Butternut Bliss

This fall I went to a dinner party hosted by my friend and her sister. We enjoyed an array of seasonal comfort foods, but I swooned most over the butternut squash and caramelized onion galette. I was thrilled to learn of a new way to eat the beautiful fall squash. They found the recipe at smittenkitchen.com, where recipes are sorted by season.

I finally got around to making it on Christmas Eve. I prepared for a longer process than was necessary; there are quite a few steps, but they're all pretty simple: make the dough, roast the squash, caramelize the onions - and you can do it all at roughly the same time. I was baffled, though, when the first step asked me to put the flour and salt in one bowl and butter in another, then put both bowls in the freezer for an hour. Apparently, when making pie crusts, you want the ingredients to be as cold as possible. I would guess this fact is widely known but often ignored. Anyway, after the dough and filling are made and the galette assembled, it's a relaxing 40 minutes between this:

and this:

And I daresay it tastes even better than it looks (and that's a bold claim - do you see the individual bits of squash and caramelized onion?!) Needless to say, this savory little tart was a popular dish Christmas Eve. So thanks to smittenkitchen for providing the recipe, thanks to the Schnobrichs for introducing me, and biggest thanks to the reason we're all here: