Fall is for THIS pie!

I love Saturdays. I look forward to getting up early and baking something for the weekend. Jubilee Organic Farm brings 4 or 5 different types of winter squash to the farmer's market. The very first week they had winter squash, I picked up a butternut squash and made lasagna, using my favorite recipe by Jamie Oliver (slightly altered since I cannot remember every measurement). Another week, I picked up a kabocha squash. This squash came with a rave review of Chris' daughter that when it is baked, it is so tender, sweet and downright delicious. Kabocha squashes seem to be small to medium sized and they have such a bright orange-red color. Once I peeled the skin off and scooped out the seeds, Dan roasted the seeds in the oven. The seeds were not meaty but they were very nutty and had good flavors.

Now the pie. I had this recipe by Dorie Greenspan that I wanted to try. It calls for a butternut squash but I thought kabocha will also do nicely. Roughly following the recipe, I combined cubed and cooked kabocha squash (2 cups), cubed pear (2 ripe pears), 1/3 cup of white rasin and cranberries, orange peel from a half orange and orange juice (2 Tbs), cinnamon (1 Tbs), freshly grated nutmeg (a pinch), coarsely chopped walnuts (1/3 cup), and bread crumbs (I used panko, 2 Tbs). It smelled so good just mixing these ingredients that I was jumping up and down with the joy talking to myself 'wow, this is going to make a great pie'!! Use your favorite pie crust recipe and place the filling. The recipe was for 9 inch pie, but instead I made two mini pies (4 inch) and one in an individual lasagna pan. Dan suggested that we do lattice top so I did.

This pie is really good. It reminds me of a mince pie, Dan said. Maybe so. The sweet flavor combination from the squash and pear on top of nice, cold-weather spice is just good. It is substantial enough to hold you over when you are hungry in a long afternoon. Even though the pie is best on the day is it made, I still enjoyed it two days later, kept at room temperature all the time.