Butternut Squash and Feta Savory Muffins

In the year plus since having Delicious, I haven't done the type of cooking I like to do. And now that we're settled in to our new home and a routine, I'm compelled to do healthier and more interesting than my usual sear and bake meat recipes. I'd like to join a CSA and do more all-vegetable meals. With Delicious eating more table foods, I want to expose him to bright, natural fare.

I started following Heidi at 101 Cookbooks, and really love her natural foods recipes. Today, I made these butternut squash and feta muffins. I love savory muffins, and bonus that these are almost biscuit like, without all the fat and butter.

It's a little time consuming, chopping the butternut squash/pumpkin (you can use either), but so worth it. They turn a bit sweet and nutty after roasting, and the feta and parm in the recipe provide a nice salty contrast. The spinach and parsley add a bit of grass, green brightness to the dense little savory cake.

I can't wait to have one each morning with a cup of coffee.
Hope you try these out. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Feta Muffins by Martha Goes Green via 101 Cookbooks

The recipe calls for 2 cups of flour. There are a couple different flour combinations you might explore. The original: you can use unbleached all-purpose flour - 2 cups / 9 oz / 260g. Alternatively, Heidi uses equal parts APF and spelt flour which translates to 1 cup / 4.5 oz/ 130g APF + 1 cup / 4 oz / 115g spelt flour. I might try a whole wheat pastry flour version next time - using 2/3 wpp + 1/3 apf, the first time around - to see how that goes. You might need to add an extra splash of milk though.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups / 9 oz / 255g cubed pumpkin or butternut squash, 1/2-inch cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 large handful of baby spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
3 tablespoons sunflower seeds kernels
3/4 cup / 1 oz / 30g freshly grated Parmesan
100g / 3.5 oz / 1/2 cup cubed feta
2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup / 180 ml milk
2 cups flour (see headnote!)
4 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

Preheat oven to 405F / 200C, with rack in the top third. Use the butter to grease a 12-hole muffin pan and set aside.
Sprinkle the olive oil and some salt and pepper over the squash. Toss well and turn onto a baking sheet or roasting pan. Arrange in a single layer and bake for 15 - 25 minutes or until cooked through entirely. Set aside to cool.
Transfer two-thirds of the squash to a large mixing bowl along with the spinach, parsley, sunflower seeds, Parmesan, two-thirds of the feta, and all of the mustard. Gently fold together. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together and add to the squash mix. Sift the flour and baking powder onto the squash mix, top with the salt and a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper and fold together just until the batter comes together, be careful not to over mix.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, filling each hole 3/4 full, top each muffin with a bit of the remaining squash and feta (see photo up above). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops and sides of the muffins are golden, and the muffins have set up completely. Let cool for a couple minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. I like these muffins cooled a bit, served just warmer than room temperature.
Makes 12 muffins.
Adapted from a recipe in Martha Goes Green by Rosie Percival and Ruth Friedlander. Available for purchase here.
Prep time: 20 min - Cook time: 60 min

Things of late

I'll skip the usual apologies about neglecting this blog. Some of you, with your sweet comments, inspire me to get things going again.

Truth is, I've been ridiculously busy at work and completely uninspired, what with the news of Picnik closing --and being replaced by the watered-down worst that is Google+ Creative Suite (or some such garbage attempt to drive users to G+)--and all. Boo, Google+, boo. Very poor form. G+ is lameface, as the kids say, for reasons beyond the completely moronic decision to let a brilliant product like Picnik die. But I digress. I'm, indeed, the lameface for letting this blog languish.

Anyhoo, how was your Valentine's? Ours was low key and spent at home. In previous years, we did tongue-in-cheek nods to the holiday; and this year, we didn't even bother with it really. I will say that I LOVED THE AMAZING CHOCOLATES that G got me. Have you ever heard of Christopher Elbow? No? Well, you need to know what amazing chocolate feels like on your tongue, all silky smooth, delicate, sophisticated, nuanced. It's a very special thing, these chocolates. Given, I did eat the 20-some pieces in the span of a week; however, I did so, one quiet, savored bite at a time. With (mostly dark chocolate) truffle flavors as sublime, unusual, and decadent as bananas curry, rosemary, and pear, you can only sit quiet, contemplative, and stunned. They're that good. (Validation also comes with a #1 rating for chocolate from Food and Wine.)

With flavors like rosemary, lavender, fleur de sel, and bananas curry, this is not your mother's Godiva.

In other news, Mr. Delicious is in his big boy car seat. We took our first ride in it today when we went to the barber shop (his second time, and he did very well-no tears!). I think he really likes the seat and just looks around, taking in the great new view. We're grateful to G's brother who gave us four, yes FOUR, of these seats. That's how they managed two children and two cars. We love hand-me-downs: no waste and free.

N-used seat and shoes and loving the new view. NOTE: We changed this to rear facing after visiting our ped the next day.*

Speaking of hand-me-downs, our neighbors came over for drinks last night and brought over another two pairs of shoes for Delicious. They previously gave us four pairs: two in size 4.5, and two in 5. He's only now starting to wear the 5's and now we don't have to worry about buying him size 6. Awesome. It's nice having such nice neighbors...with a son a few months older than Mr. D. Also, we went to a separate neighbor's three-year old daughter's birthday party. This is my life now. Sigh. I went reluctantly, as G refused. "It's a three year old girl's birthday",  he underscored. Got it. It actually wasn't that bad. There was this local kids' musician, named Mr. Skip, who played old favorites and did slapstick as the little girls danced around in fairy costumes and tu-tus. It wasn't as sketchy as it sounds. Seriously.

Also, one year ago this weekend, we packed the last of our boxes and moved out of our beloved place in the city. ONE YEAR AGO. Time flies. I find myself saying that a lot. It really does. Maybe it's that the milestones are so large and monumental that they stay so vivid in my mind, as if they occurred yesterday. Sigh, again.

One year ago this weekend, we packed up the last of our boxes and moved out of our city home for a new life in the burbs.

The house is slowly coming together. It goes without saying that I love this house. It feels like a home, and I'm excited for the things to come. We're getting a lot of the artwork up and got a couple more pieces of furniture; I'll try to post photos soon.

*Though Delicious meets the weight requirements for this seat (he's way over 20 lbs), he is not mature enough physically to be sitting front facing. The new rear-facing til two years old guideline is based on the fact that in a head-on collision young children don't have the neck strength to withstand such trauma; they wouldn't have the strength until at least two years of age. A rear facing seat would mitigate this. And though a child may meet the weight and height requirements for a front-facing seat, it's the age that's key.