Italian style meals, sustainable gardening tips, and lots of segues in between

When we were growing up, my mother cooked dinner every night. There was always a protein, a vegetable, and a starch, although on Sundays, when one of my grandmothers cooked dinner, the lines between the food groups were blurred by a magnificent batch of spaghetti and meatballs. Now, I am the grandmother!

Milk was the only beverage served at meals, and it was poured from an “Orange Poppy” ceramic milk pitcher. Milk bottles on the table were a big No-No. All of her serving pieces were in this pattern.

One of us kids set the table and another cleared it. There was a rhythm to the dinner hour. We ate what Mom served us. At the time, I so envied our next-door neighbors who on Monday nights got to eat TV Dinners when The Monkees came on.

Mom was a single parent who worked full-time and was a fabulous cook. I was her sous chef and worked by her side to get dinner on the table nightly. Helping with dinner was a point of pride; we were a team. While structured family meals have undergone some changes in the last fifty years, the way I prepare acorn squash remains the same. Mom knew how to prepare adult foods so children would eat them.

Serves 8

Ingredients:

4 acorn squashes
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
Cinnamon sugar (1 T sugar and 1 t ground cinnamon)
cracked pepper or garlic pepper

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400º
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Prepare Squash:
Cut off each end of the squash. Cut off as little as is necessary to stabilize the squash, so it stays upright.

Cut squash in half. Take a moment to admire nature’s beautiful details, and then … scoop out the seeds!

Coat the interior and top edges with EVOO.

Add one-third cup of applesauce to each squash half. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, followed by a little cracked pepper or garlic pepper. Place squash halves on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.