A Family Holiday Favorite

I love holidays and I make a big deal out of all of them, especially Christmas. My favorite part of Christmas is finding fun things to give to my family members but my second favorite is, of course, the food! Christmas is probably my best excuse to make boatloads of cookies, fudge, and other holiday treats. When I have the time, I go through flour and sugar like I do oxygen. So the natural Christmas related post from me would probably be some sort of gingerbread cookie (my favorites) or other baked good, but my family spent the week before Christmas in Orlando and I lost pretty much every opportunity to make Christmas cookies.

This year, however, I took charge of Christmas dinner and have a recipe I'm really excited to share. I came across this recipe last year when planning on Thanksgiving meal and it has quickly become a family favorite. I don't remember where I found this recipe for butternut squash stuffing so I wrote out the recipe with a few of my own notes :)

Butternut Squash Stuffing:
12 cup(s) (from 1-pound loaf) sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Divide bread between two 15 1/2" by 10 1/2" jelly-roll pans or large cookie sheets. Place pans on 2 oven racks and toast bread 30 to 35 minutes or until golden, stirring bread and rotating pans between upper and lower racks halfway through toasting. Cool bread in pans on wire racks.
*I don't follow this part of the recipe very closely. I'm a big fan of whole grain/wheat bread so I usually just pick whatever crusty, nutty loaf looks the best that day and usually end up using the whole thing. I usually throw all the bread cubes in one pan and let them cool in that.

8 ounce(s) bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
-Meanwhile, in nonstick 12-inch skillet, cook bacon over medium heat 15 to 20 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to very large bowl.
*I don't usually use quite this much bacon, but I also don't measure my bread cubes either... now would probably be a good time to admit I really don't measure anything in this recipe. I use a whole butternut squash without weighing it (see below). I like an equal amount of squash and bread and prefer my stuffing drier, so I guesstimate measurements to turn out that way :)

1 (2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch chunks
3 stalk(s) celery, chopped
8 ounce(s) (about 4 large) shallots, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoon(s) chopped fresh sage leaves
Salt and ground black pepper
3 cup(s) chicken broth
-Remove all but 3 tablespoons bacon fat from skillet. Add butternut squash, celery, and shallots, and cook over medium-high heat 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender and shallots are lightly browned, stirring frequently. Remove skillet from heat; stir in sage, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
-To bowl with bacon, add bread and broth; toss to mix well. Add vegetable mixture and toss.
-Use squash mixture to stuff 12- to 16-pound turkey, or spoon into greased 13" by 9" glass baking dish. Cover baking dish with foil and bake stuffing in preheated 325 degrees F. oven 20 minutes. Remove foil and stir stuffing. Bake 25 minutes longer or until heated through and lightly browned on top.
*My family has never used the stuffing to actually stuff a turkey, but I'm guessing it would be delicious that way, too!

I swear this is the PERFECT holiday side dish, but it doesn't quite make a meal. My dad made a delicious turkey breast, Sally baked a big bowl of macaroni and cheese, and I threw together a couple more sides:

Fresh green beans sauteed with shallots and slivered almonds

Spinach salad with sliced pears, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts,
and goat cheese, tossed in champagne viangrette

Happy holidays :)

Dinner for One

Haha! You thought my poll was aimed at trying to figure out what you wanted me to write about! Not really, sorry, I'm going to continue to cook whatever I feel like cooking... I just got excited cause I found out I could make polls! So even though healthy main dishes aren't in first, you will just have to get over it and either read this anyway or go to some other cookie and brownie plastered website to drool over, but personal, I thought this rocked...

Usually cooking is the last thing I want to do when I get home from work, but on this particular past Thursday I didn't seem to mind. Besides, the recipe I'd had my eye on looked pretty easy, fairly quick, and utterly delicious! Once again, I'd been religiously checking smittenkitchen.com for a few good ideas, and when I came across this one I put it at the top of my list.

This recipe immediately got my attention because it includes one of my absolute favorite ingredients, winter squash. Butternut squash actually, and it's even roasted! How could you possibly dream of saying no? And better yet, one of my other absolute favorite ingredients was mixed in, chickpeas!!! Oh smitten kitchen, I do love you.

So I cut up a butternut squash, which is no easy task. Actually sliced into my finger a bit... but it's well worth it! Cubed then tossed in olive oil, garlic, and all spice, the roasting squash sent wafting out of the oven an absolute divine aroma.



I could've eaten the whole pan just like that, but I managed to resist and press on! Those lovely golden cubes of squash were tossed with chickpeas, sliced red onion, and parsley flakes (though I would definitely recommend using fresh parsley...) and drizzled with a tahini dressing.



You may be asking yourself, "what is tahini dressing?" Easy, it's a dressing made with tahini paste! If you're now wondering, "what is tahini paste?" then you might well go look it up because I've been wondering the same thing. We bought it a while ago for one reason or another, maybe a hummus recipe.... don't remember, and it never was used. I happened upon this recipe and pulled it out of the pantry. It's got quite a unique flavor, very nutty, but pairs well some olive oil and lemon juice. If you do decide to try out this recipe, however, I would recommend only making half a recipe of the dressing. It's good, but strong, and even though I polished off all of that salad within a couple days, I've got quite a bit of unused dressing sitting in my fridge, hoping for a purpose. Anyway if you're interested, you can find the recipe here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/warm-butternut-squash-and-chickpea-salad/#more-1870. I made it as a main course, but it was pair well as a side dish with something like a simple version of roasting/grilled/whatever chicken. It's simple, but elegant and unique, an excellent option if you're aiming to impress!