A Winter Pick-Me-Up with the Power of Color

Winter food can get a little... well, boring, especially if your diet is heavy on the produce like mine is. How many ways can a person cook potatoes, anyway? Squash are the tiny splashes of color that keep my winter cooking from ending up monochrome and snooze-inducing. A little scene-stealer of a dish like this one can keep your meals feeing festive and interesting even when you've got, say, several inches of snow on the ground like we do here. Plus, a vegetarian dish that can stand as the beautiful centerpiece of a meal is a rare and wondrous thing (you know where I'm coming from, fellow veggies and almost-veggies: a plate of sides does not a meal make). These babies spend a long time in the oven, so they're best suited to a day when you can commit several hours to kicking around the kitchen--like an upcoming holiday, perhaps.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Corn Pudding

Adapted from Heidi Swanson's recipe at 101Cookbooks

The original recipe only called for 1 acorn squash, but I found that I had way too much filling. Either you can use two squashes (as I suggest here) or you can use one squash and cook the remainder of the filling like a custard. I did mine in an ungreased souffle pan, placed it in a cake pan full of water, and put the whole shebang into a cold oven. I then let it heat up to 375 and baked for 40 minutes. It was okay, but a little bland for me. The combination of egg and squash is what makes this dish stellar.


2 acorn squash (see note above)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup milk
1 egg and 2 egg whites
1/2 cup corn kernels (I used frozen, thawed but fresh would be great too)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup chopped scallions
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup grated cheddar

Mise en place: the finest kitchen methodology!

Preheat oven to 375F degrees with your rack in the middle.

Cut your squash in half lengthwise to make nice little cups and scrape them out with a spoon. Then cut a flat spot on the bottom so that the cup sits level. You want to have a nice level container for your filling so there's no slopping about. Rub the top and inside of your squash with the olive oil and put them cup-side up on a baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes until the squash starts to get tender.

Whisk your eggs together with the milk, allspice, corn, nutmeg, salt, and about half to 2/3 of the scallions. Please note that the corn will sink, especially if you use frozen, and everything else will float. Give it a good stir right before pouring it into the squash, filling them about 3/4 of the way. Just leave the squash on the same baking sheet to save yourself the trouble of moving a mostly full squash cup from one surface to another. The original recipe says it can take as little time as 30 minutes, depending on the oven, but I was using my mom's nice new oven (thanks Mom!) and my pudding took nearly an hour and a quarter to set--so proceed with patience!

When the pudding looks done, sprinkle on your cheese and put the squash back in the oven for another 5 minutes. If you're feeling fancy, you can also melt the cheese by putting the squash under a hot broiler for a quick crisp--just be careful not to burn anything. Sprinkle your remaining scallions on top and tuck in!

Look at this spread and try to feel dreary. I dare ya.