Shelby

Jaymes, I'm definitely making your dish tomorrow night! I already have spaghetti sauce going or else I would have done it tonight. Sounds sooooo good! Thanks for the recipe

David, I enjoyed reading about your harvest job. Truly backbreaking work! Interesting to learn that the squash were frozen amongst the other mixed veggies. I don't frequent the frozen veggie section of the supermarket often, but I don't think I've ever seen frozen squash offered.

Here's what I have now....I haven't picked yet today......

This could NOT have come at a better time. We planted eight, yes, EIGHT squash plants. What were we thinking???? Varieties include yellow summer squash, zucchini and butterstick. I have ten to fifteen pounds of squash (at least) sitting right next to me in the kitchen. Along with simply sautéing in butter, I add it to spaghetti sauce (going to make a batch today, in fact, because I also have some eggplant ready to pick). Also, I make fritters. A couple of days ago I made a crustless quiche with lots of squash and ham. I haven't stuffed any, yet, because I'm trying to pick them all when they are small--but never fear, there will be a sneaky one that has grown to the size of a baseball bat lurking around at some point. I'm looking forward to getting some new ideas and recipes from this thread. Oh, and don't forget. August 8th is National Sneak Some Squash Onto Your Neighbors Porch Day.........sigh, if I only had some neighbors...... http://www.wellcat.com/august/sneak_some_zucchini_onto_your_ne.htm

God, I love the way you write, David.

During a recent episode of Chef Roble and Co. on Bravo they sous vide an octopus and put 2 or 3 corks in the sealed bag. *shrug*

Fridge pickles

It's that time again. I already have enough to can and pickle a few jars....BUT, I'm not going to can them. I'm going to do fridge pickles for now. I just don't fee like dragging the canner out yet. I'll wait until it's time to do the tomatoes. We've been eating them simply with salt, pepper and dip or two of Ranch dressing. Last night I made a really good Greek salad using the usual ingredients but also adding some slightly roasted zucchini.

Lovely squid, Baron and Wapi. Makes me wish I had more in my freezer to eat!

Tomatoes must be from my Kansas garden. Period.

I'll bet, alone. Hooboy. You win the prize!*Shelby takes a bow*

They weren't guilty pleasures in college, they were survival rations. I used to cook and drain the ramen noodles, scramble the seasoning packet into a couple eggs and stir fry the eggs and noodles together. That sounds very palatable........mine sounds like.....ick lol.

Ramen noodles minus the seasoning packet topped with mushroom Ragu spaghetti sauce. Used to eat that in my studio apartment after college classes. Don't hate me. I still eat it once in a while. Alone.

Thank you, Soba! I always enjoy when you do this

Just wow.

Thanks, everyone.

Good questions and I don't know. So, if ham is steamed too long, it would become sticky and mushy like that? Everyone ate the ham like it was normal and no one said a word lol.

I've googled and googled and I can't find the answer to my question. Thus, I'm posing it to you guys because I bet you know the answer! A family member placed an already cooked and spiral cut ham in foil and smoked on the smoker. The ham had a pretty good "crust" on the outside so you could tell it had been smoked for a while. The ham looked perfectly normal, but when eating it, it was MUSH. I literally took a piece, mushed it up and made a dough ball out of it. Seriously. It was the strangest texture. Any ideas what happened to that ham?

OHHHHH you were in Dubai! I want to be you! This week will be the Dubai World Cup if you're in town again

How lovely, Kim!

I'm jealous.

David, I'm sorry your dish didn't work, but it sure is a pretty octopus. They sure do shrink up a bunch! Frankly, I really appreciate you posting when something doesn't work out quite right.....because I sure have a lot of failures, too, and that makes me feel better

Here's dinner last night. It was pretty good. Very tender. My husband just does not like squid, though. I have about 1/2 a pound left so I'm going to do a more , shall we say, plain version.

You need 4 Italian Grandmothers around the table helping stuff those devils. YES! Ok, so I have a huge, nice salad made (as nice as it can be for winter in Kansas), pasta water is on, homemade sauce with meatballs is stewing and the stuffed calamari is simmering in sauce. I told my husband he could go ahead and eat once the pasta is done. He responded by telling me the more wine he has, the more he may be able to eat the stuffed calamari. Sigh.

Ok, it's tedious as hell stuffing these. I'm just keepin' it real.