Thanks for all the sympathy via Twitter, the blog, and Facebook (be my fan!) about my embarrassing fall. The good news is that I’m no longer as sore! The bad news is that I look like I’m the victim of a vicious crime when you look at the giant bruise on my back. Good thing I’m moving out of this house with dangerous stairs and to a 1st story apartment in TX!
Well because of my fall and some stress in everyone’s life, my mom and I decided it was easier to order a pizza for dinner instead of cooking on Thursday night. I’m a fan of the local joints, but there aren’t any good ones where my mom lives (read: the middle of nowhere) so we settled for Domino’s. Lo and behold their website is running a food photography campaign for their “new” pizza (which, I will admit, was delicious). In my mom’s words, “If there’s one thing Meredith is, she’s an expert in food photography!” And even though this is a healthy living blog, let’s be honest: a girl’s gotta have some pizza once in a while! This is the photo I’m submitting!
Salad + Domino's California veggie pizza
We looked at the other photos submitted and I think I have a shot at the $500. For one, mine was taken on a DSLR and not a cell phone. And secondly, I did not try to pimp out my (non-existant) children by forcing them to eat pizza and look cute for a photo.
Fast forward to today where we packed up all of my worldly possessions into my Prius. All that separates me from Texas is tomorrow where I’ll have a goodbye barbecue with my family and then my mom and I leave bright and early Monday morning for a 1500 mile drive! For our little party, I chose the menu and decided to bring a supplemental dessert, a dessert that invokes a sense of nostalgia and is healthy food in disguise: Butternut Squash Pie.
The Phillips Family Cookbook
For Christmas 2 years ago, my grandmother compiled a cookbook with the favorite recipes of everyone in the family. It is complete with embarrassing pictures of me, my cousins, my mother, my grandparents, and everyone else in between. I looked up the recipe for Pumpkin Pie because, as legend has it, it was secretly made with butternut squash by my Great Grandmer Phillips as a way to disguise vegetables and serve them to my mother and her siblings.
Simple ingredients -- complete with the squash from my mom's garden!
My Family’s Butternut Squash Pie (makes 1 pie)
- 1 3/4 cup butternut squash purée, drained of excess liquid
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
Spray a pie dish with non-stick baking spray and form pie crust to fit pan (I used the store-bought kind, but feel free to make your own crust!). Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk together. Lightly brush a bit of the egg mixture around the top edges of the crust to prevent burning while in the oven. Using the rest of the whisked eggs, combine all ingredients and whisk vigorously. Once all the ingredients are completely incorporated, pour the (very liquidy) mixture into a pie crust. Bake in a 425* oven for 15 minutes, then turn the temperature to 350* and allow the pie to bake 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean. Allow to cool and serve with a big dollop of whipped cream 
Hidden vegetable goodness
This will be eaten tomorrow at our barbecue! I can’t wait to eat it, but I will be sad to say goodbye to my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my little cousins. At least I’ll be back for Christmas!
