Sunday, July 19, 2009

Squash Dressing




One of our sweet customers at the farmer's market mentioned that she had a great squash recipe. I asked her to bring it with her the next time she came to the market, but no, she drove all the way home and came back with a photocopy! She was right, it was very yummy! How can you go wrong when something has a pound of breakfast sausage in it?

Squash Dressing

8 medium yellow squash, chopped fine and cooked
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper
1 can mushroom soup
1 jar pimentos, chopped
1/2 pound of Velveeta cheese, cubed
1/4 cup melted butter
1 pound browned breakfast sausage
1 package Mexican cornbread mix
chopped jalapenos (to taste) if desired

Bake cornbread according to directions, then cool and crumble. Cook down the onion and bell pepper in the butter. Either boil your squash separately or add to the onion and pepper mix with a little water and boil down until it's mush. Add everything else, mix well, and put in a large casserole dish. Bake @ 350' for 30 minutes.

Watermelon is $150 too late




With such plentiful veggies, I only made a shopping trip every 2 weeks or so last month. My husband would stop occasionally for some steaks, milk, cheese, etc. but that's about it.


I'm not usually a "sweets" kind of person. I'll take some french onion dip and chips over pies, cake, or ice cream any day. Well, after eating mostly okra, squash, potatoes, cornbread, tomatoes, blueberries, etc. for a month, my our appetite for junk food took over.


I must have looked like the worst mother in history. The conveyor belt was full of $150 worth of gummy bears, chips, makings for ice cream sundaes, brownie mix, sugar for baking, cherry pie filling, chocolate chips etc. My check-out lady even commented, "Yo sure do have some kina sweet tooth!" I replied that I now understand those old movies and books where kids freaked out over receiving only a tin of candies for Christmas or their birthday. I always thought my mother was crazy for putting an orange and apple in our stockings at Christmas. I can see where the tradition originated from...kids who had eaten squash all summer long must have thought an orange was divine! She has also told me childhood stories of my grandparents' generation, when kids would steal satsumas and walked miles just to go cut down a stalk of sugarcane. Those 2 weeks of eating almost only homegrown food put things in perspective!




Which brings me to the melons. Our watermelons are just now ripe. We planted a HUGE variety. It took them forever to ripen. The wait was well worth it. We cut open the first watermelon this evening. It was delicious! I think they still have some more growing potential. The red flesh was really sweet, but unlike store-bought watermelons, the white of the rind was soft and sweet too! The cantaloupes are ready as well. If we had planted little icebox melons that have a shorter growing time, then maybe I could have saved myself that trip to the store for sweets! Next year, I should keep a million jars of figs and blueberry jam on hand for emergencies such as that!


What do you think? Does anyone else with a farm get the occasional junk food munchies?