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I was asked to cater a small luncheon and with autumn upon us, I was super-pumped when they chose the Horn of Plenty Menu! It consists of a stuffed acorn or carnival squash and a simple salad, from-scratch Shiner Bock beer bread with honey-butter rounds, and delicious cake truffles. It made the house smell so wonderful and made me feel autumn deep in my soul! I want to pass that along to you, so I am giving you the stuffed squash recipe below. Happy Autumn Eating!
STUFFED ACORN SQUASH
2 acorn or carnival squash, halved, seeded, and scraped deep and wide so as to fill generously, but still leaving enough squash flesh to eat
1 pnd ground beef
1/2 pkg bacon, chopped fine
1 onion, diced finely
2 green apples, cored and chopped finely
2 tbs pumpkin pie spice
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs dried sage
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cups Jasmine rice, cooked
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place squash halves cut-side down on a rimmed dish. Add water to dish and bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes. While squash is roasted, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until almost crisp. Add onion and apple. Cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in ground beef., breaking up meat as it cooks, and let it get just-brown. Add brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, sage, salt and pepper. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in Jasmine rice. Drain water from baking dish and flip over squash. Spoon meat-and-rice mixture into squash halves generously, pressing down with hands to pack it in. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve with fried sage as a garnish.
NOTES: Want low-carb? Omit the rice. Be careful frying your sage leaves - if they turn brown they will taste bitter. I used all-organic ingredients for clean eating, but I'm not sure it made a difference in taste except for the ground beef. No need to make any sides, as this houses all of your food groups. Horn of Plenty, get it?