Thanksgiving at Bostonist's House: Crusty Pecan Squash

Thanksgiving Dinner at Bostonist’s house centers around the bird. Without an adequately flavorful turkey with the right amount of dark and light meat our Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving. We might not have to loosen our belt. We would, however, most likely still be full. We make lots of side dishes at the Bostonist home. Crusty Pecan Squash is one of our favorites, mind you we pronounce this like any good Bay-Stater should: crusty “pee-can” squash and not “pea-kahn” as some say is correct.

Ingredients

• 2 12oz packages of thawed, frozen Squash (Bostonist uses “winter squash”, and a little fresh roasted pumpkin if it’s on hand.)
  
• 1/3 cup melted Butter
  
• 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk (the leftover from making Tawny Pumpkin Pie)
  
• 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
  
• 1 tsp. Salt
  
• 1/2 tsp. Pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
  
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Pecans
  
• 2 Tbsp. Corn Syrup, light or dark

Directions
This is easy as the squash is already cooked, you’re just basically heating things up. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Combine all ingredients, except the Pecans and Corn Syrup, in a large bowl. You may want to mix the Evaporated Milk, Brown Sugar, and spices together first, then add to the squash and butter. Grease a 1 ½ quart caserole dish (we use a round one with deep sides). Turn your mixture into the casserole dish. In a small bowl mix the Pecans and Corn Syrup together so the Pecans are thoroughly coated. Spread evenly on top of squash mixture. Bake in the oven, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.