Baked Squash, pg. 179

yellow squash

It is fall up here in the big apple. Well sorta. The leaves are a beautiful golden, while the weather this week has been muggy, sticky, and feeling not quite like autumn. But the fall veggies at the grocery have been inspiring me. I decided to make Mrs. Gerald Thomas's (Lottie Johnson) baked squash. Now I honestly have never even eaten squash. Never appealed to me. But since I am trying to be more grown up and to eat more veggies (albeit veggies stuffed with butter, bread crumbs and bacon), I thought this oh so fall dish fit the bill.
   I was a bit worried that I did not get the right kind of squash. I saw some huge beautiful squash for sale at the Whole Foods in Chelsea and I started loading up on these beauties and a sugar pumpkin for a pie. But then I saw the express line snaking its way through the grocery and retreated quickly. Those squash would have to be gold coated for me to wait in that kind of line. Ok, maybe not since I am currently changing diapers for money and gold covered squash probably would be a financial boon. But you get my point. It was a terrible line. So off to gourmet garage for the smaller squash (I need an entire post on grocery shopping here. It is simply a huge ordeal that takes forever!).

squash guts

   The squash at Gourmet Garage were much smaller. I decided to google squash to make sure I was somewhat on the right track. Not sure if you knew this, but there are a ton of different kind of squash. The receipt asks for yellow squash. Not sure if they meant that variety literally, but that is what I ended up with. and I think it works best. The beautiful large squash at Whole Foods I believe would have been too big.

pork tenderloin, rice pilaf, and baked squash- easy weeknight fall meal

  The receipt is pretty straight forward. Andrew liked it with the addition of green peppers, and I liked the bacon in it. It was easy and is something that could be made ahead and baked right before dinner which is nice. Verdict on the squash: they are ok. I was not blown away by the dish so probably will not make again. But it was easy, and even when cut in half it made a lot.
   Hope everyone has a happy halloween! I don't even have a costume yet and it is my favorite holiday!! Off to figure that out!