Stuffed Acorn Squash

Friends, I apologize for my absence here. My camera is broken! A disaster for a food blogger!

Searching through old photos, I found this (not-so-great) one of my favorite autumn dinner: stuffed acorn squash. Today a brisk wind is blowing the leaves from the trees, the sun is shining, the air is crisp: this dish is a perfect match.

The recipe fills a baked acorn squash bowl with sausage, apples, pecans, onions and cranberries and drizzles it all with maple syrup. Need I say more? It can be served as a main dish (one-half squash per person) or sliced up further as a side dish. It's prettier in person than it looks in the photo--definitely

Enjoy this autumn meal while I figure out this camera mess!

Receipe below; printable version here.

STUFFED ACORN SQUASH

2 acorn squash (about 1 1/2 lb. each), rinsed
8 oz. bulk pork sausage
1/2 c chopped onion
2 sweet apples such as Fuji (1 lb. total), peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/4 t dried thyme
3 T chopped pecans
1/4 c maple syrup

Cut each squash in half crosswise; scoop out seeds. Cut a thin slice off the bottom of each half so it can stand upright. Place each half, cavity side down, in a 9- by 13-inch baking pan and cover pan tightly with foil. Bake in a 350° regular or convection oven until tender when pierced, 45 to 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat, stir sausage until it is crumbly and just slightly pink, about 5 minutes. Drain off and discard fat. Add onion, apples, cranberries, and thyme; stir often until apples are tender when pierced, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in pecans.

Uncover squash and turn halves upright; fill equally with sausage mixture. Drizzle equally with maple syrup and bake, uncovered, until filling is slightly browned on top, about 15 minutes longer.

Slightly adapted from Sunset