Baked Squash Casserole, food from my garden

Come, join us for dinner.

Squash casserole is one of my favorite comfort food dishes.
When I was a teenager, my Mother and I would go to a restaurant called “The Black-eyed Pea” and order veggie plates. Plates full of broccoli rice casserole, fried okra, cheese-y broccoli soup and the most amazing squash casserole.
It was one of our favorite dinner spots, and one of my favorite teenaged memory clusters.
Once I was all-growed up (yes, I said growed up) I began trying to replicate the squash casserole.
Years and years ago I found a copy-kat recipe that I have altered until I was happy with it.

Baked Squash Casserole

• 5 -6 medium size Yellow Squash
• 1 cup Bread Crumbs plus additional 1-2 tablespoons for topping
• 1 stick Butter or margarine (melted) *I use light butter, and I usually use less than a whole stick*
• 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Onion (chopped)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1 teaspoon of Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon of Salt
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon

Cut the ends off squash and cut each squash into 4 or more pieces.

Place the squash into a pot of boiling water, use enough water to cover the squash. Reduce heat and cook until tender. I cooked my squash fir about 12 minutes. Drain and mash.

While the squash is cooking, mix the beaten eggs, 1-cup breadcrumbs, melted butter, sugar, salt, onion, tarragon and pepper together in a bowl.

Combine the mashed squash with the crumb mixture.

Place the mixture into a casserole dish that has been lightly sprayed with a non-stick baking spray.

Sprinkle the top with the 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
I used the broiler at 500 deg. For the last 5 minutes to give the top a nice crust.

I have Phun with iPhone Photos!

Food from my Garden

This is the 2nd bunch of squash I’ve gathered.

Meet Quasi-mato.

He’s a happy little tomato with a hump. Quasi-mato is hanging out on my window sill in hope that his hump will ripen.

Later this week I’ll have a squash casserole recipe for you. It’s vegetarian friendly, but not a vegan recipe.

Pumpkin Chips? This week in Fail……

Yes, I said pumpkin chips.

Crisp and chewy….strange

And I said FAIL.

I’m down to two pumpkins left.  Can you believe it?  I decided to try something different with this pumpkin.

After an evening of dinner failure, that resulted in a dinner out.  Okay, that deserves more of an explanation.  I planned to make a beef dish, I opened the beef package and it smelled wrong to me.  My husband could not tell if it was bad or just me so we tossed it.  Dinner out.  At dinner I started coughing and sneezing, so I’m pretty sure the meat was okay, my sense of smell is always off when I am sick or pregnant (and there is no possible way I am pregnant) so I must be getting sick

When we got home, I wanted to tackle one of the pumpkins, but I did not want to roast it. Thus the idea of pumpkin chips was born.

Pumpkin Chips

I cut, seeded and skinned part of a pumpkin.  I used my *mandoline to slice the pumpkin into thin chip-ish slices.

                   

*a few moments for mandoline safety…… BE CAREFUL.  Use the slicing guide.  If you are not Uber careful, you will be slicing your self up instead of your food.

Back to pumpkin chips…..

We, my super cute helper (daughter) and I,  placed the slices in the dehydrator.

The pumpkin chips dehydrated overnight (12 hours) and this morning they look like this

They are certainly dried, they are sort of crisp, sort of chewy.  I don’t think pumpkin chips really work.

It was an interesting experiment, but a FAIL.

Monday Allie and I will be hosting another slow cooker recipe link-up.  I would like to encourage you to participate (if you have a slow cooker), try out a new recipe this weekend….take a few pictures, post them on Monday and link-up with us. Or link-up a previously posted slow cooker recipe.

Let’s show everyone what wonderful things we can create with our slow cookers!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I am off to take more vitamin C and rest, maybe if I baby myself today I’ll feel okay this weekend.

Good Morning Pie

There's nothing wrong with pie for breakfast........

Of course, I made pumpkin pie with one of the Halloween pumpkins I’m not a robot.

Okay, I dressed up as a robot wife for Halloween, but I’m fairly sure I am not a Stepford wife.

I guess I’d be the last one to know though huh?

Yes, it’s true, I’m eating pie for breakfast. There are eggs in it so Hush!

Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite pies.

Things about me and pumpkin pie……

• I always make at least 2 pies.

• I use an adaption of the recipe on Very Best Baking. Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie.

Sometimes I use freshly baked pumpkin, other times I use canned, organic pumpkin.

Here’s the ingredient list for pumpkin pie. To see the rest of the recipe, click here.

Ingredient List:

• • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin I used fresh pumpkin.
  • 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
  • 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

How do you make your pumpkin pie?

What is your favorite pie?

Kabocha squash- an unusual suspect

Yesterday I showed you my lovely squash.  Don’t get cheeky, I’m talking about these squash.

Can Texans say cheeky and get away with it?  Here’s hoping the answer is yes!

I oven roasted the kabocha squash,

which I keep mispronouncing as kobayashi…

making me think of Mr. Kobayashi,

making me think of  The Usual Suspects,

which makes me smile…

which is why I keep mispronouncing the name.

I’m funny that way.

Anyhoooo….

Back to the kabocha squash.  My sweet bloggy friend Allie sent me a link to Tiny Urban Kitchen who had a post on roasted kabocha squash.

I followed the recipe except…no truffle oil, I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and I added pumpkin pie spice to the seasoning list.

Why did I add pumpkin pie spice?

Well,

1. I adore pumpkin pie spice, I use it as often as I can.
2. The squash looks like a green pumpkin, once you cut it open it smells sweet, sort of fruity, sort of nutty, a little like a pumpkin-ey cantaloupe.
3. And last reason, just because I can. 

Before

After

Here’s what you would need to roast a kabocha squash.

Oven Roasted Kabocha Squash
1 kabocha squash
1/4 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
2 T vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
truffle oil (optional)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Grab your ingredients and head on over to Tiny Urban Kitchen.

The baked squash has a velvety, buttery texture.  The skin is totally edible.  It is very tasty.  I will buy a kabocha squash again.  My daughter says it tastes like dessert.  That’s fine by me.  Dessert it is.

My three squashes and the end of summer

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Here in the United States and Canada, today is a holiday.  It’s Labor Day.

If you’re not from the United States or Canada, here’s a little info on the holiday. This info is via Wikipedia and Answers.com

Labor Day.

The first Monday in September, observed as a holiday in the United States and Canada in honor of working people.

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.

In high society, Labor Day is (or was) considered the last day of the year when it is fashionable for women to wear white.

I’m not sure if September will mark an end to the dog days of summer, but it’s supposed to be the end of summer.

 

  That also means, the end or near the end of summer squash, so Friday when I went to the Farmer’s Market I picked up a few varieties of squash.

 

The yellow/green squash are over sized 8-ball squash I think. Think zucchini squash.

The green pumpkin shaped squash is Kabocha squash.  Allie at Forgotten Beast  blogged about this squash last week.  It is a winter squash, not a summer squash.

The white squash are Pattypan squash. Funny little things aren’t they?

Here is a cool resource page for squash.

 

I hope you have a wonderful day!  I’m off to swim and enjoy the holiday!

Kids ~VS~ Veggies…

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had a very nice weekend. School starts today. This is bittersweet. While I am glad to have a little time to myself to chill out, shop or clean…I will miss them. A lot. Since I’ve got kiddo on the brain, I have a kid-centric post for you today.

Do you have picky people to feed? Do you struggle to get your family to eat veggies? I do.

When my son was 5 or 6 he was so averse to eating any green vegetable he would gag, choke, and flail. He told me all green things were evil.

Fun times at dinner.

Ah. Fun times.

He’s 13 now, and while he usually no longer flails he still is not fond of many veggies. A recent gagging episode with rainbow chard reminded me of the not so good old days.

Despite the picture below, Veggies are NOT evil.

Well, except for Brussel-Sprouts. They are pure evil. Little green balls of evil.

Here are a few things I have done to get my kids to try new veggies…….

• Try to get the kids involved in the veggie choices. I have found that kids are more likely to eat something if they helped pick it out.
• Have the kids help in the cooking process. Just like allowing them to help pick the veggies, allowing them to help in the cooking process will sometimes make them more willing to eat the veggies.
• Introduce the veggies in an unexpected way. The first time my kids tried black-eyed peas was in Texas Caviar. They still are not super fond of eating black-eyed peas unless they are in Texas Caviar, but they will give it a try now. They frequently ask for Texas Caviar and will gobble it up any time I make it.
• Offer a few options, ask them to try a little of each. We have found that they are more open-minded about trying new things when there is a veggie they like on the table too.

A few things that you probably NEVER want to do…….

• Never force your child to eat an entire serving of a veggie that they do not like. It’s frustrating for you both and I have found that they are less open about new veggies if you force one on them.
• Never use a veggie as a punishment threat. Okay, this sounds funny, but I did this.

Picture this, I’m at the grocery store with two wild-things. They are running amuck. I (in the past) have been guilty of picking up a can of beets and telling them if they do not behave the beets are coming home with us. To be a main dinner feature. Yep, I did that. More than once. *sigh* So, it’s no surprise that it has been hard to get my kids to eat beets. You know, because I made them seem like a punishment.

So, don’t make veggies a punishment. Learn from my mistakes. Ha!

How do you get your kids to eat veggies?

Garden Gab Week 20…Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

The weather here is HOT, that’s not a shocker or a secret.

Today is the 35th day in a row that the temperature is expected to hit 100 deg F or higher.  Today is expected to be 107 deg F.   In fact my entire 7 day outlook is 100 deg F or higher.  Meh.

The heat is a melt-y kind of heat, it’s not easy to be outside for very long.

My sister-in-love and her sons baked cookies and melted crayons in their car.  Fun right? They used the windshield to magnify the sun.  They also tried frying an egg on the sidewalk.

The yards are really suffering.  Most of the yards in my neighborhood are partly crispy and dying , we  just can not keep them watered well enough to help them survive.   The ground is cracking, my fence posts are wobbly (which is quite distressing), my yard is green only in stripes.  I am focusing my watering efforts around my home’s foundation, my driveway, and of course my garden areas.

It’s crazy.

My neighbor’s driveway cracked in half!  I kid you not!

Picture proof!

Oh noes! Cracked driveway...not cool.

Isn’t that shocking?  I can tell you,  it’s been a topic on much conversation in my neighborhood.  Many people have begun to water not only their foundations, but now…also their driveways.  I was already watering my driveway (whew!), but I have stepped it up.

Shocking!

You know what else is a shocker, the funky bell peppers have turned lovely shades of yellow and red.

Guess what folks, they’re hot!

Like supa-dupa spicy hot,  like oh heck “where’s my drink?!” hot.  Hot. 

My neighbors, family and friends who like hot peppers are in luck this summer…I’m going to be spreading these hot beauties around.  I canned the first batch and gave them to my neighbor over the weekend.

Hello hot stuff....

The okra is still loving the heat.  Here are a few pictures of the okra flowers, they’re so pretty.

     

My royal purple beans are starting to bloom…YAY!

         

My late season squash seedlings are doing very well.  They are surviving the heat much better than I expected.

    

Strawberrytopia is still in expansion mode, the heat is really not halting their progress.

The mint is still holding it’s own.

I forgot to take a picture of the carrots, but they are still doing well.  They’re still small, but they’re hanging on.

How is your garden doing?

See you Monday!

Farmer’s Market, jam and dried herbs

Monday,  I was a busy girl. It’s true. The 107F degree heat, a yucky sinus headache and the threat of rolling blackouts did not faze me (much).

My daughter and I went to the Farmer’s Market. Here is what we bought.

We bought

• leeks
• corn
• onions
• peaches
• 8-ball squash
• garlic
• avocados
• zucchini and yellow squash
• spinach
• cucumbers
• green tomatoes
• grape tomatoes
• big, juicy red tomatoes
• 3 pints of blackberries

We also stopped at Sunflower (a grocery market) and picked up

• 1 bag of rainbow chard
• 2 bunches of cilantro
• 2 bunches of kale
• buttermilk
• half and half
• heavy cream

I spent a little more than $40 between the Farmer’s market and the Sunflower market.

When we got home, I knew that I wanted to make jam with the blackberries and I knew that I wanted to try using my dehydrator to dry the cilantro.

Making jam (adapted from a Ball Blue Book recipe)

I made blackberry lemon jam.

• 4 1/2 cups of fresh (washed and cleaned) blackberries
• 5 cups of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of grated lemon peel
• 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
• 6 Tablespoons of Ball classic pectin

Place berries in a pan large enough to accommodate the ingredients. Crush berries. Mix sugar and pectin together. Add the sugar mixture to the berries. Mix well. Add the lemon peel and lemon juice. Mix well. Add the pumpkin pie spice. Mix well.

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard (rolling boil) for 1 minute.

Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch head-space.

Place lids on, process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Cool, check the lids for proper seal, and store in a cool place. Can store for up to 1 year.

Now, on to the food dehydrator.

We washed the cilantro, dried it and pulled it off of the stems.

My super cute helper placed the cilantro on the drying racks.

Into the food dehydrator they went, 2 hours later they were crispy and crumbly.  My owner’s manual said it (any general herb) would take 8-10 hours, but these were totally dry and crumbly after 2 hours.

My conclusion: This was cheaper than buying the freeze-dried ones I usually buy (.49 cents for fresh vs. $3.99 for freeze dried), but I’m not sure it is worth the hassle.

How was your Monday? What do you have planned for your week?

 

Garden Gab week 19 ~ Food for my family

I’ve been negative lately about the heat. I need to work on that. Gardening makes me happy. It provides food for my family and friends. It relieves stress, and it’s my “thing”.

I’m 19 weeks in to gardening this season. 19 weeks seems like a lot, but in gardening it’s very little time.

My carrots are still growing, but they are carrot-ey and taste pretty darn good. They’re just not very big yet.

My okra is growing so well. Really, really well. I clipped these pieces of okra on Thursday.

I gifted it to my sweet neighbor Becky.

I got a cute little onion from my garden! It’s not really little, but it sure is cute. I added it to the fresh salsa I made on Thursday.

Here are my garden pictures.

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I won’t have any posts over the weekend. I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of great food and wonderful fun. See you Monday.

Please leave me a comment and let me know how your garden is doing this week.