While I was out

While I was walking the dogs last night I happened upon a bunch of neighbors that were hanging out on their patios, watering their plants and just doing the social thing.

A friend invited the dogs and I in for a visit. 

While we were visiting another neighbor stopped by and I mentioned that I was in awe of the garden he had planted out back.

He left and came back a few minutes later with this:

A beautifully ripe, homegrown acorn squash.

And this is what I did with it.

I cut in half length-wise, scooped out the seeds and rubbed it with butter.

The two halves went into a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. I did pour a bit of water into the sheet pan just to make sure the squash didn't dry out.

While the squash was in the oven I set 1/3 of a cup of white rice in a soup pot with 2/3 of a cup of water to simmer.

When the rice was done I took it off the heat and set it aside.

An hour later the squash was tender and I scooped out one half and set it in a skillet with some olive oil.


Here is a look at the done dish to keep you occupied while I continue:

I added the cooked rice to the skillet and added in a cup of chicken broth, a pinch of sage, a generous dose of cracked black pepper, 1/2 cup of white wine and 3 Tbsp. of grated Parmesan.

I let this cook (adding more chicken stock if the mixture looked dry) until it was somewhere between a congee and a risotto.

 Oh, wow, was this comforting, savory and delicious!

In a 'I want to scrape every little bit off my spoon and lick the bowl' kind of way.

Homegrown acorn squash - I highly recommend!