The Battle of Cole Valley

Today I nearly met my match.  I waged a tough battle against an enormous butternut squash, and you’ll be happy to hear that I emerged victorious. 

We have been making Callum’s baby food.  After a few initial hurdles involving frozen peas which turned out to have salt in them (who knew?) and green beans which turned out to be almost impossible to pulverize and then REALLY didn’t go down well. . . and the ultimate acquisition of a food mill, which was deemed to be the right tool for the job, we finally got the hang of it. 

We have since found unsalted peas and squashed them to bits, smooshed up LOTS of sweet potatoes, shattered one bag of frozen butternut squash, and destroyed a bunch of gorgeous organic bananas. 

Every time we go to the grocery store, Callum and I peruse the organic produce section and eye up our next potential adversaries.  Most recently, I stumbled on an enormous organic butternut squash.  It was cheap and huge, and we were running low on squash (our bag of frozen squash was too teany), so it became part of the plan. 

It hovered around the house for about 5 days and was in various turns a mantelpiece, a weapon (threatened only, not used), a hat, and a microphone, and it came to be referred to as “the gourd.”  Today was the day I decided to annihilate the gourd.

I didn’t think it would be too much of a challenge.  After all, it’s just a vegetable, and I’m a human.  Much stronger – plus I have the ol’ brain to help me out.  BUT, as soon as I took a knife to it, I knew I was in trouble.  Turns out, raw butternut squash is VERY tough to cut.  Even with the nice sharp knife we borrowed from Jocelyn. 

The secret is to roast it first, then cut it.  That, however, requires cooking gear that is STILL in transit from London.  Yes.  Still.  SO, I pressed on.  Cut, peel peel peel, cut cut cut, peel peel peel.  It probably took about an hour – maybe longer, and in the mean time Callum woke up from his nap and was a spectator for the end of the battle. 

I boiled as much as would comfortably fit in our one pot, pureed it in the food processor, and spooned it into ice cube trays.  I filled two trays, and I still have an enormous Tupperware container filled with uncooked squash.  The point, though, is that after a long and arduous struggle, I suffered minimal injuries (a sore right palm and very dry hands), and I emerged victorious.  Congratulations me.

As it happens, babies only eat pureed food for a little while, so I’m thinking . . . . that I may not EVER have to do this EVER again.  Which is a very good thing.

And by the way, Callum has FOUR teeth now!