potluckFixins_lI had two potlucks this past weekend, a Saturday night potluck at a Scottish Country Dance and a Sunday night potluck at a house concert. So, I hit the garden Saturday afternoon to see what I could find for the potlucks. I managed to come up with (from left to right) brocolli florets, baby butternut squash, zucchini and yellow crook-neck summer squash, three varieties of cherry-sized tomatoes, and two varieties of cucumbers. Here’s what I cooked up.

Saturday night’s potluck consisted of a tomato-cucumber salad, with five types of tomatoes (two heirloom varieties from my favorite local grocery, Farmer Joe’s were added to the mix), both lemon and suyo long cucumbers and homegrown garlic and basil (not shown in above picture). It made a nice salad.

Sunday I decided to use up some of the many baby butternut squash I have around, so I baked three of the squash and added a little butter for a very simple but tasty dish.

I should add that one of the reasons I like growing my own food is that I can harvest it when I want. Commercial butternut squash is grown very large so the grower can maximize profits with a large, heavy squash. Because I have plenty of squash on this one vine, I can harvest some while they are still small, what I call baby butternuts. The advantage of harvesting winter squash when they are small is that the skin is soft and can be eaten after cooking. There is no need to scoop out the meat from a hard shell. It’s easy, simple and tasty.

Everything else will have to get eaten later this week! There’s too much for just two potlucks. By the way, check out the my butternut squash vine, which is taking over part of my back yard!

butternutVine_l