Baked Whole Butternut Squash - Who Knew?

I live on the lakeshore in beautiful Grand Haven, Michigan.  The summers here are so lovely, with the beach and the water and the tourists, live music, festivals...

...but the winters are NO joke.  "Harsh" is an understatement. Historically, I turn to "comfort food," which translates to anything warm and cheesy, warm and sugary, or warm and carby.  
I've been working hard on a healthier lifestyle and have long been a vegetarian.  When the weather changed from tropical to TORRID...I began to crave my delicious comfort food, and had to find an alternative.  I love squash!  :)

I found this GIANT butternut last week and was dreading trying to split it.  I figured, hey..why not?  SO I took a leap of faith and did something DARING......I cooked it whole!  (I know, crazy.)

This was the easiest thing EVER. I did not prepare the squash in any way at all.   I laid it on an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet, set the oven to 375 and waited, hoping it wouldn't burn my house down or explode.  Neither happened, but in about a half hour, my house smelled just heavenly.

I cooked this for about ah hour and a half...I knew it was finished when I could poke a fork in the thickest spot with no resistance. When it cam out, I noticed, to my DELIGHT, that the skin had pulled form the meat and it...omggg it caramelized!

I impatiently let it cool a little and split it open...ohhhhh, hello, lover.

I scooped the seeds and removed the skin, which was so easy.  Zero waste.

And .....here's my yield.

That's a LOT.  Because I didn't split or prick the squash, the inside steamed perfectly in its own juices.  The caramelization of the skin gave it a wonderful, rich flavor  It was perfect and now this my go-to technique for squash!   This is loaded with nutrients and was good enough to eat plain, no butter, salt, nothing. I've always been reluctant to buy/cook butternuts because I have an awful time splitting them and I hated peeling them. 

I ate almost all of it *haha*..and froze some for later.  Later..tomorrow. :)



Enjoy!

Delicious Butter Baked and Broiled Cabbage Slabs.

OH my heavens.

I'm a vegetarian.  I don't know how or why this even happened, but over the course of a year, maybe two, I found myself really loving a meatless lifestyle.  I do love animals, but I'm not going to throw ketchup on your furs, I'm just feeling a lot better going veggie. AND I get to eat dishes like THESE for BREAKFAST!

SO here's how its done..and there's nothing complicated about this at ALL so please tweak my recipe to your liking.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Your cabbage:  I cut mine into 1/2 inch slabs. I like my cabbage "al dente"..not slimy and flaccid. (giggle)

Prepare your cookie sheet by brushing it with some olive oil.  give it a good coat.

Now. lay down your cabbage slabs and just smear the heck out of them with REAL, salted BUTTER.  OH yeah, baby....I said it.  BUTTER.  It's good for you.  Get that butter all over the place.  Grind some sea salt and some fresh peppercorns on top of that.  OH MY GOSH.

NOW we COOK!

Put. It. In. The. Oven.  Now set your timer for 20 minutes, but check at about 15 minutes.  When the bottoms are becoming brown and the cabbage is turning translucent, flip 'em...let them bake for 15 more minutes.

Now turn your oven to broil and give them a nice brown.  The tops will caramelize with the butter and THAT'S what we're looking for.  My oven took about 7 minutes, yours might take more or less time, so keep your eye on it.

Here's what we want to see:

LAWD ALMIGHTY.

You're almost done.  You can eat this as is and its delicious.  If you're a carnivore, add some bacon bits.  I love to serve mine with some good marinara, and a sprinkling of parmesan....whatever you decide, I promise, that caramelized cabbage, butter and salt and pepper is absolutely to die for. 

Here's mine, seconds before I devoured it. (at 10am)  haha!  Enjoy! 

Tell me how you tweaked this to you or your family's liking in my comment section!  

Thanks for visiting!

Karen

Little Carved Carrot Hearts

We do not vaccinate.  

SO...with that, we count on fresh air, lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of sleep, copious amounts of clean, cold water, and carved carrot hearts.

Today, I made a delicious turkey and vegetable soup, with chickpeas, kale, corn, celery, garlic, onion, and...lots of little carved carrot hearts.

Not only is this just the cutest thing ever, it's well known to have great power to keep illness at bay, I swear!

We've made it through this cold/flu season without incident (so far)....knock on wood! :)

I'm sure it's the carrots.

These are rather self explanatory to make....simple, even.  Cut a "v" shape in the top, then use your peeler to shape the rest.  Easy peasy...it's the love that goes into this extra step that keeps illness at bay.

Enjoy!

Tutorial Time! I Made My Very Own Handmade Sign!

Welp, I bit the bullet and did something I thought I would hate...pained a sign.  It looks hard, and it looks fussy, messy, and I hate painting intricate things.  Give me an old dresser and I'll paint that all day.  Ask me to paint a leaf?  Or a spiral or a cottage rose and you're on your own.

So, here's what I did:  I made this! 

Not bad, eh?  It cost me a whole  $0.53.  Yes, fifty-three cents.  I had most of the materials on hand, and I found the wood at the Habitat For Humanity Re-Sale Shop.  It's an old cabinet from someone's kitchen.

Here's how I did this.

Coat your old cabinet with a couple of coats of primer.  I found this in our garage, so I used this.

This stuff is goopy and snotty and smelly, so use a foam brush that you can just toss.  Let it dry really well and give it a couple of coats of acrylic paint.  I used these:

Here's one that's on my workbench, waiting for a little more love.

Now, we're going to get down to business, and I apologize for not having photos of this step, but I was getting down to business!

Print your message out on your printer, to the exact size that you want your letters on your sign.

Cut them out and tape them very gingerly onto your painted board, with a piece of ordinary carbon paper underneath.

I used this:

I had this laying around, but I believe you can purchase this at Office Max or Staples for less than $2.00.  

NOW....trace around your letters.  Take your time.  Use a ballpoint pen and push hard enough to leave a bit of an indent in your wood.  This helps the paint "stay in the lines,."  Use a teeny tiny pointed brush...here's a photo of my brush collection. Yes, I have a problem.  I love craft supplies.

The super pointy one?  That's the one.  Outline your letters, then fill in with a thicker brush.  Take your time, take breaks....relaxxxxx.

When you are satisfied with your masterpiece, give it a light sanding....I used "finishing" sandpaper (pictured above)...I sanded a bit heavier along the edges, and lighter over the letters, but the overall effect was "weathered."  I think I did great.  Here's a closeup.  See my corneres, there?  And the white kind of showing through toward the bottom?

I considered an antiquing finish as well, but I was simply tickled with what I had, so I finished off with a light varnish, added a couple of sawtooth hangers and BOOM.  I made a sign for fifty-three cents.

I would estimate that had I purchased all of my materials, this would have still cost less than $20.00 to make!  

OK, your turn!  Really, give it a shot!  This project only took a couple of days due to drying time, and was well worth it! 

Here is my next victim! I found this sweet thing hanging out at the end of someone's driveway on trash day!

What should I do with THIS little sweetie?