Last weekend we cut into another of our stored banana squashes. Do you remember when we grew them last summer (here’s a the post of it growing and of it sitting on our mantle.)? The things are enormous. Two feet long enormous. You have to time the cutting of one of these mammoth squash to coincide with running into a lot of friends. There is no option but to share this thing. On Saturday we cut it, wrapped it, and started handing them out. This is our third time doing this and I think our friends are starting to get overwhelmed with gifts of squash. We handed them out to family, good friends, new friends, mere acquaintances, even people who’ve given us no more than a passing smile. I even drove up to one friend’s house, left the car on, ran the squash to her front door, didn’t even knock and quickly drove away. Julie calls this ‘getting squashed’. As in ‘oh no, I got squashed by Kendra and Scott again!’ (Can you tell she’s received her fair share of squash?) We hold a pretty open don’t ask, don’t tell policy in regards to squash giving. We won’t ask if you’ve eaten it and you don’t have to tell us you let it rot in the back of the fridge. I’m afraid that our squash giving is becoming like the fabled fruitcake. Hmm, maybe we should start making fruitcake to give along with the squash. Now that would be a gift!

As for us, we love to eat them roasted in the oven coated in olive oil, salt and pepper. I made a batch last night this way, then mashed them and put them in a baking dish sprinkled with butter and brown sugar and put under the broiler. They taste just like butternut squash. They are great fun to grow, just make sure to plan a banana squash party for next fall while you are at it. Oh, and those seeds? Don’t roast them in the oven, they pop like popcorn and it takes a full hour to clean them out. Trust us.

Speaking of last night’s dinner, I paired the squash with this Green Garlic and Spinach soup. The boys ate two helpings of soup, I kid you not! I will be making this soup more often. It is so fast and easy to make. They wouldn’t touch the squash. Which ‘tastes like gross’ to them. They haven’t tried fruitcake yet!