Rosie Makes Crockpot Pork Country Style Ribs And Corn Custard Stuffed Acorn Squash.

I had a day home by myself Thursday. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I love it. I work hard. I organize. I clean. I cook. First thing, Dixie and I took a walk around the block. We needed that. Then, I cleaned the kitchen counters. Everything's off. I hate clutter. Then I cleaned my desk off. That "To Be Filed" file? It was 3 inches thick. It's been filed. Middle Hawthorne's room. Hmmmm. That was rough. Hadn't been down there since the last time he was here, on fall break. I knew what to expect. That's why I hadn't been down there. I didn't want to face it. Finally, I buckled up, put on a stiff upper lip, and ventured into the depths of hell. OK. It wasn't that bad. But believe me, it was bad. I gathered up 4 loads of wash. And washed them. I put clean sheets on his bed. I vacuumed his carpet. But first, I had to clean out his vacuum cleaner. Apparently, he'd vacuumed one time before his girl friend visited. And he'd left the vacuum unsuckable. It's one of those canister things, so you can see all the crap that's been sucked up. It was freakin' nasty. And there was a sock stuck in the end. After I cleaned out the vacuum cleaner, I went to work, vacuuming, dusting, wiping, cleaning. And it's done. I feel like I've accomplished a lot today. More checks on my To-Do list. I'm kinda OC about my To-Do list. I actually put down things I've already done just to make it look like I've done more and to motivate me. Had a nice lunch of barbecued chicken thigh fillet with cooked mixed greens and potato. A perfect meal. Finished up around 12:30 and started on dinner. I have to give thanks to Kelly of Evil Shenanigans blogdom for the inspiration for my ribs. She'd just posted about her Slow-Cooker Braised Short Ribs with a Honey Garlic Glaze. I checked my deep freeze inventory and pulled out some Pork Country Style Ribs. Remember, I'm trying to clean my freezer out and Mr. Hawthorne ain't helping much. I'll be crock potting Country Style Ribs for dinner. First, I gathered my aromatics. Big onion. Carrots. Celery Lotsa garlic. Ginger piece. (Disguised with the garlic.) Fresh bay leaves. And a lemon, for zest. I nuked my little frozen piece of ginger for about 30 seconds, then squeezed the ginger joos out. I sliced the rest of the ginger.

I layered my crock pot with sliced carrots,
sliced celery, sliced onions, minced garlic, and bay leaves.

I salted and peppered my country style ribs. I poured about a TB of oil in my skillet, heated it, and put in half of the ribs. Don't want to crowd. Brown the ribs on each side. Thusly. I added the first ribs to the crock pot and browned the next set.

After browning the second batch,
I added in a bit of beef stock to the goodie bits in the skillet and scraped up.

I poured the goodie bits and the rest of the box of stock into the crock pot. I placed the ginger slices amongst the pork. Poured in the ginger joos.

And I grated the zest of one lemon into the pot.
 At 1 PM, I turned the crock pot on high and cooked for 2 hours.
 At 3 PM, I turned it to low and cooked for 2 1/2 more hours.

At 5:30, I pulled out the ribs, which, by the way, were falling apart ...

... and placed them in a single layer in my dish. Ingredients for the glaze:
 1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup coarse grain mustard
1 garlic clove
minced 2 green onions, sliced Mix honey, mustard, garlic, and one of the green onions.

Apply glaze to both sides of ribs and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

I heated a little olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat,
added the ribs, and cooked for about a minute or two
on each side until they were nicely crusted.

Transfer to serving platter.

I poured some of the braising liquid
from the crock pot into my skillet to stir up the goodie bits.

Scrape to release.

Pour sauce over ribs.

Sprinkle with the remaining sliced green onion.

On to my acorn squash.

I'd had this acorn squash for a few days, wondering what to do with it. Usually, I do a baked stuffed squash, but I wanted different this time. It's going to be baked stuffed squash, but with a twist - squash stuffed with a corn custard.

Slice the squash in half and slice a little piece off each bottom so they'll sit evenly.

Clean out the seeds and fibers.

Place squash in a baking dish and brush with melted butter.
Pour water 1/2 up baking dish, cover with foil,
 and place in a preheated 375 degree oven.
 Baking times will vary depending
on your particular oven and the size of your squash.
 I checked at 40 minutes and it wasn't even tender.
 I ended up cooking the squash for 60 minutes and it was just barely tender.
 Take squash out and add in corn custard filling.

My ingredients for the corn custard filling:
 1 egg
2 egg whites, whipped to a light foam
 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup corn
 freshly ground salt and pepper
 freshly grated nutmeg
2 scallions
cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, grated

I whupped the egg, then whisked in the milk and cream.

Added in the corn.

I added the scallions.

I added 2 foamy egg whites to the mixture.

I poured the corn custard mixture into the squash about 3/4 way up.
 I had a little left over so I just poured that into a ramekin.
 The squash went into my 375 degree oven for 50 minutes.
I checked at 30 and it was still jiggly,
 so I baked another 20 minutes.
 Then I sprinkled the grated cheese on and baked for 10 more minutes.
(Total time for custard 60 minutes.) (Total time for squash 2 hours.)

The custard is set, squash is tender, and cheese is melted.

Here are the crock pot country style ribs
 with a mustard/honey glaze,
 with a sprinkling of green onions.

Here's my corn custard stuffed acorn squash with cheese.

The meat is falling apart, fork tender.

The squash is earthy sweet with a deliciously smooth, creamy custard inside. Buttery, corny, cheesy. I loved the texture of the custard. And I love the fall flavor of a winter squash. You know the feeling you get on a crisp fall afternoon when you catch the distinctive whiff of a fire burning somewhere? That's what winter squash is like to me. It's comfort.

Squash with corn custard.

The meat was tender and complexly flavored, with hints of lemon, ginger, mustard, and honey. The lightness and green bite of the scallions was a nice touch.

The stuffed squash was delightful. This was like a quiche with the squash serving as the pie crust.

Creamy, custardy goodness of the squash stuffing. Spot on with the slightly spicy country ribs. Down home good cookin'.

Rosie Celebrates Fall With Acorn Squash.

 Fall is my favorite time of year on the Outer Banks.

The tourists, for the most part, are gone.

The weather is beautiful.

And I'm a happy camper.

And there's that new crop of fall vegetables.

Let's take an acorn squash

and do something different with it.

Usually I hollow these out,

put in brown sugar, honey, pecans, orange juice,

raisins, and butter, bake it in a bain Marie, and call it a day.

 
 Today I'm going with squash stuffed with corn custard.

I always take a little strip off the bottom

so the squash halves will sit level in a pan.

Remove the seeds and the pulpy mess around them.
I'm drying out the seeds to plant next year.

I have my halves sitting in an 8-inch baking dish

with water half-way up the sides of the squash.
This cooking technique is called a bain-Marie.
This allows the food to heat gently
and the custard to cook evenly.

Brush the squash with melted butter

and place in a 375° oven.
 I baked it about 30 minutes.

Baking times will vary depending on your oven

and the size of the squash.

You don't want the squash totally tender at this point

because we're going to add in the corn mixture

and put it back in the oven to cook.

While the squash is baking,

prepare the ingredients for the corn pudding.

Corn Pudding 
1 egg
2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup corn
freshly ground salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp each)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 scallions, chopped

I like to have my egg and liquids
at room temperature.
This makes for more volume and a better rise.

As for the milk,
if all you had is whole milk,
that would be fine to use.
I just happen to have skim milk and heavy cream
in my fridge at all times, so I always use that combination.

Beat the egg until light and lemon colored
Whisk in the milk and cream.
Add corn, salt, pepper, nutmeg, scallions,
and half each of the cheddar and Parmesan.

Beat whites until soft peaks form.
Gently fold into the egg mixture.

Fill the half-baked acorn squash halves with the corn mixture.
I had enough leftover to fill two small ramekins.
Return the bain-Marie to the oven
and cook about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle on the rest of the remaining cheese
and return to the oven,
until custard is poofy and set, about another 15-20 minutes.
Allow the custard to sit about 10 minutes before digging into it.

Whisk whole egg until light lemon-colored and airy.

Whisk in cream and milk.

Corn in.

Snipped scallions in.

Using immaculately clean beaters and bowl

with absolutely no moisture or bits of yolk,

beat the whites until ...

... you have soft peaks.

Add in half the cheese and the salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Pour in the whipped egg whites.

Very gently,

fold in the whites.

Pour the corn mixture into the half-baked acorn squash halves.

Fill ramekins with any remaining mixture.

Return to the oven.

After about thirty minutes ...

... sprinkle on the remaining cheese and return to oven

for about 15-20 minutes,

until custard is set and poofy

and squash is tender,

That custard is perfect - deliciously smooth and creamy

The sweet corn pairs nicely with the earthy flavor of the squash.

It's a winning combination.

Mr. Hawthorne prepared the rest of our dinner.
He made a cole slaw in our Blue Ninja.
Chop up cabbage and carrot in the processor.
For the dressing, about a TB rice wine vinegar,
1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp vegetable oil,
1 packet sugar-free Splenda or artificial sweetener
(You can use real sugar.),
and about 1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
and about 1/3 cup mayo.
Pinch of sea salt.
Let sit in fridge for at least thirty minutes for the flavors to meld.

For the meat, he cooked pork country style ribs in heavily salted water
with a tablespoon of Mr. Stubb's hickory liquid smoke
for about 2 hours, or until falling apart tender.
Remove ribs from water and let cool so you can handle them.
Remove any fat and shred the meat.

For the barbecue sauce,
 Mr. Hawthorne either makes his own
or doctors up a store-bought sauce.
We favor Sweet Baby Ray's,
but he usually adds more vinegar to it.

However, today he used my LAST jar
of Mar's Sycamore Falls Barbecue Sauce.
And that would be Mar of Foodies Untie blogdom.
And he didn't tweak it one bit.
He declared it perfect just as it is!
And this never happens.

Now he wants more of your sauce, Mar.

Or the recipe.
(I'd never tell.)