Spaghetti squash

I haven't posted anything in a while, but then Sam went and posted some food, so I figured I may want to remember delicious things, too. This meal was basically a case of putting everything into the oven and just taking it out at the right time, but it was pretty tasty. The only part that required any real thinking was the spaghetti squash. First you have to hack the thing in half, then roast it, then mix together a bunch of flavors with the spaghetti strands. For the first time maybe ever, I managed to shred out the innards without burning my fingers!

Spaghetti squash is amazing stuff. Mostly, that's because it looks like spaghetti. But also, it's not as sweet as other squashes. Something about the sweetness of squashes tends to make me only tolerate them, not love them. It also has texture - nice and crunchy! I find it pairs well with savory flavors, things like sausage and sage, but also things like caramelized onions and toasted garlic. In this case, I had some hot turkey sausage, that I squeezed out of its casing into chunks and fried up, and a pile of shitake mushrooms. And, for good measure, some chiffonaded collard greens, all in the same pan. Then a touch of grated mozzarella on top, into the oven again (in the half-squash "boats", if you want to get fancy!), just to melt the cheese. Cheese is pretty awesome. 

The other stuff is roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts. My oven does a great job of heating from the bottom heating elements, so things brown very nicely when put with a little olive oil on a metal sheet pan!