Week 18: Squashed

Recipes to Go: 507 332

Weeks to Go: 52 34

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Turkey Soup

Butternut Turkey Bake

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

The Squash Court

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Chocolate Pinwheels

Ham on Biscuits

This week, I decided it was time to try some squash since squash season is almost over and it would be hard to get a hold of them later on. This ended up being a good decision. Butternut squash was what we ended up needing and I had never worked with it before. I was familiar with it from watching Veggie Tales, but that didn't tell me how it would taste or how easy it would be to work with.

Before I got to find out, we made Southwestern Turkey Soup for Sunday dinner. I used chicken instead of turkey, which didn't effect things too much. It was still a southwestern soup.

I had to use chicken again instead of turkey for the Butternut Turkey Bake. However, this time no one knew because it was so delicious.

The butternut squash was just like a pumpkin--it was hard to cut open and took an hour of baking in the oven to soften up. But this bake tasted a lot like Thanksgiving and we argued over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Okay, I feel a little silly that I've never thought of twice-baked sweet potatoes before. I love sweet potatoes and I love twice-baked potatoes, and it's not a far leap to make. It was remarkable. So delicious. Basically the same recipe--bacon, cheese, butter, spices--but the sweet potatoes were so good, and the skins caramelized in the oven and might have been the best part.

The Squash Court was butternut squash creamy soup. The recipe called for me to peel and cube the squash, then cook it and puree it. That was a little too much work. Next time, I'll just stick it in the oven for 40 minutes and soften it, then scoop it into the blender after softening the rest of the ingredients. I don't often make creamy soups, (ha ha, I never make creamy soups. This was my first time making soup in a blender) but with some saltine crackers, everyone agreed it was delicious.

I was planning on making pumpkin ravioli this week, but I couldn't find baking pumpkins anywhere, not even for ready money. So I made chicken fettuccine alfredo instead. Only, I didn't have fettuccini, so I just used penne instead.

This was delicious and really easy, especially if you have chicken ready. I think I might have to start doing that, baking chicken, cubing and freezing it. This was a great recipe because it was a little spicy since there was chili flakes in the sauce. It definitely made it stand out among the pasta recipes.

Somewhere in the week, I made Pumpkin Mousse. It was tasty, but made way too much when I was already too full from tasty dinners. It seems like a light dessert, but it is really rich, and this is why it took over a week to eat just half of it. I did love the pumpkin flavor, though.

For Friday Game night, I made Chocolate Pinwheel cookies. The Husband thought they were delicious, and I have to agree. I was expecting them to be much more complicated and difficult then they were. Yes, they were a bit of work, but worth it.

We didn't have anyone for game night, which wasn't a surprise since we had to get up at 4 in the morning to take a trip to DC on Saturday. Since this was going to interfere with making breakfast, I made it Friday night and packed it up to eat on the road. I made Ham on Biscuits. My biscuits didn't rise as much as I hoped, but that was because I had to leave the dough at a crucial stage to go pick The Husband up from work. We've had a bit of car trouble lately that has complicated things. Be that as it may, they were still delicious.

I also made the pumpkin scones again because everyone loved them so much. And they were very good, only a little doughy this time.