Tag Archives: food

By now, you are familiar with the saga of The Compost Love Child Squash and their attempt to take over the world. Or at least our tiny No Acre Homestead, which, some days, feels like the same thing.

The walkway just after clearing a path through the squash vines. Easy access will last about a day.

Without semiweekly vine whackings, the narrow pathway to our gate would be impassable. But I was developing a grudging admiration for these crazy vines, and hacking at them so often seemed almost malicious. A few weeks ago, Barbara Damrosch wrote a great article in The Washington Post that revitalized my flagging enthusiasm for the job. I wasn’t vandalizing vegetation, I was, in fact, creating ingredients!

Walkway trimmings…compost pile or dinner?

Here’s just one idea for using the bounty of a late summer garden and some pantry items to make an easy meal…and no one will guess that the star ingredient is wayward squash vines.

Fresh ham, squash blossoms-vines-and-leaves, small squash, red onion

I tried to keep the frying pan ingredients and the saucepan ingredients on separate plates for the photos. But, naturally, as I was cooking, the plan evolved. That’s Ok, it just makes it more fun for you to try to follow along, right?

Cherry tomatoes, mild cheddar, green beans, hot peppers, and seasonings.

1) Start by boiling water in a large saucepan, and heating oil in a large frying pan. (You’ll notice that all my recipes use a maximum of two pots…two burners is all we’ve got. Keeps it simple, though)

2) From the top photo, sauté chopped ham, diced squash and onion, sliced squash vines and chopped squash leaves. ( I reserved the squash blossoms for a garnish). From the second photo, add sliced hot peppers.

3) Cook some pasta in the boiling water ( I used gluten-free brown rice rigatoni) and in the last two minutes, add in sliced green beans. When the pasta is done and the beans are ridiculously green, drain and return to the pot.

4). While everything is still nice and warm, toss in the contents of the frying pan, oil included. Add some grated cheese (mild cheddar in this case), halved cherry tomatoes, and salt-pepper-garlic powder to taste.

5). Grab those reserved squash blossoms, slice, and gently sprinkle over it all.

Plate and serve while warm. Voila! An elegant dish based on compost-pile overflow. (I’m sure you can come up with a better way of presenting it.). To amp up the protein and the oo-la-la, I served the pasta topped with a lightly fried egg. But the picture came out poorly, so you’ll just have to imagine the addition of sunshine yellow to the center of all those colors.
Scrumptious!

Would you even guess that the star ingredient here is squash vines?