Martin's Hillside Orchard

Explore the Orchard

Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus

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For someone who never liked squash growing up, I’ve got to say I like everything about this recipe from Trisha’s Southern Kitchen on Food Network.  The roasted squash was so tasty that it was hard to stop snacking.

And, the roasted squash seeds are super easy and super flavorful. I’d like to have a cup or two of these handy year-round to top salads and savory dishes.

What I found challenging — I always find it a little difficult to peel an uncooked squash. Maybe it’s because my knife work isn’t super skilled. Feels like I am in the danger zone. Cutting it into bite-sized pieces probably reduces the roasting time, but I might try to just halve the squash the next time around and roast it in that form, then remove it from the peel afterward with a spoon. Pretty sure I can’t inflict any damage to my person with a spoon 😉

As far as flavor, though, we definitely give this recipe thumbs-up all around

Apple Pie Muffins

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This recipe makes 12 regular-sized muffins. I had one of those tins that makes the extra large variety, which turned into 6 super-duper sized muffins. Worked well. Just had to bake them 10-15 minutes longer than the regular-size muffins.

Pretty tasty. Enjoy at breakfast with yogurt OR – Drizzle with store bought caramel sauce for yummy dessert. Or, drizzle with caramel and have for breakfast as well.  You can’t go wrong with caramel. Might be obsessed with caramel

 

Keep Those Apples Happy

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You spend all that time picking the perfect apple, your favorite variety, etc, you want them to keep for awhile, right?

Here’s the secret:  Simply store your apples in  your refrigerator in those plastic picking bags with a damp paper towel.  Without that damp paper towel, the fridge will just dry them out.

Follow these steps and if the apples are in good shape when you put them in the fridge, they can last for months.  It’s not magic, but almost.  We recall last February we made an Apple crostata with the last of our Jonathans.  What a treat!

All-Day Apple Butter

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Take a step back and savor fall. This recipe will fill your home with apple-ful fragrance.  Toss it together on Saturday morn, let the crockpot do the work.   Run errands, watch football, take a catnap – stir once in a while, whisk at the end, and you are done

So cute in a little jar with a cinnamon stick and ribbon on top. Sometimes I think I make stuff in the kitchen just so I can go out and buy cute jars. That’s not a problem, right?

Great on toast. As well, look forward to adding some to oatmeal at breakfast

Anything extra, we’ll freeze for later!

Pumpkin Votives

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Not something to dine on – but these cute votives could certainly upgrade a table setting.  Yes, that’s the connection – Orchard to table

How-tos: 

These little gourds are a bit tough to try to carve by hand so we used our trusty cordless drill with a 1 1/2″ paddle bit to do the messy work. Then, just

used a spoon to scoop out the seeds and plopped in a battery-operated tea light. Easy-peasy. Probably not a project for indoors but done in no time.

These votives are awesome.

Tip: Do NOT use a hole saw. While it will do a dandy job of creating the hole, it is a hazaard to try to clean the saw. A couple of Band-aids later, I learned my lesson the hard way.