Butternut squash macaroni and cheese with hazelnut crumble

The wind chills and snow are hitting us hard lately here in western NY! I actually had a snow day from my regular job this past Friday. That means it's time for comfort foods that warm up your belly and soul.

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item from these links, a small percentage goes to support the work of this blog. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Butternut squash mac n' cheese is something that I used to make rather frequently, then I didn't make it for a couple of years (not sure why - maybe because I was making so many other kinds like this and this and this). Surprisingly, it never ended up on the blog until now. To make it even more delicious, I've added a hazelnut crumble topping.  

We do like to go out and snowshoe, hike, and birdwatch in the winter, but lately it's been just too cold and so bitterly windy that we have been laying low in our free time. 

That means warm blankets, knitting, too much Netflix, steaming mugs of tea, and warming comfort food. When I make mac n' cheese, it's usually the main course for our meal. A side salad helps round it out a lot. This dish will serve about four to six people as a main dish. 

Also, I recently got a smartphone (for the first time ever!) and am finally on Instagram - it would be awesome if you would follow me (and I'll try to follow you back). You can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest. 

Chinese kabocha squash and sesame pancakes

It's already Week 10 of 12 Weeks of Winter Squash! I have been trying to get a recipe posted for every week of the event because we have so many winter squash in the basement and a variety of kinds. This event helps me to not only use them up, but makes me come up with new ways to use them because I already have a lot of winter squash recipes posted. So far I've been successful in getting a new recipe ready for each week.

This recipe is inspired by this one that I've been interested in trying. After several unsuccessful tries to find glutinous rice flour at a few different stores, I found sweet rice flour at an Asian market around the corner. It worked and they were delicious! We ate these as an appetizer to orange chicken and rice. I did not make these as sweet as the couple of recipes I read. They were still plenty sweet, especially with a drizzle of honey. They'd also be a fun dessert. They are crunchy on the outside and creamy and sweet in the middle. Kabocha is one of my favorite winter squash - it's so colorful, sweet, and dense.

Three cheese-garlic pizza on pumpkin pizza dough

Well, here is my first post of 2015! I can't believe it's January again already. Winter time is a good time for pizzas (actually we eat pizza pretty regularly around here - homemade pizza is a common Friday/Saturday dinner!) 

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item from these links, a small percentage goes to support the work of this blog. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Ever since I saw this Pumpkin Pizza Dough recipe, I've been very intrigued by the idea of incorporating winter squash puree into a pizza dough. I was surprised by how nice the pizza dough turned out - I thought the puree would make it too wet or difficult to work with, but that wasn't the case at all! It turned out perfectly. 

You can't really taste the pumpkin/squash flavor in it, but it adds a depth of savory flavor to the crust. For a first try, I stuck with a cheese pizza to see how the crust tasted, but now I think you could put pretty much any pizza toppings on it that you'd like. 

This dough recipe will make two 10-11 inch pizzas. The pizza recipe is also for making two pizzas. I think the dough would also make terrific breadsticks or dinner rolls - something I will likely try in the future. Also, you can use pretty much any cooked and pureed winter squash in this dough. 

I used Long Island Cheese Pumpkin because we have so many, but others like butternut, regular pumpkin, hubbard, etc. would work as well. I used homemade pumpkin puree, but canned is perfectly fine.

Chocolate chip snowball cookies

Mini chocolate chips are nestled into these delicious little buttery cookies that are coated in powdered sugar to look like festive snowballs. 

Roasted heirloom sweet meat squash and chestnut soup

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item from these links, a small percentage goes to support the work of this blog. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

A sweet, rich, and creamy soup that is perfect for a cold autumn or winter day. It's made with a beautiful blue heirloom squash called "sweet meat" and it lives up to its name. This squash is sweet, dense, and meaty and the flesh is a beautiful bright orange - you just know this sucker is going to fill you up with vitamins. 

My father-in-law grew it in his huge garden this year, so we received a few of them. I had never seen these squash before so as a HUGE winter squash lover, I was very excited to try a new kind! Look at how pretty it is!

Of course, if you can't find your very own sweet meat squash, you can substitute a blue hubbard, kabocha, or red kuri squash as they are somewhat similar in texture and sweetness. You can also grow you own sweet meats next year! They make beautiful decorations, too! 

This soup will serve four as a side or starter. It's filled with other holiday flavors like chestnuts, apple, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.