A Southwestern Squash Song

Believe it or not we are still harvesting things out of the garden; although we are almost to the end, which makes me happy and sad. I’m happy that we’ve had such an amazing harvest and sad because it’s over; well kind of. 

Last weekend Dan and I took a lovely trip down the Mississippi to Iowa. We stayed at two lovely B & B's -one in Dubuque and one in Muscatine. We did some hiking, a little site seeing, some shopping and ate breakfast at the same table Hillary had coffee at durning her campaign - it was a great get away. Dan was a bit under the weather during the trip; suffering from a cold, which he was kind enough to share with me - well actually not but it is what it is right? 

Now we are back home and dealing with the harvest. At last count we had 4 butternut squash, 15 acorn squash, tomatoes (red and green), kale, collards and a bit of swiss chard to contend with. Dan commented that we had enough squash so that we could have it once a week until the rest of the year. I had to correct him a bit because we'll actually get into Jan and beyond. I was planning to do something with them over the weekend, but the cold that Dan so kindly shared was in full force and I didn't have the energy to do anything but lay on the couch and binge watch Blue Bloods. 

If you’ve not seen it, Blue Bloods is your basic cop show, which normally I am not a huge fan of. What I like about this show is the characters and the relationships; actually the police work is almost incidental. And then there is Tom Selleck, who is the police commissioner - still nice to look at after all these years.

Before I got sick I baked a stuffed squash that was pretty darn good. Dan topped his with Brie cheese but I left mine plain; well plain in the sense that there is no cheese or dairy in it. We’ve also subsisted on soup while blowing our noses and hacking throughout the weekend; some squash, french onion (from Panera) and a spicy black bean - which we made when we started to feel better. But back to the stuffed squash. 

I started with a medium sized acorn squash, which I put in the microwave for one minute to soften a bit. Then I cut in half, cleaned and put in a 350 degree oven to bake. 

While the squash was baking, I chopped an onion (have you ever noticed that most of our recipes start with that) and sautéed it in a bit of olive oil. I added chopped celery, shredded carrots, chopped red, yellow and green peppers (all from the garden), some finely chopped kale, some fresh tomatoes, a little frozen corn, black beans, garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes.

When the squash was done, I mashed it a little and filled the cavity with the veggie and bean mixture and then Dan added his cheese and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes until it melted. And that was dinner - and a delicious dinner it was. 

Now that we are feeling better my challenge is what to do with all those green tomatoes? Dan suggested making a chutney that could accompany the curries he so likes to make and eat. I found a recipe, which I think I give a try. I'm planning to save enough for at least one more batch of fried green tomatoes and a green tomato pie. 

If you have any favorite green tomato recipes send them my way, and as always, thanks for stopping by.