stuff yer pig

My husband and I love butternut squash. It is healthy and filling and can be substituted easily for a starch. Many people I talk to complain about how tedious it is to peel and cut the squash. Yeah, no kidding! Luckily, I live near Wegmans and they have pre-cut and cleaned butternut squash chunks for $2.50 a pack! I absolutely love these!!! So many things you can do with butternut squash and now you have more time to experiment because you are not rummaging around your medicine cabinet looking for band aids from peeling and cutting that darn squash!!!

I took a pork tenderloin and butterflied it, then seasoned it well with salt, pepper, and rubbed sage. I seared both sides of the pork and then set it in a greased roasting pan. I grabbed the chunks of squash and combined a few slices of cooked crumbled bacon (yeah we are porking it out tonight), diced red onion and garlic with sage, salt and pepper and drizzled a little olive oil over it. I placed it in a glass baking dish and roasted the @#$% out of it (roasting the @#$% out of something, by the way equals 2 hours). I then added a little chicken broth, mashed it all up and placed it on top of the pork. I sprinkled blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries on top and threw that stuffed little piggy into the oven for about 40 minutes on 350.  You don't need to pair this with anything except a nice glass of chardonnay. The buttery caramel taste of the wine goes perfect with blue cheese and buttery squash. This squash mixture would taste great as a side or stuffed in just about anything. You don't have to roast it for 2 hours but the longer you bake it, the more soft, sweet, and caramelized it becomes. Kinda like me ...

Tonight's rum report: Thawing out with some hot cocoa and Baily's (I am all out of rum cream).