Squashed squash

This Thanksgiving we stayed home and just had dinner with the two of us. I made the key dishes, and slided on a few items that, if serving guests, I’d certainly do from scratch. But even I had to draw the line when I caught myself starting to open the can of cranberry sauce at the table. Presentation faux pas!

We got a smoked turkey from Corralitos Market in...you will never guess where...Corralitos. It was (and still is) fabulous. Highly recommend it. Much less daunting then roasting a turkey in the oven, in my opinion, and very tasty. The flavor makes for excellent soup too.

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is just about my favorite holiday tradition. If I have Thanksgiving somewhere else, I cook the whole dinner anyway on a different night. I refuse to be deprived of leftovers!

Every year I try to add one new recipe to the mix. If it's a disaster, at least it's the only one (hopefully) and it can fade into the background without bothering anyone too much. This year I tried butternut squash puree from the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog.

I am new to squash. My whole life I have been brainwashed against squash by my father who hated it. It's discriminatory, really. Well, after reading this recipe, I thought, "It's time to give squash a chance."

Even as I started cooking, I had that lingering feeling that this would be a waste of efforts. The squash could not be trusted. It would surely be a disappointment.

Boy was I wrong. The squash puree was the surprise hit of the evening. I’ve already gotten a request to make more. In fact, there was a long speech given about this recipe needing to be added as a regular item to the menu at our house. The speech even included direct quotes from an article in the SF Chronicle that came out that day: Squash is one of the “Super food choices to reduce your risk of heart disease”.

I have to admit, it was good. The sweet potatoes were practically forgotten in the two-person stampede for seconds.

Using the blender at the end makes all the difference There is a textural resemblance to baby food that is hard to ignore, but in this case, it is so good chewing is irrelevant.