Make It Yourself Monday -Squash Casserole

I had never liked squash when my friend brought a casserole to the pee wee league football tailgate. After much harassment for not trying it, I finally had a bite. Then I had another bite, another plate, and another plate. It ended with my friend making me leave her tailgate so that there would be some for others!

So for today's "Make it Yourself Monday", I thought I'd get away from the beauty products and share that great squash recipe, after-all, food is a part of health and beauty too!

For this recipe you will need a squash, preferably a butternut squash, but I suppose this would be good with any type. You will also need an onion (match the onion size with your squash size), 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 to 1 1/2 cup(s) milk (2% or whatever type you prefer), butter round crackers (the name brand is not necessary, I buy the Walley world ones and they work just the same. But, do NOT use saltines, they change the taste and texture!)

Begin by slicing the squash. You want to get these as even as possible, so that they cook at the same speed. Then dice the onion into bite size pieces, again, making them the same size, and crush the crackers. Generally you will need at least one sleeve of crackers, two if you use a larger squash. Spray a baking dish with a non-stick spray coating and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
All the prep work done, you start by layering the dish with the squash, the onions, the crackers, and the cheese. Continue until you use all of the squash. Pour at least 1/2 cup (1 cup to 1 1/2 cups for larger squash)  over the casserole, cover with a lid or foil, place in oven and cook until the squash is done. This usually takes about an hour, you can check by running a fork through the squash. Keep an eye on the casserole while cooking and add more milk if it looks too dried out. You really don't need as much milk as you initially may think, so I recommend beginning with a 1/2 cup for a medium sized squash and 1 cup for a large one. You can always add more, but you cannot take it away!

The pictures here show my casserole prep and the almost finished product. My battery died so I didn't get the very last one, the one just before we ate. Also, I ran out of cheese and didn't layer the top as I normally do, since my squash was pretty large. I ended up using 1 3/4 cup milk in this one, and would have used about 3 cups of cheese, had I had it! No worries though, it was still quite tasty, and we have plenty of left overs!