Acorn Squash

It’s my second day in Colorado, and a little while ago, my parents flew in to join in the Thanksgiving festivities.  My other sister is landing in a few hours, too, and I’m doing the airport run.  We’re also gonna pop Prince of Persia into the DVD player, so I’m gonna make this quick.  Well, I’ll try to make this quick.

Tonight my sister and I made another fantastic dinner for everyone, which a little assist from Whole Foods – where Sarah (my sister) and Justin (her husband) picked up a pork loin with an apple-cherry stuffing inside.  But what was really delicious was the side dish – Roasted Acorn Squash Mash.  Here’s the recipe (it’s from Martha Stewart, and she calls it Gratineed Baked Squash Halves, but I like our name better).  I’ll walk you through it, since we changed a few things (sorry, Martha).

We started with 3 acorn squashes, which I cut in half.  It wasn’t an easy task – it involved a cleaver, lots of leverage, and strength.  Good thing I’ve been working out!  I then scooped out the seeds:

Meanwhile, on the stove, Sarah whisked together a mixture of 2% Horizon Organic milk (instead of half and half), garlic, and sage.  She also added a tablespoon of butter:

Here’s Sarah whisking away:

The mixture then got divided among the 6 squash halves:

Ten minutes before they were finished roasting, Sarah sprinkled each one with Swiss cheese (instead of Gruyere) – this picture was taken halfway through that process:

After they came out of the oven, each one was served in its own bowl:

And each individual diner used their fork to scrape the squash from the sides, and mix it with the cheese and the creamy liquid in the center.  Here’s what the final mash looked like:

I had no trouble eating all of mine (which also had about 1/3 of the cheese the other ones had, per my request):

It was FANTASTIC!  I highly recommend to everyone.

Earlier today, Sarah and I headed to her gym, like we did yesterday.  Today, I ran 1 mile on the track (in a little over 11 minutes), and then did 35 minutes on the elliptical.  My shoulder is acting up – I think I’ll take tomorrow (Thanksgiving!) off from exercising and let it rest.

Keep it up, David!