Butternut PSA

I like me some butternut squash. But I do not like the tedious peel/skin-removal process. I inevitably underestimate how long it will take and get panicky about dinner not being ready in time and end up nearly slicing of my fingers. Because I am an idiot and did not realize until yesterday that instead of getting all crazy with little slippery chunks and a paring knife I could just skin the whole damn thing with a vegetable peeler before I cut it up.
Last night when I had this revelation I felt like a genius for about 10 seconds. Then I just felt embarrassed that I hadn’t thought of it sooner and probably all the cool kids have been doing it that way forever. Then I redeemed myself with another awesome idea: I discarded the skin and kept on a-peelin’ until I had a heap of squash flesh ribbons. What a phrase. SQUASH FLESH RIBBONS. And they were awesome. They cooked to a state of delicious tender-but-not-mushy-ness after only a couple minutes in the frying pan with some sage and walnuts, and were the perfect gnocchi topping. Best of all, they looked all fancy. Thanksgiving ’08 here we come!