Friday, November 29, 2013

Butternut Squash

My dad visited a farmer to buy apple cider and the farmer asked if he wanted some squash that hadn't sold. He said that if it wasn't used soon, it would go bad, and he wasn't going to use it. My dad knows his daughter, and got them for me.

This starts to happen when people find out you cook from scratch a lot. They say, "Can you use this up? I have more than I could possibly use." And they give it to you instead of throwing it out.

That's one of the keys to keeping your grocery bills low: Using what you already have in creative ways instead of buying more. And sometimes, using what other people already have!

Butternut Squash is prepared just like pumpkin.

You cut it in half.

Then scoop out the seeds and the worst of the gunk and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Then you puree it just like you would pumpkin, just tossing it in the blender or vitamix.

I got some and mixed it with brown sugar and butter, then warmed it on a pot on the stove. It made an excellent side dish.

I put the rest of the butternut squash puree in Ziploc bags and plopped in the freezer to be used at a later time. You can use pretty much anyway you'd use pumpkin. In pie, muffins, cookies, soups, whatever you'd normally make with pumpkin. Most of our Thanksgiving leftovers are finished already (teenage boys live here--enough said!) except for the sweet potatoes. I plan on making a squash/sweet potato casserole. You know the kind people make with marshmallows on top? Mmmmm.... I'll let you know how it goes in another blog post!

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