paragraphs | Creative Cookery with Carolyn -- Spaghetti Squash

January 2023

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I love it when people post what they are cooking/eating on their lj's. I love food, and over the last months have learned to control it rather than it control me. The best part of eating the way I do now is that it has taught me to have fun and experiment, often with limited ingredients (despite going to the store constantly).

Today's creation? Spaghetti Squash Beef Bake. Spaghetti squash, some hamburger w/onion, crushed tomatoes, muenster cheese (because that is what I had cheese-wise)...everything was pre-cooked except the cheese, then tossed into a 425 degree oven in my fav baking dish that I found recently under my son's couch in the loft. Reunion was sweet!

It was really really good. The pics are slightly blurry, but it was really, really good. Need to break out my camera next time! If you've always wondered about spaghetti squash, which looks like a big pale yellow dinosaur egg (and great fun to split open) you should try it. It is packed full of stringy goodness.

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creative cookery

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That looks delicious! I don't eat red meat, but I'm sure I could do the same thing with ground turkey or something.

I'm off to make cupcakes now. Just for you, I'll take pics. ^_^

Mmm CUPCAKES! I need to make blueberry cream cheese muffins tonight too. Sugar free of course.

I was going to make it with chicken, but need to use the meat up (leftover from chili, yum).

CUPCAKES!!!

Yup! They're in the oven right now. After I frost them I have to go to class, but after that I'll post pics. ^_^

Mmmmm yummers!

YES! Spaghetti squash is spectacular, especially for people like me who can't handle many carbs. Too bad they haven't found out about it yet in Russia. :-(

I made up a nifty Autumn Harvest Stew recipe last weekend:

eggplant
hubbard squash (any kind of winter squash will do, but hubbard is the only kind sold here)
zucchini
sweet red pepper
jalapeño pepper
onions
garlic
fresh ginger
spicy sausage

all cut up and thrown into a baking dish and then doused with:
soy sauce
cinnamon
cloves
sunflower seed oil
tomato paste
honey

and then I covered the dish, and baked it for two hours on... oh, I think 200 degrees (C)? Something like that.

I eat it with raisins and chopped walnuts (hate to bake them into things like stew; they get way too soggy). It was a masterpiece. But it made a LOT. I froze 6 servings and then ate the rest for a week of suppers. Well worth it, though.

I wonder if one could mail a spaghetti squash to you? And that is why I eat them too--just can't do lots of pasta, but can do lots of this. I would think they'd mail great! I had mine for about a week and a half before eating it. LOL.

Now, THAT is an interesting recipe. Seriously. I don't at all mine doing repeat food. I do it all the time, with just me, sometimes the daughter, to cook for. Tomorrow's lunch will my spaghetti squash stuff, but no oven there so I will just have to microwave it.

I am very intrigued by your ingredients!

I'm pretty sure that spaghetti squash would be considered "produce" and would be rejected by Customs. They don't even allow fruit tea into the country. You never know what kind of famine-inducing pests Americans might be sending over in the packaged lemon tea!

Yeah, the nice thing about winter squash (acorn, spaghetti, pumpkin, hubbard, butternut, etc.) is that it keeps for a long time. My mom used to buy two or three bushels of winter squash to keep next to the potatoes, onions, carrots, and apples in our very mildly heated food storage room for the winter, and they'd stay good until spring. Well, that's the theory, anyway. We always ate all of them before spring.

My favorite way to cook is to go outside, see what good produce the Tajik guy is selling off the back of his truck today, buy whatever looks good, and come home to try to figure out how best to consume it. Most of it ends up in various types of salads, but occasionally I make a stew or soup or something from them. Like this one.

I've been experimenting a lot lately with the combination of "savory" spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) and "spicy" things (onions, garlic, hot pepper). It's a very interesting and satisfying combination. Reminiscent of Moroccan food, especially when I add raisins and nuts.

Oh wow! I wish I could buy like that. Seriously. If I ever move, being where I could get local produce and shop at a market will be HIGH on the list.

I love your recipe and am absolutely going to make it soon.

Do you need an idea of proportions, like how much of each thing I put in?

Let me know how you like it!

Hey, you could always move here. ;-)

Cardiff has a reasonable market, too. I think you mentioned whizzing through it at one point.

Sigh, back in Texas now, but yes, we whizzed through it! Nick wouldn't let me look hard though. LOL.

Mmm proportion-wise I just kinda winged it. Small spaghetti-squash, 16 ozs. tomatoes...a pound of burger? which of course what is shown is only a portion of it.

MOVE THERE? uh uh nooo that okay! LOL. I'd love to read more of your adventuring though! Russia through your eyes!

I'm working on "A Day in the Life of... in Russia" right now, actually. So you might get your Russia story by the end of the week.

I was actually wondering whether you needed proportions for my recipe. ;-)

I don't know if I could manage to be content in a place with no fresh produce markets. They've been a staple of my cooking everywhere I've lived. Sometime I do hope to do away with them and grow my own food for the most part, but that's a long-away dream, along with border collies and lots of things for them to herd (goats, sheep, children...). In the meantime I strike up friendships with farmers and importers. The Tajik guy parks his truck of produce outside my house every day. And he thinks I'm from Germany, even though EVERY time I see him I tell him I'm American. Heh.

Proportions would be great though I am a total wing-it type too. Either way. I am just so intrigued by the whole list, and long for a cold Saturday morning to get up, run to the store and get everything, then cook that mornign to eat all weekend. LOL.

I grew up here, got married here, brought/am bringing up the kids here. I have a very nice job here too, that I love 95% of the time...it would be difficult to move, but I long to live by the sea, preferably with Nick, preferably where it is cooler in the winter, with lovely places to walk my huskies.

Sigh.

LOL German! Ah well. Do you also speak German then? :)

one medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 hubbard squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (actually, butternut would be better, in which case use 1 whole one)
one medium zucchini or large pattipan squash, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 sweet red peppers, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, minced
3 medium onions onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated or minced (if you have a food processor I'd throw the ginger and the garlic in together and mince them that way)
3 spicy sausages, parboiled and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

all cut up and thrown into a baking dish and then doused with:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp cloves
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup honey
if you want it to be more like soup than baked veg, add 2 cups of water

cover tightly and bake until everything is soft, roughly 1.5 hours at 275 degrees (F). Serve with raisins and walnuts, or a dollop of sour cream, or some shredded cheese. :-)

No, I don't speak a lick of German, though I read a very very little bit. It's the next language I'd like to learn, though. I look kind of German, though, (I am 1/4 German) and it's inconceivable for an American to be all the way over here, so they always guess I'm English or Finnish or German. German more than usual lately. Heh.

I actually got some great reactions of 'You're an American!' when I was in Wales. That was fun! Nick is the one who usually gets the attention but not this time. *beams*

Thanks for the details! This truly is going to be quite a feast!

Okay, v. serious question: how stringy does the spaghetti squash feel, texture-wise? I cannot handle stringiness, so if it all melds together, awesome! That would be ideal. Also, muenster cheese is my second favorite cheese (after mozz). I love that stuff. And that dish looks tasty.

hard to describe how spaghetti squash is. LOL. It does glomp together...oy!

WE LOVE MUENSTERS IN THIS HOUSE!

Mmmm.

If fully cooked, it does not feel stringy in your mouth. It's actually quite soft. It does NOT end up being like mangoes or even nectarines or celery. More like watermelon, soft and wet. Does that help?

That *does* help; thank you!

That IS a great description.

i have never even heard of spaghetti squash until this post. wow. i just did a goggle image search of it. it looks very cool. i'm not a squash fan but i might go hunting for this one, just to play. :P

my city is trying this farmers market every thursday from aug-oct, to see if that will boost the downtown economy. it has made my meals drastically better. i love being able to head to the market and buy fresh bread from mennonites, cheese from the dairy farm on the outskirts of town and apples picked from the apple farm i drive by when i'm going to pick up my mail. cooking is good!

YES! I want to do that too!!!! I would love that so much. Supposedly my city does a market but I haven't found out where or when. Need to investigate.

I want to be able to do this every day. Grrr.

i kind of wish the hours were better at ours. it's from 3-7. so say i get off work at 4:30pm home by 5pm, head to the market and shop and am back home by 5:30ish then dinner will not be ready until 6:30ish. [usually later because i am slow! haha. still learning]

i also like when people post pictures of their meal masterpieces. i have found out that i can not cook unless i have a picture to use as a guide. there are some recipes books that i supposedly use [actually just glance at and wing it] but experimenting is fun. sadly my family doesn't trust me that much. i am a better baker than chef so they will only try experimental goodies, not the main course. :)
i did just make home made french fries for the first time. i baked them. simple and 10X better than store bought.

LOL I just made something else and posted it! Grin. I like pictures, too. And agree on french fries. I want to make sweet potato fries, as they are supposed to be better for you. :)

Mmmm, sweet potato fries... I think they taste better than regular fries.

Now I want to make those too! Maybe this weekend. LOL.

I love your extreme fork close up.

Nom nom nom good and I ate the whole thing!

I had crock pit ribs and homemade potato salad. It was awesome.

crock pit ribs!? you did not take pictures!

yum! sketti skwash. :0)

I should eats them more. the invisible best friend and I joke that we cannot order anything in a restaurant unless the picture in on the menu... perhaps I would cook more if there was more food porn on my internets...

I had a burger and a hot dog and potato salad and apple pie. And I didn't have to cook it. Bonus points!!

I am cooking cream cheese muffins right now and Laws asked for the recipe, so once they are cooked look for that too!

I love to share.

Sketti Skwash indeed! Love that!

mmmmmmmmmmmmuffins!

mmmm muffins are now posted!

Back when I could eat squash, I liked spaghetti squash a lot. We'd halve one, rub it with a bit of olive oil on the cut side, then bake for a while until it started to get soft, then remove it from the oven and scoop out the squash from the shell. Then either eat it in a bowl like spaghetti (usually with olive oil, garlic and cheese) or add it to other ingredients, casserole-style as you did, and bake it some more. Either way, it's yummy.

No more squash? I only eat it now and then, but always enjoy it when I do. I haven't baked it--ought to try that sometime. Its versatile, definitely, and cheap, and get ALOT out of there.

No squash or melons. Including pumpkin, which is a real sacrifice because I used to love pumpkin pie. It's kind of a personal thing, but I've been doing it for years.

The first time I was introduced to spaghetti squash, we baked it in the manner I described up-comment. It comes out of the shell really easily that way. Or you could bake it more thoroughly and eat it in the shell, using the shell as a bowl. Put it on a plate if you do that, though.

I love pumpkin pie too but until I can figure out a sugar-free recipe, no pumpkin for me. I do have a can of it though--I figure I can figure something out. LOL. May experiment this weekeend.

:)

Oh I love to cook! Enjoying your posts and blue's. I've always wanted to try spaghetti squash like this and I never have. You really are on a low-carb diet, aren't you? I did that once and it worked great. I should do it again. However, I cook for 1 adult with a million allergies and picky food preferences and 2 picky-eater kids with different tastes. It SUCKS! I eat everything, except sweet veggies like beets, carrots, winter squash. Anyway, looks yummy!

It is more no sugar, no starch diet. (ignores fact I just succumbed to an amazing lemon cupcake here at work that our client brought in--omg incredible! but I *am* allowing myself proper splurges--that one was proper!)

Unlike Atkins, I eat all the fruits I want, I don't eat massive amounts of meat...I am more about balancing than anything. Good fats with lean meats (except the occasional rib eye--who wants lean steak? not me!), pretty much stay away from massive amounts of carbs like pasta, potatoes, rice. I had fish and chips in Wales, but that was the last time I had taters. Pasta--I would LOVE to eat pasta, but I don't like how it makes me feel afterwards. Sigh.

I will have them, but just with much consideration. Like Pizza! I am gearing up for that--my friend Anthony comes in two weeks and i think we'll go to eat Pizza together at Brick Oven.

I also don't drink sodas, and I read labels like crazy, stay far far away from aspartame and goopy food... LOL.

I AM HARD CORE!!!!

Carbs are my downfall, I have to say. Bread, pasta, etc. Hard for me to resist. I shouldn't drink soda, either, but I'm kind of addicted to Diet Coke. Bad, I know. Did you devise this diet yourself or is it something published? Just curious. You lost a lot of weight, right? You kind of have to be hard core to do that, I think. I'd like to lose 10 lbs, but I need to decide to do it. I tend to focus more on exercise because that helps my mood, as my default mood is vaguely depressed.

"goopy food" - haha, not sure what that is, but it's a funny description.

I haven't made spaghetti squash in ages! Thanks for reminding me how good it is.

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Creative Cookery with Carolyn -- Spaghetti Squash

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