Recipe of the Month: Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash
Submitted by Benjamin Heffner (Passed on from my grandmother and great-grandmother!).
Serves 4.
Ingredients 2 Acorn Squashes 2 tsp Olive Oil Ground beef 1 tsp salt 1/8th tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg 1 onion, finely diced 4 cloves garlic, minced ¾ cups bulgur 2 cups water
Directions:
Cut two acorn squashes in half and take out the seeds. Place them cut side down in a baking dish. Bake in a 400-degree oven until tender, for about 35 minutes. The filling should be made while the squash is cooking.
In a medium pot, heat up 2 tsp of olive oil. Add ground beef, a tsp of salt, and 1/8th tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook until the beef is brown, for about 7 minutes. Strain the meat onto another plate while saving whatever liquid remains in the pot. To that liquid, add one finely diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add 4 cloves of minced garlic until they’re fragrant. Stir in ¾ cups of bulgur. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium-low, cook covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, but keep it covered for another 5 minutes.
Add in the reserved beef as well as a handful of golden raisins, some chopped parsley and a couple tablespoons of toasted pine nuts. Scrape out the flesh from the cooked squashes and add to the filling. Equally divide the filling among the 4 halves of squash. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes to warm everything.
“Here is my turtle Bip dressed up as Leonardo the ninja turtle! He’s a 6 year old painted turtle. He likes to spend his time basking and digging in the gravel for tasty tidbits! His favorite thing is getting shell scritches!”
— Vivian Stronghold, Health Science major
“This is Dobby. His favorite toy is his sock from when he was born. But he does also like his peanut butter filled pacifier.”
— Helene Metivier, Substance Use Counseling (SAC) student
“Her name is Gypsy. She loved carrots, and her favorite word was ‘Food.’ The shelter we adopted Gypsy from told us she might be a Norwegian Elkhound mix. Gypsy loved the winter! Her favorite thing to do was scoop up snow with her mouth while running. It was the cutest thing.”read more
Dakota Potter, a 29-year-old Liberal Arts Major from Keene, New Hampshire is not your average community college student. Potter, in his last semester at the Mount, will be graduating in May. He will be transferring to Bridgewater State University for the spring semester, where he was recently accepted into their Archeological program; but that is not what makes him different from your traditional college student.
Potter has a gift for the English language – a gift he has been nurturing since he was just a child. “I got my start when I was really young,” he reflected, mentioning that he was quite a precocious reader. At just five years old, he was reading (and comprehending!) the Harry Potter book series, and he started writing stories when he was eight or nine. “They weren’t very good,” Potter admitted, ”but I had the passion for it.”read more
As the leaves begin to change and the fall season settles in, candy, costumes, jack-o’-lanterns, and haunted houses begin to make their comeback—some of the familiar staples of Halloween, celebrated every year on October 31.
The holiday may have its roots in ancient Celtic traditions, particularly the pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced “Sow-in”), which celebrated the transition from the lighter half of the year to the darker half, marking the end of summer and the changing of the seasons, as well as a time when the “veil” between our earthly realm and the spirit world is said to be at its thinnest. While Halloween today is often a gloriously whimsical time for tricks and treats, scary stories, pumpkin picking, and dressing up, it actually shares some similarities with how ancient celebrants of Samhain may have observed their holiday.read more
Photo from Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges
As part of the ongoing workforce development expansion at local community colleges, I had the incredible opportunity to team up with my classmate and fellow Computer Information Systems (CIS) major, Kourtney Tibbets, to serve as instructors for the “IT for Healthcare” course at Greenfield Community College, hand-picked by Dr. Gary Ackerman. For those unfamiliar with Dr. Ackerman, he serves as an adjunct Professor at Mount Wachusett Community College and teaches in the CIS department. Outside of MWCC, Dr. Ackerman is the Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at Greenfield Community College.read more
MWCC Community Can Look to Brewer Center for Registering Before Deadline
By Jordan Chila | Editor-in-Chief
Photo by Tom Hill Jr.
The 2024 election is fast approaching, and surprisingly, not every state offers same-day voter registration. Massachusetts is one of those states, with a voter registration deadline of October 26, 2024. There are several last-minute ways to register: by mail, in person, or online. Since not everyone in the community is registered, take advantage of the right to vote and register today.
Massachusetts is among the 28 states that don’t offer same-day voter registration, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your vote in before the deadline. MWCC students can register in person at their local election office or by mail. For those who are registering to vote by mail, be sure that the registration form is postmarked by the deadline date of October 26, 2024. For an even simpler option, there is also the option to register or vote online. Where exactly is one able to find the online registration form? Well, the commonwealth of Massachusetts provides the link here: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/OVR/. It takes about five minutes, and all that is required is valid identification.read more
Deciding the Future of the MCAS Graduation Requirement with Question 2
By Princess Yeboah | Assistant Editor
Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu from Unsplash
Question 2 on the election ballot addresses the MCAS testing requirement for high school graduation. This year, Massachusetts voters will decide whether to keep or change the rule that requires students to pass the MCAS to graduate. A “yes” vote would remove the requirement that students pass MCAS, while voting “no” would mean the requirement would still be in effect. According to the Rennie Center Education Research and Policy, the MCAS became a requirement to graduate in 2003. While some find this test motivating, some educators support keeping the test but without making it a graduation requirement.read more
This November, Massachusetts voters will decide on several statewide ballot questions, including Question 4, the limited legalization of certain natural psychedelic substances, also known as the “Natural Psychedelic Substances Act.” The proposal would legalize and regulate the supervised use of certain natural psychedelics—such as psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, and ibogaine—for adults 21 and older.
In 2020, Oregon became the first state in the nation to legalize psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, in 20 of its most populated cities, opening more than 20 service centers to administer the drug, according to NPR.read more
