Squashlet Chip Cookies

((Picture soon, I promise!))

Holiday baking. Le sigh.

Now, I thrive on it, I really do, but for the first time I really get to make as much as I want for whoever I want, and believe me, I am. I'm baking A LOT. I do like to attempt to be frugal, though, so I scanned the fridge for leftovers and tried to puzzle out what I could do with them. Spaghetti cake didn't seem too delicious, and neither did Tupperware Surprise Tart. Lo and behold, what do I find? A poor neglected butternut squash and some baked acorn squash that had only had the delicious buttery brown sugar part eaten.

This injustice must be avenged.

So I tweaked these from a pumpkin cookie recipe that I had kicking around my 'to try' box, and so the most amazing, cake-y, cinnamon and sugary, faux snickerdoodles WITH CHOCOLATE totally happened.

So, without further ado:

Squashlet Chip Cookies

1 cup mashed* squash (I used butternut/acorn, but any winter squash will do, even pumpkin.)

2 cups turbinado sugar (you can substitute white, but you're cheating yourself. Trust me.)

1 beaten egg

1 cup oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons milk

4 cups of flour

1 bag of chocolate chips (I made both a white and semi-sweet chip batch, and both are lovely.)

OVEN PREHEAT TEMP: 375 degrees farenheit

1) Mix your squash, sugar, egg, oil, vanilla, baking powder, and cinnamon together to make a kind of oozy, slimy, delicious smelling muck.

2) In a smaller bowl, mix the baking soda and milk, then add this concoction to the bowl of muck and mix.

3) Add your flour ONE CUP AT A TIME! This is really important, as this turns out to be a super thick batter that will make your life miserable if you try to mix in too much dry stuff too fast.

4) Add the chocolate chips. Yes, the whole bag. Well, except for the two or three you need to check for poison. (If you find yourself eating more than a small handful, you should just buy a spare bag for eats. It's okay. I do it.)

5) Line a standard cookie sheet with parchment paper. (You can skip this step, but it just makes life easier if you like simple clean up and more moist cookies. I know I do.)

6) Drop the cookies onto the sheet in whatever configuration you'd like. They tend to not melt, as they have no butter in them, so just account for a bit of gravity, and you'll be fine.

7) Bake for 10-15 minutes, but you want to err on the side of over-baked. This are a cake-style cookie, so gooey insides just tend to be gross instead of brownie-awesome.

8) Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes on the sheet, then move to a cooling rack. Or, you know, eat them.

*If you need to prepare the squash ahead of time because you don't have any leftovers (and I certainly won't judge you for buying squash for these cookies.) then here's your how to:

Bonus Baked Squash Recipe:

-If you're making your life easier and buying pre-cubed squash, then one pound of cubed butternut squash makes one cup of mashed squash goo.

-If you've decided to go whole hog and buy a whole squash, then cut it in half (be careful!) and scoop out the stringy, seedy ick in the middle (though you can save the seeds and roast and eat them!).

1) Cube your squash (or open the container), and put it in a casserole style baking dish. 2)Brush/spray/drizzle olive oil over the pieces, and sprinkle with approx 4 tablespoons of either brown or maple sugar.

3) Put the dish in a 375 degree farenheit oven until all your pieces are baked-potato squishy when you stick a fork into them. Start checking after an hour. It feels like it takes forever.

4) While your mess is still hot and squishy, put in a bowl and mash, like potatoes. It will be a stringy, awkward looking mess when you're done, but that's what it's supposed to look like, I promise.

5) LET THIS COOL TO AT LEAST ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE USING IN THE ABOVE RECIPE! Otherwise you'll end up cooking your egg before you cook everything else, and that's no good.

OMFG Peking Duck Kitchen Sink Soup.

So, I LOOOOOOOOOVE Peking Duck. A lot. And I got kinda sad when I realized that it ended when I got done with the duck. A round of Alton Brown style 'Bird To The Last Drop' soup after Thanksgiving made me realize that there are ways around this!

And so, without further ado, I present to you OMFG Peking Duck Kitchen Sink Soup.

1 duck carcass worth of bones (and any leftover meat if you feel like it.)

1.75 quarts of water

.25 quarts of chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon mooshed ginger (food processed, smashed, premade paste, whatever)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey (I used buckwheat honey. The dark flavor matches well.)

1/4 cup orange juice (I just squished a clementine)

1 clump of green onions (I think I had about 12)

1 package of yaki soba noodles

1 container of mushrooms

To Make the Broth:

1) Take your duck carcass and remove any meat that may still be on it. Place the bones (and skin if you've got any) in the pot and cover with the chicken broth and water.

2) Simmer this for half an hour, then boil for 10 minutes, and drop back to a simmer for another 20.

3) Remove the bones and skin from the pot. Strain the broth to remove the little itty bits of grossness that've escaped your tongs of justice, and pour the broth back into the pot.

4) Add the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, cloves, soy sauce, honey, and orange juice, and mix well.

-If you're just stopping at making broth, then just boil this for another ten minutes, and bingo! Amazing Peking Duck broth. But if you're in it for the kitchen sink, well, then read on...

To Finish the Soup:

5) Rinse your mushrooms and chop them how ever you'd like. I made mine into little 1/4" sticks. Brown them in a little bit of butter and throw in the soup.

6) Rinse the green onions and chop them into vaguely half inch tall rounds. Just toss those into the soup as is.

7) Take your Yaki soba noodles out of the packaging, and throw them into the pan you browned mushrooms in. Add a cup of broth from the pot and cook for a minute on high heat, separating the noodles from the huge block they came in. Dump that whole delicious mess into the soup.

8) Dice any remaining meat that you'd like to add, and throw it in. IMPORTANT NOTE: Remove the skin. I know, it's delicious on the duck when you first get it, but when you go to add it to soup, it just gets gross. Really gross. Just, ew.

9) Give the soup a stir to get everything all mixed up and delicious, and put a lid on the pot. Turn the heat up to high, and let it boil for ten minutes.

10) Let it cool a bit and then eat it.

SOOOOOOO GOOD!