Pesto may seem like a summer thing but this one was made with real live veggies that are still growing in New York (err, as of last weekend at least.)  Spinach and sage are pretty hardy as far as greens and herbs go and there is something smoky and rich about sage that makes it perfect for the holiday season.  Why resort to dried herbs when you can still use fresh?

I used this pesto to top a sweet and nutty Sunchoke Latke but you can use it perk up any winter root - how about smothering a pan of roasted potatoes with it?  Or stirring it into celery root mash?

If you want to get really wild, open a box of pasta (size and design your choice) and dump it into a simmering pot of well-salted water.  Cook to al dente, drain, and mix in enough pesto to make the whole shebang green and yummy.

Time: 15 minutes
Makes about 2 cups of pesto

Winter Sage Pesto

1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 sweet onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup loosely packed sage leaves, stems removed and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil or more
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Grind up the walnuts in a blender until coarsely ground.  Add the onion, sage, spinach, lemon and olive oil.

Blend until well combined.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Thin out with more olive oil if desired.

Well, it’s December. It’s dark, it’s windy, it’s coooooold. My Internet has been down for weeks, my camera isn’t functioning*, and the zipper busted on my warmest winter coat.

So, gentle readers, I’m sending you this recipe in faith that the Winter Solstice will come swiftly, and without any more damage to my personal items or psyche.

The bright spot in all this is my fridge full of hearty winter crops from my new winter CSA share. Homely things like turnips, rutabagas, kohlrabi and parsnips. They look so dirty, plain and unlovable filling up my fridge that it’s a joy Cinderella-ing them into happy bone-warming meals.

This is an easy one. You can make it even when your patience has all but been sucked out like the weak winter light. It’s very forgiving. Use garlic instead of leaks. Mismeasure the flour and milk. Eat it for breakfast with eggs, lunch with beans, or dinner by yourself and It’s a Wonderful Life.

*Below photo shot with a borrowed Nikon D40

Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6 as a side dish

Pan-sized Sunchoke Latkes

8 large sunchokes, or enough to make 6 cups grated
1 leek, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup milk/soymilk
2 eggs or egg replacer
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
olive oil for frying

Scrub the sunchokes well but do not peel. As your mother always says, that’s where the vitamins are. Plus, it’s a pain in the ass. Grate the sunchokes with a box grater.

In a large bowl mix together the grated sunchoke, leek, flour, milk, egg, salt and pepper.

Heat a good bit of oil in a medium-sized (8 inch or so) skillet. Add 1/2 the sunchoke mix so there is a complete but thin layer of the batter in the skillet. Fry slowly over medium-low heat.

Once the edges are starting to brown (about 5-7 minutes), use a spatula to release the latke from the bottom of the pan, put a plate over the top of the skillet and invert quickly.

Add a bit more oil to the pan, bring to heat, and slide the latke back into the pan, cooked side up. Cook for another 5-7 minutes until golden on the second side.

The recipe above is enough to make two 8-inch latkes. If you’re quick on the draw you can cook them both up at the same time (in separate pans, of course) or make the first one, keep it in a 200 degree oven to warm, then cook the second.

You can cut into wedges to serve or just let your guests go at them like wild animals. Very good topped with Winter Sage Pesto.

The recipe below is a little, um, trashier than what I generally like to post here (beware, Marshmallow Fluff below!) but I’ve been thinking about this recipe since last year when the L’il Sis made a huge batch of soft pumpkin cookies. I knew these soft cakey gems would be even better as a wee cookie sandwich and curdle your Thanksgiving gravy if I’m not right.

One interesting fact I’ve learned about holiday cooking from my fellow foodbloggers is that the best pumpkin pie is not made with canned L*bby’s pumpkin puree but with homebaked butternut squash. The redeeming quality in these cookies, should their soft cake-like texture and binge-worthy filling not be enough for you, is that you can use an honest-to-goodness strain-your-arm-when-trying-to-slice-it squash. You know, those crazy shaped things next to the leftover flavorless Halloween pumpkins.

I have a pal (who shall remain nameless here but you know who you are) that last year cooked her own “from scratch” Green Bean Casserole using fresh haricots vert, creamed wild mushrooms, and even breaded and fried her own onion rings for the topping. And! Not one person at the table remarked on the effort. Sigh.

In any case, at least you can feel good about throwing one fresh from the farmer’s market ingredient into this tasty holiday-time treat.

makes: 8-9 dozen single cookies, about 50 sandwiches
time: 1 hour to bake squash, 30 minutes to mix batter, 11 minutes to bake

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

4 cups flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups butternut squash or pumpkin puree*
1 1/2 tbsp milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

*see introduction for words of warning about using canned pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together in a second mixing bowl. Add oil, squash/pumpkin puree, milk, eggs and vanilla.

Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet while beating on medium speed. Continue beating until well mixed.

Drop in 1/2 teaspoons onto a greased baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until bottoms are golden.
For Filling (adapted from Allrecipes.com )

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
4 cups marshmallow fluff
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of lemon zest, optional
1/4 tsp salt

Cream together the butter and the sugar.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat together until well combined.

Put the filling into a large ziplock or other clean bag. Snip a small piece off the corner and use as a pastry bag to pipe the filling onto the bottom side of one cookie.

Press the bottom side of another cookie into the filling and Whoopie! you’re all set.

I had a similar flan for dinner at a fancy corporate event at the Met and it pretty much boggled my mind and stomach to find yet another delicious way to serve humble winter squash.

I googled “Squash Flan” and found an easy recipe from Gourmet Magazine, which I’ve tweaked below. I served it in a slice-it-yourself type way but you could also make it in individual ramekins and serve as fancy-smancy first course unmolded on a bed of chard or kale with roasted brussel sprouts and carrot rounds rolling lazily about the plate.

The flan is rich, but still light and almost pudding-y. Please believe me when I tell you that crispy sage leaves are to die for. Honestly and truly. Don’t be surprised when I come at you with a recipe that is just crispy sage leaves and a dipping sauce. Numnum!

Serves: 4-5
Time: 30 minutes active, 2 – 21⁄2 hours baking

Savory Squash Flan with Dijon-Currant Sauce and Crispy Sage Leaves
*Flan adapted from Gourmet Magazine

1 medium squash, (butternut, hubbard, or similar)
4 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp garlic powder
freshly cracked pepper
1 ¼ tsp salt
butter
6 Tbsp unsweetened currant jelly (or cooked fresh currants)
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
10 sage leaves
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Halve the squash lengthwise, discard the seeds, and place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for an hour, or until soft to the touch. Cool and set aside. Reduce oven temp to 325.

Scoop flesh from the squash. Discard the skin. Puree in a blender until smooth and creamy.

Add two cups of the squash puree to a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, half and half, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Save the rest of the squash for another recipe.

Prepare a 8×2 inch round cake pan by buttering the bottom and sides. Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of wax paper and butter the paper too.

Pour the squash mixture into the cake pan and set the cake pan into a larger baking pan. Pour hot water into the larger pan until it’s 2/3 up the sides of the cake pan to create a hot water bath for the flan.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the flan is solid and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Let the flan cool for at least 15 minutes and unmold by setting a plate on top of the flan and then quickly inverting. Carefully peel off the wax paper.

For the mustard/currant sauce heat the currant jelly and mustard in a small sauce pan. Adjust for salt/pepper.

Meanwhile, you can shallow-fry the sage leaves in the olive oil over medium heat. With tongs turn them once during the frying process, and remove from oil when they hold their shape - they should not start to turn to turn brown - about 1 minute.

Serve flan cut into wedges with a dollop of currant sauce on top a few crispy sage leaves to garnish.

Between my CSA takings and my weekly farmers market ritual buying spree, I end up spending a lot of time thinking of how to turn seasonal veggies into dinner. So why not turn them into dessert?

Inspired by this fascinating vegan Chocolate Beetroot cake from Kathryn’s information-rich blog Limes & Lycopene, I designed a lively-tasting vegan cupcake - with beets - that lives up to it’s party pink exterior.

There’s a really cool (geeky?) science-experimenty situation happening in this recipe; the uncooked batter is a murky magenta from the grated beets but when baked it turns to a gold flaxen color. More beet research suggests that if left uneaten long enough the pink icing will turn back into white in a magic-disappearing ink sort of way but I suspect that these cupcakes won’t last long enough for you to test this hypothesis.

I’m entering these cupcakes to Minko’s (another Aussie!) Think Pink for Pinktober event over at Couture Cupcakes - she promises to send $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every pink recipe. Check out her Pinktober Pomegranate Turkish Delight Cupcakes - um, wow! I also can’t wait to try her vegan Lime Zucchini Pistachio Cupcakes - another creative veggie-packed dairy-free dessert!

Time: 25 minutes plus 20 minutes to bake plus cooling time before frosting
Makes: 12 cupcakes

Vegan Ginger-Beet Cupcakes with Very Pink Frosting

Cupcakes
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup plain or vanilla soymilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of raw grated beet (a bit less than one medium-sized beet)
3 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 cup coconut oil (or any mild-tasting veggie oil)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
spray oil

Frosting
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup soymilk
splash beet juice (extra grated beet mixed with water)
squeeze of lemon
dash salt

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Fill a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners (I like to spray the inside of the muffin papers with spray oil to help the cupcakes release). Set aside.

Mix the vinegar with the soy mix well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, beet, ginger, coconut oil, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, first cream together the vegan margarine and shortening. You want to cream these together REALLY well, so mix vigorously with a fork for 5 minutes, until your arm is very tired.

Beat the powdered sugar into the margarine mixture until well combined. Then add a splash of beet juice for color and a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt to help balance out the sweet. Mix for another few minutes until the frosting is pink pink and fluffy fluffy.