We can blame it all on watermelon and pumpkin pie. Both are delicious and American, and both come from gourds. That’s the problem, you see. Cooks all over the world therefore think that other gourds can be made edible, too.
Gourds, for example, like squash.
Squash. One of the English language’s most painful words, along with maim and trauma and rend and okra and Liberace. Why would anyone want to eat something that sounds as though someone sat on it?
The bottom-line truth is, cooks all over the place love a challenge, and they have tried valiantly to turn squash into an edible dish. To do this, they take one tenth of a portion of squash, boil as much of the squashiness as they can out of it, then immerse it in nine-tenths something that tastes good and hope no one will notice. You know, stuff like chile, mutton, edible vegetables, nuclear waste, cottonwood bark and even chocolate. Then, when you can’t taste the squash in it, and most of the slime has settled to the bottom, they smile and say, “How do you like my ‘Squash Canneloni ala Hershey con Brio?”
They even try to fool people who might consider buying squash into thinking it tastes like something else. Something like butter. Or acorns. Or crooked necks. Hey, I’ll take a crooked neck over a squash any day.
Let’s face it; squash is an unwanted growth on an otherwise perfectly good vine. It starts with a pretty little blossom that inspires Navajo jewelry and attracts bees. Then it begins its insidious malignancy into something that should probably be surgically removed.
But it’s fall now. Autumn, that time of year when children play in the lazy sunshine and squash vines go belly up. And when we enjoy our pumpkin pie and jack o’lanterns, we’ll smile quietly, knowing we’ll once again be squash free for a few blessed months.
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3 comments:
It might make Slim gag, but I happen to like fried yellow squash. Of course, I like boiled okra, too.
Funny and I agree whole heatedly.
I once lived in a area where gardens were terrific, park on the street and all the squash anyone ever needed would appear in your vehicle by the time you got back.
What I learned, don't take the pickup to town during squash season and if driving the car always lock the doors during garden season.
Ack! Charles, I was with you on the fried squash. In fact, I stir-fried yellow squash and zucchini last evening. But boiled okra? No way. LOL
Thanks for the chuckle, Neil. Reminds me of some of the Crankshaft comic strips in which he tries to unload all his zucchini.
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