Dear Customers,
The end of October is always a little bittersweet for me. All the leaves are off the trees (except for my extremely stubborn Silver Maple) leaving the landscape barren and brown with tinges of gray. The evenings come on sooner and sooner as we near the winter equinox on December 21st. It’s darker, it’s colder and there are ghosts and goblins in the forecast! I would like to tell you when Halloween will be celebrated in the Smethport Borough, but they don’t determine that until long after this goes to the printer. I’m assuming, however, that it’ll be on Thursday night, the 31st from 6:00-7:30pm.
The ‘sweet’ part of the ‘bittersweet’ is that these last two months of the year are full of occasions to celebrate; particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas. Holiday commercials abound on television and on the internet. . . that is whenever they can pry some airtime out of the hands of the politicians! Kitchens are warm cozy places to spend the holiday season, and more and more bakers and cooks are practicing their culinary crafts in anticipation of the coming feast days.
Since this week’s ad technically starts in October, I’ll offer one last apple-centric recipe before we put “National Apple Month” to bed for another year! Tying apples in with the month of November, I’m offering apples coupled with squash!
APPLE-STUFFED ACORN SQUASH
| 3 Acorn squash, halved & seeded | 2 tablespoons margarine sticks |
| 1 cup chopped onions | 3 cups Granny Smith apples |
| ½ cup golden raisins | 2 tablespoons light brown sugar |
| 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon | 12oz shredded cheddar |
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Peel, seed and chop the apples. Place the squash halves onto a rimmed baking sheet, cut sides down. Fill the baking sheet with ½ inch of water. Bake the squash in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. While the squash is baking, melt margarine in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the onions and apples until the onion has softened and is translucent. (10-15 minutes). Scrape the mixture into a bowl to cool until the squash has finished baking. Drain off any water from the baking sheet.
Stir raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon and cheddar cheese into the apple-onion mixture. Turn the squash cut side up on the baking sheet and fill with the apple mixture. Return the squash to the oven and bake until the filling is hot, and the cheese has melted (about 15 minutes). (HINT: taking a small slice off the bottom of the squash helps them to stand up for filling easily)