More About Squash

It has come to my attention that the recipe for the pumpkin-cranberry cupcakes that I posted yesterday may seem at first blush to be complicated; mainly because of the prepared winter squash–a step that turns the recipe into something one might feel they couldn’t prepare without making special arrangements beforehand. “Why am I going to go through the trouble to roast and mash pumpkins?” is, perhaps, a somewhat common reaction. Or, “What, like I’m just going to have that on hand?”

Neither question is, to my sensibilities, reasonable. The answer to the former is, “for the same reason you ought to go to the trouble to make your own applesauce, because the stuff that comes out of a can sucks!” (a line perhaps best delivered while wearing a curly, red-haired wig); and to the latter, “Well, why not? It’s easy to do in bulk, it freezes well, and once you have it there’s so much you can do with it: muffins or cupcakes, pies, ice cream, custard, cookies, soup, souffles, fritters….” Squash is extremely versatile, tastes good, and is high in both potassium and vitamin A. If you don’t like peeling it first, you don’t necessarily have to. And here’s another way to cook it down.

If you spend one day cutting and cooking down a large amount of squash, you can reward yourself with pumpkin-based treats the whole year: there’s no better reason than that.

3 Responses to “More About Squash”

  1. Cooking Recipes » Blog Archive » More About Squash Says:

    [...] Corduroy Orange wrote an interesting post today on More About SquashHere’s a quick excerptMore About Squash November 10th, 2007 It has come to my attention that the recipe for the pumpkin-cranberry cupcakes that I posted yesterday may seem at first blush to be complicated; mainly because of the prepared winter squash–a step that turns the recipe into something one might feel they couldn’t prepare without making special arrangements beforehand. “Why am I going to go through the trouble to roast and mash pumpkins?” is, perhaps, a somewhat common reaction. Or, “What, like I’m just go [...]

  2. Zil Says:

    I’m too lazy to cut up a pumpkin first. I just bake my sugar punkin at 350 on a foil-lined cookie sheet for 90 minutes and voila! soft pumpkin flesh ready for the Cuisinart.
    I was totally inspired by your cupcake recipe, BTW. Can’t wait to try them.

  3. Martha Says:

    OK, for once I don’t feel like a food slacker reading your blog. I had pounds and pounds (seriously, like 50 or so) of winter squash from my CSA this year (the last 15 lbs are sitting on the counter still waiting for attention). All I did was wash, cut, gut and roast all of the different kinds, run them through the food mill and freeze them in usable portions (I even put it in bags and froze it flat for easy storage and rapid defrosting). So now I have butternut, pumpkin, hubbard and some sort of sweet winter squash the farmer didn’t know what it was(”I just saved the seeds over from last year. Try it though, it’s really good”) just waiting for use in my freezer. Pumpkin pancakes for Sunday Supper? done. My contribution to Thanksgiving at the in-laws? partly done. Weeknight winter veggie? done. I’m so proud.

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