Teresa.
I love those gourds! I always just roast them until they’re soft and eat them with lots of butter and salt.

Me.
Well then, don’t be surprised if you hear the doorbell ring and find a paper bag full of gourds abandoned on your doorstep one afternoon. Last week we dropped Eddie at a friend’s house for the weekend (had an allergic house guest) and we included in the bag a spaghetti squash that was larger than the cat!

Me.
Half the issue is getting INTO the gourd in order to roast it. Whoever suggested that you could PEEL an uncooked butternut squash? Trying to open a butternut squash with a vegetable peeler is like trying saw a log in half with a noodle. Maybe I need a meat cleaver?

Teresa.
Ok, so you can peel a butternut squash. After seeing it online a million places and trying it and failing, I went out and bought a new peeler and that made the difference. It was now possible, although it dulls the peeler quickly and when the peeler is sharp I always felt in imminent danger of peeling my finger.

Me.
Let’s review: a gourd can ruin a metal vegetable peeler and then threatens to turn the peeler on you? Any food that puts up that much of a fight makes me think that maybe I just wasn’t meant to eat it.

Teresa.
And I should have said I’m onboard with all the gourds except spaghetti squash. Those are just a cruel trick. Roast them and then mix the roasted squash in with something yummy to hide it… like pasta sauce. I once made the mistake of substituting the squash for noodles. Ugh. You will not be fooled. Have real noodles also.

Me.
My forth-coming memoir about learning to eat gourds will be called, “Have Real Noodles Also.”