bread, and we usually try to make one meat or seafood dish a week. Sliced steak or chicken is great as a topping, as are scallops. If we don’t have any meat or fish on hand, olives and eggs make a great addition. For a dressing, we usually just do a simple red wine or balsamic vinaigrette, and that’s it!

Thank you so much for joining us here Elspeth!  Happy Monday everyone, and I’ll see you soon to roast a simple, beautiful chicken.

I never, ever used to plan my menus before last year.  I was way too creative, too talented, too cool to be hemmed in by something as fuddy duddy as a menu plan.  Right?

Before having a baby, this non-plan worked out sort of well.  Running to the grocery store to get ingredients in the midst of preparing a meal, eating at whatever hour food was ready – these weren’t a huge deal.  No one cried or threw tantrums (or if we did, they’ve thankfully been lost in memory).  Everything changed for me in the kitchen after I had Ella.  I did not have enough spare brain to create a dinner plan a la minute.  I had a baby who hated the car with a passion, so forget about driving to the store (not to mention that we had become passionate environmentalists – the gas!).  We were local food advocates with CSA shares and a garden, so trying to prepare to use that week’s vegetables was important.  Menu planning was begging for me to give it a chance, but I still resisted (I am very, very stubborn, what can I say?) until I saw Meg’s post. A creative person using a set menu?  The same dishes over and over?  It opened up the door for me, and I stuck a toe through, then jumped.

As you can see, my menu is not as beautiful as Meg’s.  I make one each week, on Sunday night – mine has to change a bit, because the veggies in the garden change, the veggies in our share with The Kitchen Garden change, and the meat that comes in our share from Chestnut Farms change.  I am considering a more set meal rotation this winter, when our root veggie share starts, and I do know pretty much what each week will bring, at least in vegetables. (Also, now that I’ve been doing this almost a year, I’m pretty excited to be able to look back at last year’s menus for inspiration!)

I am now a menu planning lover.  This saves my life (sanity), again and again.  I write down the meals in this little book, and it sits on my kitchen counter.  Each night I (hopefully) check it, to see if I need to soak beans or grains, or put meat in the fridge to defrost.  When I know what I’m making, that’s one last question nagging at the back of my mind all day (and one less last-minute panic attack).  I can start in the morning if I need to (or want to) and do a little at a time – chop an extra onion at breakfast, start the crock pot at snack time, etc . . .

So – before we jump into making chicken stock, bread, and more, make a plan for two days next week.  You (my meat-eating readers) are going to roast a chicken, and the next day (or next cooking day) you’re going to make chicken stock and have incredible chicken soup for dinner.  For my vegetarian friends, put a nourishing vegetable soup on your calender.

By the way, there’s menu planning inspiration to be had all over the place.  Also, you can check out this old post on preparing foods ahead, when you have a little one  (or other circumstances) who doesn’t want to give you any time in the kitchen.

Here’s last week’s menu: (I’m in the midst of changing my days a bit, to accomadate more soup, so things are in a bit of flux, you’ll see)

Monday: “Pasta” night – chicken soup with spelt and roasted butternut squash on the side

Tuesday:  Soup with meat -Black Bean soup with Tomatoes and Kale, with a ham hock

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Casserole – Apple Sweet Potato Casserole, Porkchops, Garlicky Kale

Friday: Shabbat, Pot Roast with lots of veggies, Fried Green Tomatoes, fresh bread

Saturday: Soup, Broccoli Potato Soup

Sunday: pizza with veggies and cheese