Squash cups

I love most varieties of winter squash. Actually, I love most squash, in general, but I have allergies, and the reactions are stronger, for some reason, from summer squash than from the winter varieties. Therefore, when I seek squash, I seek a nice, firm, tasty, sweet... dang it, I'm all hungry again...

Going to get cooking, again.

Squash Cups

Oven Temp 400ºF

Ingredients:

1 large acorn squash or butternut squash, cut in half, seeds removed*

3 Tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground ginger

3 Tbs grated coconut**

3 Tbs chopped glazed pecans (we buy ours from Aldi. They're AWESOME!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º F.

2. Place squash halves cut-side down on foil-lined cookie sheet. Roast until soft to the touch (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven, allow to cool enough for you to handle.†

3. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice in a small bowl. In another small bowl, mix coconut & chopped pecans.

4. Separate the skins from the squash meat in chunks, scoop 1/2 cup at a time to put into custard cups or other small oven-safe bowls. Make a small well in top of squash mound. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top, then sprinkle coconut-pecan mix over that.

5. Heat in oven until brown sugar is mostly melted (about 10-15 minutes).

6. Serves 4-6.

* if you wish, you can save the seeds for later to roast them up. They do make tasty snacks.

**I often use toasted coconut. It gives an added bit of interest, but usually requires a cooler oven if you don't want blackened tops.

†You can pre-cook the squash in the microwave oven, if you'd rather not attempt to halve the squash while it's still fresh and hard. For that, poke the squash a few times with a fork or sharp knife, put on microwave-safe plate, cook on high 4 minutes, turn over, cook another 4 minutes, then cool until handle-able, cut in half, discard seeds and skin. It will have a slightly different flavor from the oven-roasted, but if you can live with that, I can.