Have you ever attempted a rather complicated and somewhat curious dish for the first time? You know the kind of recipe you look at and have absolutely no idea how its going to turn out but for some reason you feel drawn to it and even compelled to invite people over for dinner the night you make it? If you’re anything like me this has happened on several occasions, yet despite the fact that the recipe SCREAMS failure you still can’t keep yourself from talking about how MINDBLOWING it’s going to be. The humiliation that comes from this sort of failure is worst kind for me. Unfortunately, it’s also something I had a lot of experience with in my early days of dinner parties.
Fortunately I hadn’t invited anyone to dinner this time around and I’m extremely thankful for that! This weekend I was tempted by a soup recipe from a certain famous British celebrity chef, the end result of which produced one of the most offensive things to ever come out of my kitchen. I’m pretty sure this had absolutely nothing to do with my inability to follow a recipe and everything to do with the fact that this recipe was clearly flawed to begin with. I will spare you the details and just say that it was enough to make me consider fasting and silent meditation for a month.
This time around it was only the two of us. I think I’m starting to learn from the mistakes of the past, avoiding experimentation and sticking to tested recipes when I invite people over for dinner. But it was a weekend dinner, which I always look forward to because I have more time to spend making something a little more special than your average weeknight dinner. This post however, is not about the offensive soup that could have ruined my nice Sunday dinner, it’s about the fabulous roasted acorn squash that saved it!
I’m starting to think that I should always have some variety of squash on hand. They have a pretty long shelf life and when you keep them in a cool place they’ll be good for several months and possibly even get better with age, also something I learned from a butternut squash I let hang out on the counter for a month. But even more important than their longevity is their ability to completely save you from humiliation should you make the same mistake I did. This recipe is truely capable of saving the day, it’s extremely easy to pull together requiring minimal time and effort and the result is a definite crowd pleaser. If you have an event planned in the future that involves some experimentation, I have one piece of advice fro you: GET THEE SOME SQUASH, because you might be glad you did.
Roasted Acorn Squash With Thyme and Maple Syrup – Serves 3 people as a sides
This recipe could be used for many types of squash and could easily be expanded upon with some ginger or garlic should you feel the need for something a bit more savory. For an even sweeter version you could also add a bit of brown sugar.
1 acorn squash, cleaned and cut into 6 sections
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
a few sprigs of fresh Thyme
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Arrange the sections of squash in a baking dish. Brush each section with the maple syrup and divide the butter between the sections. Season with salt and pepper and scatter over some of the fresh thyme with a few of the whole thyme sprigs. Bake in a 350 Fahrenheit oven for 20-25 minutes or until quite soft and golden brown.
