christmas dinner

every year my family has a christmas dinner tradition - we pull a cooking assignment out of a hat and then you have to make something for christmas dinner! example, this year i pulled "side dish." my brother got "appetizer" and dad got "potato." mom is always in charge of cooking the roast and the yorkshire pudding, so the rest of us have to make everything else.

i was set on making mac and cheese for my side dish, but realized no one really had the responsibility of bringing a vegetable to the table. so i sighed, then looked up vegetable recipes. i found an interesting recipe for broccoli pudding. ok i know, that sounds kind of gross, but if you've ever had corn pudding, then you would not cringe at the name. it's yummy, trust me.

recipe can be found HERE.

my brother made bacon wrapped water chestnuts for his appetizer, but i didn't take any pictures. people ate them up too fast.

dad made twice baked mashed potatoes. they were really good, but took forever to reheat. everything else was ready except for those potatoes. we ended up sticking them in the microwave. they were really delicious, though. his recipe is from idahopotato.com but there a million recipes and i have no idea which one he used.

and the beautiful roast and yorkshire pudding courtesy of mom.



YUM.

acorn squash

i bought an acorn squash last week at the hollywood farmer's market. that brown sugar/cinnamon/maple syrup flavor was calling my name. and if there's a way to make a vegetable (is squash indeed a vegetable?) into dessert, i'm in. plus the flavors are so fall-y, it's a really good seasonal treat.

ingredients:
1 acorn squash
sugary butter mixture:
- 1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
- 2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- splash of orange juice
- dash of pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have this, you can play with cinnamon, clove, allspice, etc)

1. take your acorn squash and cut in half lengthwise. remove the center of the squash (seeds and goopy stuff. save those seeds! see below...)
2. place your squash halves, cut side down, into a baking dish. roast these at 350 for about 45 minutes (i know that sounds like a long time, but it goes by quickly).
3. after 45 min, take the squash out of oven and flip over. pour your butter mixture in center (you may want to spread it around the cut sides, or poke some holes with your fork in the bottom of the squash well, let the juices get around!)
4. put this back in the oven and bake again for 25-30 min, or until the squash is tender.
5. drizzle your finished squash half with some maple syrup. yum!

before baking with butter mixture
out of the oven!
why yes, i WILL eat you!


i told you to save those seeds - don't forget to roast them!

1. separate your seeds from the squash goop. rinse them off so they're not so sticky (or else they'll all clump together when you cook them). place clean seeds on a baking pan.
2. sprinkle with your preferred seasoning (i used chili powder, garlic powder and seasoned salt)
3. roast in a low temperature oven (300-325 degrees) for at least 25 minutes (longer or shorter depending on how crispy you want them)



these are great on a salad or just grab a handful and shove them in your mouth. they're such a good little snack!