What happened to the days when I came up with blog posts in my sleep? There was a time when I usually had 2 or 3 posts in draft form waiting for the right day to post them. I can’t seem to pull a coherent thought out of my arse lately though. It couldn’t have anything to do with the sleep deprivation…of course not.
Today I will scrub my kitchen in order to prepare it for all of the baking and cooking over the next 2 days. Sure, I wipe things down daily and keep it half way decent, but I figured I’m going to be making 6 mini pies, a turkey, potatoes, rolls, and all of the other fixin’s and since I can’t make anything without a huge mess, I had better get things sorted out ahead of time. You might be wondering why a household with only 3 people and a baby needs that many pies. I’d be happy to bake the traditional pumpkin and call it a day, but if I did that I would be eating pumpkin pie for the next week or so because I’m the only person who likes it around here. Thus, I will be making 2 mini chocolate cream pies, 2 mini lemon meringue pies, and 2 butternut squash pies. I decided to go with the butternut because it sounded good and I have a butternut squash to get rid of before it goes moldy and gross.
Here’s the recipe that I plan on using (from Suite101.com)…
Butternut Squash Pie
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups crushed gingersnaps
20 oz butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (about 3 cups)
1-1/4 cups nonfat greek yogurt
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Preparation
Toss gingersnaps with melted butter in a bowl. Spread into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Take out of the refrigerator and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool.
Turn oven temperature up to 400 degrees.
Put butternut squash in a roasting pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until fork tender and lightly browned. Alternately, place in microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 5-6 minutes, until fork-tender. Puree squash and remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Pour into crust. Bake in 400-degree oven for 15 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 and bake another 40-50 minutes until set.
The best part is (besides the crust made of crushed gingersnaps…yum), it’s low(-ish) fat! I’m thinking this will probably make more than 2 mini pies, but I’m going to freeze whatever is left and use it later.
