whew!

Did I make it? Can I squeeze in one last post to make it a grand total of 7 for the year?

Do I even have any time to talk about making a soufflé? Probably not, so I guess it doesn't matter if it had foraged chanterelles and a touch of bacon. Or that it was a month back and I'm just getting around to it now. Damn. I've been a bad blogger this year. Not that I'm gonna give you a new year's resolution to do more or anything (shit, with 7 posts it won't be hard to beat!), but whatever, I've got a feeling I'll pull it together someday and get back to more regularity. Anyway, I'll be starting a new full-time job come tuesday, so, some things are gonna change.....

Like from now on, I'm gonna stop putting hops in my beer and start putting roasted winter squash. You see, last year I had a brew at a place in portland that made me think a bit differently about pumpkin beer. Think golden and crisp and dry, not syrupy and spiced and you are on to my thinking here. This beer has stopped fermenting and is just waiting for some bottling to see what it turns into. My hopes are high, despite how weird it might look to some of you seeing so much delicata squash being dumped into a boiling kettle of beer. Guess I'll have to give a report in the new year.

Happy happy trip around the sun my friends!
D

WTF?

So there I was at the Tuesday market saying hi to Carl.
Whoa, WTF? That is one crazy squash!
"Yeah, everyone says that but no one is gonna buy it."
Serious?
"Yep."

An hour and a half later*, I'm finally leaving. I hear Carl say "hey, you have your car today?"
Yeah.
"Then either you're taking apples or that damn squash!"
I struggled back with two grocery sacks and at least a fifteen pound marina di chioggia, all while leaving a hand free for my three-year old to hold.

I had good intentions on making some gnocchi. Then halloween hit and I found myself looking at this cucurbita and thinking it looked like some big rumply brain. Dude, brain-o-lantern!

It was a bit tough for carving. The skin wasn't so bad to get through, but the flesh was hella-thick! I sawed away at it, then cut some from the inside too, and still needed to hack some more. I managed though, and I think it turned out pretty good. The kids liked it, saying something like "daddy's pumpkin is silly!"


Yep, silly indeed. But when else am I gonna have such a crazy squash at my disposal? Besides, tomorrow, if the slugs didn't get it in the night, I just might go "recover" some of the flesh from one of the thickest spots and look up a gnocchi recipe.

Because hey, like WTF?



* I've been known to linger at the market for hours, but today I was actually working on something.