{"id":201,"date":"2014-06-02T15:48:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T22:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2014-07-17T18:12:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T01:12:59","slug":"its-not-easy-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s not easy, continued"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post is continued from the May 31, 2014 post, &#8220;It&#8217;s not easy being green.&#8221; Did you watch the video? Here it is again:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5mrwG76tr0M\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Where were we? Ah, yes. \u00a0Auntie Edna used &#8220;pumpkin tips&#8221; in her shrimp dish.<\/p>\n<p>I searched and searched online for ideas on how to cook squash tips. \u00a0(Go ahead, Google &#8220;squash tips.&#8221; You will learn very little about cooking.)<\/p>\n<p>I switched to pumpkin shoots, pumpkin tips, squash shoots. I finally found a newspaper article in which the author said he (she?) cooked some cucumber vine tips, and that they were delicious.<\/p>\n<p>I finally just DID IT. I cut off a bunch of the new growth tips, about eight inches in length each, from the spaghetti squash plant. I didn&#8217;t do anything special to prepare them; no peeling or scraping. Yes, squash plants are prickly. They can cause temporary skin irritation. Regardless, I just rinsed those suckers and cut them into half-inch pieces. If the stem was thicker than a pencil, i discarded it &#8211; just in case it was too tough or bitter.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_86\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image17.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-86\" src=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image17-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"Spaghetti Squash vine tip\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image17-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image17-1024x764.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-86\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spaghetti Squash vine tip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I used the leaves, the tendrils, the tiny baby blossoms: all into the pot! I saut\u00e9ed them in olive oil and covered the pan with a lid. \u00a0I cut a couple of grape tomatoes in half and threw them in with the greens. Also some chopped garlic. They were fairly tender, fairly soon. Maybe five minutes with the lid on? A little salt, and I served them up, along with some saut\u00e9ed kale for comparison.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict? I would eat the squash tips ANY day over kale. It was freakin&#8217; fantastic. Joe compared the two greens this way: Kale is like super dark chocolate &#8211; an acquired taste. Squash tips are like milk chocolate &#8211; nothing strong or odd. They were mild and tender, and their pre-cooked prickly nature had disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that squash and pumpkin plants are eaten in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Sicily. Maybe you&#8217;ve heard about fried stuffed squash blossoms? That&#8217;s Italian. I will now follow the wisdom of these other food cultures and eat the entire plant!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a food blogger who cooks with winter squash leaves:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/praneesthaikitchen.com\/2011\/08\/09\/winter-squash-leaves-salted-coconut-milk\/\">Pranee&#8217;s Thai Kitchen &#8211; Winter Squash Leaves in Salted Coconut Milk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I might experiment with a stuffed squash leaf dish, a la stuffed grape leaves or cabbage rolls? I will definitely incorporate some coconut milk into the dish too. I&#8217;ll write about it when it happens! \u00a0And to everyone in Guam: Hafa Adai! -Tina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is continued from the May 31, 2014 post, &#8220;It&#8217;s not easy being green.&#8221; Did you watch the video? Here it is again: &nbsp; Where were we? Ah, yes. \u00a0Auntie Edna used &#8220;pumpkin tips&#8221; in her shrimp dish. I searched and searched online for ideas on how to cook squash tips. \u00a0(Go ahead, Google &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?p=201\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;It&#8217;s not easy, continued&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[59],"tags":[13,11,12],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"wbAuthor":{"name":"Tina DeSoto","link":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?author=1"},"wbDate":"Jun 2, 2014","wbCategories":{"space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?cat=59\" rel=\"category\">Inside the House<\/a>","coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/?cat=59\" rel=\"category\">Inside the House<\/a>"},"wbComment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image17.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IwZW-3f","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartasheck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}