Using summer's bounty

My goal for this blog is to share what other people are eating and producing in Montana. There will definitely be more about farmers markets as the 2010 season opens, but right now I am frustrated by being stuck at home in snow. I don't venture out much when the roads are icy.

If you can bear with me for another entry on soup, today is a good day for it.

I don't especially like acorn squash, so imagine my surprise when a cucumber start I bought last spring began producing just that. The true cucumber starts fizzled and died right away, but the sturdy squash spread and spread . . . and spread. I got 9 acorn squash and wondered what to do with them. I gave a couple away, but it grieves me to not use food I've grown.

So today when I craved curried butternut squash soup, I substituted acorn squash (those darn butternut squash didn't do any better than the cucumbers this year). Lo and behold, this is a delicious substitute.

My often-used, standard recipe comes from the Silver Palate Cookbook: Curried Butternut Squash Soup. It's full of onions, apples, and squash, creamed together in a soothing puree.

As with all squash you cook yourself, there is the bonus of roasted seeds, which in this case make a nice garnish.

Outside today . . . beautiful, but brrr!