Autumn Mash-Up with Marshmallow Sauce

This is what happens when Mommy starts mixing up leftovers. Roast acorn squash, roast sweet potatoes (that came out just too dry for snacking) and half a can of sweetened condensed milk, leftover from a weekend of making moon cakes for Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. It's a riff on a Thanksgiving classic, but not as cloyingly sweet. (Spoiler alert - there aren't any marshmallows in here, but sweetened condensed milk makes a fairly convincing substitute! At least it convinced my three year old son.)

Aunt LoLo's Autumn Mash-Up
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 pounds roast autumn veg (acorn squash, yams, sweet potatoes, butternut, etc.)
1 can mandarin oranges (or pineapple), with its juices (11 oz)
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (about 7 oz., or to taste)
1 tsp. salt

Mash up your veg as finely as you like, and stir in your sweetened condensed milk, fruit (oranges or pineapple) and salt. Heat on the stove, in a large pan, stirring occasionally. (Alternately, spread your mash into a 9x9 pan and heat in a medium oven until hot through, approximately 30 minutes.)

Jaimie Oliver's Butternut Squash Muffins

I saw a blog post about these muffins, and just had to give them a whirl - literally. The recipe calls for 14 oz. of seeded butternut squash, cut into smallish chunks, skin left on. Whirl that around in a food processor, then add your eggs, oil, vanilla, spices, sugar, flour...the usual suspects.

What comes out is a super tasty, super light and moist little muffin. He makes a frosting to go with it, but we're not really Frosting People 'round here.

I have to say, though - I much preferred these cooled off, out of the oven. The edges were crispy and sweet, and the insides and top were moist and sticky. After a night in the cookie jar, the crispy bits were gone.
Also, the recipe says that it makes 12 muffins. I'm not sure what size tin Mr. Oliver was using, but I (and several other reviewers) found that the recipe yielded considerably more than 12 standard-sized muffins. (And that was after I had filled the muffin liners nearly to the brim! Not a lot of lift in these guys.) My batch made 12 muffins, plus one medium-sized loaf.

The original recipe can be found here.