Winter Squash....and I am getting ahead of myself..

So I thought I would share the "inspiration" for the 52.....

Yesterday, while admiring the empty space in my normally overloaded refrigerator, I was feeling a dash of creativity.  Looking in the the pantry, I found a lonely spaghetti squash and a bag of onions that had managed to survive the over load of house guests and the mind night snacking of my husband (typically, winter squash isn't high on the list of snack items).

What to do......I pulled out the Julia Child Cookbook series and found nothing to my taste (that is, without modification) and then thought "I should really expand my horizons and develop a collection of recipes that are fresh, local and in season." Voila!!  I decided to eat one thing totally fresh, local and in season once a week.....even if this meant eating something that I would normally turn my nose up on.  I figured, I should try it at least once and, hopefully, get creative and maybe even healthier in the process.

So, what ever become of that squash:

Spaghetti Squash Soup:

1 large spaghetti squash (top cut to look like a lid and seeds removed)
1 cube of butter
1/2 to 1 cup toasted cracker crumbs (I had to do something with the New Years Eve party left overs)
2 tablespoons locally grown Bari olive oil (getting off to a good start here)
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried sage
a can or two (depending on the size of your squash) chicken broth
a few splashes of hot sauce
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven at 350.  Rub half the butter inside of the squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Saute the onions in the remaining butter and olive oil.  Add sage and stir.  Add crumbs when onions are brown (I went with a cup but you don't want the whole interior of the squash to be crumbs.  Brown a bit more till butter is absorbed.  Should be about 1/2.  Spoon the onion mixture in to the squash.  Cover to the top with chicken broth.  Add a couple of splashed of hot sauce and cover with the squash lid.  Place squash upright in a baking dish so that it doesn't tip over (I used an oven-proof cereal bowl and sat it on another pan to catch any mistakes).

Bake for approximately 1 hour to an hour an a half (the exterior should start to look a bit brown-golden).

Remove, scrap the inside and serve with the broth.  It's extra nice with Swiss cheese on top.  YUMMMMMM!!