The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Fish and Squash

Bill and the kids went crabbing and fishing yesterday while I was at work and while the crabbing was a flop, the fishing was most definitely not.  They came home with a whole mess (technical term – “whole mess”) of good-sized skipjacks.  They’d only brought two poles, because at first Julia wasn’t interested, but once the fish started biting, she was in.  And two poles was plenty, because at one point they were bringing a fish in with every cast. 

Bill and Alex filleted all the fish, and then Bill skinned all the fillets.  He also made a stock with spines and tails.  We ended up with 2 lbs, 10 oz fish, which is pretty cool.  We froze the 2 pounds in ziploc bags (1 lb ea) along with some of the stock.

I breaded and fried the remaining 10 ounces, which we had as part of our dinner.

Speaking of freezing things, I kind of went nuts for a few weeks, cooking in bulk and freezing future meals, or portions of meals.  As a result of that insanity plus fishing, clamming, crabbing, and Bill’s eight thousand veggie burgers, our freezers are rather packed and we need to start eating some of the stuff before we freeze anything more. 

Fortunately we don’t need to freeze winter squash.

We picked some squash yesterday, and we’ve still got a bunch outside to collect.  Here’s a picture of what we brought in:

Had to stand on a chair to get this.  Sorry about the picture quality. 

Anyway, we’ve got a nice variety going on here, there are a couple of Long Island Cheese Pumpkins (the two big ones), sometimes called Cinderella pumpkins, one Galeux d’eysines (the warty one near the top of the basket), some butternuts (underneath, in the basket), some butternut-black futsu hybrids (there’s one in front of the two cheese pumpkins , and some that I don’t really know what they are but they could also possibly be some sort of hybrids (the pear shaped ones, like the two behind the cheese pumpkins and in front of the basket).  We’ve got more outside, like I said, including some Musque de Provence, which are also shaped like the cheese pumpkins, but are currently green-and-turning-orange.

The smaller of the two cheese pumpkins in the picture above weighs thirteen pounds.  I’m guessing the bigger one is maybe fifteen or so.  And at least three of the Musque are in that weight range as well.  So while we probably don’t have as many as last year, what we lack in quantity we’ll make up for in weight.

Very exciting.

And of course, I’m already thinking ahead to next year and what new variety I want to add to the mix.

I really want something blue.  Maybe a hubbard….

Crazy Time in the Garden

Yes, it’s that time of year, when the winter squashes roam wildly through the yard, weaving in and out, over and under, around and sometimes through anything in their path.

Squash Muffins

Sure, I could have called them pumpkin muffins, because a pumpkin is, after all, a squash…but these were made from one of our butternut-futsu hybrid squashes, not a pumpkin squash, so I decided to stay accurate.  Or accurate-ish. 

But I digress.

The thing I like best about these muffins, besides how yummy they are, is that the recipe came about because I hadn’t been grocery shopping and I didn’t have some of the things called for in the original recipe. 

So I had to improvise, and it worked!

Butternut Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

I made these the other day and if I don’t make them again my family will kick me out.

Well, okay, full disclosure, Julia won’t kick me out.  She didn’t like them.  But Bill and Alex?  Oh yeah.

And they really should be called “Because I need to go to the grocery store” cookies.  Why?  I was out of several things in the original recipe, so I just subbed this and that and ended up with something unexpectedly fabulous.

Squash Harvest

Just keep scrolling…

Galeux Harvest

We picked our beloved galeux d’eysines the other morning.  It was time.  Their stalks were all dead, and the one in the bikini sling remained hanging from the fence thanks only to the help of lycra, good sewing, and a strong knot.

Crazy Patch

This is some of the squash we have taking over growing in our garden. 

Our yard actually.

We planted winter squashes in the two 4’ x 4’ raised beds.  Our “Three Sisters” gardens – squash, corn and beans.  Everything’s growing, so we’re happy.

The thing is, not only do we have squash plants from those two gardens, but we’ve also got countless rogue hybrid squash plants that sprouted from various spots near the compost bins and the back garden. 

And in case you didn’t know it, squash plants are restless.  They don’t sit still, even though they may appear to be just sitting there.  They run, they roam, they invite themselves into your kitchen and pour themselves coffee.  They open the cookie jar and the fridge and the cupboards, looking for snacks.  They climb the stairs, use your toothbrush, and curl up in your bed.

They take over.

Three Sisters Swirled Bread

I don’t really know what else to call it.

Other than…amazingly yummy.

But I can tell you how it came about.

About the Banner

March came in wildly this year.  Not so much like a lion, more like a polar bear.  We’ve had such a mild winter it was a bit of a shock to get hit with some ground-covering snow Tuesday night and into Wednesday.  Okay, I guess technically that was still February, but the snow stuck around all through yesterday and we got another dusting over night.  It’s melting today, and tomorrow we get rain, but still…never ever become complacent when it’s winter in New England.

That said, we’ve got seedlings coming up inside, particularly the butternut/futsu hybrid squash plants that Bill planted just to see if they were viable.  They certainly were – and continue to thrive.  Bill keeps saying “well, if they live we’ll plant them outside.” 

I think they’re living.

I took one of the plants out and set it on a windowsill so the snow out front would make the background for this tough little plant.

For the banner, I played around with contrast and brightness and saturation to bring out the green in the leaves and the purple in the snow.

And look – there, in the middle, where the stalk splits.

That looks like a blossom to me, with another one up to the left a bit.

A squash blossom.  At the end of February.

You grow, little squash plant!

Planning

These are seedlings from one of the rogue squash hybrids that showed up in our yard last year.  They were a blend of butternut and black futsu, and Bill wasn’t sure if the seeds would be viable.

They are!  So we’ll be planting some this year, along with more butternut and perhaps a new winter squash variety.

I love this planning time of year.

Pumpkins

We had three pumpkins on the dining room table.

One – we grew.

One – Julia brought home from a field trip.

One – ……… actually, I don’t know where that pumpkin came from. 

We didn’t carve them or paint them.

We just let them sit.

Until this morning.

Rogue Vegetables

For the last several springs now we’ve had the fun of discovering tomato seedlings popping up in the darndest places.  Sprung from seeds dropped last year, either by tomatoes that rotted off the vine or from seeds that ended up in compost, we’ve been finding yellow pear, cherry and – best of all – brandywine tomatoes.

We also get cilantro/coriander and dill showing up in unexpected spots – another bonus.

THIS year, however, we’ve got the biggest rogue ever.

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Sage Butter

Oh, how I love gnocchi. 

Actually, anything potato-y.  Or starchy. 

I happened to have a lot of potatoes recently, and so I made a huge batch of gnocchi with them and froze it all to use through the winter. 

And then, shortly after that, we happened to have some pumpkin…

Butternut Squash Muffins with Pecan Crunch Topping

Sure, you could use pumpkin instead.  We just happen to have a basket full of butternut squash from the garden, and I figured I’d use one of them rather than run to the store for a can of pumpkin puree.

I made up the recipe as I went along.  Really.  I used Dorie Greenspan’s Great Grains Muffin recipe as a sort of launching pad, and tweaked it here and there to create this muffin.  These muffins.  There were 14 of them. 

Here’s my recipe....

Baby Octopus's Garden

What with all the outdoor work we've been doing, meals are rather quick and simple affairs.  Lunches are mostly sandiwches, and dinners are built around whatever we pick from the garden and maybe some sort of protein and rice or pasta. 

Last night, after a sweltering day, I ended up cooking on three burners, which did nothing to help cool the house down, but oh well.

Sunday Morning Notes

Happy 4th, everyone!

Well, working on the house continues.  The sprayer we bought is well worth the money spent in terms of time saved and sanity retained.  Here's the status update, for any of you interested...

Squash and Sauerbraten Wontons

 

We had leftovers to use up.  Leftover Sauerbraten from this year's Oktoberfest dinner...leftover butternut squash...well, okay, just those two.  And the butternut squash wasn't technically left over yet, as I'd only cooked it that day.  But I quibble and digress.