non-essential, but here's to hopin'

No work for me. Woo hoo…oh wait. Since I'm just a graduate student/assistant, I'm not considered essential. That's alright, using this week to catch up on homework and to *fingers crossed* get a good chunk of my thesis done.  Here's to hopin' we can all get stuff done.  But, if this shut down goes on for much longer, it's gonna get ugly. Here's to hopin' the government gets it('s shit) together and fixes this mess. Oh well. Like I've said, here's to hopin'.

Alongside work, I've also been using this free time to cook new things.  Every night (there have only been two so far) I've tried something I've never cooked before.  It's been 50/50 so far. Oh well. Here's to hopin' the food just gets better from here on out.

Day 1: Minimalist Baker's Baked Apple French Toast
Day 2: Roasted and Mashed (Moasted?) Acorn Squash

Day 1 didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Two reasons why: 1) I didn't use a 9 x 13 baking dish. The bigger the dish the better the french toast in this case. It would have helped the bread bake and brown more evenly. Lesson learned. 2) Used gluten free bread (duh). I'm actually not quite sure if this was a problem, but normally it is in terms of gluten free baking so I'm just gonna put it on here.  However, it probably would have worked if reason 1 was bigger. 
Overall verdict: get a bigger baker dish, because even though this wasn't perfect, it still tasted delicious, sweet, savory, and an explosion of apple pie + fall in yo mouth. Go make it. But follow the Minimalist Baker's recipe and please use a large baking dish. 

Day 2 was the suggestion from my man friend. His mom used to make this for his family a lot. Trying to replicate a meal for your man friend that his mom made means yours probably won't be as good. Just saying. HOWEVER, this dish was so incredibly delicious (and nutritious…well, minus the brown sugar and butter) that I'm calling it a win. Seriously. Go pick up an acorn squash (they are so cute!!) and make this tonight (recipe below). You won't regret it.

Moasted (Roasted + Mashed (just go with it…)) Acorn Squash:

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash 
2 pats of butter
~2 tablespoons (or less) of brown sugar
~1 teaspoon of paprika 

Steps: [1] Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  [2] Cut the acorn squash horizontally (like you were cutting across the Earth's equator)and scoop out the inside seeds/pulp. [3] Fill a baking dish with enough water to go up the sides of the dish (roughly) 1/2 (or less) of an inch. [4] Place the squash halves face (hallow part) down in the water. [5] Pop 'em in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Y'all will know when they are done when a fork can easily puncture the skin of the squash and go into the rest of the squash easily. [6] Place 1 pat of butter in the hallowed out parts of each half. Then add around 1 tablespoon (or less) of brown sugar on top of the butter pats. Sprinkle 1/2 of a teaspoon of paprika (1/2 for each half) on top of the butter + brown sugar mixture. [7] Pop 'em back in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

Now you've got two options for serving. You can:
[8] Take them out and scoop out the squashy goodness into a bowl. [9] Take a fork and mash up the squash, adding some salt + additional seasoning if you so choose.
or 
[8] Serve the halves on individual plates for people to devour at their own will + salt/season at their choosing.

[10] DIG IN!

Seriously, it's so easy…so go make it! 
(I apologize for the lack of photos, we ate it all too quickly…so actually, sorry I'm not sorry.)