Peace, Love, and Winter Vegetables

I'm so happy it finally feels like autumn outside. I love the chilly weather, and I especially love to cook during chilly weather. It's so homey and fun to get the kitchen all warm and smelling good while the grey skies outside make everything feel cosy. Plus, winter vegetables are so delicious!

I spent the entire chilly, grey day yesterday dreaming of using acorn squash and sweet potatoes in my dinner. The nice thing about dreams like that is that it's pretty easy to make them come true. Last night I invented a pretty darn tasty stuffed acorn squash, if I do say so myself, and the basis for it was these absolutely delicious mashers made of a combination of sweet potato and roasted acorn squash. You could easily just serve the mashers as a flavorful, yummy side dish (perfect for Thanksgiving) or use them as the basis of the stuffed squash.

This made two generous servings. If you were using the mashers as a side dish, it would easily serve 4-6. Do yourself a favor and get organic veggies.

Sweet Potato & Acorn Squash Mashers

2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and diced in medium/small pieces
1 largish acorn squash, halved and deseeded
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
2 heaping Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
~2 tsp. rosemary
salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat the cut sides of the acorn squash with olive oil and place them face down on a nonstick cookie sheet. Put the sheet in the oven.

To prepare the sweet potatoes, I recommend a good steamer that sits above your pan of water, not the kind that you insert in the bottom of the saucepan. Bring several inches of water to boil and steam the sweet potatoes for about 25 minutes or until tender. This is also about how long it'll take your acorn squash to roast.

If your sweet potatoes are done before the squash, go ahead and mash them with half the brown sugar, butter & spices while they're hot, then scoop out the squash (try to leave about an inch or so of flesh in the shell, if you're making stuffed squash) and mash it in with the sweet potatoes and the rest of the sugar, butter & spices. Taste & add more salt & pepper as needed.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Additional Ingredients:
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup diced walnuts
2-3 cloves minced garlic
~ 1 Tbs. fresh minced ginger
1/2 medium white onion, diced
1 large or 2 medium white mushrooms, halved and sliced
1 - 1 1/2 c broccoli, chopped into tiny florets
~ 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
~ 1 tsp. smoked paprika (or regular paprika)
pinch of fenugreek seed (about 1/4 tsp) (if you don't have it, don't stress; the recipe will still taste good)
~ 1 tsp. oregano
salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Follow the instructions for the sweet potato & acorn squash mashers above, but when you've got about 17 minutes left on the timer for the steaming/roasting veggies, heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat (or a little less than medium). Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the onion, crushed red pepper, paprika, and fenugreek seed and cook another 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Lightly toast the walnuts for about four minutes in the toaster oven, then add those to the saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring often. When there are about 5 minutes left on the timer, add the mushrooms, oregano, salt & pepper; mix thoroughly and let sit, making sure your pan isn't too hot, and stirring occasionally.

As soon as your timer's gone off and you've mashed up the sweet potatoes, put the broccoli in the steamer and let steam for 3-5 minutes, depending on your texture preference. While it's steaming, finish the mashers and spoon the mashed potato/squash mixture back into the squash shells as the bottom layer of the stuffed squash. The mashers should fill up the squash shells to about half an inch from the top, and you should have some left over. Next, spoon the steamed broccoli on top of the mashers in a mound, then pour the walnut-mushroom mixture over top. You should have some of the walnut-mushroom mixture left over too (and/or spillage onto the plate seems inevitable); spoon the rest of the mashers onto the plate too, and top with any remaining walnut-mushroom mixture. It makes for a pretty presentation, and like I said, it's a nice hearty winter meal.

I'm Baaack...

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. It's been a busy summer, and admittedly, one involving a lot of quick and easy veggie burgers and oven fries. (Mmm, french fries - try loading them up with sea salt and garlic powder and dipping them in honey.)

Anyway, a couple days ago I picked two acorn squash from our garden, and proceeded to prepare the four halves two different ways for last night's dinner. It was fun, tasty, and easy.

Sweet Acorn Squash

1 small acorn squash per person, halved; or half a large squash
~ 2 T butter
Brown sugar to taste, 1/4 to 1/3 cup
Honey (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Prick the flesh a few times with a fork. Butter the inside of the squash all over, then sprinkle a generous, even coating of brown sugar. If you have honey, drizzle some on top of the brown sugar. (We didn't have honey, but it was still quite tasty.)

Place the squash halves face down on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Bake until the flesh is tender, ~ 30 minutes.

Serve immediately with a nicely contrasting side of greens or veggies - I used steamed baby red potatoes seasoned with dill, sage, and rosemary. I like to put the herbs on the potatoes while they're steaming, and just toss with a little butter before serving.

Serves 2

Ginger-Mushroom Stuffed Acorn Squash

1 small acorn squash per person, halved; or half a large squash
~ 3 1/2 T butter
1 T fresh chopped ginger
4 - 6 crimini mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
1 - 2 slices of bread, shredded into crumbs
salt and pepper to taste

Scoop out the seeds from the squash, prick the insides with a fork, spread a layer of butter on them (roughly 1 T per half or less), and place the squash face down on a baking tray lined with aluminim foil. Bake until the flesh is tender, ~ 30 minutes.

When your timer's down to about 5 minutes, put 1 T of butter in a small saucepan over medium to medium-low heat. Saute the ginger for just a couple minutes. Put the breadcrumbs in your toaster oven (or on another tray in your oven, should you be toaster-oven-deprived) and set them to toast them medium well. Add the sliced mushrooms to the saucepan, lower the heat slightly and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, around about when you've added the mushrooms and given them a stir, your squash should be ready. Retrieve the squash from the oven, scoop out the flesh (preserving the shell), season with salt and pepper to taste, and mash it up quickly with 1/2 T butter or less. Now your mushrooms should be ready; add the contents of the saucepan to your mashed squash, stir it all up, and by the time you've refilled the squash shells with your mixture, your breadcrumbs should be ready to sprinkle on top. Serve immediately.

Serves 2