Squash it up

Squash is just weird. It's a vegetable and it's also a game with a funny racket that prepsters play. It also resembles a telephone. If you don't believe me, see the picture below:



Yup, I had a conversation on my squash phone and had Mr. Fo take my picture doing so.
Totally normal for a Monday night around here.

It comes in yellow... and other colors I think. It's good as a roasted vegetable. I guess you can chop it up and eat it on a salad? It's starchy, so you can't even say it's low carb. I don't really know it's purpose. UNTIL NOW, that is.

Have no fear. My mother-in-law, Susan, recipe inventor extraordinaire, has made the whole squash thing a lot more interesting. In fact, I am convinced her brilliant Squash Bread recipe is the entire reason this vegetable was created. Sweet but not too sweet, cinammony and just plain delicious, Susan's Squash Bread is perfection in loaf form. It's so perfect, in fact, that several members of the Fo clan had to be consulted before this recipe was put onto the World Wide Web. After meeting with several family ranks, both young and old, this recipe is now being broadcast to the world. And you should really thank your lucky stars. You are about to look at squash in a whole different way.
I GIVE YOU:

Susan's Supremely Sublime
Squash Bread

1 loaf 16 slices

Calories per slice ~ 150

Ingredients:

Flour, un-sifted 1 ½ cups

Cinnamon 2 teaspoons

Baking Powder 1 teaspoon

Baking Soda ½ teaspoon

Eggs 2

Sugar ¾ cup

Oil ½ cup

Vanilla 2 teaspoons

Summer squash,

Coarsely shredded, lightly packed

1 1/3 cups

- preheat oven to 350 F

- grease a 9 by 5 by 3” loaf pan

- mix dry ingredients except sugar thoroughly

- beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla. Beat until lemon colored—about 3 minutes

- stir in squash

- add dry ingredients. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.

- Pour into loaf pan

- Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean

-Cool on rack. Remove from pan after 10 minutes.

** Note: Zucchini or yellow summer squash may be used

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A few comments about my experience making this not so sinful treat.

1) Squash Overflow: The reason I made this was becuase my sis in law Drew brought me over 5 ginormous squash from her vegetable garden. This is significant for several reasons:

-We all thought Drew would kill her vegetables so we are all proud of her

-My thought was initially: "What the hell am I going to do with 5 squash?"

-Why are these squash so huge? The ones I see in the store are much small smaller....and probably genetically modified. So at least they are fresh... if a little too mature!

Giant squash below:

2) Whole Wheat Flour: In an ongoing attempt to eat healthier, I substituted whole wheat flour in 1 of my loaves. Whole Wheat flour can make somethings dry but obviously you could substitute anything in this bread and it would still be delicious. Success! Whole Wheat is completely allowed here, and even encouraged. Get on with your healthy self. See the comparison picture below. The wheat is just slightly darker than the white. But both delish.

3) How do you shred squash? I am sure there better ways to do this, but this is what I did: I cut the giant squash in half and scraped out the seeds. Then I took my magic tool (Microplane Grater) and scraped away. Makes a mess, so do it over a large bowl. But it was perfection. You can use a box cheese grater too, but why when the Microplane is so much fun?

Here are some more squash bread making pictures:

Getting that perfect lemon color...



Shredded Squash below...



Just warm out of the oven...



Take a closer look...



Sus, I hope I did your recipe justice. All of you squash haters - hate no more! Make this (semi) healthy bread and you will thank me. For reals.