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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Sugar and Spice Acorn Squash

The world needs less war and more roasted acorn squash. Look at me c jane! I copied you!

For being as sweet as it is, I felt bad serving it for dinner. But Jack loved it and so did Van. Yes, Van. We get our babies started early on liking melted butter and brown sugar.

OH OH, wait for it... wait for it! Any moment now, I will be getting yet another e-mail telling me all about what a terrible mother I am. Boy, am I audacious or what?

Yes, you are seeing that correctly.
That is a little swimming pool of
butter and brown sugar in the middle.
Go ahead, take a dip.


Anyways, back to the squash. This is super simple. I think I can sum it up in single words. Cut, season, roast, measure, cut, sprinkle, scoop. There, I did it.


4 acorn squash, cut in half and seeds scooped out
Kosher salt and ground pepper
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Set oven to 400 degrees.

Season acorn squash with salt and pepper. Place, cut side down, on a greased baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes.

While the squash halves roast, make the brown sugar butter. In a medium bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the sugar. Once combined, it should look like a dough.

Remove the squash from the oven after 45 minutes. Using tongs, flip the squash over. Sprinkle the brown sugar butter on each halve, being sure to get some on the edges. Put the squash back into the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the butter has melted.

Serve with spoons so that the flesh can be scooped right out of the squash.

Yields 8 acorn squash halves. Some people will eat one and some will eat two. We all ate two.

Rookie's Notes: I have found that the smaller the squash, the easier the seeds and the stringy stuff are to scoop out.

Served with this: I served some tabbouleh.

7 comments:

Chef Tess said...

I found you on back burner. Love your blog! You know I'm a chef and a mom and I adore this idea for acorn squash. Not getting any mail from me saying you're bad for feedin' them sugar. Stink, I'm proud of you for feedin' them squash! All your recipes look great! Keep it coming. I'm sure I will visit again!

Laura said...

This is exactly how my mother used to make acorn squash!!! Wow, good memories here! And perhaps... I will be able to convince my own babies to eat squash.

Pam said...

My mother used to make it like this. I do too but I use a bit less butter (although I would love to drown it in butter). Great pictures.

Amanda said...

Can't you come be my neighbor and cook for me? What could I do in return. Oh, I know. I have a large and beautiful garden and I would grow all the fresh veggies you could ever want, especially that squash. Don't worry about guilt, I think that squash was created to be eaten with butter and brown sugar. You're still a great mom.

m.a. said...

Love the St. Patty's layout, Rookie! Also, I really like acorn squash; your recipe is a little different, I'm looking forward to trying it. Thanks!

Cheryl said...

Are you decorating for st patties on your blog already? I have been holding off for weeks while I waited for the dreadful v-day to be over! Now I'm thinking if you changed already so will I!!!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Ha, can't wait to give try feeding this to my guys, dinner and dessert in one.

Tell 'em zip it! Can't stand those over opinionated, have nothing better to do, THEIR kids need therapy folks who comment unnecessarily. (and or make faces)
~ingrid :-)