Baked Acorn Squash with Cinnamon

For some reason, I never really ate much squash until I was out of college. I don't remember having it as a kid, and only had it prepared so I liked it a few years ago. Alex and I had a couple who we are friends with over for dinner the other night, and we were going to cook this squash but decided against it. We had enough food, and thought we'd maybe need more than one squash for the four of us. Why we thought that I don't know, because squash is filling. And heavy. 

I love things with brown sugar and butter. This is a very fall tasting dish. This is almost a dessert, like mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, another one of my favorites, but has a comfortable place on the dining table. Baked squash is also something that's fast and easy and can be stuck in the oven for a while and forgotten about while you go off and cook more labor intensive things. 

Baked Acorn Squash with Cinnamon 

This is a great thing to make with my favorite roast chicken, since they both cook at the same temperature for about the same amount of time.

1 acorn squash 

2 T butter

2 T rum or brandy

1 T orange juice

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Cut squash in half (I used a butcher knife) and scoop out the guts, then score the inside of each half. Save them to roast for a snack later! Put squash in a pan with a little water in the bottom, cut side up. Put butter, liquor, and orange juice in the hollow of each squash, dividing each evenly between the two. Mix together the brown sugar with the cinnamon and nutmeg, then divide between the squashes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake an hour and  a half, until squash is soft. You can tell the squash is done when you can easily put a knife through to the skin without too much resistance.