squash, i think i love you.

buttercup squash i love you.

ah, first week of the 3G project is done and i'm starting to have a really good time in the kitchen. i don't think i've eaten this many fall veggies in awhile. let me tell you, i'm becoming a little obsessed with squash, which is really weird cause i never classified myself as a squash person. i don't like zucchini or that icky yellow crookneck squash (well unless you make it into a casserole with a ton of butter, cheese, and breadcrumbs or of course deep fry it) so i just thought, "i don't like squash." but these winter squash varieties are a whole nother ball game. after the successful dinner i made with some spaghetti squash the other night (see that post here), when maude over at maude's market suggested some buttercup squash she had, i though, well why not. holy crap is that squash good. i cut that sucker in half and immediately caught a whiff of a delicate sweet smell and saw a supper bright orange flesh that i was not at all expecting. hubby and i agreed that it smelled like a honey due melon. i decided that i would use one half for some soup and save the other half for later. i cut the first half up into slices and then used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin which was lot easier than i though it was going to be. then i cut the flesh into cubes and coated them with a little olive oil and salt, plopped it in a cast iron skillet, and roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees till soft. after the squash cooled, i ran the flesh through a food mill along with a jar of my home canned tomatoes from the garden in greenville. i added that mixture to some sauteed onions, a bit of chopped rosemary and sage, along with a jar of turkey stock from the freezer, and let it all simmer for just a bit and done. soup!!

before.

after.

so other than hubby and i agreeing that my onions were a bit too cruchy for soup, i think dinner was a success. (especially since i made some oh so yummy cheese biscuits.) the soup was not quite tomatoy, and not quite squashy, but a nice balance of both. with that said, next time to try something a bit different, i think i will make just a squash soup since the roasted squash had such a wonderful flavor by itself, and i think i will grate the onions to give them a smoother texture.

so let the squash obsession begin!!!! not only did i walk 2.5 miles to the library and 2.5 miles back just to check out a book on squashes, this new obsession also solidifies my desire to to a three sisters garden this year just so i can have a reason to plant some squash.


p.s. i really started this post to finish up "what we ate" for the first week of the 3G project, but i got off track with the squash obsession. so if your tired of reading this post please feel free to go do something else, if not, continue........

"what we ate." the end of the first week of the 3G project.

saturday: hubby had cereal for breakfast, i had an oatmeal scone from farmer's market. for lunch i made some veggie hash out of potatoes, a carrot, an onion, rosemary, sage, and the last of the cabbage. i topped it off with fried eggs and garnished it with some homemade pepper ketchup. we also successfully polished off the last of the irish soda bread. for dinner we had a bit of leftover veggie hash and then snacked on some homemade banana, nut, and chocolate chip bread. i'll post the recipe for the bread in a separate post. the recipe is from a yogurt cookery book that i got at an estate sale. it's not the greatest banana bread in the world since it's made with white/wheat flour, honey instead of sugar, and of course yogurt. but since we had some left over chocolate in the frig that needed to be use up, i added that in and it's not so bad. i like it, but i won't lie to you, it does taste "healthy."

sunday: cereal for breakfast. for lunch a snack of apple, cheese, and crackers. for dinner buttercup and tomato soup with cheese biscuits, nuff said.

gonna make some veggie hash.

purple potatoes are pretty.

my homemade pepper ketchup.