Tip: Cooking Spagetti Squash

I wasn't sure how to cook my spaghetti squash, but I found this great resource. It lists advantages and disadvantages to cutting the squash before cooking as well as simple instructions for how to cook it either cut or whole.

Like all winter squashes, spaghetti squash has a very hard shell and is difficult to cut.

I read somewhere that it is immensely easier, if you just pop the squash in the microwave for 45-60 seconds. This softens it up just a bit to make cutting it a bit easier.

With my abundance of squash this fall, I have used this trick up many times and have found it to be very helpful.

Back to the spaghetti squash...

I washed it.
Zapped it in the microwave.
Cut it in half length-wise.
Scraped out the seeds and pulp.
Put it in a microwave-safe baking dish; covered it with plastic wrap.
Microwaved it for 6-9 minutes.

Removing the strands from

a cooked spaghetti squash

Photo © Charles Islander

Let it sit a few minutes after cooking. This allows it to both finish cooking and cool slightly to make it a bit easier on your fingers.

After the squash is fork-tender, use a fork to scrape the squash out of its shell.

It should separate nicely into strands resembling spaghetti.

Halloween Cheesecakes

I know that Halloween was nearly a week ago, but, for the past few years, my parents have hosted a Halloween party the Sunday after the holiday. I was asked to make a dessert this year. I wanted to find something I could make that would use some of the squash in my fridge, so when I found this recipe over on Recipe Shoebox, I knew it would be perfect! I can't get over how great these turned out.

Flying Witch

Yields 2+ cheesecakes

Ingredients:

• 2 ready made graham cracker crust
• 4 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• ¾ c granulated sugar
• ¼ c packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 small golden nugget squash
• 4 eggs
• ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice (or ¼ tsp cinnamon, ⅛ tsp nutmeg, ½ of ⅛ tsp each of allspice and cardamom)
• 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
• Pictures of a flying witch or a howling wolf or whatever you'd like on the cheesecake

Directions:
1. Pierce squash a few times with a fork. Soften in microwave for 45-60 secs. Cut in half; remove seeds. Place in a microwaveable dish; cover with plastic wrap. Cook for 9 minutes or until fork tender. Scoop squash into a food processor and blend until smooth. This should give you about 1 cup of purée.

2. While squash is cooking, cream the cream cheese and sugars together in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and eggs . Mix until well blended. Reserve 1 cup of batter. Pour remaining evenly between two graham cracker crusts.

3. Add squash purée and pumpkin pie spice to the reserved batter. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto the white batter. Gently swirl with a knife. I swirled in one direction to give the impression of a windy, stormy, scary, Halloween night. I had a LOT of leftover squash batter, so I put it in a small dish to bake a 3rd, smaller, no-crust cheesecake.

4. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 min or until the center is still barely jiggly or right before cracks start to appear. Remove and let cool on cooling rack.

5. While cheesecakes are baking, place pictures under wax paper. Put melted chocolate into a plastic baggie and snip off the corner. Pipe the chocolate over the pictures. I had some extra chocolate, so I hand drew a full moon, a spider web, a spider, and some bats/birds/whatever. Place on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer to harden.

6. Once cheesecakes have cooled, cut the wax paper around the chocolate pictures and place pictures on the cheesecake, wax paper side up. Leave waxed paper on and chill cakes in the fridge for 8+ hours or overnight. Gently pull off waxed paper.

Wolf Howling at Full Moon

Spider and Web

Loaded Potato Soup

I'm kind of a sucker for potato soups. I don't know what it is about them, but there's hardly been one I didn't like. This recipe was no exception. Originally found on MyRecipes.com, I, of course, made some very minor alterations.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 4 (6-ounce) red potatoes
• 2 tsp olive oil
• ½ cup chopped celery
• ¼ cup dried, minced onions
• 1 heaping tsp Organic Better Than Bouillon™ chicken base
• 1¼ cups water
• 3 T all-purpose flour
• 2 cups skim milk, divided
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 4 bacon slices
• ⅓ cup shredded monterey jack cheese

Directions:
1. Wash potatoes. Pierce with a fork and microwave on HIGH for 12 minutes or until fork tender. Cut in half; cool slightly.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add celery and onion; sauté 2-3 minutes. Add chicken base and water. Stir until base dissolves.

3. Combine flour and ½ cup milk; add to pan with remaining 1½ cups milk. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream, salt, and pepper.

4. Arrange bacon on a paper-towel lined microwave safe plate. Cover with a paper towel and microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes. Crumble bacon.

5. Scoop insides of potatoes into pan; discard skins. Coarsely mash potatoes into soup. Top with cheese and bacon.

NOTE: My husband really likes salt, so I tend to make everything a little on the salty side. This could easily have the salt reduced to ½ tsp (per the original recipe), if you might like a little less salt. I thought it was perfect, but Jeff still added a bunch of salt to his bowl!

Pattypan Squash with Pasta and Red Sauce

Here's another squash recipe that I just threw together one evening for dinner. It's very simple, and was very tasty, but I did no measuring. Sorry. I did; however, take a couple process pictures.

Ingredients:

• Pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
• Pattypan squash, cut into bite-sized chunks (I used Yellow Sunburst)
• Dried, minced onion
• Dried, minced garlic
• Red pasta sauce
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried basil
• Grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Cook pasta according to package instructions.

2. Sautee squash with onion and garlic in a small skillet.

3. When squash is tender, add pasta sauce, salt, pepper, and basil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

4. Pour sauce over drained pasta. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

This was a tasty dinner for one that I would definitely make again.

Potato Salad

My sister (not the co-auther of this blog, another sister) is generally the potato salad maker, but I had a lot of potatoes to use up, so I figured a potato salad would be perfect. I searched online and found this recipe, which I have modified into a tasty version of my own. Jeff, who normally doesn't care much for potato salad, surprised me by not only liking this concoction but also having multiple servings. Now that's what I call success!

Yields 6 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup salad dressing (e.g. Miracle Whip®)
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 Tbsp dried, minced onion
• 1 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb
• ¼ tsp salt
• ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ cup sliced celery
• Paprika, to taste

Directions:
1. Place potatoes into a large pot of salted water; bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and chop into 1 inch cubes. Place in a medium bowl.

2. Place eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 12 to 14 minutes. Drain water and immediately add cold water and/or ice. Peel and dice.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, salad dressing, dijon mustard, milk, vinegar, onions, Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the potatoes, and mix together with the eggs and celery. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving.

Squash Stuffed with Chard and Black Beans

This is one of the first squash recipes I tried. I found the recipe here originally, I but made a few changes to make it my own. I was surprised at how tasty this was! Unfortunately, Jeff didn't care for it too much and really only enjoyed the topping.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 med acorn squash, halved, seeded
• ½ tsp plus 1 T extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• ¼ tsp salt, divided
• ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper, divided
• ¼ cup onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 T water
• ½ T tomato paste
• 4 cups chopped chard leaves (about ½ large bunch chard)
• ½ (15-oz) can black beans, drained, rinsed
• 2 T coarse dry Italian breadcrumbs
• 2 T grated Parmesan cheese 

Directions:

1. Cut a small slice off the bottom of each squash half so it rests flat. Brush the insides with ½ tsp oil; sprinkle with ⅛ tsp each salt and pepper. Place in a microwave-safe dish. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on High until the squash is fork-tender, about 12 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat ½ T oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring, until starting to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in water, tomato paste and the remaining ⅛ tsp each salt and pepper. Stir in chard, cover and cook until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in black beans; cook until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat.

3. Preheat broiler.

4. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan and the remaining ½ T oil in a bowl. Fill each squash half with about 1 cup of the chard mixture. Place in a baking pan or on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture. Broil in the center of the oven until the breadcrumbs are browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

Braided Bread with a Touch of Rye

I found this recipe on my friend's blog, Recipe Shoebox. It looked so good! I was the first to leave a comment, and I couldn't wait to try it out myself. Well, it took me over a month to finally give it a shot (and now another 4 months to blog about it), and it turned out better than I could have expected. I brought it to my family's Sunday dinner, and everyone loved it. We still tease my nephew about eating nearly an entire loaf by himself. It was that good!

Yields 2 loaves.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs. yeast
• 1-1/4 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 1/4 cup soft butter (not melted)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 pkg. (2.9-oz.) vanilla pudding mix NOTE: Don't use sugar free varieties of vanilla pudding mixes. (I did use an instant mix though, and it worked just fine.)
• 3-4 cups flour (I used mostly all purpose flour mixed with some rye. This was a few months ago, but I think I used closer to a 3:1 ratio for the white to rye flours)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add softened butter, salt, and dry pudding mix. Stir until dissolved. Gradually add flour to right consistency.

2. Knead dough 12 times (or 2 minutes in mixer). Divide dough into 6 equal portions and roll out into a long shape. Braid 3 together for a loaf. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise 2 hours (or until doubled).

3. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Braided Rye Bread

Enjoy!