The Good Fight

Sometimes I feel like it's me vs. food.

I entered the kitchen last night with the best of intentions - to make a pasta with butternut squash, sage, and pine nuts recipe that caught my eye earlier this week from one of my favorite food web sites, The Kitchn. I had fond memories of a similar recipe that I made last year, although I realize now that my selective memory blocked out the bad stuff.

That is, how freaking hard it is to cut open a butternut squash. This guy was almost a foot long and its, ahem, bulge at the top was five inches wide. The recipe made it sound so easy. Just cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, peel the skin, and chop into 1-inch cubes.

I suppose the real problem here is how dull my knives are, but after wrestling with the squash for about 10 minutes, I thought my hand was going to fall off. (It didn't help that I burned the top of my hand on the oven while mixing up roasting pieces of squash.)

The peeling went a little better, although sliced skin flew every which way.

I felt a bit beaten down as I fried the roasted squash, garlic, and onions together with pasta and sage (I didn't have pine nuts). I had sore triceps, hand cramps, and all. But in the end, I think I came out on top. Although the final result tasted a little dry, the flavor of butternut squash has been one of my favorite food discoveries since I joined a CSA, making last night's battle well worth the fight.