Stuffed Summer Squash

This. Is. Amazing. (If you like summer squash.)

Once again, forgive the phone photos, but I had to share this yummy dish - made once as an experiment recently and a couple of times since - before I have a chance to make it again and take "real" photos.

This is the way I intended for the recipe to be made, and it was soooo good, but a little more work. The smaller dishes were the rest of the filling poured into the dishes after I'd filled the squash halves.

The second and third time I made this, I cut the squash into strips and put them flat in the pan and just poured the filling over them, rather than try to fill squash halves.

We were recently blessed with a bounty of squash from someone (our garden hasn't been so great, or big, this year) and I was wondering how in the world to fix SO MUCH before it went bad - and make an entire meal of it. Experiments abound in my mind, so this was one of them and we are all glad it was.

Stuffed Summer Squash

(Printable Recipe)

Total time, start to finish: Under 1 hour

1 large and 3 smaller (or the equivalent in volume) round summer squash (I think this is globe squash?) or the something similar (just make sure you've got the volume - summer squash is all good!)

Water

Butter

1 large white onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups prepared polenta (I used this gluten-free kind from Bob's Red Mill)

1 cup shredded mozzarella, plus more for sprinkling

3 large eggs

Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cayenne pepper, a dash or two

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash squash and grease large 13x9 baking dish. 

Slice off stems and ends of squash, then cut in half. Place squash cut side down onto baking dish and bake about 15 minutes, just until squash insides are getting softer.

Bring water for polenta to a boil and prepare polenta according to package directions, then set aside.

While squash is baking and polenta is cooking, melt a tablespoon or so of butter over low heat in a large pan. Add chopped onion and saute over medium-low heat.

Remove squash from oven and scrape squash with a spoon, leaving a little bit on the skin. (At this point you can either slice the squash skin into thick strips to place back in pan, skin side down, or leave the halves to fill in the pan.) 

Place the squash pieces that were scraped off into pan with onion and raise heat to medium-high, breaking up squash into smaller pieces as it cooks and softens for several minutes.

After squash is cooked down some more and softened, remove from heat. Add polenta and season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper.

Add shredded mozzarella and stir to combine. Whisk eggs and slowly add to filling mixture, stirring quickly to prevent eggs from cooking too fast while incorporating throughout filling.

Pour filling into squash halves (in which case you will need a couple of greased ramekins to use up the rest of the filling), or over squash strips. Sprinkle a little more mozzarella over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees approximately 25-30 minutes or until filling is cooked throughout and squash halves or strips are completely softened.

I hope you enjoy! (And I hope this recipe is more clear than mud!)

Squash Casserole and Thanksgiving Menu

It's here again - exactly one week and one day away. Thanksgiving. Are you cooking yet? Are you baking yet? (We've been sick over here in my house, so I'm not. I hope to get to it SOON.)

We have much to be thankful for, even when things don't seem to be going our way, and I'm trying hard to continue counting my blessings each day. Among so many other blessings I'm counting, this year I am thankful that all the scary stuff with my health last year turned out not be cancer or an illness we feared with a poor prognosis. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is no walk in the park, but I'm learning to live around it.

Some of our wall art for Thanksgiving last year - a painting by one of my daughters and leaves the girls made to scatter around the house.

My Thanksgiving menu this year is the same as last, with my goal once again to get as much of it prepared as I am able, and not fret if I don't get every recipe made. (Here is last year's post: http://mamameglutenfree.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-menu.html)

Thanksgiving Menu:
-Turkey (roasted)
-Gravy (Just whisk together some of the turkey juice with some butter and sweet rice flour or brown rice flour over heat)
-Crockpot cornbread dressing (stuffing)
-Squash casserole (see below)
-Sweet potato casserole
-(Dirty rice, if I have time - another one I grew up with!)
-Broccoli with cheese
-Corn (from my brother-in-law's family farm, sauteed in butter)
-Marinated beets
-Yeast rolls
-Cranberry bread
-Cranberry sauce
-Cranberry jelly
-Fruit salad
-Pecan pie tarts
-Pumpkin pie
-Fresh whipped cream
-(And apple pie if I have time!)

This year I'm adding the recipe for squash casserole to the list (I didn't have the recipe for you last year), and I hope one day I'll have all the recipes on this menu available to you. Maybe one a year??

I'm proud to be able to share the squash casserole with you. It's a recipe from my grandmother and has been in my family for as long as I can remember. I've loved it as long as I can remember, and I love that I've passed my love for it on to my daughters. We always have it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it's equally good for other meals during other times, as well. The wonderful thing about this recipe is it's very simple and even the prep is mostly just cooking it on the stove with no stirring. It's also nice because you can freeze squash from your summer garden in advance for the casserole months later. You can also prepare the entire dish a few days in advance.

Squash Casserole
(Printable Recipe)
5-6 medium yellow squash (zucchini also works), sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/2 medium size white onion, chopped
1/4 cup plus extra seasoned bread crumbs (I just make my own and use Italian seasoning)
Light olive oil or grapeseed oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Pinch of dried oregano

Place sliced squash in large saucepan with small amount of salted water, cover and steam until tender. Drain.

In small amount of light oil in a large pan, cook chopped onion until tender. Add seasonings and squash. Chop squash until broken. Cook until most of the water has evaporated.

*At this point you can freeze it if you want, for use later.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Add 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs and stir until combined.

Place in shallow greased baking dish (I use a glass pie pan).

*At this point you can put plastic wrap on top and refrigerate it for a few days - making this an easy dish to prepare in advance.

Sprinkle more seasoned bread crumbs on top.

Bake at 400 degrees until squash is heated through and breadcrumbs are browned - usually about 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving, everyone!