I’m a big butternut squash fan, so this is a big hit with me. Made it for the first time visiting friends ~2 weeks ago, and now made it again at home, so you know at least I think it’s worth a quick repeat! The squash adds good flavor, and there’s some spinach in there so you can tell yourself you’re getting important vitamins or something like that amid all your cheese and pasta.
- 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- 1 small handful fresh basil (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
- salt and pepper
- 2 cups roasted butternut squash*
- 4 ounces frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained) (I used twice as much this time, because my package was all frozen in one lump – this was neaaarly too much/too spinach-y)
- 1 12-ounce package lasagna noodles
- 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
*To make roasted butternut squash, cut a squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Coat the cut side with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, then place on a pan, cut side down, and bake at 350 for ~an hour, until the squash can be easily….squashed, with a fork. Scrape out of the skin and mash with your fork.
Wanted to get the broccoli out of my fridge, ate it all standing around in the kitchen while I worked on the lasagna.
In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, parm, egg, basil, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Add the squash and spinach and mix. Refrigerate while you prepare the pasta.
Boil a large pot of salted water and cook pasta according to box instructions.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spread a thin layer of marinara on the bottom of a 9×13″ dish. Put down a first layer of lasagna noodles and top with half the ricotta mixture.
Top with some of the marinara, then repeat with another layer of noodles, ricotta, and sauce. Add a final top layer of noodles, a last layer of marinara, and then top with the mozzarella.
Bake for 25 minutes. If the cheese on top isn’t browned to your liking, broil briefly to brown up the top, then serve.
Butternut Squash Lasagna
Adapted from Mashed.com‘s stuffed shells version.
- 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- 1 small handful fresh basil (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
- salt and pepper
- 2 cups roasted butternut squash*
- 4 ounces frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)
- 1 12-ounce package lasagna noodles
- 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
*To make roasted butternut squash, cut a squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Coat the cut side with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, then place on a pan, cut side down, and bake at 350 for ~an hour, until the squash can be easily….squashed, with a fork. Scrape out of the skin and mash with your fork.
In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, parm, egg, basil, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Add the squash and spinach and mix. Refrigerate while you prepare the pasta.
Boil a large pot of salted water and cook pasta according to box instructions.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spread a thin layer of marinara on the bottom of a 9×13″ dish. Put down a first layer of lasagna noodles and top with half the ricotta mixture. Top with some of the marinara, then repeat with another layer of noodles, ricotta, and sauce. Add a final top layer of noodles, a last layer of marinara, and then top with the mozzarella.
Bake for 25 minutes. If the cheese on top isn’t browned to your liking, broil briefly to brown up the top, then serve.
Ingredients:
Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
Add the pudding mix, baking soda, and salt, and beat again until combined.
Beat in the flour until just combined, then stir in the 1 1/2 cups M&Ms by hand.
Using a large dough scoop, scoop dough onto the lined sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.
I froze scooped out the dough onto a sheet, froze them, and cooked up a few in toaster oven at a time, and ate them without any cooling involved in the process.
Ingredients:
Add the remaining ingredients, stirring until all the dry patches have been incorporated, but not kneading.
Cover loosely and let rise until the dough has risen and then begun to collapse, about 2 hours. You can either move to baking now, or refrigerate the dough (or half of it) up to a week.
When ready to bake, grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2″ bread pan. Sprinkle some flour over the surface of the dough and cut in half, taking out an approximately 2 pound/large cantaloupe-sized portion of the dough. Dust with a bit more flour, then stretch the top of the dough down to the bottom. Rotate a quarter turn and repeat the stretching, then continue to rotate and repeat until you’ve pulled down 4 times and shaped the dough into a rough ball. Gently roll the ball just a bit to shape more into an oval, then place that into the greased bread pan.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise – 45 minutes for fresh dough, 90 minutes for refrigerated dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a pastry brush to brush approximately 1 tablespoon additional maple syrup over the top of the risen loaf.
Bake on the center rack for 50-60 minutes, until browned and firm, and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom. At 50 minutes mine wasn’t 100% done baking, but was a solid enough loaf that I could turn it out of the pan and put the bare loaf on the oven rack, to brown up a bit more on all sides.
Remove from the pan and cool on a cooling rack, ideally at least 2 hours – warm bread releases a lot of steam when cut, which negatively impacts the texture, so letting the bread cool fully helps create a better bread.
Ingredients:
Make a brine by heating the salt and water until the salt dissolves into the water. Remove from the heat and set aside. Place the prepared brussels sprouts in a large nonreactive bowl and set aside.
Combine the onion, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce in a food processor. Process until smooth, then pour into the bowl with the sprouts.
Add the gochugaru, and the scallions and carrots if using. Stir well to combine.
Pack tightly into a quart jar (or two pints if that’s what’s available), and pour the brine over to fill any remaining gaps in the jar.
Press down with a glass weight, and make sure again the liquid completely covers the veggies and comes to the top of the jar.
Top with a fermenting lid. The lids I have are very similar to 
Swap the fermentation lids for regular lids, store in the fridge, and enjoy!
Ingredients:
Add the baking powder and mix for an additional 5 minutes. (This feels like an insane amount of time to have to listen to a food processor and I absolutely did not do the whole 5 minutes.)
Bake 40-45 minutes, until the center is jiggly, but not liquid, and the very outside is set.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13″ pan with foil, grease the foil, and set aside.
Add the eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt, and beat until smooth.
Add the flour and continue to beat until just combined.
Stir in the Twix and chocolate chips until just evenly mixed.
Turn out into the prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is just about set.
Let cool completely before slicing. The blondies are thick enough that you can do fairly small pieces, entirely unlike I did…
Ingredients:
Add the graham flour and salt and mix well.
Mix in 2 cups of the bread flour.
Add as much of the remaining cup of bread flour as needed for a rough dough to begin to form, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead until soft and elastic, adding more bread flour if necessary – I needed the full 3rd cup, and then the dough was still quite moist but no longer a gloopy mess.
Form the dough into a ball and put it in a large greased bowl, turning the dough ball over so that it gets greased on all sides. Cover, and let rise somewhere warm until doubled in volume, 45-60 minutes.
Punch down the risen dough, divide in half, and shape into two loaves. Place in two greased bread pans, cover, and let rise again until doubled, another 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
When risen, bake for 30-40 minutes, until the the tops are golden brown, and the bottoms of the loaves sound hollow when tapped.
I think mine took toward the longer end of the time-frame. Cool on a wire rack. I do think the texture would suffer on this one if you cut it early and a ton of steam came out, so do be as patient as you can!
Ingredients:
Remove the cinnamon stick and place the milk over medium heat.
Once the milk has been heated again, add a few tablespoons of the milk to the egg yolk mixture, whisking as you add it in. Continue adding the milk slowly into the yolks, whisking all the time, until all the milk has been transferred to the bowl.
Transfer back to the saucepan, pouring through a sieve if you have any cooked egg chunks to remove. Return to medium heat and stir constantly until the mixture thickens, and becomes smooth.
Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, and transfer to a small bowl/dish. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly to the surface of the custard, so it can’t form a skin, and refrigerate several hours until chilled. The custard can be made several days in advance if desired.
To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tins for 16 cupcakes. (I actually got 18 cupcakes out of this much batter.) Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and set aside.
Add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk, mixing until combined.
Fold in the dry goods mixture.
Divide evenly into the prepared cupcake tins, filling the cups about 2/3 of the way full.
Bake until the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed on top, 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely before filling/frosting.
To make the frosting, beat the butter in a large bowl on medium-high speed for 4 minutes until smooth and fluffy, then add the syrup and beat another minute.
Add the powdered sugar, beating on low at first and then increasing to medium when most of it has been incorporated (and can’t fly up in your face). Add small amounts of powdered sugar or milk if the mixture is more liquid or stiff than you prefer.
To assemble, use a spoon, or even better an apple corer, to remove the center of each cupcake.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or maple candies, if desired. Store any uneaten cupcakes in the fridge.
Ingredients:
Turn out into the cake pan and spread evenly.
Bake until the cake passes the toothpick test and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice, adding more lemon juice if needed to get a good drizzling consistency.
When the cake is done baking, immediately run a knife around the sides of the cake, then turn out onto a cake rack with some foil or parchment underneath the rack. While the cake is still hot, drizzle the lemon glaze onto the cake, then let cool completely.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer until the berries have burst, 8-10 minutes.
In a small dish, combine the cornstarch and remaining tablespoon of water, stirring well, then whisk into the blueberry mixture. Simmer until thickened, another ~2 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. Serve spooned over a slice of the cake.
sparecake 