Butternut Squash Lasagna and Peter Anderson Festival

I have been saving this butternut squash lasagna recipe for several months now.  My gut was telling me the combination of butternut squash, basil, and milk and cheese would be irresistable and IT WAS!!

I managed to turn it into the lazy person's recipe with my changes making it incredibly simple and fast but really big on flavor.  If you like pumpkin or squash ravioli, you will love this one.  I'm telling you it is good!

Butternut Squash Lasagna (Inspired by Food to Run For who was inspired by Giada)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (1 1/2 to 2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes or a bag of frozen pureed butternut squash (I'm not sure how many bags you would need for this recipe.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (16 oz) jar alfredo sauce
1 cup cooked spinach
3/4 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves or 1 tube chopped basil (I used Gourmet Garden)
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 1/2 cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Preparation

1.  Peel squash, seed, and cut into cubes.  Put squash on a baking sheet. Pour the oil on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix with your hands until well combined. Cook at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until squash is roasted.

Or you can buy frozen pureed butternut squash and skip this step altogether and just defrost the squash.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it frozen and had to peel, cut, and roast a butternut squash.  See, I told you I was a lazy cook.

I also used this opportunity to roast a pan of garlic and cauliflower.

2.  Cool slightly and then mash the squash with a fork. You could also puree the squash in a processor if you like washing more equipment or desire flawless pureed squash.  I didn't care if my squash looked pretty, mashed was good enough for me.  Season the squash puree, to taste, with salt and pepper.

4.  Lower your oven to 375 degrees F.

3.  Here's the tricky part.  Not really.  Squeeze basil (to taste) into the jar of alfredo sauce and stir. (Or you can pour the alfredo into a bowl and squeeze the basil in to taste.  Depends on how many dishes you want to wash.) Spread 1/3 of the jarred alfredo sauce in the bottom of your baking dish.   Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. I added a layer of cooked spinach here just because I needed to use up some spinach and it came out really good.

4.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese.

5.  Fill your alfredo jar to the top with water to replace the 1/3 you put in the baking dish and stir making it a little thinner. 

6.  Add a layer of noodles.  Drizzle 1/2 jar of sauce over the noodles. Repeat puree, repeat cheese.  Add layer of noodles, drizzle remainder of sauce over noodles, repeat last 1/3 of puree, repeat cheese.

7.  Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake another 15 minutes uncovered until cheese is brown and bubbly. 

Bon Appetit!

Peter Anderson Festival

I admit the Peter Anderson Festival, held every November in Ocean Springs, had me rather spoiled when it comes to art.  I have consistently expected every arts and crafts show to live up to Peter Anderson standards and I have been consistently let down. 

If you love supporting local artists, this is the place to be.  There are hundreds of artists here with everything from painted works to pottery and all of it is good. 

There is so much art to see that it becomes a sensory overload and the past few years the crowd has become excessively large as well.  Apparently everyone else loves this festival.

I would never take pictures of an artist's work but here are some links to a few of my favorite artist's web pages.  There were so many and I couldn't get a card from all the artists I loved and many did not have web pages. 

Candace Alexander had a booth with the most unique fleur de lis you will ever see.  www.candicealexander.com

Moran's Art Gallery from Ocean Springs www.moransart.com, loved the coastal themes.

Seashore Pottery from Gulfport, MS was gorgeous but had no web page.

JoAnn Wheeler from Pass Christian, MS at www.joannwheelergallery.com.  Loved, loved, loved the seafood art of course.

Loran Chavez from Mobile, AL has a cool lighthouse series www.loranchavez.com.

I really loved the vibrant work of Elizabeth Huffmaster from Saucier, MS but could not find a web page.

My absolute favorite for many, many years, Sylvia Corban from my pre-Katrina hometown, Diamondhead, MS.  www.sylviacorban.com

I was looking for one particular artist and could not find him.  I had bought prints from him pre-Katrina at the Peter Anderson and I would like to replace those that I lost in the hurricane but I can't remember his name and I couldn't find him this year.  He paints very vibrant alligators and fish playing musical instruments. (Does this ring a bell with anyone?)  I loved my prints and really hope to find him one day so I can replace them.  Any help in identifying him would be much appreciated.

  This band was awesome and I have not been able to identify them.

It's a much anticipated tradition for my mom and I to get a Gyro from the Gyro man (with extra sauce) every year at Peter Anderson.  We seem to have a lot of family traditions that involve food around here.

This year we also got snoballs from the Trolley Car Snoball Shop.  Yum!

This is the Train Depot and the Walter Anderson Art Shop.

This is a Katrina Cottage which has somehow become something that we are fond of.  Many people found them to be "home and a hint of normalcy" when we were all craving a normal life after Katrina.

This is a dinosaur in someones front yard.  Pretty normal I would say...

We are in Ocean Springs after all, and I love it!