Squash Happens

A silence has all but fallen over the blog. I went over a month without posting, not because I had nothing to say, but because I had other things to do. But, I have been aching to post this particular blog for weeks. I had it mostly written back a month ago. Over the course of the last several weeks I had been bombarded with sweet and savory images of, and relating to, all things squash.

Squash isn’t something I would have normally consumed three and a half years ago. It’s funny what you resign yourself to eating (and OMG, falling in love with!) when you’re smack in the middle of a foreign country, where the aromatics aren’t AT ALL what you’re used to. I was, to put it bluntly, a meat and potatoes kinda girl.

Of course I love me some pumpkin pie anytime from mid September through Valentine’s Day, and hey, pumpkin IS a squash. But all those other ones: butternut, acorn, spaghetti, etc. All those were passed over at the grocery store. Until Korea.

One of Jason and my favorite places to eat in our neighborhood in Seoul was a place that served Samgyeopsal (read about one of our nights out here). The meal came with thinly sliced acorn squash that, after some convincing by Jason, I tasted and LOVED.

And flash forward to NOW. I’m no longer passing up those crazy looking squash. In fact, on the Friday after a very hectic day of Tucker’s recovering from his 2-month round of immunizations, I bought three different kinds of squash.

The Squashortment

Here’s the thing: I’ve made spaghetti squash a handful of times. I’ve experimented with it and found a nice and easy method for roasting and prepping. Jason is usually in charge of roasting our acorn squash. He does them up nice with some dollops of butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar.

After reading this blog, I made it my mission to get us a butternut squash. I’ve NEVER had one before, in any form. I have made “pumpkin” pie and “pumpkin” cookies out of acorn squash in Korea. I was bold. I was brave and daring. But I’ve been an utter chicken when it came to butternut squash. I don’t know why.

So, for my first foray into the world of butternut squash, I contemplated this recipe. But, in the end, I went a safer route (ie something I could do with as few steps as possible).

Here is the result:

I added about a 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree to the meatloaf (equal parts ground beef, turkey, and pork + Lipton’s onion soup mix + pumpkin + refried beans (randomly) and I couldn’t really taste the pumpkin at all) and roasted up that butternut squash along with some sweet potatoes. Paired with a salad (topped with ginger dressing and crumbled feta) and a nice [root]beer.

Eventually, we used the acorn squash as well. Jason cut them in half and we roasted them up with a bit of butter and brown sugar when Susan was visiting.

The spaghetti squash is still waiting to be used. Thank goodness for the long shelf-life of a squash.

Thanks to Jenn for this weeks WIAW!