Ignore me if you want, I'm not going away. aka. awesome and fancy stuffed squash

Cook bitches!

This weekend I spent way too much time cooking this. It was delicious, but leave out the chestnuts and get a different squash unless you like pain. It really was yummy though. I'm working on visually pleasing* as well as delicious dish ideas because Jeff's mom is coming to town and I need to cement my spot on the mantel.

I used:
1 Jarrahdale squash (picked because it's big enough to stuff and pretty enough to put on the table and serve out of). You could do a couple of smaller ones (acorn), or also a turban squash or a fancy french squash for pretty's sake.

1 package of sun dried tomato sausage from Whole Foods
Forbidden rice (also from whole foods)
Onion
Garlic
Thyme
Chestnuts

Ok, this takes some time. This is special occasion food. I've even added a new special occasion tag for it.

Put the chestnuts flat side down on the counter and cut an X in the top. If you don't do this they will explode. (cool but not necessarily desirable)
Put the Chestnuts and the whole squash (seriously don't even try to fuck with this thing raw. It's fortified) in the oven at 350. The squash should be on a pan of some sort for easy handling.

After 15 minutes -or when the skins are peeling back from the Xs- take the chestnuts out.

Leave the squash in there.

Start cooking the rice.

Saute the Onion in some Olive oil until translucent on medium heat or so. Add the garlic, and after 1 minute, add the sausage meat, removed from it's casing and increase the heat. Stir occasionally, and poke to break up the meat. Commence peeling and cutting up the chestnuts.

Once the sausage is browned, add the chopped chestnuts to the dish and cover so they can continue to cook and absorb the sausage grease which is delicious and good for you.

Take the squash out of the oven, and be careful its HOT<- fact. Put some gloves on, cut off the top- be generous, you want a big opening. I just hacked the whole top off so it was flat, and then pull out the seedy bits (put them aside to cook later like pumpkin seeds if you want)

I also scraped out some of the interior flesh to make room, putting aside what I get into a bowl. (if it's not soft, toss it in the microwave for 2 minutes while you do this next part)

Mix some rice with the sausage stuffing until you get your desired ratio. I like a little rice, just for looks.

Spoon the sausage/chestnut/onion/garlic/rice into the squash. Now mash the removed squash innards, mix with a little cayenne and some butter and put on top of the stuffing. Put it all back in the oven to cook until the top is browned. 20 min or so. During this time, your squash will also ooze squash juice into your stuffing and vice versa, so it gets extra tasty. Don't be impatient.

*you'll have to take my word on the visually pleasing. I had a hard time last night, I cut the shit out of my thumb, broke 2 glasses and dropped purple rice all over the kitchen. Wrestling with dog ensued. In all the excitement I forgot to take pictures. I suck.