Squash

Before baking a potato or steaming some rice for dinner tonight, think twice about opting for a unique, tasty side dish. Squash are in season and they are delicious and nutritious. Don't be intimidated by this “foreign” plant- they actually are quite simple to work with and you can eat almost the whole thing. Leave the peal on to get the most nutrients from the vegetable and eat the seeds for a small dose of heart healthy fats. Just simply bake, boil, steam, microwave, saute, stir fry, or grill the variety of squash that looks the most appealing at the grocery store, roadside stand, or local farm. Boil or mash winter squash just as you would potatoes and add peeled squash cubes to your favorite soups, stews, beans, gratins, and vegetable ragouts.Here are a few varieties to check out:
• Amber cup
• Autumn cup
• Acorn
• Banana
• Butternut
• Buttercup
• Carnival squash
• Delicata
• Fairytail
• Gold Nugget
• Hubbard
• Kabocah
• Sweet Dupling
• Turban
• Spaghetti

Brush up on your history while you are cooking too. Squash really are not foreign at all. They were one of the first foods planted by settlers. Squash are one of the "Three Sisters" planted by Native Americans. The Three Sisters were the three main indigenous plants used for agriculture: maize (corn), beans, and squash. These crops were usually planted together so that the cornstalk could provide support for the beans to grow and also shade for the squash. The squash vines provided ground cover to limit weeds. The beans, in turn, provided nitrogen for all three crops.

These websites provide a ton of cooking tips and recipes-
http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htmhttp://whatscookingamerica.net/SquashRecipes.htm