Goodbye Gus + Dinnertime Woes update

At some point last October, we acquired a family mascot. It was a large Hubbard squash which we named Gus. In the excitement of the harvest season, Gus and a number of thick-skinned, variously-shaped squashes graced our kitchen counter. Over the next few months, all of them were subsequently peeled, chopped, cooked and eaten. Except for Gus. Fast-forward to early March.

Have you ever tried to cut into a Hubbard squash? I had only cooked one once before, several years ago when we belonged to a CSA. Returning home one afternoon with our vegetable share, I was unloading the car in our driveway when my hands slipped. Crack! Hubbard squash guts all over the concrete. Accidental dropping on a hard surface turns out to be the most pain-free way to open this type of squash.

Not having a concrete driveway at the moment (today our driveway is a frozen ice rink rapidly becoming a mud trough), I needed another way to tackle Gus if he was going to be eaten before next year's harvest season. So I googled, "how to cut a Hubbard squash," which brought me to this link. As I scrolled down, I found this picture:

The text helpfully suggested purchasing a handsaw specifically for cutting squash and keeping it aside for such instances. Other photos depicted someone wielding a rubber mallet and a chef's knife. At the same time. Not having a pristine handsaw or rubber mallet at our disposal, I turned to a Cutco knife I capriciously bought at some point. It is supposedly designed for cutting into things like watermelons and winter squash, though having used it now many times, I think it's actually best for slicing tomatoes. At any rate, after some grunting and growling and a scary number of close-calls where I almost lost a finger, we eventually got through the sucker. The result was two highly unequal "halves" which still needed to somehow get peeled. Being without a microwave, I stuck the squash in the oven for a half hour until its resistance had been broken down a bit.

And then we proceeded with the one of my favorite recipes, Kaddo Bourani. Baked pumpkin plus sweet tomato sauce plus garlicky-salty-minty yogurt, served over rice-lentil pilaf. (To see the recipe, click on the blue word "recipes" because I'm cross-posting an entry I made on a now-defunct blog three years ago. Hey, there are only so many minutes in a day.)
Be forewarned: this dish is not a 30-minute, one-pot meal. But it's a great one to try if, say, your kids are running around the house with feverish glee because it's a snow day and you just want to hide out in the kitchen for a while. Plus, the deliciousness of Kaddo Bourani easily makes up for all the squash struggle and the time it takes to make it. If I ever get to Afghanistan (hopefully during peaceful times), I will definitely be thanking the good people there for originating this dish - it is truly a marvel of flavors.

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The rest of today's post is an update on a different struggle of ours: Dinnertime. Over the past couple of weeks, I've identified a few practices that are making for more pleasant evenings in our casa. If you're also dealing with dinnertime woes, hopefully one or more of these tips will help you, too.

1. Let the kids help. Not with the cooking (a sore point for me) but with setting the table, taking turns being the water pourer, etc. It helps them feel invested, and they learn a few points of table etiquette, too.
2. Let them bring their creativity to the table. Super-crafter Sophia adores making unique placecards each night, and is much happier when her favorite doll also has a place at the table.

3. Bring your creativity to the table also. Light a few candles, make the food visually appealing, play some appropriate music (we do a lot of international food + music themes, which always makes me feel like a 50's American housewife serving a poo-poo platter while dressed in a hula skirt listening to Perry Como, but whatever).

4. Encourage formality. Kids love to dress up and dinner is a perfect time to indulge their whims. Though trying to clean tomato sauce off a hand-wash-only princess dress makes me rethink this one a bit. It's good for them to see you taking dinner seriously, too, by not eating in your workout clothes or pajamas even if it's been a long day and you are sorely tempted. And who among us doesn't like the excuse to have a little wine with dinner?

5. Keep it together. You might be tempted to use the one time you are all in the same room together as an opportunity for airing grievances, minutely scrutinizing everyone's table manners, reliving your own childhood dinnertime woes, etc. Now is not the time. Try to enjoy your food and ignore the small child next to you who hasn't brushed her hair in three days and seems hell-bent on knocking the fork out of your hand with her wandering elbow. Little by little, these things will improve.

All that being said, there are going to be good eating nights and bad eating nights. My key insight recently is that if even dessert can't bribe them to eat their dinner, they just might not be hungry. Hmm, not eating when you're not hungry, now there's an interesting thought to consider... nah.