Unique and secret method in the history of preparing a treat for those who love spicy dishes.

Spaghetti squash, Blue Hubbard, Golden nugget and Acorn. Mm. I love my 35 lbs of squash.

I might be ready to admit I have a problem.

When you talk about squash so much that you bore the squash man at the farmer's market, you know you've gone too far. When he sees you coming and looks busy and sends his second man over to deal with you, you *really* know you've gone too far. This might make the feint of heart rethink their Vitamin A filled, fibrous wonder food obsession. However I -undaunted and unwilling to take a hint- waited his ass out, making sure to make eye contact and wave to let him know I was on to him and that I would hold, as it was sat morning and I had nothing else to do besides obsess over heirloom veggies. I won't settle for man # 2, because he doesn't know the names or the relative sweetnesses of the squashes, and these things matter to me. Plus, once you get the squash man going, he always steers you right. Luckily, I was able to pass the time quickly because I have a squash soul mate. Who knew! She presented herself at the booth, pulling the thoughts right out of my head when she announced "I need one of these because it would be fun to eat something so pretty!" so she and I spent a few minutes exchanging squashy stories and debating recipe ideas and fondling the fruit. The squash man came by eventually, and I do believe we made him consider going into the tomato business with our incessant questioning. Mostly it was just him looking completely dumbfounded as she and I nattered back and forth about how pretty it was, and what kind of meal you could design around eating out of your centerpiece. We tried to get him involved by asking what he thought of our plans, and in retrospect, I believe this is where it started to get painful for him. End results are thusly:

1)I am now the proud owner of a 15lb Blue Hubbard squash (I don't know what I'm going to do with it ok, but I couldn't just LEAVE it there!)
2)I am also now the proud owner of a Golden Nugget Pumpkin and an Acorn squash.
3)I already had 3 squashes at home.
4)I may no longer have the option of going to the squash table without HN, as he is beginning to realize I have no self control once I begin obsessing with something. He's still in the stage where it's amusing, which is good for him since I'm feeling like I'm just getting warmed up.

I was going through my squashes yesterday and realized I had 6. Taking a step back, I deemed 6 to be too many, and too much pressure, so I cooked 2 of them (pumpkin and delicata), pureed the flesh and tagged it and bagged it and stuck it in the freezer. Someday soon the pumpkin will become the glue that binds a delicious risotto and I believe the delicata is headed for some cookies or muffins but I have other, more pressing fruits to deal with right now. I don't honestly know what I'll do with Big Blue. It's bigger than most newborns, and undoubtedly way more delicious. One man told me to smash it on the ground, then roast the pieces but duh! If having it huge and whole wasn't the point, would I have bought it in the first place? Probably not old dude, but thanks. What I can't wait for is the seeds. HN and I are cucurbita seed connoisseurs at this point. So far, Jarrahdale is my fave. He's stuck on plain old pumpkin.

The other option is to cook and serve dinner in it for HN's family. The only downside to this is that in order to do right by the squash, I would probably have to go back to my nemesis, chestnut stuffing. And alot of it. And then there's pressure, because HN's family is chock full of good cooks. Effortless good cooks, which is a very high bar. I'm always picking up their tricks, but they've got nothing in the hole for something like this. I would be totally off the reservation.

And then there's the radish issue. I bought a Daikon because they were a buck, and it was huge, and I'm sure you see the trend here. I love giant produce, there I said it! The fucking thing won't die, and I'm *trying* to stop wasting food so I feel obligated to eat it. I shredded half of that with the rest of the watermelon beets,some carrots and some rice vinegar. I had some Sat, some Sun and some today. And I still have about a pound of that shit left. AND it was only half the Daikon! And you know what smells real bad? A cut Daikon! In truth, that little gem might account for my throwing the rest of it away free of guilt.

Not wasting food is pressur-ous. Although I suppose it's the buying too much to begin with that sets it off now isn't it. Yesterday I came home with my new produce, and took all the last week's stuff that hadn't made the grade (we had dinner out twice last week, totally messed with my food budget man) and made "kitchen sink soup" which is basically all the stuff that's nearing the end of it's crisp days thrown in a pot with a can of tomatoes, some rosemary and some BTB. I had that for lunch and dinner, and made HN have some too. I couldn't face it for lunch so I had MORE radish salad and some sweet potato fries. And some leftover mac and cheese because I needed something starchy and not veggie to eat.

Sigh.

peeking into the living room. Baltimore office is now FULL of sun!