Thursday, November 29, 2007

Delicata Squash and Pumpkin Seeds

Before I get into the recipe, I would like to address something. Recently, I've been getting more comments than I expected- not many, but plenty. When I first started blogging, I was on Livejournal. Since then, I haven't found a host with commenting features that have surpassed it. I don't like the fact that I can't directly comment to someone. There is the new feature that let's you see all new comments, but it's just not as good. Because of this, I'm hesitant to comment to anyone who's left a response in case they don't see it. I could e-mail them directly, but it's such a pain for a little 'thanks!' or 'yeah, me too'. So I've decided to just add another comment to theirs in the section. It won't guarantee that they'll see it, but it'll make me feel better. I still get to respond and they'll find it easier too. Due to this decision, I'll be going back in the next few days and responding to the comments that I've wanted to but shied away from.


My inner tightwad always yells at me when I waste the energy to cook something tiny in a big oven. Sometimes it's because it's won't work in my toaster oven, sometimes it's because I just don't wanna! Since I was wary of cooking one tiny delicata squash in my oven, I finally threw in those pumpkin seeds that have been looking at me petulantly. I didn't have natural cane sugar on hand, which is fine because only two of my pie plates were clean to bake the seeds in. Also, I didn't have any loose black tea but was so intrigued by the ingredients that I tore open a bag on my Yogi Tea Piccadilly Breakfast and hoped for the best.

I had less than a full cup of seeds to start with, so I used little of the wet ingredients called for. Still, you can't half an egg unless you can use the other right away, so meh. I found that one full tea bag was just under a teaspoon and only used one teaspoon of curry powder. Also, I used table salt because I don't have sea salt. I took a picture when I made the pumpkin chowder. The boyfriend cleaned them for me and they were just so beautiful in the bowl.



Baked Delicata Squash with Lime Butter
from this site



Verdict: It was okay. I had to add more lime, chili powder, and salt. It was like a fiesta in a squash. The delicata that I had didn't taste very sweet like most of the squash I've had. It could easily be sweet or savory. I think I'll be adding butter and brown sugar to the other half though. It's easier to eat when you scrape down the sides and mix with the topping.



As an addition, I'd like to say that the more I eat, the better the lime topping tastes with the squash. On second though, I might not sweeten up the other half.

Pumpkin Seeds
from here

Verdict: Meh. They taste like natural popcorn. I added a little sugar to the black tea seeds because they had no flavor. Disappointing. The curry ones weren't too bad. Kinda tasty. I think part of it was because my seeds had dried out in the refrigerator. I've never had good results with home-baked pumpkin seeds.

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