Squash

Two weekends ago, my family converged on north Georgia for my cousin's wedding. I drove over from my home while the rest of my immediate family drove south from the Volunteer State. When we gathered at the hotel, my father had a surprise for me - squash, and lots of it!

A little background: My father lives by the motto, "If you can't blow it out of proportion, it's not worth doing." True to form, he plants a good-sized garden every summer. Our family eats out of the garden, as does most of the surrounding community. For a long time, my dad didn't plant squash because no one in the family ate it and everyone in the community already had a supplier. A couple of years ago, I decided that I liked squash, so Dad started planting yellow squash and zucchini just for me.

Squash plants are very productive little plants, especially if you're the only one trying to keep up with the supply. I don't get home as often as I should, so my dad (my squash pusher) brings a fresh supply whenever our paths cross. Ergo - the great squash hand-off after the wedding.

I'm not sure how many squash were in the bag. Let's just say that there were many of both varieties. So far, I've had chopped yellow squash and zucchini in a tossed salad, baked and frozen 3 loaves of zucchini bread, made a squash casserole, and sauteed squash and onions. I'm squashed.

I took a squash break tonight and made lasagna. As I dug into what is arguably my favorite meal, I missed something - some flavor that had become so familiar to me. So, I had a piece of zucchini bread and felt much better.

Current squash count: 3 yellow squash, 3 zucchini. I'm going to separate them in the refridgerator because I'm convinced that they are muliplying at night.