FALL = SQUASH!!!



Squash! This is decorative squash :)

 To be honest... squash scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.  My mom was always cooking up strange things that other Moms didn't cook up.  Yes, as an adult I have come to appreciate the fact that I had a highly intelligent mother who was relegated into the kitchen to feed and care for 8 people!! Daily!! No wonder she went through that bout of depression and the hair pulling yelling stints. Oh wait, I digress.

Decorative Pumpkins - I have never seen so many varieties!

One of the items she cooked a lot in the fall was some variety of squash. Give me my potatoes, baked, mashed, boiled... I don't care. But serve me up something that has the inside texture of a potato but doesn't look like a potato??? NO WAY. I don't want any yellow, orange, orangish-yellowish looking thing on my plate. And don't think you can disguise it in butter and brown sugar either. I still know what is under it.

Oh what a fool that young tongue was!!!!

More decorative Pumpkins

Squash is amazing.  It defines fall.  We can even hang onto the colors of fall through our squash after fall has fallen and that white stuff is on the earth.  Squash can last in your storage bin from a month to several months.  You can load up on squash at a farmers market in one haul and you are set for the winter months. You almost feel kind of pioneer like... kinda.

Peanut Pumpkin
yes!!
 It grows with these things that look like peanuts on it!

The flavor of squash and the many ways squash can be cooked is a bonus too. From soups to desserts. Oh yes. My niece Alex has a cupcake she makes with squash.  Here is the link to Alex's Brown Sugar Acorn Squash Cupcakes http://alphabitchkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/brown-sugar-acorn-squash-cupcakes.html  My sister Geri and her daughters have made squash soup! Fabulous.  Roast some squash and throw small chunks in your salad along with dried cranberries a little feta cheese and make a vinaigrette dressing with the raspberry vinegar like I bought at the little pumpkin/gourd/squash place and its almost a supper! Of course... the ultimate way to cook squash is the most simple way... cut in half, scoop out the guts... bake it naked or add butter and brown sugar.  It even comes with its own serving dish!

Mom and I are attempting this year is to purchase some squash that we have seen at the grocery store or farmers markets but have no idea what they are and have frightened us away from buying it.  So, while we were at Knapton's Farm in Greenfield, MN yesterday, we were faced with a huge flatbed full of many many varieties of squash that we knew and also had no clue as to what they were. 

We both decided to pick one variety each that we didn't know.  I was drawn to this long skinny squash that was pale and striped green.  Later, I found out that it was called "Sweet Potato Squash"  also known as "Delicato Squash"  Apparently the flavor is what the name implies.  It's a nice sweet tasting squash with a similar taste to sweet potatoes. Some even eat the skin because it is so thin. I won't!

So... the experiment begins at supper time when the preparation starts... I'll be back with more pictures and the final cooked product.

I had to prepare my Sweet Potato squash as suggested and it was fairly simple. Much easier cutting through the skin of this squash as compared to Spaghetti squash. That squash you feel like taking out an axe to cut through the skin!

I like to scoop the seeds and guts out with an ice cream scooper. The edge of a scooper is sharper than a spoon.

I placed the squash on my clay baker and put it in a 350° oven for about 45-60 mn.

So, Parker - my son, had a football game and it interrupted me from enjoying my supper in a leisurely fashion! Yes, because that's what parents of active 13 year old boys do... life of leisure! right.  Anyhow, I managed to scarf down my Sweet Potato Squash before I left. Oh was it savory!

Butter... salt and pepper.