simple baked squash

Serve 1 fresh acorn squash per every two diners.

• Wash and dry fresh acorn squash.

• Pierce skin of squash with fork.

• Place on foil-covered baking sheet.

• Bake at 350 degrees
  

until thoroughly cooked (at least 1 hour).

• Remove squash and baking sheet from oven.

• Cut each squash in half.

• Scoop out seeds.

• Season each half squash with butter and freshly ground pepper.

• Serve in-the-shell.

***

Review:

4 forks -- fun to eat!

spaghetti squash veggie bar

A fun variation on the old-fashioned, salad bar theme ---

Four servings:

• Wash, pierce, and bake 2 whole spaghetti squashes on a cookie sheet in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 and 1/4 hours.

• Carefully remove cookie sheet with squashes from oven. Slice spaghetti squashes in half, lengthwise.

• Remove seeds from center of squash.

• Serve each warm squash half on a plate. Use a fork to turn the spaghetti squash out of the shells to make it look more like strands of spaghetti!
  

• Provide plenty of condiments to season the squash to each diner's taste.

For instance:

grated Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
hot sauce
butter
cinnamon
raw sugar
grated nutmeg

***

Review:

3 forks for flavor
4 forks for fun

Fresh squash and tomato rice medley

Summer squash and zucchini squash are abundant this time of year.

So I made a simple meal (serves 3) of:

White rice (simmer, covered, 1 cup rice + 2 cups water until water is absorbed)

In a separate saucepan I cooked a couple small, sliced summer squashes and a small sliced zucchini squash in a little bit of water.

Also washed, sliced, and added a fresh tomato (from Canada, on the vine, hydroponically grown, to follow the CDC's recommendations on tomatoes this summer) to the cooking vegetables.

When all was cooked, I served the rice in small shallow bowls and put the cooked vegetables on top. As a decoration and a touch of dairy, I put small chunks of cheddar cheese on the hot rice and vegetables. Served with fresh plums and spicy tortilla crisps.

How do you wrap a wrap?

My question is asked with utter humility. Whenever I try to assemble a wrap, the filling falls out.

Last night, for instance. Boo and I made a filling for flour tortilla wraps. It was sort of lumpy.

*recipe*

Squash and cucumber turkey wraps

Have on hand:

Flour tortillas (enough for your diners)
Fresh leaves of spinach

Mix together chopped:

cucumber
yellow squash
hickory-smoked turkey breast (precooked)

Season with:

mustard
mayonnaise
Italian salad dressing

Assembly:

We placed each flour tortilla wrapper on a plate and lined it with a layer of fresh spinach leaves, Topped the spinach leaves with the mixture described above. Okay . . .

Now the hard part: rolling up the wraps. They just don't hold together. At all. The mixture falls out both ends and it is hard to figure out how to hold the wrap with my hands so it has some stability. Anyone have any suggestions?

**

Review:

Besides the structural defects, the wraps taste pretty good.



Rating: 4 forks for flavor
3 forks for presentation (because it looked funny)

3 forks for entertainment factor while eating