Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash
4 granny smith apples
1 large onion (yellow or vidalia - your choix)
Sage (the leaves from several sprigs of fresh sage are best, but a couple of shakes of dried powdered will do in a pinch
salt/pepper/honey to taste
chicken broth (enough to cover all the veg in the pot - for me it was about 4 cans, ymmv)

Peel and cube (1/2" cubes should do it) the squash, apples and onion and put them in a large stock pot. Add enough chicken broth to cover the whole works, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes - until the veg is soft and cooked through. You can use a regular blender, but I put my immersion blender right into the pot and puree until smooth (its not perfectly smooth - I am sure you can get it there, though - but I like the texture!), then add the sage, a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper. From there, give it a good mixing/blending and add in honey to taste.

Ricotta Cheese Pie

Yields 3 pies

6 eggs
1 Cup of Sugar
2-3 tsp vanilla
3 lbs Ricotta (whole milk)
3 graham cracker pie crusts (you can make your own I am sure, but I buy them premade)
Cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 and combine the first 4 ingredients and then pour into pie shells. Bake the pies for about an hour (mine always take a little longer - they are done when they are set and they are starting to get golden around the edges.) When they come out of the oven, sprinkle with cinnamon - allow them to cool on racks and then refrigerate.

Schnitzel

Boneless pork cutlets
1 egg and a splash of milk (1/8 - 1/4 cup should do it, I used the 2% I had on hand)
flour for dredging cutlets
1 Cup of Panko Bread crumbs
1 tsp paprika
2-3 Tbsp of oil (for the skillet)
salt & pepper

Use a mallet or rolling pin (or whatever you have) to pound/roll the cutlets to 1/8" thickness (though mine are usually more like 1/4" to be honest ...) Most recipes call for you to add the salt and pepper to the flour or the bread crumb mixture, but I prefer to put it directly on the meat. I sprinkle both sides and then dredge them in flour to coat. From there they go into the egg mixture - simply whisk together 1 egg and a splash of milk and dunk the cutlets individually and then pop them right into the panko. Now I am sure that panko are not the traditional bread crumbs used by German grandmas, but they sure do make amazing schnitzel - so crunchy! I put the panko into a pie plate and mix in 1 tsp of paprika. Once all of my cutlets are prepped, I heat a large non-stick skillet, add 2-3 Tbsp of oil and then when the oil is nice and hot (as in, when you toss in a few breadcrumbs they instantly sizzle), I add the cutlets. Cook them about 3-4 minutes on one side, flip and cook about 3 minutes on the other and then ... you are done! So easy, so tasty!

Spaetzle

7 eggs
2 Cups of AP Flour
1/4 Cup milk (I use 2%)

I combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well incorporated, then I rest it in the fridge for about an hour - when it comes out of the fridge it should be kind of like elastic-y pancake batter.

To turn the batter into spaetzle, you need some equipment and a large pot of (gently) boiling water or broth. Tradition dictates a spaetzle board - you plop some batter onto the board (it looks like a handled cutting board with a 45 degree slope at the bottom which gets submerged in the boiling water) and use a blade to form individual spaetzle and roll them into the water. As someone who LOVES fussy cooking techniques I really wanted to try this, but the boards are not easy to come by and a friend convinced me that, tradition be damned, it would be far too messy and difficult to put up with. I have also heard tell of pastry bags and using a cheese grater, but a friend of mine has an actual honest to goodness spaetzle press he was generous enough to loan me (naturally he was also invited for dinner!) It worked like a charm!

Now, a word about the spaetzle press: in order to bring a "unitasker" into my already cramped teensy kitchen, it has to be mighty special. Like, my pizzelle press - I can't make pizzelles without it and life without pizzelles is simply not worth living. For realsies! But is it really a unitasker? Kind of yes, but I don't use pizzelles only as cookies - while still hot you can roll them into (non-traditional) cannoli shells, you can turn them into waffle cones and you can even press one inside a small dish to make a waflfle cup for ice cream! So yeah, it IS a unitasker, it only makes pizzelles, but pizzelles can make many things!

But a spaetzle press? What else can I make with a spaetzle press? Well ... my friend's spaetzle press bore a remarkable resemblance to ... a potato ricer! A few years ago my ex purchased one of these (yes, another unitasker!) to make gniocchi and it has taken up precious drawer space ever since. Well, next time I make spaetzle, I am going to try the potato ricer and see how it works! But if it doesn't, a spaetzle press in a unitasker I am more than happy to have - spaetzle, like pizzelles, makes life worth living!

Whatever method you use, the batter has to be released into gently boiling water or broth to cook - when they float, they are done - usually just a few minutes. But before you cook them, you need a plan to cool them! You need to fish them out of the boiling water and stop the cooking immediately. I used an ice bath - simply a huge bowl of water in my sink with ice floating in it. I would occassionally dump the no longer cool water and replace with cooler water and new ice, but it's about as simple as you can get!

So there you have it - spaetzle! So easy and so tasty!