The Muddy Kitchen: Stuff It, Squash It, Love It

See that? There are big changes afoot in the BU! Specifically, the B. Our backyard is in flux*

 

*"In flux" means you don't have to feel bad for having stuff all over the place outside.  We're fluxing, neighbors!


What's all the flux about? The removal of our old outbuilding, to make way for the construction of a greenhouse, for which this is the frame.

While it just looks like a pile of metal sticks, this little baby cost a pretty penny. Buying it pretty much cleaned out our bank account in one fell swoop. When I imagine spending the endless end of winter in it, warm(er), keeping up with my planting schedule, no matter the icy rain, I know it will be worth it. But for now, I have six people to feed and the holidays are coming up.

Don't worry about us, this is what playing in the dirt, frolicking with fowl, and tending plants is all for: feeding the masses.

As I look around at my harvests and holdings, we can definitely make a few weeks of cheap dinners from the bounty. These acorn squash volunteered in my garden, popping up from seeds carried in compost.

       Exactly six. Coincidence????????  Yeah, probably. But also, coincidinner.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Stuffing:
1 1/2 c. cooked brown rice
1 1/2 c. cooked wild rice
1 c. finely chopped, toasted walnuts
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
3 eggs
1. c. ricotta cheese
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
sage, parsley, salt, and pepper to taste

Six acorn squash, of various sizes

Preheat oven to 350. After cutting the squash in half and scooping out the seeds, brush insides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside half of the Parmesan to sprinkle on top, and mix together remaining stuffing ingredients. Spoon into the squash "bowls" and press a little Parmesan cheese onto the top. Bake at 350 until the cheese is brown and the squash flesh is soft, turning halfway through a baking time of about 45 minutes.

Confession: I've made this recipe many times before, and despite it being delicious, it hasn't always gotten rave reviews from the under 12 set.  So I pulled a classic parenting move. I invited my good buddy in all things laborious (who also has been our most vocal anti-stuffed squash family member) Thomas, to help make it. Yes, yes, I do love to get kids cooking, just for its own sake, but there is an ulterior motive here.

 

When a child is free to handle and carefully destroy whole, stimulating ingredients, a deeper level of appreciation for a previously unpopular dish might develop. He smell smells and his eyes water.

 

From mincing, to measuring; stirring to stuffing, a kid plugs a little of himself into the process and notices all of the little things.

I mean, to brush something in extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper is a vital life skill, if you ask me.

Things don't just taste that way on their own. The next generation of grown-ups needs to learn that.

After preparing these squash, and sighing with satisfaction as we closed the oven door on them, it suddenly dawned on Thomas that he was not a fan of this dish. Drat! I was hoping he wouldn't remember.

"Hey....I seem to remember HATING stuffed squash!" he said, brow furrowed. I pointed out that they might taste better this time, because he made them. He finished that sentence, smiling, with "in MY image!" Exactly, my boy. You're in that squash, and soon that squash will be in you. Just as it should be.