Posted by Ethne~
There’s nothing like fall to get me in squash mode. One time I made AWESOME butternut squash soup but of course I didn’t write down the recipe and haven’t been able to recreate it since. Drat! It was along the lines of Campbell’s butternut squash soup that comes in the paperboard container.
![](http://forladiesbyladies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/butternut-squash.jpg)
Nonetheless, when we went to Bob’s Produce Ranch on Saturday to buy pumpkins for each of the 4 of us, I wanted a squash to cook, too. I bought a nice-looking butternut squash.
I don’t do anything complicated to bake my squash. There are a zillion different ways, but I took the sticker off, washed it off, and put it in the oven on a baking sheet, whole. 350º. I set the timer for 30 minutes and then when that buzzed, I stuck a knife in the thickest part – the neck – and if it was super tender, it was done. I needed to bake mine for about 20-30 more minutes.
In case you don’t know the anatomy of a butternut squash, the seed cavity is in the bulbous bottom part, on the opposite end of the stem.
**You can bake squash seeds the same as pumpkin seeds. They are a little smaller, but the prep and taste are the same – delicious. If that’s the case, when you pick your squash apart, set the seeds aside.**
I left the squash out on the countertop to cool until it was ok to touch with my hands. I just cut it open and scooped out the flesh. I knew I would be saving and cooking with it on Sunday, so I didn’t freeze it. Fridge was fine.
What have I decided to do with it?? Well, I was in the mood for risotto and as it turns out, I had some on hand. Convenient! I made it just the same as I did here, except instead of peas, I added cubes of the cooked butternut squash. The whole fam loved it. And it was so lovely too.
What am I going to make with my pumpkins? For now, they will be decorations on the deck. We may carve a couple of them for Halloween. I personally love when Shaun carves Jack Skellington out of mine. And I will reserve one pumpkin for baking. Making a pumpkin pie for the holidays out of my own pumpkin right up my alley.
Scariest of all: we begin our holiday celebrations in less than a month! Shaun and I have family nearby, so we always have a place to be for the actual holidays, and then some. But when I was growing up in ND, I had no family around at all. We had some amazing friends in Williston that became our family, but there were plenty of holidays when I was a kid where it was just Thrifty Nana, Dad, Whit and me. It was really quite special, looking back. Anyway, Shaun and I decided that there would be one designated day where we cook a full-up holiday meal, just for the four of us. Our own family holiday meal – it’s shaping up to be the 2nd weekend of November again this year. What?? It was just 80 degrees out last week!
1 comment:
I love squash seeds, (or pumpkin), I mix raw ones with a little olive oil, garlic and seasoned salt and roast them in the microwave. Then I hide them and eat them all myself.
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