Thursday, January 28, 2016

CCC January 2016


I was hoping to make more of the recipes, but at least I got my Squash and Walnut Toastie made.  Luckily, this recipe was hard to ruin.  I had some sort of squash that's been sitting on my counter since we got it at CSA pick-up in November.  It was a dark orange and about the size of an acorn squash, but not a pumpkin.  The skin seemed hard to cut and I was busy, so I just threw it in the oven and turned the oven to 350.  I meant to just let the squash soften enough so I could cut into it, and then cut it into chunks and take off the skin and roast it.  Except I totally forgot it was in the oven until a couple of hours later when the whole house smelled like squash.  I opened the oven and the squash had totally collapsed.  By then I was busy with something else, so I let the squash cool, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and put it in the fridge where I forgot about it again.  A few days later I found it.  I opened it up, cut it in half, and messily took off the skin and separated the flesh from the seeds and stringy part.  I used a fork to separate the flesh into chunks, and used it in this recipe.  I had just made some (delicious) rosemary olive bread, so instead of making toasts I put this out on the table to spread on the bread.  It was delicious. We also had some marinated white beans and some smoked trout rilettes to go on the bread.  Everything was good but the squash was my favorite.  Even Paul enjoyed it, and he is not a fan of squash.  Only Charlotte wouldn't touch it.  This made an excellent dinner with some kale, zucchini, and cheeses.  I love this cookbook.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

TWD BCM Carrot Cake and Lemon Squares


Apparently in my several months blogging hiatus I forgot how this works.  I totally forgot to take a picture of the carrot cake.  For the lemon squares I remembered just before eating the last available one.  (I kept 8 out and hid the rest in the freezer.)  Oh well!  One thing I didn't forget is how much I love baking.  Something about the sleep-deprivation of having an infant makes me crave sugar even more than usual, so I was eager to get back to this group as quickly as possible.  My goal right now is just to make one recipe a month, but these were both relatively easy so here they are.  On Christmas Day we were served an amazing, American style carrot cake with decadent cream cheese frosting.  The French one was much easier to put together, seemed healthier (at least I'll tell myself that), and was delicious in its own right.  However, in a contest I'd choose the American style one any day!  When I first read that the lemon squares contained 4.5 stick of butter I planned on skipping them.  A couple of weeks later I changed my mind.  They were delicious (what wouldn't be with that much butter?), but I still think I prefer my mom's lemon bars with the confectioners sugar on top.  The crisp topping was nice, but for me it took away from the true lemon flavor.