OMGSNAX!

i continue to be camera-less in the kitchen, but this one was sarah’s baby anyway, who called me all a-twitter about some fresh pumpkin she had in her freezer. she did the internet research & discovered the recipe, so really, this is sarah’s guest spot on ye olde blogge of sir snaxalot.

INGREDIENTS
8 oz butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
2 1/2 cups flour

DIRECTIONS
preheat oven to 350 degrees. cream together butter & sugars until fluffy. beat in egg, vanilla, & pumpkin. in a separate bowl, mix together the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, raisins, & flour. stir into pumpkin mixture.

drop cookies by the heaping teaspoonful on to cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. bake 12 to 15 minutes or until slightly browned around edges.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
raisins: for the last time, no.

the cookies came together okay as far as looking & acting like normal cookies — as i’ve no doubt mentioned before, i’ve never really had any problems getting my baking to come together — but they were hugely disappointing. for one thing, we were pretty much SOL on the pumpkinny flavor, which, okay, i have no idea what THAT is all about. for another, these cookies were blandsville. halfway through, sarah & i added an extra half cup of pumpkin purée, but you couldn’t even tell the difference.

i’ve heard that fresh pumpkin purée — like, from carving pumpkins — isn’t all that flavorful, so maybe that was the problem here, but i’ll be damned if i waste cookie ingredients on this recipe again.

no one even finished the leftovers.

“Pumpkin Cookies” via allrecipes.com

meg — my recipe-searching partner-in-crime (we once spent an afternoon back-&-forthing about the perfect vegetarian stroganoff recipe) — sent me a link to this particular dish back in september, & i bought a squash right away to try it. i unfortunately couldn’t convince anyone to try it with me, & the squash languished unused & unloved, first on the counter, then in the produce bin in the fridge, till i finally threw it out last week b/c it was starting to look a little scary.

in the meantime, i’d discovered trader joe’s pre-cubed squash — the glory! the ecstasy! — & have made several squashy dishes on my own without worrying about losing fingers (always a big concern), & so finally the time was right to attempt this casserole.

INGREDIENTS
1 large butternut squash
1 cup chopped onions
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1-2 dash cayenne pepper
1 cup red bell peppers, coarsely chopped
1 cup green bell peppers, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS
cut squash in half lengthwise & scoop out seeds. bake cut sides down at 425 degrees 45-50 minutes or until very soft at thick end. let squash cool & scrape out of the shell; mash as smoothly as you can. meanwhile, sauté onion, garlic, & spices in olive oil until onion is translucent. add peppers & salt, stir, cover, & leave on low heat 5 minutes.

preheat oven to 350 degrees. stir beaten eggs into mashed squash. add corn, sautéed vegetables, & grated cheddar; stir to mix well. bake 20 minutes covered; uncover & bake 20- 30 minutes more.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
i was initially planning to halve the recipe considering every time i mentioned wanting to try it, no one sounded all that thrilled about it, but as it turned out, we were expecting eight for dinner so i figured it’d be prudent to make up the whole recipe. i purchased more pre-cubed squash from trader joe’s (i know it sounds like a product placement, but seriously! best thing ever!!), but i neglected to purchase more bell peppers, so the casserole itself was a little sparse owing to this fact — & the fact that i hate corn in almost every capacity (including popped, excluding on the cob & in bread or muffin format) so i eliminated that right off the bat.

so instead of roasting the squash halves, i just plopped the squash cubes in the casserole dish with a little olive oil, covered it with foil, & cooked it at 400 degrees for a little over half an hour. i could then mash them up with a fork with no trouble at all.

if i hadn’t been so pressed for time, i probably would’ve let the squash cool a bit before adding the egg — as i knew it would start to cook after being added to such a hot dish — but i was STARVING & i knew everyone would be over in no time at all, so i did the best i could, mixed everything up quickly, & put it back in the oven before it even knew what hit it.

taste-wise, i thought it was a little bit eggy but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. i just haven’t been all that successful at finding a dish i think highlights the squashiness of squash. i knew the cumin/chili powder combination would be a little overpowering — & it was — but i’m at my wits’ end as far as coming up with subtle squash recipes.

it was still good, don’t get me wrong — in fact, we had no leftovers, & even daniel (a self-proclaimed squash-hater) tried it & said he’d eat it again if i made it! — it just wasn’t exactly what i was looking for.

“Chilean Butternut Squash Casserole” via megatron, modified from Moosewood’s recipe

an OMGSNAX! special edition

when i was a little kid — i’m talking little, like before kindergarten little — my best friend was a girl who lived in our neighborhood named emily. we spent a lot of time playing together & generally being weird; we made up songs about spelling, including our favorite word: “that’s B-U-T-T BUTT!”

emily’s mom passed this recipe along to my mom around this time, & it’s been a christmas cookie staple in my family ever since. my initial plan was to make these thursday night after my family’s thanksgiving dinner so i could bring them to daniel’s grandparents’ house when i left town first thing friday morning — but now he’s staying here, & i was really feeling the need for some quality baking time with cookie impresario valeriebee, so the plan changed.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
48 maraschino cherries (1 10-oz jar)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 teaspoons cherry juice

DIRECTIONS
preheat oven to 350 degrees. in a small bowl, combine flour & cocoa powder. set aside. in a large mixing bowl, cream butter & sugar. add baking soda, baking powder, & salt. beat in egg & vanilla. gradually add remaining dry ingredients.

shape dough into balls & place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. make an indentation in the center of each ball with your thumb, & place a cherry in the indentation.

for the icing, combine chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, & cherry juice in a small saucepan over low heat, & then spoon over the top of each cherry. bake for 8 to 10 minutes. yield: 48 cookies.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
val did most of the work on these while i washed the dinner dishes, so i can’t say for sure that there weren’t any deviations — & the dough was slightly drier than usual which was a little suspicious — but they turned out just fine so who’s complaining? they weren’t as pretty as usual (my fault — i’m used to applying the icing with a small spatula instead of a soup spoon, which is what was available in daniel’s kitchen, so the icing ran a little), but they tasted the same as they always do!

“Chocolate Cherry Cookies” from joanne nilges.