Is it that time of the year when your friends and neighbors hide as they see you coming down the road with a basket of squash? We have all been there on either the receiving or giving end. You wonder why the rest of your garden does not produce the abundance that your squash or zucchini seeds do.
How many loaves of zucchini bread can you bake? Well, bake them now and freeze them for wonderful Thanksgiving gifts for your friends and neighbors with a nice little handmade card thanking them for being wonderful neighbors. The loaves baked now, if sealed well will keep until Thanksgiving in your freezer.
The same goes for making Squash Bread which is something you don't usually see.
Here is my favorite recipe for it. I use squash or sweet potato or pumpkin in this recipe.
Arlene's Autumn Bread
First I bake and mash some squash, pumpkin or sweet potato to obtain 2 cups.
Next I cream 2/3 cup of shortening with 2 cups sugar.
Then I add 4 eggs, 2/3 cup of milk and my 2 cups of squash, pumpkin or sweet potato and mix well.
Then I blend the following dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 3 & 1/3 cups all purpose unbleached flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, 1 & ½ tsp kosher salt, ½ tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. cloves.
At this point I add 2/3 cups nuts and 2/3 cups of raisins if I want these optional ingredients. (sometimes I substitute fruit cake mix for the raisins.)
I pour this mixture into two 9"x 5" x3" well greased and floured loaf pans and bake in my pre-heated oven at 350°F for 1 hour or until my toothpick comes out clean.
Often I will make this recipe into muffin or small individual loaves for special dinners.
Another special recipe I reserved for that excess squash was making it into soup and then serving it with crusty homemade bread in the fall.
Arlene's Autumn Soup
I liked to use butternut squash for this recipe and I take a 2 pound squash, cut it in half, peel it, seed it and cut it into 1 inch pieces.
I then dice up a nice onion until I have 1 & ½ cups
I peel and dice two large carrots
And put all the ingredients into a pot with 3 cans of chicken broth or you can use vegetable stock if you are a vegetarian. I also add ½ tsp kosher salt.
I bring to a boil and then simmer, uncovered for about 35 to 40 minutes or until all are really tender.
Next I pour into a blender or food processor with 2 tablespoons of butter and puree. Be careful because your food is hot.
I then pour it back into my pot and gently whisk in ½ cup of light or heavy cream, whichever I have on hand.
I like to serve this in those wide soup bowls with the lip around the edges simply because those were the kind we had when I was a child. If you like you can add a nice dollop of sour cream on top. It tastes lovely and looks grand!
