Squash tradition goes on

Continuing the weird squash tradition Joe and I began a couple years back with the purchase of the Cushaw, We got a great big, blue hubbard squash this year. It has orange flesh and grayish blue skin and quite a bit of flesh inside. I made pancakes and a bunch of other things out of it. Stephen really liked the pancakes. Above is a picture of Evan Couchman inspecting the alien-looking vegetable.

Peanut pumpkins

I've been back at the New Era part time since the middle of September. Being out of the house more puts me in contact with more blog-worthy food topics, but it also eliminates my time for blogging.
I was checking out the area's fresh markets for a story and came across this stand at the Dew's place on Pembroke Road. I had interviewed them back when I was features editor about some 80s McDonald's Playland equipment they were refurbishing for their grandkids. It caught my attention to see the Hamburger jail and Grimace in their yard. Well, the equipment is gone, but there's this wonderfully stocked farmstand instead. Eldridge had quite a few unsual pumpkins... Peanut Pumpkin, Fairytale and Long Island Cheese among them

Lil' Punkins

Joe and I started a family tradition when we bought the anthropomorphic cushaw squash a couple years ago. We decided every autumn we should buy an unusual gourd. We also felt we had to get Stephen his first pumpkin. A little pie pumpkin for baby, turban squash for mom and dad.
I'm looking forward to making these into something... I just haven't settled on the right recipe yet.

Starting a new tradition

Last year we bought that giganto cushaw squash that took several recipes to consume. Joe decided that we should buy at least one interesting squash each fall. The green pumpkin is called a buttercup squash... the gnarly one is just an inedible gourd for decoration.

I'll have to cook it up, but probably not for a couple weeks as we're about to head out to Cleveland and Chicago on Saturday :-) I think the buttercup will stay home.

Pattypan squash in three ways

Tuesday I stopped at the Founders Square farmers market at lunch. Rossneau Ealom was selling pattypan squash 3 for a dollar. They were so cute, I couldn't pass them up. He also had asparagus, strawberries, scallions and greens.
Tonight I decided to cook each squash differently. First we have Italian style with egg and cauliflower. Then dredged in flour, salt and pepper and sauteed. Then stuffed with bread cubes, itself, cheese and a little ham.

Ugliest dessert ever

Remember our pet cushaw? It had a red sticker with a recipe on it... and after cooking the giant gourd Saturday night, we decided to try it out. The result was an extremely ugly custard that tasted like a lighter and more spiced version of pumpkin pie filling. Joe really liked it. In fact I think he ate most of it while it was still cooling on the stove top.

Recipe for Cushaw Squash:
2 cups cooked squash
1 1/2 cups milk (could have used less)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix everything together. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce to 350 and cook until set. Let it cool before serving. Or don't.

Love my oven

Oven theater presents:
It's not a special oven, really. I mean it's just standard. But to me it's special. I never had such a nice oven in the five years I've been married. It's full size. I can fit 9x13s and muffin pans and cookie sheets in it. It works. BOTH heating elements get red hot. And it has a light and a little window.

For fun, I like to push back the dish rag curtains and watch the show of muffins rising. Joe laughs. But laughter quickly is silenced, muffled ... by one of the tasty muffins of my performance produces.

After making vegan (read: I ran out of eggs) zucchini muffins, I made a dozen banana chocolate chip muffins... Joe's request.

So you might have guessed I'm feeling human again. Though my sinuses are swelling intermittently as the battle grounds for my immune system and that nasty bug. My side is fighting the battle, like good little white blood cells should.

But I think I'll go help them along in the best way I know how. Good night!

Edited 8/31:
Rachel reminded me to put up the recipes. ;)
For "vegan" zucchini muffins:
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Wet Ingredients:
heaping cup of grated zucchini (I use a grater with really small holes)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (or a little less)
a little vanilla extract

Pour one bowl into the other, stir til moistened. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and cook at 350 until tops turn golden brown. Because they don't have eggs, they don't really rise above the muffin cups. But they taste really good. You can also stir one egg into the wet ingredients and get regular muffins that are also tasty.

A little lovin in a bowl

I've been slacking on my blog because I've been a little under the weather since Sunday evening.

Sadly, it looks like I've got pleurisy. Which at first I confused with pleurosis, that crippling disease that isolates the poor protagonist in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie... But it's not that. Yay. (Though it might have been fun to say I've got 'blue roses.') Really it's just a viral infection of the lining of my lungs. And it hurts. Boo.

Joe was brave and made me a chicken noodle soup per my instructions from the couch where I rested when we got home from work today. This one's really simple: Just chicken broth, chopped zucchini (cooked til translucent) and some cavatappi (big fat corkscrew shaped pasta.) It turned out wonderfully.

More uses for squash, and other recipes

I made several snacky things Saturday and I wanted to share the recipes.

1. Pan-fried Summer Squash


My dad used to cook yellow squash this way... I guess maybe he still does-- Do ya, Dad? When my mom heard that I still had some of that 5+ lbs of squash left from the farmer's market, she suggested I used them this way.

5 baby squash, sliced long-ways.
Flour, black pepper, salt and basil for dredging. Amounts are up to the cook.
Olive oil for pan frying.

I put the flour mixture in a bowl and dabbed the squash pieces around in it. Meanwhile, I had olive oil in my skillet on medium. I put as many flour-coated squash pieces in the pan as I could fit and let them sizzle a while before flipping. At this point most of the oil was sponged up into the flour coating, so I sprinkled the skillet with water just to get it sizzling again without adding too much oil.

2. Blooming Onion

Mr. Morris's leeks have turned into full-fledged onions now. So I peeled one cut it into eighths--leaving part of the bottom intact. I placed the onion on some heavy foil, separated the "petals" a little with my fingers and drizzled it with olive oil and sprinkled it with salt.
Wrapped up the little foil package and stuck it in my toaster oven at 500 for maybe half an hour. Not as good as the deep-fried restaurant variety, but very tender and sweet.

3. Fresh Bruschetta

My basil is really growing bushy. Before pesto production begins, I thought I'd use it for another Italian favorite.

1 small bunch basil, leaves torn into small pieces
1 large ripe tomato, chopped finely
~3 Tbs sweet onion, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/4 cup black olives, also chopped.

Mix it all together and serve over toasted Italian bread.
I usually cook all that with olive oil, and add salt. Cooking will mellow the garlic, basil and onion and sour up the tomato. I was in the spicy mood though.

4. Balsamic Chicken Bites

Had to use two chicken breasts and this is how I did it.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks.
Flour, salt, pepper and basil for dredging.
Olive oil, balsamic viniagrette for pan frying.

I had flour mix leftover from the squash, so I thought why not? To add a little more flavor, I added a few splashes of the dressing to the frying pan. It also helped the chicken brown nicely.
Took maybe 5 minutes per side to cook? I always cut a few of the fatter pieces to check for doneness though. Joe enjoyed dipping these in a pineapple-mango-coconut sauce that his folks gave us.

Squarsh

We get a lot of wrong numbers--probably one a day. Well, Saturday's wrong number rang at 6:00 a.m. This is a good time to go to the farmer's market, my co-worker Jenn told me last week. So I did. And I thought I was so clever when I remembered to bring cash with me. But not smart enough to bring something smaller than a 10 dollar bill. So when I decided to buy some summer squash, the poor man wasn't able to give me more than 5 dollars change. No problem, I say, just give me 5 dollars worth of squash.
OK, he says. That's 5 lbs of squash.
That's a lot of squash, I think to myself.


So I made a very large and very labor-intensive squarsherole. Fun to eat as it is to say ;-)
Here's the 'mess-ipe':
5 lbs summer squash, chopped and sauteed in olive oil, and then mashed
Several shakes salt, pepper and dried basil.
A small scoop brown sugar
4 or maybe 5 toasted bread heels, crumbled
2 beaten eggs
Pine nuts and baby squash sprinkled with brown sugar and basil, and brushed with olive oil for a garnish. With my friend Sharon in mind, I made an elaborate design. She is the master at making food beautiful
I thought it came out rather pretty. Oh, bake for 30 minutes at 350, then broil for just a minute or two to brown the top. I had to watch it.