Brown Butter Spiced Winter Squash Bread

Oh boy. This was a good one. I think I easily polished off the whole loaf by day two.
The spices! The texture! Oh my I do adore this cakey bread.

The recipe comes from none other than my current favourite Ms. Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. I followed the recipe pretty much completely as is, except I used walnut oil instead of hazelnut, and I made my own garam masala-esque blend of spices (coriander, cumin, ginger, black pepper, bay leaf, cardamom, and clove).
One bizarre thing I did do though was NOT measure my squash. Yup, that's right, I chopped, roasted, and pureed it but somewhere in my zombie mom brain I didn't think about measuring the damn stuff. Oh well, turns out lady luck was on my side and this turned out great. Now the only thing is I wonder how it'll turn out the next time...

Winter Panzanella Salad

The last few days have felt like a bit of a whirlwind, but I'd like to think that this salad has helped keep me grounded. Maybe that sounds silly but I really think comfort food has the ability to soothe the mind as well as nourish the body. 

We started looking at houses this week, with no expectations to actually find one we liked. But of course we DID find one we love, very very much. So now my husband and I have been full of anxious nervous energy for the last few days and I'm using food as a way to try to bring us back down to earth. 

All the nerve-wracking waiting feels slightly less obvious while I'm chopping apples for applesauce, or stirring a hot pot of soup. 

After falling in love with Feisty Chef's Panzanella Salad this summer I couldn't help but let my mind wander into other seasons full of other produce that might be adaptable to this delicious bread salad. I remembered seeing a winter panzanella salad on Smitten Kitchen years ago and decided to just google it and see how the world out there is interpreting it. Well it turned out that Michael Chiarello made a pretty damn good salad that caused a flurry of bloggers to follow suit, including SK and now of course myself.   

Moroccan Chickpea Soup

Have I ever mentioned my love for tomato based soups? No?
Well let this be a gentle reminder that the way to my heart is with a bowl of piping hot soup that contains little or lots of tomatoes.

Fennel, Pear & Squash Soup

If you like squash soup, you'll probably like this.
If you want a new way to make squash soup, you'll probably love this.

Squash Soup with Kale & Bacon

Mmmm...
A hearty fall soup with a sweet creamy squash broth, hearty kale and salty bacon. What more could you want?

Mac & Cheese with Squash

Now I know what you're thinking. Why would I ever go searching for another macaroni and cheese recipe when I've already found the best one ever? Well, for starters I wasn't searching...it just sort of fell in my lap. But I'm quite okay with having two wonderful mac & cheese dishes up my sleeve, especially when they are worlds apart from each other.


Unlike my all time favourite, this dish gets lots of its creaminess from butternut squash. I think the balance between the cheese and the squash is just perfect. It doesn't taste like it's desperately trying to be healthy, hiding vegetables between cheesy noodles. It tastes like the squash has just as much of a right to be there as the cheese. Like it's been there all along and you've never even noticed.

Squash & Caramelized Onion Pizza

This pizza was the result of a marriage between two of my favourite fall dishes: Squash & Caramelized Onion Galette, and Fennel and Caramelized Onion Tart.


Last year I made the squash galette more times than I care to count, and slowly felt more and more guilty for consuming so much buttery tart dough. After I experienced quite the obsession with pizzas this summer, I figured why not make my favourite tarts into one pizza?