White Chocolate Snack Mix

White Chocolate Snack Mix
– adapted from an Alton Brown’s recipe for White Trash, no longer available from Alton but certainly searchable

Prep time: 15 minutes, give or take

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal
• 3 cups Chrispix rice/corn cereal
• 8 ounces M&M’s plain chocolate candy
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 cups small pretzels
• 1 (11 ounce) packages white chocolate chips (Ghirardelli brand preferred)

Directions:

1. Dump the cereals, M&Ms, nuts & pretzels in a large bowl.
2. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. Melt very slowly, stirring occasionally, being careful not to burn the chocolate.
3. Dump melted chocolate over the rest of the ingredients and fold over and over until you have well-coated hunks and chunks.
4. Spread the whole mess out on parchment paper and set in a cool place until it sets up, then break it into pieces.
5. Store in zip-top bags or air-tight containers.

Recipe can be doubled.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

We had 7 butternut squash kicking around the house thanks to our CSA share and not being around much last weekend. I had a vague idea in my head and found a couple of recipes online to provide inspiration. The result is this recipe which received 2 thumbs up from a child so it must have been good.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Prep time: 1.5 hours, give or take

Bake time: 55 minutes plus 15 minutes for cooling

Served 9 adults and 4 children ranging in ages from 11 to 2 as part of a meal with other stuff. Your mileage will certainly vary.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 # pounds butternut squash, split in half lengthwise, seeded
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and black pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped sage leaves
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided into 4 tbsp and 2 tbsp portions)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/8 ground chipotle (optional)
• 3.5 cups whole milk
• 1 pkg oven-ready lasagna noodles
• 2 cups (1 pkg) shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Rub the cut side of the butter squash, including the hollow created when removing the seeds, with olive oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and black pepper. Place cut side down on a large baking sheet. Cover tightly with foil and bake until a paring knife slides easily into the thickest part of the squash, 30-40 minutes. Remove the squash from the oven and allow to cool until you are comfortable holding it. Reduce the oven temp to 375°F.
2. While squash cools melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter over medium heat. Add chopped sage and cook for 2-3 minutes. If the sage starts to get dark remove the pan from the heat.
3. Once the squash is cool enough to touch remove the skin (or scoop the squash from the skin) and place the squash into the bowl of a food processor. Run the food processor until the squash is smooth. Add the melted butter and sage and process to incorporate. Taste and add salt & pepper to balance the flavors.
4. Melt the 4 tablespoons of butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour & ground chipotle; whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste..
5. Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times. At this point the lasagna can be covered with plastic wrap and let sit for a couple of hours if necessary..
6. When you are ready to bake it remove the plastic and tightly cover the baking dish with foil. Bake the lasagna for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, about 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Saturday night – 11/05/11

We’ve fallen behind on using the contents of our CSA boxes so this week I tried to use up some of the odds and ends. One of the difficulties with the CSA box is that there is rarely enough in one box to make enough of something specific for Saturday night. So I end up saving, for example, carrots in the hopes that next week there will be more carrots. Doesn’t seem to work that way.

Salad does accept many fine additions though.

Menu
Baked chicken drumsticks
Sweet & fingerling potato mash
Roasted rainbow carrots
Green salad with roasted beets, thin cut radishes & roasted poblano peppers

Gingerbread with pumpkin pecan butter

What’s in the box – week 22

Week 22 of our CSA share from Siena Farms comes after the crazy October snowstorm. I was a little afraid that the tender lettuces and such would be decimated. Apparently not. And despite warning 3 or 4 weeks ago that we wouldn’t see any more peppers there are a handful in this box.

In the top row we have frisee, panisse lettuce, purple cabbage, and treviso radicchio.

The second row has shallots, green bell peppers, another green that we’ve yet to identify (Ted thinks it is escarole) and leaf broccoli.

The bottom row has shunkyo radishes, parsley, watermelon radishes, carrots and parsnips.