An Ode to Squash

It’s actually a haiku

I love zucchini,
Butternut and acorn
All squashes are good.

For dinner last night, we had a delicious squash casserole. I meant to take a picture of it before we ate it, but I forgot.

The weekend wasn’t great in terms of eating. Or exercise. Or doing anything besides melting. It was hot. I like summer, and I like hot. But my upper heat limit is really about 95, and since we don’t have air conditioning, it was nasty miserable. We couldn’t sleep upstairs Friday or Saturday night. We did end up going to a movie Sunday night. I don’t go often. (Although this was my 3rd movie in a theatre in the last 12 months! I deserve a medal or something! It’s just like when Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals. Same dedication & sacrifice & stuff.) We went to see The Dark Knight ’cause it was at the theatre with pizza & beer. I really enjoyed the movie, although it was really long. Heath Ledger was just as good as everyone’s been saying, and I still love Christian Bale.

I didn’t make it to the farmer’s market Saturday, so will have to put off my photo extravaganza. I did however get my groceries at New Seasons & our local organic delivery for the next two weeks, so I should be covered.

Last night was our first planned meal in a long time (the last couple of weeks have mostly been me opening the fridge and saying, “what can I do with this?”).

We had the aforementioned squash casserole & a spinach salad.

I meant to have the casserole made this afternoon so that when I got home from Bikram I could just pop it into the oven, but it took longer to clean up the disaster area that was my kitchen than I anticipated.

It didn’t take very long to put together, though. Especially since the architect helped with the prep work. He actually helps a lot with the prep, especially when I have a plan. Also, he almost always makes the salad, because he has a special salad gift. (He is also in charge of all coffee and rice making, because he is just better at those things than I am.)

The casserole

2 squash (I used a round yellow squash I got at the farmer’s market on Tuesday – can’t remember what it was called; not sunburst)
1.5 lbs of spicy chicken or turkey sausage, in the casings
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup of coarse bread crumbs
1 can cream of chicken soup
6 oz provolone cheese, diced
1/2 cup sour cream (I use tofutti fake sour cream)
salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Slice the squash into bite sized chunks. Microwave with 1 TB of water for 6-10 minutes (until fork tender). Drain well.

Remove sausage from casings. Brown sausage, onion & garlic in large saute pan, crumble to small pieces.

Mix sour cream, soup, cheese and 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs. Add drained squash. Mix in sausage mixture. Spray casserole dish with olive oil spray. Put mix in dish. Put the remaining breadcrumbs on top evenly, spray top with cooking spray. Cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before eating.

It was really good with a crisp green salad. The architect was quite enamored with it, and usually he doesn’t like squash.

I did not go swimming yesterday. So, as promised, you may all come pelt me with rotten tomatoes. I suck, I know!

In good news, our drive apron is all done! Soon, we will also have a driveway, and then we can be all fancy and park OFF the street.

Tonight, I have book group (which I am very excited about – I’ve never been in a book club before). Tomorrow I will have to come home & do my sit-ups & push-ups & other such things, because Thursday night, I’m back at Bikram.

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