So I got the idea of stuffing acorn squash with pears a month or two ago from a post at briciole, someone commented suggesting gorgonzola, and I went from there. This is good as a not-too-sweet dessert, which was how I made it, but it could probably be a side dish or even a main dish with a few sides. This was a very good combination and one I will definitely make again.

Ingredients:
1 Acorn squash
about 1/3 c crumbled Gorgonzola
about 1/2 c Pecans, roughly chopped
1 Pear, chopped into 1/2″ cubes
a couple T Brown sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut acorn squash in half and scrape out seeds. Put a little bit of water in a jelly roll pan, and place halves of squash upside down in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, until squash is just tender. Meanwhile, mix gorgonzola, pecans, pears, and brown sugar. I’m not really sure if the amounts I listed above are right, so eyeball it. When the squash is done, turn it rightside up and mound the filling in each half. You may have to slice off the top of the squash so that it will sit flat. You want the filling really mounded up as much as possible, as it will cook down a little bit. Empty the water out of the pan, and bake the filled squash for another 7 minutes or so, until the topping is a little bit brown.

I’ve decided to add a new category — recipes I’ve found somewhere, have made pretty much as described, and recommend to you! The first is the Gingerbread Pancakes I made last weekend from Tea and Cookies, who in turn apparently adapted them from a restaurant called La Note. Anyway, they were absolutely delicious, and, even better, I already had all the ingredients on hand.

They make a pretty thick, gingerbread-spiced batter, but the pancakes aren’t too heavy. I sometimes have trouble with thick pancakes cooking unevenly, but these were done all the way through and had a texture I very much enjoyed. I’m not a huge fan of plain pancakes, so these were a nice departure from the usual. I served them with a lemon curd and pears as Tea suggested on her post (curd from this recipe from Joy of Baking). The lemon flavor added a nice zing to the spice of the pancakes, and pears went very nicely as well. Overall, a very tasty and comforting breakfast for a chilly and damp January morning.

As you can see, we could hardly stand to finish them off!

Other ideas:

• I often like chunks of things in my pancakes, especially in thick ones like these. I think chopping up fresh pears would make a nice addition, or maybe some chopped walnuts or pecans.
• Orange would also go nicely with the gingerbread flavor I believe. I thought about making the curd with orange juice instead of lemon; I might try that next time. Also, a little orange zest in the pancake batter might be good.
• Tea suggested poaching or roasting the pears. I think this would be very tasty, although I didn’t bother with it.
• Leftover lemon curd (that recipe will probably make more than you need) is also delicious on shortbread, biscuits, or in scones (try these from Heidi at 101 cookbooks). I’ve also been eating the lemon curd on vanilla ice cream with some toasted hazelnuts.