i'll butter your nut. whoooooaaaa.

some people came over, there was food, and it was GOOD.

butternut squash mac n cheese!

first, to roast the butternut squash you'll need:

one hot oven
1 butternut squash (medium sized), peeled and cubed (about 1/2" x 1/2")
1/2 tsp of nutmeg (a little goes a looong way)
1 1/2 tsp sage
salt and pepper
olive oil

take your cubed squash and toss the hell out of it in the nutmeg, sage, salt and pepper, and olive oil. lay out on a PAMmed pan (better safe than sorry right?) and put into a preheated 450 degree oven. since the cubes are so small, this shouldn't take too long -- about 20 minutes. after about 10 minutes get in there and just shake the pan a little. you don't need to turn every single cube, that takes too long, a good shake oughta do it. you know it's done when you can stick a fork in it and it's squishy. take it out and let it cooooool.

for the mac n cheese you'll need:

2.5 tbs "butter"
2.5 tbs flour
2 cups milk (1% is fine if you're lookin to avoid fatassery)
1 tbs minced garlic
1/2 white/yellow onion
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesean cheese
1 fairly large ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
salt/pepper
box of your favorite pasta (i used penne)
bread crumbs (italian or regular)
preheated 375 degree oven

get your pasta water boiling first, that way you can assemble your beschamel (fancy word alert!!) while your water heats up. in a saucepot, heat up your butter on medium to medium low heat. when it's almost all melted add the garlic & onion. i like to add garlic early because garlic + butter = yummy. i feel like it helps release the flavor of the garlic more if i saute it for a minute or two. after that, add your flour and whisk it all together. it should look like a nasty looking paste. good. if you're a novice like myself, add your milk in slowly, in portions, to ensure that there aren't any clumps of flour. if you're a pro then... go balls out and dump all the milk in there. fancy pants.

turn your heat to low (not simmer, but like... 1 or 2) and start adding the gorgs. if you LOVE gorgonzola, add more than 1/2 cup. just do it. add your parm too. salt and pepper to taste. you could also add sage/rosemary to this if you wanted. it should be thick enough that if you pull your whisk out there is a good amount still stuck to it. if it's too "watery" add some more flour, a tsp at a time, and let it cook through, whisking a lot.

for the pasta, cook it to al dente. about.. 8 minutes. it's going to finish in the oven by soaking up the milky cheesy sauce. drain the pasta and return back to its pot. hopefully you've used a fairly large pot because you're going to mix everything together in this pot. (oops, shoulda told you that first huh? my bad). pour the sauce in over the pasta, and add your cubes of mozzarella cheese (save a few to top it with) and butternut squash. stir it all up and pour the whole kit and kaboodle into a large corningware or baking dish that has been PAMmed. if it looks like the pasta has already soaked up a whole hell of a lot of the liquid, add about a 1/2 cup of milk to the whole thing. it'll be fine. cover the top with a few handfuls of bread crumbs, mozz cubes, and grate some more parmesean over it. drizzle with olive oil.

bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes with the lid on, then about 10 minutes with the lid off. it's done when you can see goodness bubbling on the sides, and the top has a nice crisp to it. mmm. spoon and SERRRRVE!

i can't find the other pictures i took, but here's one of my plate. yum.


UPDATE! I found the pictures!