Best Thing Since Slipper Socks

Thanksgiving is coming up, and there is nothing I love more on Thanksgiving than paying homage to the pilgims and eating squash. What I mean is: if you look at a cornucopia, there squash is, with all of its other gourd brothers, looking regal and fun. Squash has staying power. The pilgrims knew it, my mother (squash-fanatic) knows it, and I (after a recent squash revelation) know it too.

Here’s my thing about squash: if you put 7 squash dishes in a room and prepared them totally differently from one another, added cinnamon sugar to this dish, and pimento cheese to that, you will find that no two dishes will taste the same. You can very easily add variety, while still maintaining the seedy goodness of the vegetable, because squash is a chameleon of a food. In short, squash lets you transform it however you want to transform it and doesn’t say, “This isn’t me at all.”

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas for about ten years, my mother has made a squash casserole that is TO DIE FOR. She mixes pureed squash, sour cream, pimento cheese, butter, and tops it with a breadcrumb mixture, bakes it for 45 minutes. The product is this dynamic, crumble of a casserole with a fanbase. On holidays, both sides of the family know it’s coming, and when she walks in the door, holding the Tupperware dish with two potholders, they clear a space for it with a sort of urgency I didn’t know a side dish deserved. But, it does deserve a place cleared for it, and if I can continue being dramatic about how good it is: it deserves to be right by the turkey. (Maybe even ahead of it) If she had a specialty, squash casserole would be it. Because of this, I will not be making the casserole, because it isn’t mine to make. But while I’m home for the holidays, I will document the magic, and post it for you--recipe, flip-flop print cooking aprons and all.

This Thanksgiving, I’m going to be trying out another squash recipe on my family, bringing it with me to Dillon, SC, where we go for lunch. I’m bringing it as a sort of sister-wife to the casserole, because, while it is squash, it is worlds away from my mother’s dish. They are (after getting word of my food blog) expecting something inventive and tangible. I'm proving myself this year. So, I will give them the acorn squash.

I remember the night I first got wind of this recipe. It was November in Wilmington, NC and my friend Emily, who I mentioned in an earlier post, invited me over to her house to do “Fall things”. There was nothing bizarre about the nature of the invite, in fact, we would very often label our hang-out sessions: “Night of Summer Things” “Night of Irresponsible Things” “Night of Girly Things." It was just something we did. That night, I went over, she greeted me in the hall with a pair of slipper socks in a small gift bag, we made acorn squash in the oven and gawked over Cameron Diaz’s wide array of peacoats in The Holiday. I may have lost the slipper socks (sorry, Em!) but I have kept this recipe with me ever since.

Just a note: If I were to categorize this recipe, I would place it under dessert or whatever category sweet potatoes fall under.

Hazelnut Acorn Squash
1 large acorn squash
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
small package of chopped hazelnuts

First, horizontally half the acorn squash. You will, without a doubt, need the largest machete in your drawer.

Scoop the stringy pulp and seeds out of the squash cavities. In a small mixing bowl, combine softened butter and brown sugar.

Coat the insides of the squash with the combined mixture and place on baking sheet. These are so pretty. I can't even handle it!

Bake at 400 for one hour until squash is tender when mashed with a fork. Sprinkle hazelnuts on top. Enjoy!