Cooking For Dummies

We all have our pet peeves, right? One of mine is going into the break room at work to find this:

Who does this?

This happens pretty much every day. Who leaves this much coffee in the pot and then puts it back on the hot burner so that it turns into burnt sludge? I'm not even exaggerating that this is how I find the coffee almost every single morning. Stop being lazy and make another effing pot of coffee. Or at the very least, don't leave the burner on.

Shut up, Yoda.

Annnnnnyway, I find it highly irritating, obviously.

I decided to attempt to make spaghetti squash this evening. I know, right? I mean, sometimes I forget how to even get to the kitchen, I make things so rarely. I'm like a college aged male bachelor when it comes to all things domestic. But all of the cool kids are eating spaghetti squash these days, so I decided to jump on the cool bus.

Hey, there's my ride!

First, preheat the over to 375 degrees. Cut the squash length wise.

I recommend using the biggest knives ever for this task.

Cutting a spaghetti squash is some serious business. It's damn near impossible to cut it in half. Luckily, I have vast culinary experience (and by "vast" I mean none at all) so I figured wedging another insanely sharp knife into the thing and pretty much hacking and prying until it split in half was the preferred method of splitting a spaghetti squash.

This is what I imagine doing when I find coffee pots empty.

At this point I was actually a little frightened that I may lose a finger or two while trying to force the squash in half. Eventually, it split in two very uneven halves. Whatevs.

Having never made spaghetti squash before, I first thought maybe the strands inside are what you eat as "spaghetti". But then I remembered that I read somewhere that you scape the seeds and strands out before you bake it.

I briefly considered baking the seeds to see if they tasted
like pumpkin seeds, but then I remembered I'm lazy.

According to Master Google, you place the halves face down on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes. When the edges are soft and sort of browned, take a fork and see if you can easily pull the strands away, thus making "spaghetti".

Lesson #1: It tastes better if it's really, really cooked. After 45 minutes, it was still a little too "crunchy" for my liking so I cooked it until the edges were more caramelized, which ended up being over an hour.

After the edges are brown, use a fork to scrape the sides to create "noodles".

Lesson #2: It's a good idea to drain the strands or put them on a paper towel to absorb moisture instead of putting it directly into a bowl. Otherwise, it will be watery at the bottom like spaghetti noodles that are not allowed to drain in a colander.

So there you have it. The beginnings of a delicious paleo meal...until you dump Ragu on it like I did. Not so paleo then. But delicious. Next time, maybe I'll use a better sauce but I'm going with baby steps here.

What did you expect? I'm no Martha Stewart.
I'm lucky I didn't burn my house down.

So now I can add spaghetti squash to my fairly small list of things I able to prepare. Check!

In other news, remember when Tara and I did that 12-12-12 Virtual Race? My medal came today!

Front

Back

Pretty cool for a race that cost me $12.12. And the medal is cute. Check out her Facebook page if you want to get in on one of her races.