Carefully Cutting Butternut Squash

I have owned a very large butternut squash for many weeks.  It sat on the counter of the cooking altar from before Christmas.  Perhaps from before Thanksgiving.

It was never the "right" time to cut it open, cut off the skin and cube it until today.  No fingers were injured in the process.  I need to pay attention and cut carefully and safely.

The large sheet tray held it all.  Covered in good olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roasting until soft on the inside and chewy on the outside.  I know it would be chew-ier if left unpeeled.  Someday I will do that.  But not today.  I often eat the entire trayful as it sits on the stove top cooling.  That might happen today. In fact, I hardly remember having any in the fridge when I bake it.  I like it right after it is cooked.  I have a recipe for a Fettucine with Butternut Squash sauce.  Very rich.  Very heavy.  Not for today.

In the Winter Time I like to have roasted vegetables in the fridge.  To make a quick "bowl" for a meal.  I do not have any kale leaves for a bowl.  I need to buy some.  I like them sautéed with olive oil, salt and pepper and red chili flakes.  The kale goes well with the roasted squash cubes. I do have a bag of Brussels sprouts in the freezer which I can add to the pan in the oven.

Today, even though it is freezing cold outside, I am having a big salad for supper later in the day.  I have plenty of lettuce that needs to be used and eaten, carrots, the last bit of red cabbage, red onion from my summer garden.  I have canned tuna to make into a protein to go with the salad.  Albacore from Trader Joe's.  I also have some yellowfin.  I have given up on chicken.  Now it seems I need to be eating tuna.

Tomorrow I am going to the Dermatologist.  My first time ever.  He is a very good doctor and makes a complete map of your body on each visit.  I'm sure he'll find things that need to be removed.  A family trait.  My father went for a while in his early 80's to have dark patches on his face removed.  Then he stopped going because it "hurt too much".  But he liked the way his face looked after the treatments.

I had a mole removed from the center of my forehead when I was 8.  My grandfather wanted the mole replaced with a small diamond---- I never found out why he wanted that to happen.

What would my life have been like if I had had a diamond implanted above my eyes in 1954? The 60's would have been even more interesting for me, I think.