in my last post, i inundated all of you with lots and lots of cookie recipes. so i thought that in this week, post-holiday festivities and indulgences, i would give you a hearty, low cal, and extremely satisfying recipe.
mike and i are lucky enough to celebrate the christmas holiday with three different and fantastic sets of family: my mom, mike’s parents, and my dad. for the celebration at my mom’s this year, we decided to give edible presents to each other for various reasons, but the biggest of which is that we all love baked goods (it runs in the family, i guess). mike and i got a little overzealous about the project and selected not one, not two, not three, but yep, you guessed it, FOUR different kinds of cookies to give away. we chose to make: 1. krumkakes; 2. cocoa-coconut macaroons; 3. vegan strawberry pinwheels; and 4. cinnamon stars.
i promised all of you the recipe for my homemade applesauce that i made for our sixth annual latke party, and so here it is as an early christmas present! i have to start off with the disclaimer that i LOVE apples, but i am really not a huge fan of applesauce. there aren’t many things that i enjoy as much as a crispy, tart, and flavorful bite of apple. my dad used to take me apple tasting at the ucsc farm and garden when i was little, and taught me to really delight in the differences between apple varieties – kind of like wine tasting for all ages. now, i look forward to picking out all sorts of new and exciting varieties of apples (plus the old favorites) to eat and compare notes with mike on the sweetness, crispness, texture, bite, etc.
way back in december of 2003, i was sitting at the dentist office, waiting for my turn to have my teeth cleaned, and i stumbled across an article about latke parties. the article suggested throwing a food-based holiday party instead of coordinating a gift-giving secret pal party or a white elephant party. the article advocated latkes and homemade applesauce as the food of choice, and i decided that we had to throw a latke party that year to celebrate the holidays and create a secular event that all of our friends could attend, regardless of religious beliefs. and let’s face it, fried potatoes and homemade applesauce are amazing.
now that it’s winter and butternut squash is in the stores again, i can finally share one of my all time favorite recipes with you – yep, you guessed it from the title – butternut squash lasagna. ever since mike and i stumbled across it in the april 2006 vegetarian times, it’s held a very special place in our hearts and stomachs. it’s so delicious, and it pleases such a wide audience of eaters that we make all the time in the winter and spring. i can’t imagine going back to regular lasagna after eating this dish – it’s that good.
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