Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Great Squash

My mom sent me vegetables from the family farm in Indiana--through the mail all the way to California for my birthday. She said she wanted to know how far they could travel. She sent me a sweet potato and she sent me a squash which I mis-identified initially as a yellow zucchini.

The yellow vegetable arrived in not quite ship-shape condition in case you are planning to send vegetables across the country to your relatives. It was wrapped in a wet paper towel inside a ziploc bag and the very end had to go right away--the rest though was fine. It made the box smell like farm water--and if you've had the opportunity to smell farm water before, you know it's a little putrid. The sweet potato looked as though it had been just picked and filled up the box, but that's a different story.

I'm not a big squash fan. I couldn't think of many family recipes in which squash was a factor. I hemmed and hawed. Finally I decided to make this. I bought all the ingredients and then I put it off. I didn't make it and the squash sat. Finally I told myself that this squash was ready to be eaten and I was going to do it, no matter what.

So I hunkered down and decided against the ribbons (I'm not a fan of the vegetable peeler). I cut up the squash into discs. I cut up part of the red onion into little pieces. I cut up a green pepper that might be sweet--but might also be spicy--I don't remember. I cut up a little bit of sweet yellow pepper. And I cut up a little tiny spicy pepper that I got for something else--and I don't know what it is or what the spice content was--but it's pretty.

I sauteed the onion in a little bit of olive oil for a little and when it got fragrant I added the remaining ingredients and sauteed some more. I added a little salt, a little pepper, a little Jamacian Jerk Seasoning (I'm more aware of the Jamacians than usual because of the Olympics!) And when I could see a little browning and smell the squash I decided it was done--the only thing worse than squash is squishy squash.

The verdict? A pretty good vegetable stir-fry.

1 comment:

Liz said...

Looks good & healthy!