The Hunter Family's 1st Annual Squash Kabosh



Some of you who know me may have discovered that I am a little bit more than passionate about squash .  I love to explore all varieties that I could plant in my garden someday.  This year we had intended to participate in a farmer's market when we first started planning our garden.  With all that came to pass this summer we soon realized it was not an ideal situation to be hopping on over to the market at dawn every Saturday with all the kids, so we put those plans on hold, hoping to someday participate in a market of that sort.  However, with all the produce from our garden and an ever burning desire to share with the world my fondness of squash, I have decided to have my own little farmer's market in my yard.  I plan to still reserve some squash for my own family of course, but hope to sell a lot of what we have grown. 

SQUASH KABOSH

Sidewalk Sale

This Saturday ONLY!!!

October 2, Noon-2pm

Come taste the natural goodness of homegrown squash.

Summer varieties:

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Patty Pan

Winter varieties:

Acorn

Delicata

Spaghetti

Butternut

Hunter Residence

Cash or Check only please!!!

Curry Scented Butternut Squash Soup

This one is also courtesry of my sister-in law!  Thanks again!

1 butternut squash, 2 1/2 lbs (6 cups cups cubed)


2 large, sweet apples such a Fuji or Honeycrisp

3 medium onions

2 Tbsp. butter

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 container (8oz) mascarpone cheese

2 tsp salt

sour cream and snipped fresh chives (optional)



1-Peel squash and apples; cut into 1-in cubes and dice onions.



2-Melt butter in 8 quart stock pot over medium-low heat. Add onions. Cook 5-6 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add squash, apples, brown sugar and curry powder. cook and stir 1 minute or until curry powder is fragrant. Add stock and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer 24-26 minutes or until squash is very soft. Remove from heat.



3-Carefully ladle about one-third of the squash mixture into blender container. Cover and blend until smooth. Pour blended soup into a mixing bowl. Repeat two times with remaining squash mixture.



4-Return soup to stockpot and whisk in mascarpone and salt until mascarpone is completely incorporated using whisk. Return to a simmer over medium heat and remove from heat. Garnish each serving with sour cream and chives if desired.



Yield: 8 servings (12 cups)



Nutrients per serving (1 1/2 cups): Calories 310, Total Fat 16g, Saturated Fat 9g, Cholesterol 45mg, Carbs 39g, Protein 8g, Sodium 950mg, Fiber 5g

Quick and Creamy Mac n Cheese

This one is courtesy of my sister-in-law, containing BUTTERNUT squash, yum!  I will have to post a picture after I make it!

This recipe is only supposed to take about 20 minutes to make, so woohoo!


16 ounces uncooked medium shell pasta

1 pkg (12 ounces) frozen butternut squash, thawed

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

2 cups shredded six-cheese Italian cheese blend

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt



1-For pasta, bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. Carefully remove 1/4 cup of the cooking water for later use. Drain pasta and set aside.


2-For sauce, place squash into a saucepan, gradually add milk, whisking constantly. Cook over medium-high heat 3-4 minutes or until mixture begins to simmer. Reduce heat to medium. Add cheese. Cook 3-4 minutes or until cheese is melted and mixture returns to a simmer, whisking constantly. Add nutmeg, salt and reserved cooking water. Stir until smooth. Add sauce to pasta. Mix to coat

3-To serve, divide pasta among serving bowls and sprinkle with additional ground nutmeg if desired.

Delicious Dinners

Every evening I ponder how to differently use the squash from our garden for preparing dinner.  We have so much, why not use it rather than spending money on vegetables from the supermarket?  We are almost sick of it (sarcastically spoken).  Many times I use it as a meat substitute in recipes I am already familiar with.  This is okay to do if you balance your diet to get the iron and protein you need from other sources.  My husband has always been an avid lover of meat, and generally would not be pleased to find out there was no meat in dinner when I first began implementing a less carnivorous approach to meal preparation.  However, he has always supported me and complimented the chef on her efforts anyhow.  Last week he was in charge of dinner, and this is what he came up with as a main dig, with a side of pasta salad.  It is full of fresh herbs, including stevia, sage, and lemon balm, giving it a very sweet bite that I wasn't expecting!  Good job Honey!  How would you vary your dinners if you had to use the same ingredient every evening?

Watermelon

How does one know when a watermelon is ripe?  This is a rather large watermelon that my husband decided to pick before consulting with anyone...i.e. ME.  I am not sure that I KNOW how to tell when a watermelon is ready to pick, but I am pretty certain that they are ready when the stem is woody or cracking, not green, similar to winter squash.  Upon cutting into our homegrown beauty, we soon discovered that the mostly beige colored flesh was not sweet at all, but that it tasted like the whole thing was the flavor of the rind.  What a very disappointing experience this was for us.  Luckily, we do have another watermelon still on the vine that I do not intend to let anyone pick until I SAY it is ready!  If anyone out there reading this has a more confident opinion of when to pick a watermelon, please post your comments, as I do not wish to be disappointed a second time! 

Botanical Boy

I was shouting across the street to my 3 year old today to come home and get his shoes on.  He always sneaks out with no shoes, and I guess it doesn't phase him even though we have a harsh desert ground with rocks and stickery weeds.  He was trying to tell me that he found something, so I asked him what it was.  "It's a squash plant Mommy."  I was skeptical of his conclusion since he was standing in tall dried brush in our dry desert.  I crossed the street to see what he had found, and sure enough, right up against someone's fence a pumpkin plant had two vines extending beyond the perimeter of their garden under the fence where he could see them.  It had a few female flowers in bloom, the premature fruit bulging at the base, and that is how I could tell it was pumpkin.  I was so proud of my boy for identifying correctly a plant that didn't even have an obvious ripened fruit on it.  Most people don't recognize differences in garden vegetable plants unless there happens to be a label on it.  But my boy knew from experience that this was a squash plant.  I am a proud mommy!

Caterpillars and Moths

White Lined Sphinx Moth

As I arrived home with the children, one ran into the bathroom and exclaimed that a grasshopper was in the house!  Upon further examination, it was really just a moth, but a fairly large one.  We captured it in a jar and decided we wanted to know which type of caterpillar it had been.  As we googled large moths on the internet we came across a website listing moths and their larvae.  Our moth was identified as a white lined sphinx moth, and it's larvae, dreaded by many gardeners, as the tomato horn worm!  Does this mean I have more caterpillars on my tomato vines?  It looks like I have more work to do!

Tomato Horn Worm

Even the chickens were afraid to eat this monster of a worm I found a few weeks ago.