Eating Seasonally = Winter Squash
When you’re trying to eat seasonally you start to wonder what you’re going to be eating for veggies in the winter. I do have mache and spinach still growing in the garden for greens, as well as canned green beans, beets, and zucchini pickles in the pantry. All of these are wonderful, but one of the best winter vegetables is butternut squash. They’re super easy to store, mine are just sitting on top of the side table in my dining room. They will last for up to 6 months if stored properly. Now that’s amazing, no canning, freezing or preparing, just pile in a corner and check them every week or so, could it get any easier than that?
There’s just something about roasted squash that is warm and cozy. They’re also super healthy. Butternut squash is an excellent source of magnesium, potassium, vitamins C and A, and a good source of calcium.
So how do you go about eating a butternut squash? They can be cooked in a variety of ways: baked, pureed (like mashed potatoes), in muffins, in pies, in ravioli or lasagna, and in soups. We prefer ours in soup or roasted, although butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter occasionally graces our winter table. You can also eat the seeds if you’d like. I sometimes roast them in the oven, but most of the time I save them and throw them out by the bird feeder for the birds.
Most of the butternut squashes that grew in my garden this summer were small ones, but I did have a volunteer that grow out of my compost pile that produced a 3 pound squash. I bought 6-7 at the farmer’s market along with a few pumpkins and other kinds of squash.
Here’s my favorite Butternut Squash recipe.
Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup
from Fresh & Light (Williams-Sonoma)
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, 2.5 lbs
1 tablespoon of butter
2 slices of coarse country bread, each about 1/2 inch thick cut into 1/2 inch cubes (for croutons)
1 teaspoon of dried sage
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 small chipotle peppers (I’d start with 1 without seeds and then taste) I use canned ones
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
salt to taste
fresh sage leaves (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Using spoon, scrape out the seeds and any fibers and discard. Place the squash halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet and bake until just tender, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a bowl.
In a large saucepan over medium high heat, warm the butter. Add the bread and dried sage and saute, stirring often, until the bread cubes are browned on all side, about 4 minutes. Using a spoon, transfer croutons to a plate and set aside. Add the onion to the pan and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the squash chiles, and broth. Simmer over medium heat and cook, uncovered, until the squash is very soft, about 30 minutes.
Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth (or with immersion blender), be very carefully blending hot soup as it has a tendency to explode the top off the blender. It’s best to start with bursts of power then to full blend. Its also wise to keep a kitchen towel draped over the blender. I have found an immersion blender to be indispensable since we make many pureed soups.
Return soup to the pan and reheat gently. If desired add some whole milk and butter. Taste and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. Ladle into warmed bowls. Divide the croutons among the servings and garnish with sage leaves. Serve hot.
What’s you’re favorite way to eat butternut squash?
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Rain in the Garden
I always love to walk around the garden after a rain shower. Everything looks greener and brighter. On July 9, 2008 I snapped a bunch of photos of various leaves & flowers after the rain so I could enjoy them in the winter. Soon enough spring showers will be here again and this is what the gardens at Chiot’s Run will look like again.
Hosta Leaf
Balloon Flower
Red Maple Leaf
Day Lilly
Rain on Stem
Double Hollyhock
Easter Lilly
Petunia Leaf
What’s your favorite time to take a stroll around the garden?
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Free Burt’s Bees Lip Balm
This year one of my goals is to detox our personal care routines. It all started a couple months ago when I was thinking about what was in my chapstick as I put it on for the 15th time that day. I wondered what exactly my body was absorbing from it, so I started reading up on the toxins in shampoo, soap, lotion and other personal care products and the problems they can cause. Scary stuff I must say. The next time I was at the store I picked up a tube of Burt’s Bees Honey Chapstick. Now that I’ve been using Burt’s Bees for several months I noticed that it actually works, I’m not constantly putting on chapstick. I use it in the morning and I don’t need it again until right before I go to bed, unlike the other kind that I felt like I was constantly using.
So what are the ingredients in Burt’s Bees Honey Chapstick: beeswax, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, lanolin, symphytum officinale (comfrey) root extract, flavor, honey, tocopheryl acetate, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, tocopherol. I know what each and every one of those ingredients is and it’s much better than the ingredients in my previous chapstick.
So what were the ingredients in the previous Chapstick I was using: Octinoxate, Octisalate, Octocrylene, Oxybenzone, White petrolatum, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, alumina, arachidyl propionate, artificial flavor, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), cetyl alcohol, colloidal silicon dioxide, copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax, ethylhexyl palmitate, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, lanolin, medium chain triglycerides, methylparaben, mineral oil, octyldodecanol, oleyl alcohol, paraffin, phenyl trimethicone, polyhydroxystearic acid, propylparaben, saccharin, silica, titanium dioxide, vitamin E acetate, white wax.
Here are a few of the problems cause by some of the ingredients in my previous chapstick (and these are only the ingredients that I could find information on, who knows about the other ones):
Petrolatum: lung irritant upon inhalation; derived from petroleum; non-biodegradable environmental toxin.
Saccharin: suspected human carcinogen; causes liver, kidney, and bladder damage in animals, as well as reproductive damage and birth abnormalities.
BHT: endocrine disruptor, skin and lung toxicant at low doses; causes death, liver and stomach cancers, thrombosis, fibrosis and liver and brain damage in animals; strong skin and eye irritant.
Methylparaben: skin and eye irritant; endocrine disruptor linked to breast and ovarian cancer; environmental contaminant
Mineral Oil (liquid petrolatum): causes blood and skin cancer formations in animals; eye and skin irritant; derived from petroleum; non-biodegradable environmental toxin
Paraffin: petrochemical bleached with carcinogen acrolyn; releases carcinogens benzene and toluene upon heating; causes kidney or renal system tumor in animals; environmental toxin
Propylparaben: skin and eye irritant; endocrine disruptor linked to breast and ovarian cancer; environmental contaminant
Silica: linked to esophageal cancer, renal disease, pulmonary fibrosis, mesothelioma, sarcoma, rheumatoid arthritis, and bronchitis; strong nasal and lung irritant; wildlife toxicant; accumulates in the human body
So what’s wrong with putting all these chemicals on your lips or the any other parts of your body? First of all, your skin absorbs the chemicals from products you use (60-90% of them scientists say). If you don’t believe it think about those drug patches, one tiny patch and you body absorbs a weeks worth of drugs. Spend some time educating yourself on the ingredients in your personal care products and their possible side effects. Be careful because even some green, natural, and organic products contain many harmful chemicals. Where do you find information on these chemicals? The best book I have found is Julie Gabriel’s The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances
She includes a glossary of many of the toxic chemicals often used in products along with a reference guide for non-toxic products to try. She also includes a bunch of recipes for homemade non-toxic beauty products, I’m excited to whip up a few. Head on over to her a website and a blog, for even more information and recipes.
In order to encourage you to detox your routine I’m giving away the Burt’s Bees Mixed Lip Stash Pack shown above. Just comment on this post and I’ll have a random drawing in a few days to determine the winner. Good Luck!
Here’s to a non-toxic 2009!
I’ve also heard many people love the Yes to Carrots brand of chapsticks as well. Do you have a non-toxic product you love?
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80’s tastic!
One thing I love about blogging is that I always have my camera handy in my purse, just in case I see something blog worthy. I’ve been able to capture some great things this year, including this gem. The 80’s never went out of style here in Northeastern Ohio, some people are still living the 80’s life and loving it, just like this guy. When we passed him I thought, “Wow, you don’t see many cars like that on the road any more.”
You know, I love it when people embrace something and go all out. Rock on 80’s man!
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Here’s to a Healthier 2009 for the Planet
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I set goals of things I want to get better at each year. I usually make financial, health and environmental goals each year (and usually my environmental and health ones are the same, what’s good for the planet is also good for me).
Last year my environmental & health goals were:
1. To eat more locally & sustainably.
2. Replace regular items with more environmentally friendly alternatives when they needed replaced.
3. Reduce the amount of toxic products used to cleaning our home.
4. Grow some of my own food.
5. Reduce the amount of garbage we produce.
6. Become more conscious of our water usage and find ways to use less in the home and in the garden.
7. Reduce the amount of electricity that we use and find ways to do without electric items.
I was able to make great steps on all of these goals. We started buying food from the local farmer’s at the farmer’s markets, we started drinking raw organic milk from a local farm, and we purchased our poultry from a local farm as well.
We also grew a good amount of our own food, which is as local and sustainable as it gets! We probably were able to grow about 10% of our own food this summer.
This year started replacing items in the house with environmentally friendly items as they needed replacing and we will continue to do that this year. We were able to reduce the amount of garbage we were producing to 2 bags a month (we’re hoping to get that down to 1 this year). We accomplished this by trying to buy items with less packaging and by recycling and composting much of our waste.
We also built a rain barrel system to collect rain water for our outdoor water used. We were able to reduce our city water usage in the garden to almost 0 with this system. We also line dried our clothes this summer in our efforts to reduce our energy usage. We were also able to not use our air conditioner as much since it was a cool summer. Overall we were able to reduce our water and electric consumption by about 20% (our natural gas usage was down as well).
This year my goals are very similar:
1. To eat more locally & sustainably, particularly learning to eat more seasonally.
2. Replace regular items with more environmentally friendly alternatives when they needed replacing, paying particular attention to personal care products.
3. Learn to make my own environmentally friendly cleaning products and to find even better green alternatives than the ones I’m using.
4. Grow even more of my own food, hopefully around 20%, use more heirloom plants in the gardens.
5. Reduce the amount of garbage we produce to 1 bag per month.
6. Reduce the amount of water and electricity that we use.
I’m already working on a few of these. I have been reading a few books about green beauty products and I am replacing our personal care items right away (more on that next week). I have been researching making my own cleaning products and I already have used a few (vinegar works even better then my non-toxic toilet bowl cleaner). We are replacing our toilet tissue with Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue, 2-Ply Sheets, 500-Sheet Rolls (Pack of 48)
This year we’re also hoping to plant a few fruit trees and vines and to build a few more raised beds so we can grow even more of our own food. We’re also going to focus on using more heirloom vegetables and plants in the gardens.
We’re also going to keep trying to reduce the amount of garbage we produce by continuing to buy things with less packaging, buying second hand, or not buying things at all. We are going to switch to World’s Best Cat Litter because it’s compostable (you can compost the litter itself and the cat urine, all other goodies go in the garbage). This will not only reduce the amount of garbage we produce but it is a much more environmentally friendly product than the cat litter we currently use.
So what about you? Do you make resolutions or goals for the coming year? (notice the new poll today)
