Lizzie's sugared squash 

Ingredients:
2 small acorn squash, halved and seeded**
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup raisins  (or just a handful - I can't imagine actually  
measuring that!)
4 tablespoons butter

** I used sweet dumpling squash yesterday and I think it came out  
even better than it usually does with acorn squash.  I have no idea  
if those are harder to find - I'd never heard of them before, but  
they have them at Whole Foods right now.


The instructions are pretty straightforward:  Cook the squash by  
whatever means necessary.  Melt the butter; stir in the sugar,  
cinnamon, and nutmeg; and heat it a little more until the sugar  
dissolves.  I wound up using a bit more butter than the recipe calls  
for to get the right consistency.  Spoon the sugary mixture into the  
hollowed squash halves and add some raisins.

Cooking the squash can be tricky.  With my dull knives, I couldn't  
cut the type I used in half prior to cooking, so I boiled them  
awhile, cut them open and seeded them, and boiled them some more.   
Then I gave up and finished them off in the microwave.  If you can  
manage to cut them in half from the beginning, the microwave works  
just about as well as boiling water.  You put them cut side down in a  
bowl and they kinda steam themselves.  Suggested cooking times for  
boiling water are 15 minutes and 5-7 for the microwave.  It will  
likely take longer than that.  Poke it with a fork, and it's done  
when it's nice and soft the whole way through.