Celebrating Amber's Awesomeness

What I like about Amber is that she puts it all out there without any qualms.  She knows what she wants, and she will not hesitate to tell you exactly what it is either.  Of course, it also does not hurt matters that she owns two handsome cats  as well.

In the past, Rhino was remiss in celebrating Miss Amber.  So, this year, she had to make up for lost time.  In that spirit and in line with Amber's week-long vegetarian stint and Sar Sar's long-term vegetarianism, I put together a butternut squash, spinach, ricotta pasta bake for the night's entree and a zucchini fudge cake for dessert.

Dealing with butternut squash's rough exterior and demanding roasting needs deter some people from using it.  However, I feared not since I knew a few tricks.  First of all, buy the squash pre-peeled and chunked.  It means more money at the g-store (Rhino street slang for grocery store), but less time gourd fighting and possibly bleeding in the kitchen.  Embarrassingly, I also lack a sharp enough knife to wrangle an intact butternut squash, but that's a whole other matter.

Secondly, plan ahead.  I always try to prep ahead for my dinners and given that roasting only requires a little olive oil toss, some salt and pepper, and a hot oven, I figure I might as well roast and cool some squash while I pay some bills or stress over some grad school homework.  I also cooled the butternut chunks and combined them with all the ricotta ingredients a day or two before the dinner, but I hedge on the pro-active side of recipes and school assignments by nature.

Anyway, back to the celebration, on Thursday night I nestled some no-boil lasagna noodles into my baking mixture, topped it with an excess amount of mozzarella cheese, vegetable stock, and cream, kicked it into a 350 degree oven (the British Celsius degrees equal to about 320 to 380 Fahrenheit), and let it bake as I imbibed in wine with the Amber celebrants.  With a little fresh sage and some salt and pepper accentuating the recipe's flavors, Amber deemed it delicious.  Success!!

spinach, butternut squash bake

I cannot say that I felt the same way about the zucchini fudge cake.  It looked pretty and everything with chocolate frosting, funfetti sprinkles, and frosting images of Amber's kitty loves, but the zucchini overtook the cocoa's sweetness in the recipe.  The recipe's creator correctly stated that the zucchini produced an extremely moist cake.  Unfortunately, it is not a recipe that I plan on making again.  Oh well, I'm sure that there will be other birthday cakes to make in my future.  In the meantime, at least I know my way around a butternut squash and how to please the great Amber.