A love affair with winter squash...

So, each year, I experience a love affair with winter squash--all shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and flavors. I challenge you to come up with a piece of produce that has such cartoon-like appearances and names: sweet meat, sugar pie, Cinderella, gold nugget, Hubbard, butternut, carnival, spaghetti, dandy, delicata!

I digress...a love affair. It starts out oh, so exciting! In fact, I can get a bit obsessive; ask Justin about the many afternoons that I would come home from Nash's or the Johnston's with armloads of the giant, awkward, weighty, orbs with a huge grin on my face. I had visions of pies, casseroles, smoothies, sweet treats, savory delights dancing through my head, and, heck, if I didn't use them all right away, they would decorate our kitchen with the essence of fall.

Well, as the newness of my squash love affair begins to wear off by December, I become a bit exhausted and overwhelmed by the presence, copious presence, of it in my kitchen and life. Some of the colorful piles begin to sag and, dare I say, rot. I sheepishly run a few moldy ones to my compost pile--not even trying to salvage parts of it.

However, this week, I realized that the bounty of winter squash is nearing its end. I will have to wait until next fall to munch on roasted seeds and fill our kitchen with their sweet aromas. So, once again, for a meal or two, I cherish the essence of winter squash.

I can easily say, that Delicata is my FAVORITE variety. It looks like a chubby albino cucumber and, most excitingly, can be cooked and eaten with its skin on! No near misses with knives; just chop it up and roast it or add it to a veggie saute--skin and all. So, below, is a dish that features the Delicata as the main event. Enjoy.

NUT-STUFFED DELICATA
(From Vegetarian Times)

3 TBS butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
1 TBS. chopped fresh sage
1/3 c. each of walnuts, almonds, pine nuts
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. shredded cheese
2 delicata squash, halved and seeded

1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a skillet and saute onions, garlic, and salt until onions are clear. Add sage and nuts, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, eggs, and cheese. Stir in nut mixture.
3. Divide stuffing between squash halves and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake until tender and browned on top--about 45 minutes.