Winter squash dishes dressed up for company but easy enough for weeknights

Winter squash, in all shapes, colors and sizes, fill the market bins at this time of the year. I like to display a variety on my kitchen counter like pieces of art. All too often, I skip cooking these hard beauties because the task feels daunting.

However, a beautiful tower of golden roasted, sliced delicata squash at St. Lou's Assembly in Chicago jolted me out of my kitchen laziness. Fantastic. As we gobbled up the tender, slightly sweet squash, skin and all, I vowed to rethink squash at home. Especially since the squash in my display basket clearly mocked me.

Looking for insight, I turned to Deborah Madison's stunningly beautiful tome "Vegetable Literacy" (Ten Speed Press, $40, 2013). In her chapter on the cucurbit family she says there's no apparent reason to avoid, shun or fear