Spaghetti Squash

 What's for lunch? Spaghetti squash.

 Yesterday I picked our first. Actually, I picked one a few weeks ago and Tom took it to a mutual friend in Cincinnati. My one plant appears to have about a dozen of the squash on it at the moment. So time to get busy with the larder and fix lunch.

I split the squash lengthwise from "stem to tail". That's a risky operation seeing as how the skin of the squash is a bit tough and the knife has to be huge. I cut off the stem first, giving me a flat surface to sit the squash upon (in the sink). Others hold it by a towel while they split it.

 Here is the squash split lengthwise. I'm ready to scoop out the seeds and "guts".

 With the seeds removed, the cavity is hollow. I then applied a little vegetable oil to each half and laid them on a non-stick cookie sheet (Mom added parchment paper to avoid clean-up).

 The two halves are laid face down on the cookie sheet and baked for an hour at 400°. Test with a sharp fork stuck into the skin. It should pierce fairly easily.
 In reviewing past years, I see that I baked these face-up. That's probably a better choice.

 Here's the finish meal. Mom said that she thinks the strands would have stayed together better had I not left the squash in an extra 15 minutes (1:15). The squash was a bit overdone. The taste was excellent, though. I prefer mine with butter and salt. Mom thinks she would prefer marinara.

 Here's a previous post about spaghetti squash: click here.