Calabacitas By Any Other Name Is Squash - A Dish Of My Youth

When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico you couldn't get me to eat squash if it was candy coated, dipped in chocolate and disguised as a super hero but you could always get me to eat Calabacitas. You see I didn't know what calabacitas was but I did know that I loved it and I did know that I hated squash. I wouldn't even taste squash if it was offered to me. I grew up in a family that spoke more spanish than english but we spoke english at home since my parents wanted us to grow up that way and squash was one of those english words that I could not possibly put in my mouth. Squash - thats what I did to bugs, thats what happened to toads that didn't make it across the road, squash was an absolutely gross word. Calabacitas, on the other hand had a tasty ring to it, calabacitas had cheese. Well to make a long story short you can imagine my surprise when I saw one of my aunts making calabacitas and she said "and now we add the squash" - the WHAT - I thought - no, don't ruin it but she did it anyway and I saw what she was putting in and it was zucchini - now I am completely confused. What the heck is going on here? It wasn't until I asked what does Calabacita mean that I learned it was SQUASH. I had been eating squash all along and loving it. I still prefer to say Calabacita or Zucchini and if I do eat a squash I use its name like Kabocha and when people say "whats Kabocha" then I have to say "squash" but I use that word sparingly. Enjoy my Calabacitas, its my favorite thing to eat in the summer.

I like to cook everything separately giving each item its own special attention and color and caramelization before combining them together. Its not the traditional way to make it because it is a bit more fussy but thats the way I like to do it - fussy.

Once everything is ready I mix it and today I had some Lambs Quarters, a delicious wild green, so it went into the skillet with my peeled and roasted chiles that I chopped up.

I don't always have fresh oregano but since its one of the herbs we have in abundance in the garden this year I will get to use it more often, what a treat, so a little fresh oregano that I chopped up, some melty cheese - I like muenster, and some warm corn tortillas and you are all set. If you want to add more cheese to your plate then do it because thats what I do.

All thats left to do now is try to get the right proportion of calabacitas to tortilla and just eat and eat until you balance it out- Calabacitas - its what squash wants to be.

It's that time again

Yup, mushrooms, how'd you guess?



After breakfast of Mondongo we........




Passed through into the magical forest.....



we encountered large tortoises.....



and some nasty looking stinkhorns......





Chicken mushrooms and...





Honey mushrooms with a cityscape......




and this bad boy that is similar to a portabella but I forget its name at the moment....when it comes to me I will post it but BTW this ones flavor is not all that great.

Oh and on a side note that guy passing into the magical forest is my mushroom buddy who knows all the edible anythings and he told me the name of this one but I forgot and he said it tastes bad and I tasted it and he was right but "banana" tasted it and liked it and ate all of it.

lets clear up some things....I personally can identify about 6 mushrooms in the wild and thats about it...well maybe 7 or 10 but this guy knows every single living edible thing that is a plant or fungus. He is vegan and our recipes differ but we still eat the same things...mostly. Oh and we went out yesterday (wednesday) morning early and were back in the city by noon.

A Fungus Amoung us

I find them, I buy them and I really want to grow them, I could eat them with anything except for some reason I dont like them raw and that is mushrooms. I have had so many varieties both wild and tame from here to Timbuktu, but today I just have a big bunch of regular button mushrooms and I am eager to try something new. Any suggestions?