Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar Butter Sauce

Every year we get acorn squash with our CSA and every year I donate it to the food bank or a neighbor or I throw it away. This year I've received three so far and have decided I don't want to throw it away so I searched the internet and my cookbooks for a recipe. Most of the recipes call for you to stuff the squash with rice and sausage which for some reason did not sound too appealing to me. I ended up finding a recipe that made the squash a lot like a loaded sweet potato. I will admit I ended up really liking the squash and will make this again. The flavors blended well together and the squash was tender. As you can tell from the picture I ended up with a nice amount of buttery liquid so you may want to cut back on the butter some if you want to cut some calories. I'm not sure why I had so much liquid when the blog I found the recipe on did not have this problem.

Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar Butter Sauce
Savory Sweet Life

1 acorn squash, cut in half with seeds removed

1/2 cup water

a couple pinches of salt

a couple pinches of nutmeg

a couple pinches of cinnamon

2 – 1 Tablespoon pats of butter

4-6 Tablespoons brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven on HIGH-Broiler. Pour water in a microwavable casserole dish large enough to accommodate the squash. Place the acorn squash flesh side down in the dish and microwave for 15 minutes. Remove from microwave carefully because the dish will be hot. Remove the acorn squash and transfer to a baking sheet with the flesh side facing up. Place a small pat of butter in each half and rub the entire flesh sided surface. Any remaining butter should be left in the middle of the squash. Sprinkle the squash with salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Finally sprinkle between 2-3 Tablespoons of brown sugar around the rim of the squash and allow the remaining sugar to join the butter in the center (This will be your brown sugar sauce). Broil on high heat for 5 minutes. You should seam some the rim of the squash with caramelization. If not, broil for an additional 3 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy!

**Note: This recipe is not overly sweet or spicy. The sugar and spices merely enhance the wonderful natural flavor of the squash. If you prefer a more sweet and spicy acorn squash just add more according to your liking.