Truly. Deeply. Madly

I made this for dinner tonight.
The gentlemen partook, and declared it worthy.
Here's how:

* Start with a medium winter squash -- I used a butternut, about 12 inches long, and quite thick, and stop sniggering back there, are you twelve?
* Seed the squash, peel the squash, and cube the squash relatively fine, so it'll cook evenly and quickly. I wound up with about four or five cups of raw squash.
* Peel and clean six to eight cloves of garlic. If possible, keep these whole, so the oils won't escape during cooking. It's a pain, I know, but it's SO worth it.
* Steam the squash and garlic together, until the squash is fork tender -- this will take awhile. Half an hour or more, depending on how fine you cut the stuff, so be patient, and DON'T let your steamer boil dry, whatEVER you do!
* If you really want to speed this up, you could microwave the squash, so long as you have a glass lidded dish you can use in the microwave. It should take around ten or 12 minutes, with regular stirring, but I can't vouch for evenness of cooking, so I wouldn't recommend it, really.

* While that's cooking, start some rice. 3 cups of water, 1 1/2 cup brown basmati, 1/4 cup black Imperial, and 1/4 cup red rice is the blend I used, and I splashed about a teaspoon of tamari in while it was cooking, too.

* When the squash isn't crunchy anymore, take out your hand mixer, or immersion blender, and commence to mash. Add in a splash of light cream -- a tablespoon or two will do nicely. Add a solid teaspoon of salt, an equal amount of black pepper -- yes, really, -- and even more garlic powder, and whip until creamy.

* Serve like a gumbo; in a stew bowl, with 1/3 cup cooked rice in the bottom, and a scoop of the squash mash overtop. Garnish with a solid tablespoon of parmesan cheese, and eat with a spoon.

* Let the Clue know how your guests and family enjoy this recipe, please.