Roast Pork & Butternut Squash - 4 stars

this tasted much better than it looks in the picture, i promise. :)

this was a frustrating meal, but it was almost worth it. it was also part of a week of EXTREMELY frustrating meals - by wednesday, i said that i hate cooking and food and didn't want anything else to do with it for awhile. :) every meal i made last week took at least a half hour longer than i expected, which meant i wasn't eating until well after 8 o'clock. on week nights, that's just too late for me.

the preparation of this meal wasn't difficult at all though. i had a big pork butt roast that had been on sale at uwajimaya, so i just rubbed a dry bengal masala spice rub all over the outside of it. that rub is made with garam masala (which is a mixture of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cardamom) brown sugar, kosher salt, granulated garlic, dried chives, smoked paprika, chipotle. it's by tom douglas, part of a group of rubs called Rub with Love. i would highly recommend trying any of them if you find them at the grocery store. they are worth the cost.

i seared the roast on all sides in a heavy skillet, and then popped it in the oven. i'm not sure why i thought it would only need to roast for 30 minutes (i think it was a four or five pound roast!), but it took well over an hour. during this time, i made my spinach salad, ate it, and also roasted some wedges of peeled butternut squash with a bit of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt.

the pork roast came out really well. it was moist and rich in flavor, and the rub had carmelized on the outside of it. i LOVE butternut squash, and the simplicity of the way that i cooked it really allowed it to shine.

all in all - great, simple meal to have, but definitely takes over an hour for cooking time. i will remember this next time i'm dumb enough to think i can cook a 4-5 lb roast in 30 minutes. :)