Quick and Easy Sides: Baked Butternut Squash

Gabe hates squash. I know, crazy. But he ate this and it was wicked easy and crazy wonderful. I got the recipe off the sticker on the squash. Reading, the gift that keeps on giving...

BAKED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
(prep time - 5 minutes; oven time - 50 minutes)

Ingredients:
whole butternut squash
salt
brown sugar
butter - real, unsalted, organic*

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Make sure your knife is really sharp and you use some muscle. (I peeled the squash, but it is totally unnecessary for this recipe and actually made it harder to eat. Leave the exterior alone.)

Scrape the seeds out of the center with a teaspoon. Cut each half into thirds. Place them in a glass pan flesh side down and cook for roughly 45 minutes or until fork-tender.

Pull the pan out, flip the squash over, and lightly salt. Next sprinkle with brown sugar. The brown sugar will immediately start to melt and get all frisky with the salt. You want to encourage this melding of sweet and savory, so sing a little love song and dim the lights.

That's right, little granules. Let's get it on...

Return the pan to the oven until the tops are nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and top each piece of squash with a nice pat of butter. Who's your daddy now?

*A moment of silence for the glory of Straus butter. If you haven't tried it, I'm sad for you.