You’ll note in the ingredients list that butternut squash is used instead of pumpkin. This is often done in the restaurant, food service, and food manufacturing industries, because it is so much easier to work with butternut squash. Mush of what is sold as “pumpkin pie filling” is butternut squash.

Both pumpkin and butternut squash are orange-fleshed winter squash, members of the Cucurbita genus; they look and taste almost identical in recipes. The rest is, as they say, marketing. (Would you rather have a pumpkin pie or a butternut squash pie?)
> The different types of squash.

> The history of squash.
 
 
RECIPE: BUTTERNUT SQUASH & PUMPKIN LASAGNA

Ingredients For 4-6 Servings

Pumpkin lasagna for holiday season. Photo courtesy Elegant Affairs Caterers.

1. PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Place the butternut squash directly in the oven, whole. Bake for 20 minutes or until soft enough to cut in half with little effort.

2. CUT into quarters, place in a baking dish or large cast iron skillet, and roast for 40 more minutes or until the skin can be easily peeled away from the flesh. Cut into chunks about 1/2 inch to 1 inch in size. Set aside.

3. REDUCE the heat of the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, mix together the pumpkin and the next 7 ingredients (salt through maple syrup). Set aside.

4. STIR together the ricotta, 2/3 of the chopped mozzarella, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan in another small bowl. Set aside.

5. LIGHTLY COAT a baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon 1/3 cup of the pumpkin sauce in the dish. Top with 2 lasagna noodles. Spoon 1/4 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Top with 1/4 of the butternut squash chunks. Top with 1/3 cup of sauce.

6. TOP with two more noodles, continuing to layer like this until all the cheese and squash is used. Add last 2 lasagna noodles, and remaining sauce. Dot the top with remaining chopped mozzarella and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.

7. COVER with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Let stand, covered, on a rack for 20 minutes before serving.
 
 

There are different ways to braid a challah, but we’ve never seen one this clever.

To celebrate Chanukah, Hanukkah or however you spell it, Manhattan specialty food purveyor Eli Zabar has created this whimsical challah menorah.

It’s not kosher, but it is delicious. Order yours at EliZabar.com.

At $45, it may be the costliest bread you’ve ever eaten; but the extra labor to create the menorah must be factored in.

WHAT EXACTLY IS CHALLAH BREAD?

Challah is a special braided bread consumed on the Jewish Sabbath and holidays.

According to Jewish tradition, the three Sabbath meals (Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and Saturday dinner) and two meals for each holiday (dinner the evening of the holiday and lunch the following day) each begin with two complete loaves of challah. This two loaves commemorate the manna that fell from the heavens to feed the Israelites as they wandered in the desert after their exodus from Egypt.

According to the legend, manna did not fall on Sabbath or holidays; instead, a double portion would fall the day before.

By tradition, each single loaf loaf of challah is woven from six ropes of dough. The braided loaf is then brushed with an egg wash before baking, which adds a golden sheen. Together, both loaves have twelve strands, which represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

Traditional challah is a sweet, eggy bread mixed from eggs (often five of them), fine white flour, water, sugar, yeast, and salt.

 
Unlike brioche, another sweet, eggy bread, challah is usually parve, containing no butter or milk.
HOW TO PRONOUNCE “CHALLAH”

It is not “hollah.” The “ch” at the beginning of the word is a gutteral sound most familiar as the German “ach,” or the American expression of disgust, “yech.”

Here’s the actual pronunciation in an audio file (just click).
  

The ingredients are organic and local, from family farms. The maple syrup is tapped from trees a mile from the bakery, the apple cider is made in Greensboro, the butter arrives from nearby Cabot Creamery in Cabot, the eggs from Hardwick, the honey from Ferrisburg and the cranberries from East Fairfield.

That’s locavore!

The cakes are all natural: no artificial flavors, corn syrup solids, food color, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated soybean oil or invert sugars.

Bien fait means well done in French and these certainly are!

The loaves are so dense, they can easily be split between two cake fans, or cut into four or five smaller slices to serve with a cup of tea.

We tried three flavors: Chocolate, Cranberry Almond and Maple Pecan, our favorite of the three—although we hasten to add, all three disappeared pretty quickly. We look forward to trying the other two varieties, Honey Berry and Signature Bourbon Fruitcake.

The one-pound tea cakes are $15.00 each, from BienFaitCakes.com.

For the holiday season, they’re a delicious gift. And for year-round, too. They can be frozen and sliced whenever you feel a cake attack coming on.

As you’re lining up your ducks for Thanksgiving (or should that be, lining up your turkeys?), here’s a beverage that can be a cocktail, mocktail or simply a replacement for water at the table.

We were inspired by these ideas from Polar Seltzer, a Massachusetts seltzer specialist that makes dozens of zero-calorie flavored seltzers, including seasonal specialties.

Cranberry Lime is a year-round Polar Seltzer flavor that’s a perfect fit with Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you can’t find a cranberry or cranberry-lime flavor in your local store, default to lime seltzer/club soda (the difference between seltzer and club soda is below).

IN THE WATER GLASS

Garnish the seltzer with some whole cranberries: simple and elegant.

For Christmas, add a mint leaf or lime wheel for a red-and-green effect.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE cranberry juice, mint and vodka in a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice.

2. STRAIN into a glass, top with seltzer and garnish with fresh mint.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. ADD a tablespoon or more of syrup to a rocks glass or Collins glass. Add ice cubes.

2. TOP with seltzer. Garnish as desired.

CLUB SODA, SELTZER & SPARKLING WATER: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE

The overall category is carbonated water, also called soda water: water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, causing the water to become effervescent.

Carbonated Water: In the U.S., carbonated water was known as soda water until after World War II, due to the sodium salts it contained. While today we think of “soda” as a carbonated beverage, the word originally refers to a chemical salts, also called carbonate of soda (sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sodium monoxide).

The salts were added as flavoring and acidity regulator, to mimic the taste of a natural mineral water. After the war, terms such as sparkling water and seltzer water gained favor. Except for sparkling mineral water, all carbonated water/soda water is made from municipal water supplies (tap water).

Carbonated water was invented in Leeds, England in 1767 by British chemist Joseph Priestley, who discovered how to infuse water with carbon dioxide by suspending a bowl of water above a beer vat at a local brewery. Carbonated water changed the way people drank liquor, which had been neat, providing a “mixer” to dilute the alcohol.

Club Soda: Like the original carbonated water, club soda is enhanced with some sodium salts.

Fizzy Water: Another term for carbonated water.

Seltzer or Seltzer Water: Seltzer is carbonated water with no sodium salts added. The term derives from the town of Selters in central Germany, which is renowned for its mineral springs. The naturally carbonated water—which contains naturally dissolved salts—has been commercially bottled and shipped around the world since at least the 18th century.

Sparkling Water: Another term for carbonated water/soda water. It can also refer to sparkling mineral water, which is pumped from underground aquifers. Note that not all sparkling mineral waters are naturally effervescent. Many are actually carbonated from still mineral water. Some are lightly carbonated by nature, but have extra carbonation added at bottling to meet consumer preferences.

Two Cents Plain: Another word for soda water, coined during the Great Depression, when plain soda water was the cheapest drink at the soda fountain.

FOOD TRIVIA

Of all the fruit that is commercially grown in the U.S., only the blueberry, cranberry and Concord grape are native to North America.

More than 10 years ago, a concerned dad learned that his son, Ian, had multiple food allergies. He set off on a journey to develop a line of kids’ favorites, so Ian and other children with allergies wouldn’t have to miss out.

“Can you imagine going through life unable to eat pizza or onion rings or a chocolate chip cookie?” says Chuck Marble, CEO of Elevation Brands? “Imagine sitting down at the dinner table and everyone else gets to eat chicken tenders or fish sticks except you.”

If the rest of the line is as delicious as the Sausage Pancrepes we just demolished, everyone will be scrambling to enjoy the products. Nothing in the very tasty pancakes gave any hint of a dietary restriction. The box front told a different story: NO wheat or gluten, NO milk or casein, NO nuts, NO soy.

But NO here means YES, it’s delicious. The box of four small sausages wrapped in pancakes (9 ounces net weight) was an instant hit, without the need for maple syrup or any other seasoning. They went quickly, and we could only wish for a few dozen more boxes.

Ian’s manufactures approximately 40 allergy-friendly foods for every time of the day: breakfast, entrées, desserts, snacks and sides. There are gluten-, dairy- and soy-free Mac & No Cheese; gluten-free chicken patties and tenders; onion rings and more.

There’s a store locator on the website, and if there’s no store near you, you can email your local retailer’s information to their sales team.

For more information, visit IansNaturalFoods.com.