Beta carotene overload

Today I certainly had me and Dave eating our veggies. We went meatless and ate quite a few orange winter vegetables, so I'm sure we had our beta carotene for the day (maybe for the week). Lunch was braised carrots with a salad, we ate bread in the afternoon with butternut squash in it, and dinner was my tried and true sweet potato fries with BBQ sauce.

Seriously, at this point, we might be turning orange.

Braised carrots with herbs

This recipe comes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which contains many fantastic vegetable recipes. The official title is carottes aux fines herbes, or braised carrots with herbs. What you do is boil the carrots with some salt, sugar, pepper, and butter for about a half hour. I had a lot of carrots, so a pound and a half of sliced carrots was no problem.


Toss with a little more butter and chopped parsley, and you've got some soft carrots, but not total mush. I served it with a salad: organic lettuce, shredded Gouda, and a salad dressing of homemade cranberry sauce, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and pepper.

Dave said these were the best carrots he ever had, and I'd agree except I actually prefer raw carrots. I guess Julia knows what she's doing with her vegetables.

Butternut squash bread

I'm sure my readers are getting tired of me talking about the sheer excess of vegetables I have to deal with on a weekly basis. Still, you have no idea. The winter CSA I signed up for is completely ridiculous and wonderful. I recently roasted two butternut squash and blended the flesh until smooth. Look how beautifully orange this is:


You can use this purée for a lot of things, and I decided to freeze most of it and use a cup and a half, which barely made a dent, on butternut squash bread.

The recipe (click the title of this section) was OK except it wasn't clear on when you should start kneading the bread. If I re-wrote this recipe, this is what I would change (in bold):

1. Dissolve yeast in water.
2. Add squash, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, and salt; mix well.
3. Gradually add 3 1/2 cups flour and mix with a spoon until smooth.
4. Add enough of remaining flour until you can no longer stir with spoon, turn out onto a well-floured board and knead the rest in.
5. Place in a greased bowl, turn once to grease top.

The rest of the recipe just involves rising and punching and dividing the dough. What I think will confuse people, if they haven't made a lot of bread before, is the kneading process. God help you if you try to use a hand beater.

Anyway, this bread turned out golden and lovely.


We spread some Smart Balance on this and ate it while it was still warm. It was very, very good, and I would certainly make it again. In fact, I've got about four and a half cups of squash purée waiting in the freezer for me.

You know, for when I need beta carotene again.