👨‍🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨‍🍳

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You know this one; it often sports a long neck and a bulbous bottom, the result of tinkering with crookneck squash breeding, selecting for a more compact size, a straight neck, and a stackable shape with a nod to the marketplace: butternut squash is another extremely popular and rather ubiquitous item at the supermarket. Because of its smooth skin, it’s easy to peel and since the seeds are concentrated in the lower section, it lends itself to applications where chunks or planks of squash are called for.

Since my quest was for diminutive squashes, I admit that it was a bit of an outlier, but it was the smallest one of its ilk that I could find (and probably why its shape was less than classic).

Were you waiting for this? (I was.)

Like many winter squash, butternut squash is exceedingly versatile and often subs for pumpkin in recipes like this one. Now, I make a mean pumpkin pie IIDSSM and every year my family and certain special friends enjoy sampling my wares; this year, of course, was an exception because of the pandemic. But since I had a butternut squash on hand and no one would be subjected to my experiment, I decided to see what would happen if I followed my time-honored pumpkin pie recipe verbatim, but with butternut squash subbing in for the pumpkin. Happily, the experiment was a success – but between you and me, I like pumpkin better. (Didn’t stop me from eating this though!)

Next up, brulee squash.
 
(For those who are just joining us, the saga begins here.)
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️