The Sidebar: Why I Roasted Squash on a 90-Degree Day And Other Dubious Decisions.

Plus: Notebooks for Life, September Eleventh Flower, and The Recipe

1.    About that squash.

In our little kitchen in our stifling house on a day when the heat index was 92, I decided it would be a good idea to turn the oven on – and keep it on for at least an hour. And for good measure, to stand right next to the oven. The old oven. The 30-year-old JennAir with the broken downdraft fan. The one that leaks enough heat to toast marshmallows on a crisp October day.

Only this was a September-thinks-it’s-July day, and the back of my neck was sticky, my linen apron heavy and awkward, my skin itchy. All my skin, all my body parts. Poison ivy everywhere.

Why? I mean why turn the oven on, not why the poison ivy – which is a question for God, Farmer, and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank trail managers to answer, not me.  

I turned the oven on to roast these two adorable honeynut squash that I bought at Ray’s Produce in Delaware. I’m not sure Ray’s sells anything that isn’t adorable, if that is possible for a farmstand, but it’s a farmstand inside of a flea market, so there’s that. They even had those darn green (blue?) Cinderella pumpkins – and fall squash for miles – when I was there over Labor Day. I know, I know, this pumpkin and fall decorating thing inches backwards every year.

I’d been staring at these two cute squash and revisiting in my head the squash I let rot in the basement last winter. That was not pretty. Not even recognizable, as a matter of fact. No more treating squash like they have an infinite shelf life. You buy ‘em, you cook ‘em, I told myself. Plus, I had brought four gorgeous ears of pearly white Silver Queen corn back from Delaware. And my Sungold tomatoes, plucked off the hoop house plants upon our return, were starting to attract fruit flies.

This all seemed to me like a recipe for Roasted Honeynut Squash with Brown Butter Corn and Roasted Cherry Tomato Filling just waiting to happen. I’m mad about squash and corn together and will look for any excuse to combine them. Add lime, add chili crisp, add crispy shallots if you like, but you can’t go wrong.

It seemed like a good idea at the time – creating a recipe I could pass along to you here. And I have, at the end of this post. The only problem is that it isn’t really fall squash-cooking weather yet. So, um, I’m sorry? I don’t know what else to say. I jumped the gun, per usual.

Sometimes my head spins, trying to figure out which recipes to develop when. I write recipes for a magazine three or four months ahead of season, I write recipes for a weekly cooking newsletter. And for many years I developed recipes six months ahead of season for magazines. Oy. What I like best is to cook what’s right in front of me, what’s enticed me at the market. And to try not to waste any of it. 

I’m hoping you’ll forgive me for jumping into fall vegetables, because the recipe is tasty. And, as many of my recipes do, it functions as a flexible template for changing up as you please. So you can make it (again! and again!) when the temps drop. That is, if you have electricity after the hurricane. Just kidding.