Cooking and gardening with Sam
Serve up a dish of yellow squash
Squash is an easy vine vegetable to grow, and the plant produces a lot of yellow delicious goodness.
Squash are full of water – we have to rememeber this when cooking. Also, it takes a lot of them to make a dish for your family.
When fresh squash is in season, this is the time to try to cook the dishes you love and try new ones.
Squash Dressing
2 cups of cooked yellow squash
2 cups of cornbread, crumbed
2 eggs. beaten
1 medium chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
8 oz. can of celery soup
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese (can be omitted – but to me, it makes it better)
1 teaspoon of black pepper
½ teaspoon of garlic
½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning
In a large bowl mix all ingredients thoroughly (sometimes I cook the onions first to make sure they get cooked through). Pour mixture in a 2-quart casserole dish. Cover and bake for 20-30 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Serves six.
You will love this dish.
Stewed Squash and Onions
Into a medium bowl, cut squash into about ¼ inch thick disks.
Put about a tablespoon of butter and half a diced onion into a saucepan and cook until they are out half-cooked.
Add about four cups of squash and cook on medium, covered. Stir a few times, and the squash will cook in a few minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Do not add water. The squash has water that will cook out and give you water to cook in.
Fried Squash
Slice squash about ½-inch thick.
In a shallow dish, mix equal parts flour and cornmeal with salt and black pepper.
Using oil in a large skillet, fry on medium heat until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Serve hot.
Yellow and green squash are both great for grilling and make wonderful filler for summer salads and on veggie trays. If you ask me, you do have to season well or have a dip to have any taste – and I need to eat a lot of squash because it has very few calories.
Stuffed Squash
You need to use a larger squash for this recipe.
Cut squash in half so you will have a boat to fill with your stuffing. Clean out the meat of the squash and put it in large bowl.
Wipe down the outside of the squash with olive oil.
In a skillet cook a pound of ground chuck and 1 cup of diced onions with salt and pepper to taste (I use an 1/8 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper) and also add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
Mix meat of squash with the cooked ground beef mixure and add one egg to hold everything together.
If you like white rice – sometimes I mix about ½ cup of rice in to make more stuffing to fill the squash boats.
Put filled squash boats on a cookie sheet, cover with foil and in a preheated oven at 350 degrees bake about 20 minutes. Take out and sprinkle grated cheese over top. Leave uncovered, place back in oven and melt cheese.
