I Mention Rachael Ray in this Post

The Jewish calendar is lunar and therefore Passover can land anywhere between the end of March to the end of April. My birthday is at the end of March, my mom’s birthday is at the beginning of April and my sister’s birthday is at the end of April so it’s a always a hold your breath moment to find out who’s birthday will take place during this dreaded no-bread, no-cake, no-ice cream, no-soft pretzel eight day stretch.

This year it’s so early that this spring themed holiday can’t feature the season’s produce. We usually serve asparagus, but this year we still had to rely on winter’s hold overs. I’m a bit tired of winter squash, as is the rest of the Northeast, I’m sure.

With Passover, though, I wanted to think of something slightly new. Maybe not in flavor, but in form.

Acorn Squash and Leek Muffins

My family went to my uncle’s house and he was hosting 14. I needed to make something that would feed a bunch, but with only 2 small acorn squashes. Then I thought of Rachael Ray. Fuck. I know. But sometimes RayRay has some fun ideas. I remembered she once put a Thanksgiving themed stuffing into muffin tins. She said that more people could get a crusty piece, and it’s great for portion control.  I went with it.

I roasted the two squashes, cut side down in a bit of water for a really long time until the squash was as pliable as ice cream. I then sauteed cabbage and leeks and set it aside to wait for the squash. And I threw in 4 cloves of raw, chopped garlic in with the greens.

At this point, I kinda let my sister take over. I’m a pretty pushy older sister and really want her to be as excited about cooking and experimenting as I am.

She scooped the squash from the skins and seasoned the greens and squash with salt and pepper.

To get the squash to take shape, and to make it a bit more Passover-y, she beat 2 eggs (with salt and pepper) and then stirred in about a 1/3 cup of matzoh meal. She combined the squash and greens with the matzoh meal and eggs, but we decided it needed something else for cohesion, make it more like a batter.

There wasn’t any cream on hand, so instead we mashed in about 3 spoonfuls of cream cheese. We re-seasoned it and then scooped it into buttered muffin tins. (I did the buttering.) And topped it with just a bit of grated pecorino romano and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. But I think they could have been baked a bit longer for some browning on top.