Spaghetti Squash Gratin

stole most of this from the chocolateandzucchini.com recipe

first of all - never have i had such a perplexing research phase for a new food.  but i've familiarized myself and ...  i think i've tackled the red-headed step-child of the squash family (i mean that with great love to all my strawberries).

i searched high and low for spaghetti squash information.  mostly people were hatin' on it for not being pasta.   kaaaay.  but then my search led me to chocolateandzucchini.com where the author wrote a bit of an ode to spaghetti squash and she really sold it well.

here's the thing - it is NOT pasta, stop it right now.  it is squashy squash squash and should be treated as such.  so, what do i LOVE to do with squash?  incorporate cheese and cream.

d'uh, i thought, of COURSE i should make this gratin the chocolateandzucchini.com lady is talking about.

so first of all, i took to the squash with a butcher knife a la slasher movie and did my best to make a few stabs (so the squash could breath of course) with out stabbing myself or the counter top.  then put the whole. damn. thing. in a baking dish and left it in oven for an hour.  took it out let it cool and then i attacked it with the knife again thinking i was still dealing with a log.  not really, it sort of erupted and fell apart immediately.  the insides pulled away from the shell (for that's what it is, not peel, not rind, not skin but hard shell).

at this point i realized - this was the easiest damn vegetable i've ever prepared.  so then get the seeds out and scrape out, takes 2 seconds.

Gratin dish, my version:
 
put half the squash in greased baking dish (a big one).
sprinkle salt and pepper (a bit more than you might be thinking because the squash does need some flavor support)
top with thin slices of (cheese i had on hand) queso fresco (salty yet mild yum)
sprinkle bacon pieces on cheese)
pat down second half of the squash
salt and pep
generously heap grated parmesan cheese
top with remaining bacon and candied walnut halves (sounds sketchy but it seriously made the dish)

ok at this point i covered with foil and refrigerated overnight 'cause it was 10:15pm and i might be a late-night secret alone-in-the-kitchen binge eater to an extent but i DO NOT eat family-sized portions of freshly baked squash entrees at 10:45pm.  try chocolate chips and spoonfuls of peanut butter.

so the next evening i took out the dish, poured some half n half in and threw it in the oven for 30 minutes and took the foil of around 15 minutes to crispi-fy the cheese.  delicious.

*one note - if i were to do this again, and judging by the veritable squash jungle going on in the back yard i WILL, i would use heavy cream rather than half and half and i would not use quite as much because there was a bit of excess liquid which pissed me off.