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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Squash!

Okay, so even though no one responded to my stupid question of the day to help me identify what the heck kind of squash I'm growing, in my garden, I'm not bitter!  I harvested the first of the mystery squash yesterday, along with some more hot peppers and my very sad, pathetic attempt at beets:

You can sort of make out the tiny, stunted beet at the end of one of the plants.  The other one doesn't have any beet at all (like me - ha ha - you know, cause I'm white - sigh).  I will probably just use the greens in a saute.  I have planted some more recent beet seeds in pot - they have started to sprout, so I will see if I have more luck with them.

Anyway, I made a stuffed squash dish last night by cutting the squash in half, steaming it for a few minutes, making a stuffing out of the squash innards, bread crumbs, herbs, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, garlic, etc.  Then stuffing the squash halves and baking them in the oven for about 25 minutes.  Frankly, it wasn't a huge hit.  A little bland.  I need to find some more interesting recipes.

Today, I harvested three more of the squash:


And, after running some searches on line for different recipes, decided to make some squash bread.

First, I cut the squash in half and steamed it in the microwave:


Then scooped out the squash, mashed it and mixed with the batter:


Added flour, kneaded it, and then covered it and let it sit for a while:


After it sat for a couple of hours, I kneaded it some more, and divided it into two portions.  The first, I formed into a loaf and put in a baking tin:


I covered that and let it sit for another hour or so to rise some more:


The other portion, I just put back in the bowl to sit for a while.  I ended up freezing that to bake another time:

I baked the first batch for about 35 minutes and put it on a rack to cool:

It looks really good.  After it cooled a little, we cut a piece off the end and ate it with a little butter.  Honestly, we were both like - meh.  It's okay.  It's always nice to have fresh warm bread.  But it doesn't have a ton of flavor.  It's sort of just okay.

I really need to figure out some better recipes for this squash, because there are a lot of them on that plant.

I even took the trouble to clean off all the squash seeds and roast them with olive oil and salt in the oven. 

And, although I thought they were fine, the Moth wasn't not particularly taken with those either.

I think the lesson is - you can't just walk into a nursery and buy any old veggie plant, thinking it's going to taste fine.  If I'm going to devote the limited space to my garden to a huge squash plant, it better be an awesome squash.  Plus, I need better recipes.

2 comments:

  1. Live and learn, I guess. That squash looks like a decorative gourd intended for show not eating, imho. Perhaps your taste test verified this?

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    1. I have definitely learned a lesson. Next year, I would rather have two zucchini plants than one of those squashes. I don't know if it's a decorative gourd. hmmm. interesting thought. When I steam it up a lot it's completely edible (even the skin). And it has some flavor, but just very little. I'm still determined to come up with some recipe that will make some use of the remaining squashes. I will keep trying. I had my first tomato sandwich today from my own garden-grown tomatoes. awesome!!!!!

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