Flavors of Fall

Remember the butternut squash that we bought from the pumpkin farm?

Want to see what we did with it?
I've been wanting to try these Pumpkin Pie-sicles from Family Fun. (November 2008 issue... Ya, I have a 3-ring binder filled with continuous magazine tear-outs since Will was born.)

Will LOVED squash as a baby! But then, somewhere in his second year, decided he didn't care for it anymore. I was devastated. Squash is such a versatile and fun vegetable! (Actually it's a fruit.)

So I'm constantly trying to offer it to him in new and different ways in hopes of changing his mind. Obviously squash is sweet and goes great paired with other sweet things, but I hadn't thought of squash specifically as a dessert. Great idea! And hey, he liked the avocado smoothie... so it's worth a shot. I'm always up for trying something new.
P.S. - it really tastes like frozen pumpkin pie despite the fact that it contains no pumpkin!

So you just scrub the outside of the squash clean, halve or quarter it and scoop out the seeds, and then bake at 400 (skin side up) for about an hour. Easy peasy. Then just scrape the pulp away from the skin and mash or puree. The recipe calls for a 2 1/2# butternut squash to make 10 popsicles. I had no idea how heavy our squash was, but I decided I only wanted to make half that many popsicles. (We only have four molds in our popsicle tray.) So I googled some squash conversions online and jotted down a bunch of helpful reference conversions in one of my cookbooks. What I learned was that a 2 1/2# whole squash yields 2 3/4 - 3 cups puree. So I just used 1 1/2 cups of puree and divided the rest of the ingredients in half too.
With the rest of the squash, I scooped 1 oz portions into ice cube trays, froze them and popped the frozen cubes into a gallon freezer bag like I used to for baby food. I have continued to do this for Sophie because it's an easy and nutritious addition to cottage cheese or applesauce for meals.

Check out this link for Family Fun - their picture is much cuter than mine. :)

We had them for dessert after dinner tonight and, friends, Will ate the whole thing... and loved it! So that's almost 1/3 cup of squash he consumed without even flinching. Sophie and I split one and I just shaved small chunks off for her with a knife. She picked them up from a plate.

Here's the original recipe for ~10 popsicles:

1 (2.5#) butternut squash (or about 3 cups puree)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup (not imitation)

2/3 cup light cream (I used half and half)

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients together and freeze in popsicle molds for at least six hours.

So I just used:

1.5 cups puree

1/4 cup syrup

1/3 cup cream (I used half and half)

1/4 tsp spice

(for ~5 popsicles)