A couple of weeks ago I briefly scanned some article about called ‘Squash will save you, Anderson Cooper!’ Ok, I may have only read a few scattered words, but I think the point was that Anderson Cooper does not eat enough vegetables and the author was telling him to eat squash.
Then a week or so later, Lynne Rosetto Kasper (of The Splendid Table) answered a caller’s question about spaghetti squash, and she made cooking it sound so easy! “Bake it up, then treat it like an Asian noodle and marinate it in some delicious dressing…. doesn’t that sound fabulous?” Yeah, you’ve played that trick on me before, Lynne.
So I decided I should try to cook some squash. I am not a squash fan whatsoever, but Lloyd and I very rarely eat fresh vegetables, and a squash can sit out on my counter for weeks until I get around to experimenting with it – which this one did.
I tried cooking it on the first day that I felt ultra sick. That was my first mistake. I cut into it and the smell almost made me throw up. Bleh – so pumpkin-y.
Scooping the seeds was arduous, what with the smell, and then I put it in the pan wrong. I read that some people have trouble with it taking too long to cook, so put in in a baking dish with water so it will steam. I did that, but it should have been cut-side-down. Oops. After I put the pan in the oven I went to go lie down – for a long, long time. Subsequently, I don’t really know how long this cooked.
Then I pulled it out of the oven and went to go lie down again – for a long, long time. Cooked squash can’t go bad sitting out on the counter, right?
After tons of napping I went to pull it apart, and was duly surprised at the direction of the ‘noodles’ inside – they string horizontally!
Pulling it apart was very, very fun, but then I was out of energy and had no appetite for this. Not wanting to waste the squash I put a little in two bowls, adding Italian dressing to one and rice wine vinegar/sugar/salt/pepper to the other.
The Italian dressing version was horrible, the vinegar one less so. I tasted each one then went to lie down.
Does anyone have suggestions? I like the idea of trying spaghetti squash again, but it’s just so exhausting to make.