Stuffed Acorn Squash

Dan & I got it in our heads to make a stuffed squash this week, and bought an acorn squash and some great Skagit River Ranch chicken sausage at the market Saturday. But when I consulted my library of cookbooks, all the acorn squash recipes involved baking it with butter and maple syrup or brown sugar - nothing savory. So we winged it.

I chopped up some onion and garlic and tossed it in a pan with some butter and olive oil, over medium heat. Then I added the sausage, crumbled, and began cooking that. Then I chopped up some leftover walnut bread I've been saving in the freezer, and tossed that in. Because the bread was so dry, I poured a little orange juice on top, tossed in some seasoning and fennel seeds, then put on the cover. Finally, I cut up some leftover greens, tossed them until they began to wilt, then pulled it all off the heat. I cut the squash in half and cleaned it out, then stuffed each half with the filling. I realized I hadn't included anything to really hold all that together, so I sprinkled on a little parmesan cheese. The whole shebang went in the oven for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

The filling got a little more dry than necessary, but remained tasty. If we redo this, I'd probably brush the squash halves with olive oil and bake it for 20 minutes on it's own, perhaps with some foil over it to trap in moisture, then stuff the shells and pop them back in to heat it all through and finish cooking the squash.