The Pauley Principle: butternut squash

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Showing posts with label butternut squash. Show all posts

Monday, November 28, 2011

A Most Improved Pie!

Pumpkin-squash pie in a buttery shell. 100% Pure YUM!!!

On Thanksgiving at our house, the pumpkin pie flew off the plates before my husband and I got a piece, save the one remaining gluten-free pie to send home with my daughter.

So I made another one the next day, got a late start on it and had to serve it piping hot from the oven right before bedtime. The pie was so hot, the whipped cream melted and oozed over the sides. Chris said he had never eaten a pie that tasted so good! (I believe anticipation is a natural flavor enhancer!) This pie is an amended version of the recipe I gave in an earlier post.

What made the pumpkin pie better than ever? The fact that it was hot? I think not. Before I started, I looked up pumpkin pie in my vintage James Beard cookbook and found that, while some folks like pumpkin for pies, others preferred squash. Butternut squash.

If possible, start your pie with fresh produce. The result will be complex and sweeter. Like a fine wine, the taste will reach more parts of your mouth, giving a more satisfying flavor.

Here is the beautiful blended pulp from pumpkin and butternut squash.

This year, we were blessed with a patch full of butternut squash. I asked my husband's English cousin if she'd ever heard of combining both pumpkin and squash for pie. She hadn't, but I decided to give it a try. Like its sister, the pumpkin, the butternut squash cooks nicely. After making a pulp of the butternut, I found it to be sweeter, orangier (yeah, I made it up), and thicker than pumpkin. Combining the two freshly-made pulps gave us an incredibly flavorful pie! Admittedly, I used a rasp and ground the nutmeg. Then, instead of using "pumpkin pie seasoning", I used my own blend of seasonings (cinnamon, nutmeg, a little clove) and added a pinch of salt, which acts as a flavor enhancer. (You don't really need the salt if you make your palate wait. The anticipation will do the trick!) Since I used fresh, naturally-sweet butternut squash, less refined sugar is required.

Some of our family members cannot eat ginger, so I avoid it. I make up for the absence of ginger by using additional cinnamon.

After the blended pulps, seasonings, milk, and duck eggs have been thoroughly mixed, I poured the batter into homemade, buttery pie crusts. Yes, I used real butter. All of this takes time. Lots of time, compared to picking up a pie at the baker's. Allow for the time unless you also like the idea of piping hot pumpkin pie at midnight!

TIP: If you can't raise your own veggies, buy locally-grown fresh produce whenever you can. It's good for the local economy, it's good for the environment, and it's better for you
and those you serve!

Any pumpkin pie tricks you'd like to share?

Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!