Another thing you can do with your squash is put the leftovers into your pan of purple scalloped potatoes.

These are actually fairly fake scalloped potatoes. I didn't make a sauce or anything; I just used chunks of cheese and butter with milk over all. It works perfectly well, and you avoid cleaning another entire pot plus a whisk full of cream sauce. It's an easy casserole thing that you assemble, shove in the oven, and forget. By the time you get hungry and remember, everything is done.

Clearly you can use regular potatoes for this, as long as they're decent boiling potatoes. But PURPLE.

Purple scalloped potatoes

some potatoes
shallot or onion
milk
butter
cheese
spices: paprika, salt, pepper, maybe some mustard powder

I made one pie plate for maybe 1.5 dinner servings. It works fine for two if you have other things to eat alongside.

So. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Get out some potatoes and an onion/shallot. I think I used about four potatoes. Slice the potatoes as thin as you can stand. It helps to cut them in half, lay them on their flat sides, and cut across into half moons. This way nothing is slithering out from under your hand while you're using a knife. Then consider the onion business. I used shallot, but whatever you have lying around works. The proportions here depend on how much you like onion. I used one big shallot; you can use as much onion family as you like. Just peel it and slice it up. The shallot can be in thicker slices, since it's going to disintegrate nicely in the oven.

Get out some cheese and butter. You can use lots of different cheeses; I had gouda. Get out some milk. Get out any spices you want.

Now it is time to assemble. Find a shallow casserole of some type. Pour a little milk into the bottom, then layer in a bunch of potato slices. Scatter over a layer of shallot bits, plus some chunks of butter and cheese. Add a shake of salt, pepper, and paprika. Then start again with the potato layer. You can also add your leftover squash, or whatever else you deem appropriate. Repeat until you are out of potatoes and onions, ending with cheese/butter/spice layer. Pour some more milk over the whole thing. It doesn't have to completely cover everything, but should come at least 3/4 of the way up the side.

Now shove the dish in the oven and go do something else. Check on it in about 15 minutes. At this point you may want to baste the top of the potatoes with any available liquid running around the pan, but this depends on how little milk you could scavenge. Then stick it back in the oven and leave it another 15 of 20 minutes.
When everything is nice and happy and brown, and the potatoes are clearly done when pierced with a fork, get it out of the oven and eat it. It is a big sizzling ugly soporific mess. Scalloped potatoes!


Later you can continue the purple theme with cauliflower. PURPLE! Also easy! Also DELICIOUS.

Roasty purple cauliflower

head of cauliflower
olive oil
salt
that's it.

Get out a good knife and whack that cauliflower into many delicious florets. Anoint it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt, and spread it in one layer in a baking pan. Then stick it in the oven to roast at hot hot 425F.

Check in about ten minutes. Stir. Put it back in.

When the cauliflower has acquired a number of singedy brown bits and smells really, really good, it is done. Eat it! It is popcorn! PURPLE POPCORN.

Ok, that one I didn't actually do. But PURPLE!