I was shopping at Crate & Barrel recently and came across this adorable cupcake cookie cutter, I obviously couldn’t leave the store without it. Well, this weekend I made a batch of Holiday Gingerbread Cookies with the cupcake cookie cutter.

We made one last fall recipe the other day before we dive into WINTER! We made Beef and Butternut Squash Stew with popovers made from scratch. The popovers are SO easy to make and always turn out looking very impressive.

Beef and Butternut Squash Stew
from Giada De Laurentiis

1 1/2 Tb unsalted butter, melted, plus softened butter for greasing pans
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 Tsp kosher salt
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 C milk, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Generously grease muffin tins to make 12 popovers (they say you need a popover pan, but regular muffin tins work fine). Place the pan in the oven for exactly 2 minutes to preheat. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, salt, eggs, milk, and melted butter until smooth. The batter will be thin. Fill the popover pans less than half full and bake for exactly 30 minutes. Do not open the oven and peek.

We decided this year to do a non-pie dessert for Thanksgiving. I saw an episode of Giada at Home on the Food Network and thought the cake she made look delicious!! Not only did we eat it for dessert on Thanksgiving, but we ate it as a sweet tasty breakfast throughout the long holiday weekend.

…and it looked just lovely under the glass dome of my cake stand.

Cake
3 medium green apples, peeled, cored and diced into 1/4 -inch pieces
1 1/2 C maple syrup
3 eggs, at room temperature
3/4 C light brown sugar
3/4 C vegetable oil
1 Tb pure vanilla extract
3 C flour
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tsp baking soda
1 Tb ground cinnamon
1/2 Tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 Tsp ground ginger
1/2 Tsp fine sea salt
1 C chopped walnuts

Icing
1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 Tb water, plus extra, as needed
2 Tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions
For the cake: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally butter and flour a 10-inch fluted tube or Bundt pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the apples, maple syrup, eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. In batches, mix the dry ingredients into the apple mixture. Stir in the walnuts. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester or skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes and invert onto a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the icing: In a food processor, combine the powdered sugar, heavy cream, cream cheese, 3 tablespoons water, and vanilla. Process until smooth, adding more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the icing is pourable. Spoon the icing over the cake and allow to set for 20 minutes before slicing. I also garnished with additional chopped walnuts sprinkled over the icing.

Enjoy!

We made our favorite fall meal for dinner this weekend – pumpkin lasagna!

It’s a very rich lasagna of pumpkin, sage, prosciutto, and creamy bechamel sauce. It’s best served with just a small side salad and a little crusty bread. We usually halve the recipe, then assemble in 2 bread pans, then eat one and freeze one for another time.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin, Prosciutto, and Parmesan Lasagna
from Cold-Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase

Pumpkin Filling
1/2 C unsalted butter
6 leeks, trimmed, rinsed well, and minced
4 cups pumpkin purée fresh or canned
1/2 C dry white wine
s&p

Bechamel
1/2 C unsalted butter
6 Tbs flour
2 C chicken broth
2 C light cream
1 C Parmesan cheese
1/2 Tsp nutmeg
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
S&P

For the Layers
1 and 1/4 packages of precooked lasagna sheets, enough for three layers of three sheets each
8 oz prosciutto
1/4 C fresh sage leaves, torn into pieces
1 1/2 C Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 15 x 10 casserole or baking pan.

Filling
Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and sauté the leeks until very tender, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Stir in the pumpkin and the white wine and cook for 2 additional minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat, add some salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Bechamel
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the chicken stock, then the light cream; cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened. Stir in the Parmesan and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir 1/2 C of the hot sauce into the beaten eggs in a small bowl, then stir the egg mixture into the remaining sauce. Cook a couple minutes longer, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat.

To Assemble
Male a layer of the lasagna noodles in the prepared casserole and top with half of the prosciutto and 1/3 of the bechamel. Sprinkle 1/2 of the sage. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets and spoon all of the pumpkin filling on top, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over pumpkin layer. Make another layer of lasagna noodles and top with the rest of the prosciutto, another 1/3 of the bechamel, and the remaining sage. Make a final layer of noodles and top with remaining bechamel and Parmesan.

Bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until the top lightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Serves 12.