Turkey Tracks: Sunday Night Dinner

Turkey Tracks:  December 18, 2017

Sunday Night Dinner

Some of you know that I grew some Blue Hubbard squashes this summer.

It was a riot.  The vines went EVERYWHERE.

Remember this picture from an earlier post?

I stored them in the garage until it go too cold.  Squashes don’t like cold. Then they came inside to wait to be cooked.  I think there is something that happens if you let the hearty winter squashes “sugar off” a bit.   Remember that Delicata’s, though, need to be eaten more quickly.  They don’t keep as well.

I really love the New England winter squashes.  I didn’t grow up with any of them because we lived in the south, for the most part, and these winter squashes really need a New England summer to develop their distinct flavors.  One of my favorites is this Blue Hubbard squash.  It’s delicious!!!  And a great keeper.  And you can get a lot of squash meat for the freezer from one of these BIG squashes if you halve them and roast them and scoop out the flesh and freeze it.  I love it mixed with cream, maple syrup, fall spices, and mixed with a blender until smooth.  A tiny bit of work gives you an asset to pull from your freezer–just thaw and mix in the other goodies.

Because of the summer drought, some of my squash did not get that big.  Were they still good I wondered?  And could I roast the flesh?  The answer, after last night’s Sunday dinner, is YES and YES!

I cut one of the small ones in half, seeded it, and cut it into slices for roasting–with garlic and fresh rosemary as Betsy Maislen and I did this past summer.

I cut off the rind and tossed the chunks in olive oil in a pan:

I come from the school that there is no such thing as too much garlic, as you can see above.  I grew this garlic and the rosemary.  I sprinkled rock sea salt over the mixture and cooked it at 350 for about 45 or so minutes.  Of course you could roast these with other ingredients.  Hmmmm.  Would they be food with maple syrup and cranberries?  Or with drizzles of orange and honey and basil preserved from your garden?

Before the first hard freeze, I cut all the rosemary and wrapped it in parchment paper and put it in one of the crisper bins in the refrigerator.  Now, almost two months later, it is still viable:

I had two chicken breasts.  Can I rant and say that chicken breasts today are SO BIG that they are obscene.  No way are ONE of these a proper serving for one person.  I layered broccoli and onion into the pan and used some Penzey’s herbs over everything.  I thought perhaps there was enough garlic already in this meal even for me.

This pan went into the oven alongside the squash.

I took out the veggies and let the meat “pop” for about 6 or 7 minutes with added temperature and the convection oven going.

The veggies look delicious and WERE.  I stored the extras for dinner tomorrow night and reserved these for tonight.

So, here’s my Sunday night dinner.  I added half of an organic Honey Crisp apple chunked up for dessert and a dessert cup of coffee and took everything downstairs to watch more of season 9 of PROJECT RUNWAY.  I seem to be hoarding the last two episodes of THE CROWN.