Oh, finally, it is September. First day of meteorological Fall. Tomorrow the Apple Festival begins, and I am looking forward to the unofficial start of the autumn season in our small town. On the veranda, I have one last dahlia that has bloomed.
It was time to cook the weird squash, the only one that the garden produced this year. A helpful reader advised treating it like a winter squash so that is what I did.
It was very difficult to cut apart, much tougher than a butternut or spaghetti squash. It was closer to a pumpkin in density.
I put it cut side down in a pan, and roasted it for an hour at 350º.
It came out looking good, but there was a lake of water in the pan.
When I scooped it out, there was so much water I decided to drain it. Even then, there was too much water.
I pressed more water out, then mixed in a little ricotta cheese for creaminess.
It was good, tasting more like a spaghetti squash with the texture of pumpkin or acorn squash. A bit weird, but we ate it.
The view early one morning, with my new camera on a long zoom, had lovely cloud forms over the mountain ridge.
My Sweet Babboo is having some work done in the garage, which means taking down all the shelving that holds a lot of my gardening stuff. It was a good time to go through all my pots and other things, and donate some things. We took two boxes over to the thrift shop, and I wanted to just run in for a moment to look for a cheap teapot. Wouldn’t you know, these plates immediately caught my eye. They go with the bowls I already had, shown on the lower left. Plus they were 50% off, so I got six large square dinner plates for $4. I had to bring them home.
I’ve been in a baking mood, working on Mountain State Fair recipes. When I was done with the day’s experiments, I made some blueberry muffins and mixed berry muffin tops from mixes for My Sweet Babboo, then a loaf of Banana Cinnamon Bread. All I do is add one tablespoon of cinnamon to a published recipe for the banana bread. My Sweet Babboo loves cinnamon in just about every sweet bread. Update – HERE is my muffin top pan.
In the critter watch, Wilson stopped by. For newer readers, Wilson is our local woodchuck (or groundhog) who lives in the woods near our home. He is really shy and skittish, so getting pictures of him is challenging. I was happy to see him and know he is still around.
So, we’ll have Stashbusters tomorrow, and Apple Festival this weekend. I put a table topper on the longarm to quilt, and cut out lots of squares for my sample block for the Autumn Jubilee quilt along. Lots of fun coming up! Do you have plans for this holiday weekend?
From My Carolina Home 
I love getting a deal. It’s wonderful that you found those plates that work so well with your bowls. Your red dahlia is also gorgeous.
I am headed to the MN state fair today with my youngest. I am hoping to make it through the entire creative activities building to see all the great fabric projects. We shall see how patient my 3 year old is today. Lol.
Love the red plates……I too have a set but find I don’t use them often enough….many foods simply do not look appetizing on my fire engine red plates……but they make for good chargers.
Love the mountains and clouds photo. And I am always happy to see the end of August and to welcome September and the months ahead. And two words that alway make me smile big in anticipation—Autumn Jubilee!
Where did you get the squash seeds? Sounds like a new hybrid. What a deal on those plates, but – did you ever find a teapot?
The squash was supposed to be a spaghetti squash, but it didn’t grow one of those. I am told that occasionally a variant will appear in seed packs, and this certainly was one!
I will be quilting, binding, quilting binding and so on until I finish as many of the four quilts awaiting my attention. Just trying to catch up and finish UFOs, a quilt for a friend that she could not finish herself and a donation quilt for Project Linus. Love the long weekends to tackle big projects!
I love that you baked and ate the squash. I do always give those “weird ones” a try. I seem to get at least 1 every year 😉
GM Carole! The squash looks very much like Spaghetti Squash. I have grown that in my garden in years past. And usually it takes longer to mature, turning a light brown color. Mine were usually ready in October here in Ohio. They are so good. That is what my daughter and I eat with my spaghetti sauce, which we just had this week. I have been busy to cooking and baking from garden surplus and getting breads/muffins in freezer for those cooler days ahead. My week has been full with appts./schedules. My daughter on vacation, and plans today are going to our Sewing group, “Sew Chatty”, checking in with gals. With her working a couple days a week ( she is handicap, Prader-Willi Syndrome), she doesn’t get to visit with ladies. So she will enjoy visiting with them, as well as, they enjoy seeing her. It will be a fun day. So I am off. Enjoy your day!
How do you do the muffin tops – have a recipe to share?Thanks, Dee
Happy September, Carole. Your NC mountains are a beautiful place to live. What a steal on the plates.
Maybe….there is rumored a long trip is on store
I love the word piddling! It’s one I use often! Our weekend with be quiet. My husband is on hospice care. He feels pretty good but weak. This means that I have the opportunity to garden, read and bake. I’m not a quilter but many of my friends are. I’ve put them onto your site. I enjoy you so much and look forward to your post every day. Keep up the good work! You bring joy to many.
Geez, I forgot all about stashbusters last month, and I even had it all ready to go! I better get things ready so I don’t miss this month too!
We will be cooking out this weekend. My neighbors that moved away recently are coming back for a week-long visit. Hoping to see them. With enough notice, I’ll also try to gather some of the other neighbors to stop by and say hi too. Other than that, I hope to sew. We’ll have the US Open tennis going all weekend long on the TV too.
Love that you got a great deal on those red plates. Out with the old and in with the new!! That muffin pan in the link is really shallow. How does that impact your cooking times. It makes me think a giant muffin cookie. 🙂 Labor day weekend is often our last “good weather weekend” for the pool, so I am going to try and make the best of the last of the season. Solar heater is on now because it is cooling off quite a bit at night. Grandkids for the weekend I think. 🙂
The muffin top pan looks exactly like my whoopie pie pan, so any recipes for whoopie pies should work. I haven’t actually used it to make whoopie pies, nor have I ever had a whoopie pie, LOL, but I’ve seen lots of tasty looking recipes. I use mine to bake eggs for egg McMuffins.
Piddling around here at home is a favorite activity around here! The red and black plates and bowls are pretty. I bet you’ll come up with a special tablescape for them! Do you have a special pan for the muffin tops? That is my favorite part of the muffin! Time to figure out my Stashbuster totals. I did finish Halloween Jubilee – will share in a post tomorrow!
Your mystery squash is of interest–since we have one that looks just like this growing in our pumpkin patch! The only difference is now it is turning orange; but a week ago it look exactly like the one in your newsletter photo. Could it be that yours would’ve turned orange if left on the vine? Or, perhaps both of these mystery squash/pumpkins could have been cross pollinated with a nearby melon? Our mystery pumpkin sprouted up among Little Boo pumpkins which are pure white and only grow to be about 3-4 inches in diameter. Years ago we planted squash and a volunteer watermelon vine emerged and oh, how pleased we were about the most beautiful crop of squash and the beautiful watermelon. However, when it came time to harvest the squash, it tasted like a green watermelon and the beautiful watermelon tasted like a very bland squash. Nature can teach us some hard lessons sometimes.
That long distance zoom photo is outstanding! Your experiments in the kitchen are interesting, amd your trip to the Thrift Store cracks me up. We are hopeless dish addicts. They’re pretty, and of course they match your bowls! Happy September!
Sadly I though you were selling the plates and bowls and I was going to run down and buy them!! My favorite thrift store run by the church to fund the homeless shelter, always had the best stuff but they closed during the lock-downs and doesn’t seem to be coming back. Wilson scared me laying like that! Poor thing! Sewing the craziest things – tote bags made from dog food bags (sent to us by the company clean with no food)
I will have to post my stash buster totals when I get back from a long weekend coming up.
I haven’t finished any quilts but making progress on my two big projects I hope to have done by November. I also have not bought any fabric but I have been gifted triangles and strips for a string quilt I am working on. And tomorrow I am going to a friends to gather some fabrics for two quilts I want to make on some retreats I will be going on in Oct and November. But wait. . . Its September, guess those fabrics will go on Sept totals.
That squash looks delicious and I’ll bet those muffins rocked! I would have fallen for those red plates too. And your view? To die for!
two boxes in exchange for 6 plates probably not too bad……..