Makin whoopie and squashin dinner.

Sidenote: How much does daylight savings time kick butt in the fall??? I feel like I've had a million hours to do all sorts of crap today, even limping around at half speed with my bum foot (and sidetracking myself by itch itch itching these crazy hives taking over my body)!

So I don't know what my deal is this weekend, but I've felt all crazy domestic. I actually convinced Brad to let me make breakfast yesterday morning, and we started our day with a cheesy potato and egg scramble (including toast with Eve's homemade jam!) and mimosas. Midway through making breakfast, I decided I would also throw together some pumpkin whoopie pies, a recipe I've had pulled out and staring at me all week. I had this page turned over in a 2007 issue of Rachael Ray -- since I've been working on my recipe/note binders, I've finally been pulling all my earmarked recipes out and actually using them!

I must confess, I did actually make a mistake when putting this recipe together. I misread the part about separating the butter, and I used it all upfront in the cookie batter (oops). I guess a little extra butter never hurt a recipe, right? Anyway, I did split the fat content between half shortening and half applesauce (well, a little more than half applesauce, I think). Actually, I have no idea what I did -- the recipe was in "stick" measurement, and I used applesauce and ministicks of shortening. But hey, it worked out, so who cares, right? Otherwise, they turned out mighty delicious, and we will be enjoying them some more once our dinner has settled.

Another recipe I've been eyeing is Martha's butternut squash and sage lasagna. I tend to do simple simple, so I knew it would take a special day and a burst of enthusiasm to pull this one out... I had the time today, and the ingredients, so I decided to go ahead and tackle it. First up, dealing with the squash. I was a little nervous about this because it really IS a bit of a pain to finagle a pumpkin. But guess what? The butternut squashes were NO PROBLEM. I followed my new handy-dandy instructions and zip zip zip, I had the first squash ready to go in under a minute!

Even the dogs were impressed.

Speed demon.

The second squash was a little bigger and required a little more effort -- as always, the ever-awesome pumpkin carving knife came to the rescue! I still finished with this one in just a minute or two. Sweet!

Time to chop chop chop, toss 'em in oil, and throw 'em in the oven.

Eventually, it was time to put all the pieces together. All told, it took about an hour to get to this point. Not too bad, but definitely not a quick weeknight dinner. Here she is... all primed and ready to cook cook cook!

Hurry up!!!

About 30 minutes later...

Ain't she pretty?

Time to dig in! Mmm... (Note the cute new plates -- all the Halloween stuff was 50% off at Target! Score.)

The verdict: Mmm. Mmm. :) BUT you HAVE to like squash. It's very squashy. But I liked it. Brad liked it, but I could tell he expected more cheese less squash. Next time I make it, I will knock the squash down a little (I think I may have used a little too much anyway), use whole fat ricotta (I used light... I know I know I should know better), and use a thicker layer of cheese on the top. I'd also up the sage content and add a little more salt and pepper to the squash. But it was tasty, pretty easy, and the perfect way to end a yum-filled weekend.

PS. This was my first time using my recipe binder, and I loved it. It kept the water off my recipe (I make a mess -- all of my recipes and cookbooks are covered in stains), and I'm able to clip little notes about what to do next time. Binder one is finished, I'm halfway through binder two!