Decadent Squashes

I cannot believe how fast time flies. Here I am, writing my heart out so often, then next thing I know, 2 months fly by without a single word from me! It's not because nothing exciting happened, the opposite in fact. This is the reason for my blog tardiness….I just had no time. I've come to realize that I don't like having no time, but such is the reality of this life. What happened over the past 2 months, well, my birthday, a family holiday, and the beginning of a new adventure. That's all I'm going to say about it right now, as those are not the reasons for today's homecoming. I will be sure to write more in the near future.

Today's topic, however, is SQUASH! Growing up I never really cared much for squash of any kind. I don't know if it was the texture or lack of natural taste, or maybe the fact that I only was introduced to spaghetti squash and it was always baked with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, which growing up was not to my liking on any food. Whatever the reason, I never really went for squash…until recently. My taste buds have found a new friend. The first new squash I discovered this past week are Mayan heirloom squash. They are green and roughly the size of a tennis ball. (sorry for the bad pic)

The pkg said it was the best tasting squash in the world, so I dared to test this theory. I purchased a pkg of them at Costco (always a good deal for fruits and veggies) and took them home. I washed them, thickly sliced them, then fried them in a bit of coconut oil with a slight sprinkling of, you guessed it, salt and pepper and a dash of garlic powder. The outcome…utter deliciousness! I will be looking for these little lovely squash again.

My second run-in with amazing squash this week happened whilst in Calgary for a couple days. I spent the day with my friend, Stephanie, and she took me to her favourite little restaurant for breakfast. It's called Diner Deluxe and has a fun, retro, 50's feel about it. For anyone living in the Calgary area, I definitely recommend it. Not only is it a fun place to sit and visit, but the menu items are amazing healthy, organic and most importantly, delicious! I decided to have some buckwheat pancakes and it came with some maple squash butter. Not knowing what to expect, I awaited the arrival of my plate. Was I in for a pleasant surprise. With my beautiful looking pancakes was this mound of orange paste, which, when tasted, caused a smile to spread across my face. It was a lightly maple flavoured squash puree that I spread thickly across my pancakes. It was remarkable how good it tasted. I was determined to make this creation on my own, knowing it probably wouldn't be half as good as this.

On my Costco day, when I purchased those delightful little mayan squashes, I also bought some pre-cut, pre-pkged butternut squash and thought I would give it a whirl. I then went to my friend, the google search engine, to see what I could find. I came across this recipe for maple squash butter from Kitchen Opera. I gave it a try and the outcome was pretty good for a first go.

First I boiled the squash till it was soft. I then used my magic bullet to puree the squash and poured it into a large pot.

I then added…

1/4 cup 100% pure maple syrup
pinch sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
I couldn't find whole cloves as the recipe called for 2, so I put in about 1tsp and a bit of ground cloves. I think this was bit much, but did give the butter a bit of a spicy edge to it that's not bad
1/4 tsp nutmeg
juice from 1/2 lemon

I added all this to the pot and stirred it all together heating everything up (although my puree was still piping hot, so it didn't take long).

I then turned it down to low for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When my husband came over to try it he said, with a smile, it smelt like his favourite cigars which have cloves in them. So I guess that means I created a cigar smelling squash butter haha.

Needless to say, it tastes amazing and I've put some in the fridge to have on toast or pancakes and froze the rest in small containers. As it's been in the fridge it's thickened up nicely.

I can see using a variation of this recipe for my kids' food when they first start on solids. That is, down the road when I have kids :)

Well, this concludes my squash excitement for the day. Try this out if you like. It's all natural and the only sugar is what is contained naturally in the maple syrup, which for the amount of squash butter this made is not very much. If you still don't want to use that sugar, you could opt for no sugar added maple syrup or I'm sure you could add a bit of sweetening using some liquid stevia and use maple flavoured cappella drops. That would probably work too!

Enjoy and I'll try not be too long before I write again!
Till next time