When I get excited about large amounts of delicious-looking fresh produce for too-cheap-to-refuse prices, I go overboard. Way overboard. My eyes light up, reason goes out the window, and I pick up everything tasty that I lay my eyes on. Sometimes I'm pretty good at coming up with immediate possibilities for the produce, so that I don't have so much that it'll go bad before I get to it. Tomatoes are mentally whipped up into salsa. Potatoes become a nice and creamy potato salad. But sometimes I buy with no clue, just driven by a veggie consumerist hunger.

That's what happened when I picked up a big basket of squash and zucchini over the weekend. I had no idea what I'd do with it, but I had to have them since they were only a few bucks. For once, I'm so glad that I did because I created my first moan-worthy meal in a while. Check it out after the jump.

Among the longer varieties of squash were some petit pan squash. Since I also had some mushrooms that needed to be cooked, and some freshly-acquired feta, a plan quickly formed and became:

Baked Squash with Feta and Mushrooms

I won't bother with an ingredients list, because this meal is by no means particular. It's just a guide to inspire you to come up with your own petit pan meals as the squash hit produce aisles and farmers markets.

I sliced the squash horizontally in half, and also vertically chopped off some of the perimeter's curves so that the slices would fit into my french onion soup bowls. The bowl was lightly sprayed with olive oil from a spray bottle, and the top of the squash was placed face down inside the bowl. Some of the seeds were scooped out of both centers, and then piled with a healthy spoonful of mushrooms sauteed to a dark brown, a good sprinkle of feta, and some finely chopped garlic. The bottom was then placed on top of this, sprayed again with oil, and sprinkled with more garlic and some dried basil.

It went into the toaster oven at about 430 degrees F until tender. Once it was done, it was carefully pulled it out, placed a plate on top of it, and gave it a quick flip so that the bowl could be pulled off and the squash would sit like a hamburger on the plate.

It was the best thing I have made myself in years. Few combinations beat the mixture of squash, garlic, mushrooms, and feta. Say what you will about sweetened squash. I'll have mine with a savory kick any day.