Squash - It's What's for Dinner

One of my favorite treats is yellow squash, sliced potato chip thin, dusted with flour and pan-fried so that they are crisp on the edges and sweet and tender in the middle. I only allow myself to do this once a year, as I've tried to get away from my childhood food tradition of frying vegetables.

I'm taking one of my favorite dishes, Squash Casserole, to the Slow Food potluck this afternoon. I kept experimenting with different variations of this traditional Southern dish until I got the one that I liked the most. This is it:


4 cups chopped yellow squash
1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 T flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 dozen crumbled (Ritz-like) crackers, divided
1 c grated extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided
butter


Cook the squash and onion together until tender, drain, and cool. Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients together except butter, half the crackers and half the cheese. Put in a lightly buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle the other half of the cracker crumbs and cheese on top and dot with butter. Cook for 40 minutes.

Notes: You can substitute other cooked vegetables in this dish. I added some corn scraped off a leftover cob from dinner last night. I've also added carrots and broccoli in past versions.

Origins:

Zephyr squash - Dark Hollow Farm and my garden (plants from Dark Hollow also!)

Vidalia onion and flour - Deep Roots Market

Eggs and cheese - The Molners at Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market

Milk and butter - Homeland Creamery

Crackers - Tree of Life Classic Golden, from Earth Fare

Corn - "Candy" corn from W & S Peterson Family Farm at Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market