Squishy squashy...

Because I eat mostly organic veges, my fresh vege bin is always seasonal (see frozen brocolli confession later). I don't like cold weather because **I'm solar powered** but I DO like it when the winter veges make their debut. I am slavishly devoted to the combination of leeks and winter squash. There's just something about them that is so full of flavour and colour, not to mention sheer vitaminy goodness.

I just bought my first winter squash, got it home and then remembered that I'd better dig out my most vicious cooking utensil.. a sharp axe that lives in the garage. I think this years crop is especially resilient. Attempt #1 and #2

The axe just bounced off! This is a big, heavy axe and I'm not unskilled with it... I've chopped my share of firewood in the days before open fires became illegal in NZ.

The third attempt didn't go so well either....

On the next attempt 'I' (and by 'I', I mean, not me personally, but me with 'assistance'.. ahem) got in chopped in half and that's how it went into the oven. Never, never try to cut up a squash while it's raw. You will just herniate something. After 15 minutes baking the skins are soft and pliable and the squash is yours to do with as you wish.

One thing about the squash, and other pumpkins, that a lot of people don't realise is that they are stupidly low in calories, being over 85% water. This is a very physique friendly food that just seems luxurious and decadent. Of course you also get to burn off all of those calories just trying to get into it!

With my devotion to organic veges I do have an archilles heel. I just don't do organic broccoli anymore. I hit my limit one day when I'd spent 30 minutes getting indecently intimate with each floret in order to seek and evict any resident aphids or caterpillars. I looked at my sad pile of ready to eat florets from my $4.99 organically certified brocolli flower and decided that from now on I would compromise my principles for the sake of my sanity. Now I buy frozen.


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The choc/berry/eggwhite pots turned out pretty good, except that they separated out so the the jelly was on the bottom but all the eggwhites and xylitol were on the top. It was ... interesting. Needs work.