Butternut, Hubbard and Me

My good friend Kitty knows me so well.  She recognizes that winter squash ranks right up there as one of my favorite foods.  I could -- and have -- made an entire meal of winter squash.  No butter, no brown sugar, no garnish of any kind, just plain winter squash.  So, when she emailed me to invite me to pick up some winter squash from her, I was elated.  It wasn't until I arrived at her house, however, that I realized she had already gone through all of the effort to cook Butternut and Hubbard squash and had frozen small sealed plastic packets of the orange goodness for me, 18 bags in all.  Within a day or two, we had eaten three of the squash bags.  Try as I may to stretch out this generous gift from Kitty, I fear that I'll inhale a bag every day until it's sadly gone.  So, I have to use some restraint. A little bit of self-control on my part will make that mouthwatering gift from Kitty last longer, each spoonful a true blessing.

Orange Tint

If my skin has an orange tint to it these days, it's because I've been dining on organic, pureed winter squash - every night.  My husband Larry eats just about anything.  He'll gobble down beets, munch on spinach, make an entire dinner out of Brussels sprouts, but offer him squash and he'll politely, but firmly, decline.  So, while Larry's work took him away for a few evenings recently, I made up for lost time by eating pureed winter squash every night for dinner.  You'd think I'd be tired of it after so many consecutive meals, but the gentle, sweet taste still appeals to me.  I added other vegetables to the squash some evenings, some whole wheat pasta to it other evenings, even some walnuts and pecans. No matter how I prepared it, the squash was a delicacy to me.  So, if my rosy glow looks a little Halloweenish these days, you'll know why.