Baked Butternut Squash Pasta

In the end the storm didn't do too much damage to NYC. In my area there were a few branches down, some residual water, but otherwise, not so bad.

In Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs there was lots of flooding and a tornado watch. My grandmother is without electricity at her house as is my uncle and his family.

Last night I fell asleep around 1 am, too much energy thanks to all the news coverage. We also had a tornado warning until 5 am and I was debating if I should sleep in my room or in the hall. In the end I passed out in my bed after to speaking to Matt who is currently in sunny California. 5 short hours later I was abruptly woken up by the fire alarm in my building. My roommate rushed out of our apartment to see if neighbors were evacuating, no one. We debated going downstairs but given no notice on the intercom system we went back to bed. Just a short while later the alarm when off again, but no word from our apartment and it didn't seem so bad outside. Once more I tried to fall asleep but then my phone start buzzing like crazy with everyone checking up on me. I gave up on sleep and grabbed breakfast.

The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent reading, once I was able to pull myself away from my book I decided to walk around. There were so many people up and about. Apart from a bit of rain it was so refreshing outside. Clean, crisp air, and with only a few cars driving about it was pretty quiet.

With the cooler weather, and maybe ready for this dreary August to be over (17 inches of rain fell this month, that's a record breaking number!), I had fall on the mind. Fall to me means all things pumpkin or squash, hayrides, and apple picking. Mmm, maybe I'm not so ready for the last two, but I'm ready to bring on the winter vegetables!

Thanks to my resourcefulness :) -I have plenty of winter squash in the freezer. I pulled out some butternut squash and thawed in the microwave. 5 minutes on high, stirred, cooked for 1 more minute. Now what to do with it...

Tonight, it was a Baked Butternut Squash Pasta

Ingredients:

-6 oz of winter/butternut squash (mine was pureed from last summer, can also find frozen at the grocery store)

-serving of pasta (whatever kind you would like, I used linguine because it's what I had on hand-macaroni would do well with this dish)

-tablespoon olive oil

-1/4 cup of onion

-1 garlic clove

-1 tablespoon of cream

-vegetable stock

-1/8 cup of parmesan cheese (I think, sorry I didn't really measure)

-breadcrumbs to sprinkle before placing into the oven

Heat oven to 350*. Boil water and cook pasta according to package. Meanwhile, in a frying pan with medium heat add oil, once hot throw in garlic and onion and cook until tender.

Throw in the squash and cook for another minute stirring occasionally. Add cream (could also use plain greek yogurt), and vegetable stock until it reaches your desired consistency. I added a couple of tablespoons. I wanted to keep the sauce thick but spreadable-if that makes sense. Take away from heat and add cheese, stir thoroughly.

Drain pasta and add it to the frying pan. Again mix everything together. Grease a ramekin and transfer pasta and squash mixture. Sprinkle with a bit of seasoned breadcrumbs and a bit more cheese.

Place into 350* oven for 7-10 minutes, then switch to broiler for 1-2 minutes to get nice and crisp on top.

I will be making this dish lots this fall. An easy dish for 1 person and can easily be modified for a larger group. To me it also just screamed fall, just what I wanted. The only thing missing was a pumpkin ale. Note to self, keep an eye out for pumpkin beer!

Night,

Nicole

PS-Kinda wish I had cable tonight. Everyone on facebook switched from discussing the hurricane to talking about the MTV VMA's. My mom had to be the one to tell me that Beyonce is pregnant, now that's just sad.

PPS-My mom is watching because my teenage sister is watching and she's in the room.