Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale White Lasagna and Apple Brown Sugar Muffins

First Butternut Squash of the season! I got it in my CSA last saturday and have been dying to eat it all week. Last night I finally got around to peeling it ('cause honestly, that's the only thing that holds me back from eating winter squash). I decided to make a white lasagna (I'm all about the homemade vegan cheese lately for some reason...super-comfort food?) with roasted butternut squash and some kale.

I chopped up one whole butternut squash and drizzled some olive oil, sea salt, and pepper over it and roasted it in the oven until tender (25 min.?) In the meantime, I boiled half a box of lasagna noodles and made the cheese sauce. This has verrrry very quickly become my new default cheese sauce; sooo goood! It gets really thick too (can be thinned with water). I carmelized some onions in the pan before I started to mix in the sauce ingredients. You'll only like this sauce if you are a big nooch fan though (which I am!) Super-noochy! Does the word "nooch" remind anyone else of Jay and Silent Bob?

When the squash is tender and done and delicious, mash up in a bowl. I just layered all the ingredients in a pan, noodles, mashed squash, raw kale leaves, cheese sauce. Repeat. Top with some chopped chives. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the noodles start to get a bit crispy on top.




I still have a bajillion apples that I need to get rid of (and 5 more lbs. coming on saturday!!!), so I made super-awesome muffins tonight. I had a sweet tooth and was getting really sleepy-eyed, so I needed something to fix both of those problems. Sleepy-eyed-ness was cured by getting off my butt and going into the kitchen. I have a default muffin base that I use, which modify with a different fruit and spices. It comes from AmyArgh's Blueberry Muffin recipe (which I know that I have raved about before). It's super-simple and you just throw everything in a bowl and mix.

Apple Brown Sugar Muffins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup veg. or canola oil
2 ENER-G eggs
1/3 cup soy milk
a few shakes of cinnamon
1 apple, chopped tiny

Topping:
1 apple, cut into 12 slices
brown sugar

Mix all the ingredients together into a bowl, adding apples in last (should be cookie dough consistancy). Spoon into lightly oiled or greased muffin pan. Sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar (it gets all melty and carmel-like after it's done baking, mmmm) and top with a wedge of apple. Bake for 25 minutes!



I've been hard at work on 12 new paintings. I reached the half-way point tonight, and hope to bust my ass this week to finish them all. They are going to go into my 2009 calendar and will eventually become individual prints for my shop. They are making me really happy so far!