Entries in Recipes (1)

Thursday
Oct112012

Chili-Cheese Butternut Squash

I dig making up new food combinations and some are good, some are decidely not.  I sorta made this up the other night, my lovely wife was swamped down with work and really wanted to 'use the butternut squash' that we had, so I just sort of threw some stuff together that seemed reasonable and I struck gold.  This was some good stuff.  A lack of exact directions are really indicitive of the way I cook.  Fake it, you'll be fine.

What you need:

  • Butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into bite sized-hunks.  About 1 to 1.5 lbs.
  • An onion, preferably yellow, medium, diced. If you use a red onion for this you will regret it for 1000 days and somewhere a cute kitty will die because of you.  No red freaking onions.
  • Big old splash of olive oil
  • Dash of chili pepper - the good dark stuff, don't be a sissy with that dash
  • Dash of Chipotle pepper - good n' smoky, maybe 2 dashes
  • Dash o' cumin, use it, but go light
  • Dash of oregano, this is really not about the oregano, just a tiny amount
  • Dash of paprika, I like my paprika like I like my women, hot and Hungarian, use what you have on hand.
  • Garlic, a little.  I used the dry powdered junk and it was great.
  • Salt to taste
  • A mild white cheese.  Montery jack, white american, something like that.  About 2 slices worth.  If you use processed Kraft cheese here you suck and your squash will too.  Don't do it.

The making:

  • Oil in the pan, make it hot.  Start your onion in there.
  • 87 seconds in, add the squash and all of your spices.
  • Knock that crap around with a wooden spoon, cover when needed, cook until the squash is edible, maybe 15 minutes or so depending on how big your chunks are.
  • When they look done throw the cheese on, let it melt, stir to coat.
  • Eat it, sharing optional.