Maple Glazed Acorn Squash

Here's a recipe I found on Food Wishes. Chef John has a great site chock full of recipes, videos, and lots of wonderful humor. I urge you to set aside several hours when you visit because you'll be tempted to click video after video after video.

So anyway, I had this acorn squash sitting around and decided to give it the Chef John treatment - oven roasted with a touch of fresh orange juice and glazed with brown sugar, butter, maple syrup, and a little cayenne.  Yum!.

Preheat oven to 400F. CAREFULLY cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds (see hints below recipe).

Okay, now you carefully score the inside of the squash with 1/4-inch deep score marks; do this in a crisscross pattern. Place the squash in a baking dish and brush with freshly squeezed orange juice. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and bake for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, make the glaze by combining the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and cayenne in a non-stick pan over med-high heat.

Boil the glaze for 1 full minute.

Brush the glaze all over the squash and return them to the 400F oven for 40 minutes. If your glaze starts to firm up before you use it, return it to the heat for just a moment.

When done, allow the squash to sit for a few minutes. The glaze will thicken as it pools in the bottom of each squash half; use a pastry brush to redistribute the glaze, season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Maple Glazed Acorn Squash

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice

• 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar

• pinch of kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

• pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Place acorn halves in a baking dish and score each half 1/4-inch deep in a crisscross pattern; brush with orange juice and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.

3. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

4. In a nonstick pan, make glaze by combining the brown sugar, butter, maple syrup, and cayenne for 1 full minute.

5. Remove squash from oven and brush with glaze; return to oven for another 40 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. adapted from foodwishes.com.

Note

• Cutting acorn squash can be risky business, but here are a couple ways to go about it safely.  1) you can stabilize the squash by nestling it down in your impeccably clean sink drain before you stab it with your razor sharp knife.  Or 2) you can bunch up a tea towel on your cutting board; making a well for the squash to nest in to keep it stable while you cut it.  Whatever you do, be sure to use a very sharp knife and keep your fingers well out of the way.

Spicy Pickled Shrimp

This is my take on a recipe I recently spied on a wonderful blog called One Perfect Bite.  These tasty shrimp are wonderful and there's no way you can stop at just one!

Despite the long list of ingredients, the recipe is a snap to put together. The hardest thing about making it is the 4-hour wait to sample the finished product.

Okay, okay, I confess, I nibbled while I waited. 

Start by slicing a medley of bell peppers. Love all the bright colors.

Peel and devein 2 pounds of large shrimp. I used 16-20 size (that means there are 16-20 per shrimp pound). I reserved the shrimp shells to make stock.

Time to make a simple seasoning mixture that tastes very much like Old Bay.

Next the shrimp are tossed with the seasoning mixture and the juice of one lemon.

The shrimp are then steamed in a basket suspended over about an inch of water to which the reserved lemon rind has been sliced and added.

The moment the shrimp are done, they are chilled on ice to stop the cooking process. Don't be tempted to use ice water because that would wash all the yummy seasoning away (the shrimp are super yummy to eat at this point).

And lastly the shrimp and sliced bell peppers are added to the marinade ingredients that were whisked together in a large bowl and the mixture is chilled for 4-72 hours.

Try really hard not to swipe a shrimp every time you walk by the fridge.

Mmm, Mmm - Hubby and I loved these.  Totally Delish.  Enjoy!

Spicy Pickled Shrimp

makes 2 pounds

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 pounds large or jumbo raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

• juice of 1 lemon, rind reserved

• 1 small red bell pepper, sliced

• 1 small green bell pepper, sliced

• 1 small yellow bell pepper, sliced

Seasoning Mix (Old Bay copycat):

• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

• 1 teaspoon sweet Paprika (*2 3/4 teaspoons of Old Bay Seasoning may be substituted)

Marinade:

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar

• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar or white vinegar

• 3 cloves garlic, pressed

• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 2 medium shallots, finely sliced

Directions

1. In a small bowl, make the seasoning mix by combining the celery seed, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon pepper and paprika; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, place the prepared shrimp and sprinkle with the juice of one lemon; stir and set aside (save the lemon rind for later).

3. Sprinkle shrimp with seasoning mix and toss well.

4. Steam shrimp in about an inch of water that has the reserved lemon rinds cut up and added to it. Steam just until the shrimp are done (as soon as they turn pink); chill shrimp in ice.

5. In a large bowl, make the marinade by whisking all the marinade ingredients together.

6. Add chilled shrimp and sliced bell peppers to the marinade and toss to coat.

7. Refrigerate for 4-72 hours.

adapted from oneperfectbite.com