effing butternut squash.

This weekend I cooked dinner for some friends and one of the side dishes was a recipe for Warm Butternut Squash with Chickpeas from Smitten Kitchen.  I don't have any pictures of the finished product...you can go to the Smitten Kitchen's website for those.  But I'm here to talk about effing Butternut Squash.  Oh sure, when you look at the beautiful pictures on Smitten Kitchen you think, "Hmm, I could totally make that."  But when you buy two butternut squash and begin to peel them you find yourself thinking, "WTF!"  Don't be deceived by the name: Butternut....there's nothing buttery bout this effin squash in its raw state.  I thought peeling would take 10 min tops...30 min later.....

With trusty vegetable peeler in hand I commenced peeling but it could be better described as whittling hard oak wood with a butter knife.  The first thing you realize while peeling is that the skin is like titanium.  The next thing you notice is that the squash juices that dry on your skin creates some kind of impenetrable film on your skin that won't come off with soap but only with salt and steel wool...yes, STEEL WOOL!  Augh.  And it's not like peeling a potato where one swipe of the peeler does the job, no sir, you must keep peeling and peeling the same area to make sure you're getting past the thick titanium skin.

Was the final product worth it?  Yeah, it was tasty and people seemed to like it.  But I think next time I make this I'll be mentally prepared to attack the effing butternut squash.