Accepting Your Outer Squash

I have a half-baked confession. Squash has always frightened me. Not eating it. I always love that. But cooking it. Something about those large, hard, warted, motley husks with indeterminable squishiness inside makes me feel like nature's forcing me to cook a bowling ball full of brains, and get it just right.

Yet, regardless of my trepidation, squash season always comes. As fall settles in, massive bulbous misshapen spheroids start appearing in the markets, and I again whisper quietly to myself - what exactly am I supposed to do with THAT?

But this year is different, for I have been squashed by the light. And it's beaming upon me from SquashRecipes.net. As this attractive site points out, there are many kinds of squash. Or squashae. The squash family (in which I think I grew up) includes spaghetti, butternut, acorn, patty-pan, and Hubbard, as well as various zucchinis. It can be used in appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes, desserts, and baking, and it works well in curries, souffles, pasta, rice, and couscous dishes. Squash can be sauteed, oven roasted, grilled, and served on its own, but it's tastiest when incorporated with herbs, spices, and select complimentary ingredients.

There's a squashing load of great recipes at SquashRecipes.net, so before you go to the store this fall, I suggest checking them out. And hopefully, by then they will have posted a response to my request for a tasty way to serve a bowling ball full of brains.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.