Thanks to an idea from Leslie Stiles in the Contra Costa Times Food Section, I had a wonderful autumn dinner the other night.

I had a couple of smallish squashes that I'd used as decorations for Hallowe'en. Just had 'em sitting out on a table surrounded by leaves and candles. More of an autumn-y decoration than Hallowe'en, but I decided they'd been sitting around long enough and it was time to eat them! So based on Leslie's suggestion:

I washed them and cut the tops off, cleaning out the seeds and pulp. I then layered some sliced zucchini, onion, mushrooms and cooked spinach (steamed and squeezed dry). I had some leftover manchego cheese so I threw that in there, too. Then I beat up a couple of eggs with 2 cups of milk and salt and pepper. This mixture was (very) carefully poured into the stuffed squashes. This must be done slowly, allowing time for the liquid to settle to the bottom and around the vegetables. I even used a finger to push some of the filling aside and let the milk run in.

Those were really full gourds!

I put the lids back on and baked them at 350 for an hour or so, until the the squash meat was tender when I poked a fork into it. Now came the tricky part, 'cause Leslie didn't mention how to serve these things. Each squash could easily serve two people, but cutting them open would be a challenge with all that yummy stuff inside!

So I went for dramatic rather than clean. First, I let them sit for about 10 minutes so everything would thicken up and settle. I got out our nice soup bowls and placed one of the squashes inside, then sliced it in half length-wise. Using a big spoon, and with my fingertips gingerly helping with balance, I moved one half to the other bowl. The squashes sort of fell on their sides and the filling spilled out a little into the bowl, but it was very attractive. Bright orange squash meat with the green-skinned zucchini, brown mushrooms, and green spinach with the milky sauce was simply gorgeous.

And oh, yes. It tasted terrific!