Apple Cider Glazed Squash

I recently joined a cooking club. The magazine they sent me was timely, as I had been looking around for a good squash recipe and lo and behold, they had several recipes for baked squash as a side dish.

So I tried the apple cider recipe (below) with an acorn squash. It was delicious. I think next time I will thicken the glaze a bit more, and add brown sugar to make the flavor stronger, but it was really good. I also left a couple dashes of salt and a dash of pepper out, but that's because I don't really like salt and pepper. And, as in almost all of my cooking, I added a dash of ground ginger to the glaze. They didn't look as fancy as in the picture, but they didn't look too different either, so I think I did something right.



Need:
13x9 pan
Tinfoil
Small skillet
Brush

1 squash
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups apple cider
2 tbsp butter
1/4 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400. Cut the squash into quarters with the large knife, scooping out the goop. Cut 1/4 inch deep scores in a crisscross pattern in the flesh.

2.Place in baking pan skin side down. Pour water in the pan (this is where you could add a dash of salt and pepper). Cover with tinfoil. Bake for 45 minutes or until tender.

3. While that's cooking, bring cider to a boil in the small skillet over medium heat. Cook 15-25 minutes. Adjust temp to avoid scorching. When there is about 1/4 cup of cider syrup, remove from heat. Add butter and cinnamon (and ginger and another dash of salt).

4. Blot any liquid collected in the cavaties from squash. Brush half of the syrup on the squash. Bake for 5-10 minutes. Brush the rest of the squash.

5. Slice in half so there are 8 pieces. Serve in shells or mashed.

A message from el presidente!

Dear Oles:

Thank you for your patience, cooperation, and flexibility during the power outage yesterday. I’m grateful to the staff who worked diligently through the night to bring the campus back on-line as quickly as possible.

Here’s what happened: fuses in the campus electrical loop blew. It’s not entirely clear right now why this happened, but it may be something as simple as a squirrel in a switch gear cabinet. If so, it was a bad day for the squirrel. The big electrical loop that carries electricity around campus appears to be fine. We’re doing final checks on the system now. If something needs to be repaired, we’ll do everything we can to minimize disruptions.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Please note two things in particular:

And I’m grateful once again to the St. Olaf community for its care for everyone on the Hill.

David

Blackout

Today, as I was walking between Buntrock and Holland hall to my office hours, the power went out. All over campus. I walked in the door, and hit the button for the elevator. Nothing happened. "Did I miss it?" I hit it a few more times. Nope. One of the nursing profs explained that the power had gone out in the couple minutes I was between buildings.

I sighed, and walked up the 3 flights of stairs to the GSC (it doesn't sound like much, but these flights were built long before current regulations were put in place, ergo, they are big flights of stairs. the third flight is 22 steps). I am in better shape this year, I guess, because I wasn't even breathing hard when I got up there. It's quite an accomplishment.

I took advantage of the power outage by eating in the caf, who couldn't swipe any cards to make sure people had meal plans because there was no power! It was really dark in there, though, so I couldn't really tell what people were serving. I just got a burrito because I didn't know what else there was. Interesting how the emergency generator powers the food heaters but not the lights in there.

Doing homework and anything useful during office hours was impossible, but I finished my test at my apartment where I still had power and internet.

I wonder what happened? I'm sure I'll hear it through several rumours tomorrow.

Childhood pro

It is a lot harder to be spontaneous when start to grow up.

I was recalling a summer evening by the lake when a cousin and I decided to jump in a lake, and did.

I didn't have to take my watch off, or my cell phone out of my pocket. I didn't have to worry about my contacts falling out, or whether or not the shirt I was wearing would be ruined.

I just jumped in. She got in trouble. I didn't.

Brown eyed girl

I just saw a comment on Facebook in which someone said their eyes were "boring brown eyes."

I don't understand this, I guess. One of many things I do not understand.

How can someone's eyes, or features in general, be boring? No ones features are the same. Everyone looks different. Yeah, brown eyes are more common, but where did people get the idea that green, blue or hazel eyes are interesting?

Everyone seems to change themselves to match everyone else. How many people do you know who have brown highlights in blonde hair, or blonde highlights in brown hair? Or how many people a few years ago died their hair maroon/purple/red? So why is it that when we have a feature we can't change, such as eye color, we are rarely happy with it?

I love brown eyes. I mean, I love all eye colors, but not because of the colors themselves, but how eyes manage to capture you. Looking into someone's eyes can be so intimidating, so communcative. How could that be boring?

I wonder if anyone has told her that her eyes are boring?

Elections - but no one will be elected... Maybe Selections?

I voted a week ago. Yay absentee voting!

CD 6, SD 48B, Ramsey W1 P2 only had two things on the ballot. The school board guy was up for reelection, but no one was running against him. And there was a school levy renewal.

I feel a little bad voting yes for it, because I don't pay property taxes. But at the same time, the schools need what little money they have, and people were already paying these taxes since it's a renewal.

We'll see how my voting habits change as I get older. I can't imagine they will too much, but you never know!

Awesome, I am.

So, I have to go to bed, but I wanted to share this with you.

I wrote 4 papers this weekend, starting Friday at 5 and ending at 12:30am Monday morning. And I threw an awesome Halloween Party that took up 25 hours of my weekend (cleaning, party, sleep, cleaning, shower). Luckily, I got an extra hour from the end of DST.

Anyway, I have to get up at 7, so goodnight. I just wanted to share that with you.

I'll do less homework-related posts. Even though I think about it a lot, I understand it's probably a little boring and you could care less. Ergo, I'll post about a wider variety of topics starting soon.