I grew up and spent the first few years of my married life peeling and hacking winter squashes into chunks, boiling them and then mashing them into a wonderful side dish. A lot of work, slightly dangerous with using a knife on the tougher skinned ones, and then having to deal with the orangy starch that dried weird on my hands and was a bugger to wash off. While meal planning, I had to decide if I was up for the task of wrestling the winter squash into submission, and the following icky hands. No more!!!
I am not sure where I first heard it or saw it...but I am quite grateful for the information for a different...and much easier...way of cooking winter squash! Wash the squash, cut it in half, and then scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Place squash cut-side down on a baking pan...I prefer glass. Add water until the pan has about 1/2 inch in the bottom, then poke a few small holes in the squash skin. Bake at 350 until tender. To serve, flip the squash skin-side down, add butter, and put it on the table. So easy!
Now for large pumpkins and Blue Hubbard...there ain't no way those puppys are going to be simply cut in half and baked. They will resist you, to say the least! So for these guys...they get dropped into submission. Literally. Choose a hard and clean floor surface and drop them until you have large pieces, scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff, and then proceed to bake them as described in the previous paragraph. It is ok to stack creatively...just make sure there is room for air to circulate around the pieces, and they have access to the water in the pan to keep them from drying out!
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