Butternut Squash for 8

A while back, in late autumn, Marash Girl had friends over for dinner and served roast chicken with veggies (the veggies washed and peeled surrounding the chicken. (The easiest meal you'll ever make!)  Included in the oven in a separate pan was unpeeled butternut squash with an inch of water at the bottom of the pan.

"I love butternut squash but I never make it.  It takes forever to peel and cut up!" said one of my guests. . .  "Yours is absolutely delicious!"

In fact, Marash Girl remembers her mother struggling to hold and peel the butternut squash before she boiled it to serve to her family.

Doesn't everyone know that all you have to do is rinse off the butternut squash, throw it in the oven with whatever else you're roasting -- whether it be chicken or roast beef or anything else -- and once the butternut squash is soft to the touch, remove it from the oven, cut it in half lengthwise, remove and toss the innards (the dark stringy stuff holding the seeds . . . and the seeds, of course), spoon out the flesh of the squash, separating it from the skin, mash that lovely, orange, now softened squash with a fork or potato masher, add butter, salt, pepper, and, if you like, cinnamon or clove or nutmeg or all three -- but very sparingly -- and there you have it!  Easy and delicious!

So why is Marash Girl writing this on the hottest, most humid summer's day that we have had so far?  Wishful thinking, I guess.  Wishing for the cool days of autumn!