So Many Dishes

I’m in the mood for autumn. I’m tired of the Florida heat and humidity, and I miss seeing fall colors. But my favorite part of fall can be celebrated no matter what the weather, because it’s the start of food season.

Our family has lots of birthdays in the autumn months, plus there’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, moving on to Christmas and New Year’s. There are lots of occasions for special foods and feasting. Ken and I celebrate our wedding anniversary between Christmas and New Year’s, so, as he says, the party never stops 😄

Whether it’s for an occasion or not, there are certain foods that evoke fall for me. One is a dish that I made over the weekend, squash casserole.

The only thing inherently “autumn” about this recipe is that it includes stuffing mix. The squash in it is yellow crookneck squash, one of the “summer squash” varieties. And I didn’t taste this at Thanksgiving or something like that. But for some reason, I associate the dish with fall.

Actually, it’s an old recipe that I first tasted when we moved to Florida 48 years ago. (I had double check the number of years; how can it possibly be that long?) We lived in Homestead, south of Miami. The women’s group from the local Methodist church catered a lot of local functions, and this was on the menu every time. I loved it from first taste. The recipe was in the Homestead Women’s Club cookbook, and I bought a copy just for this recipe.

Over the years, I’ve tweaked it a bit. The recipe shows its age by including a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I still include it, but use the reduced fat version. Likewise, I use reduced fat sour cream instead of regular. Because those changes result in a runnier consistency, I’ve adjusted the amounts of veggies and stuffing mix. My choice for stuffing mix is the Pepperidge Farms herb-seasoned mix. I once made a vegetarian version by substituting cream of celery soup. I suppose you could use cream of mushroom soup, but I think that would change the flavor profile. This tastes the way I remember it.

Squash Casserole

• 2 lbs. yellow summer squash, coarsely cubed
• 2 cups herbed stuffing mix
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 2 large carrots, peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup reduced fat sour cream (not fat-free)
• 1 can reduced fat cream of chicken soup

Cook squash until soft. Drain thoroughly and mash. Carefully drain again, transfer to a large bowl, and set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet. Add stuffing mix and brown lightly, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes. Reserve 1/3 cup of the stuffing mix.

Combine the remaining stuffing mix with the mashed squash. Add carrots, onions, sour cream, and soup. Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole, and sprinkle the reserved stuffing mix on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

It’s hard for me to say how many this serves. We tend to eat it as a main dish, in which case it feeds four. As a side dish, I’d say it should serve six to eight, but whenever I serve it, people are taking seconds, so maybe not that many! I roasted some Roma tomatoes while the casserole baked, and they made a nice side.

Happy eating!