Ask the A2K cooks!

Pumpkin seed oil is wonderful. You can buy it from iGourmet.com and probably other sites. It is a little pricey, but a little goes a long way.

Ooooh that peppery roasted squash sounds wonderful!

Meantime, I seem to be awash in squash - I get email updates from a number of cooking sites like fine cooking and saveur, so help me! I deal with a plethora of food imagery, poor me. Anyway, via Saveur, here's a Marcella Hazan recipe (she is how I learned italian cooking, somewhat and partly) for a squash risotto with clams. Me, I'd forget the clams, would make some other risotto with them.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Risotto-with-Butternut-Squash-Leeks-and-Clams?cmpid=enews111510

I admit I have trouble envisioning the mix of the squash, the leeks, and clams. I might also skip the leeks... maybe filling in with caramelized onions. What a brat.
If any here try the recipe as is, let us know..

A mandoline would do the job.

This is my favorite one, it is $40, but there are others for as little as $10.

http://www.amazon.com/Swissmar-Borner-V-1001-V-Slicer-Mandoline/dp/B0000632QE/ref=sr_1_41?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1289939315&sr=1-41

I got a set of mandoline type things that looked like what Butrflynet posted at a japanese shop in west LA. The trouble with that is, that besides mac knives and other kitchen goods, the shop had a lot of stuff I liked and wanted. There may be a similar type place in NYC.

Most department stores and discount stores should have them.

Target has one:

Here's one at Macy's.

What type of kitchen knife are you using to cut up the squash? A decent Santuko should handle squash nicely for you.

Also, if you've got the local availability, it's worth taking at least one knife-handling course. Very helpful.

I used a bread knife to halve the squash. The knife would have been sharp enough to cut it into round slices. But I wouldn't have had enough control to cut it into small needles of, say 2mm * 2mm * 50mm.

UPDATE: Just Googled "Santuko". Will check it out the next time I go to Target. Their smaller knives have proven quite decent.

One trick that I've started using lately as the strength in my wrists wanes with age is to use a meat tenderizing mallet on the back of the knife to help me work it through the hard squash. Just slice a small sliver off of one side to help keep the squash steady and go to town with a good kitchen knife and the mallet.

A bread knife is constructed differently than what I'd call a "kitchen knife".

A bread knife is more of a saw than a hatchet. Using the right tools really makes a difference.

Point taken. I'll check out that Santuko and attend the martial arts cl... I mean, knife handling class, to go with it.

I went to grade school with a kid named MArshall Harz.

Butrflynet, would slicer you recommend be robust and enough and large enough to handle squash? Squash is pretty hard. At least the one I tried so far.

Ha!

Thomas, get a food processor. They're not that expensive and very useful.

have you considered a chain saw?

What about a hatchet?

Tomahawk?

Just get a decent kitchen knife!

You don't know American squash. I'm afraid nothing short of a hand grenade will do.

Listen to Dear Margo - get a decent kitchen knife!

Yes we do Its the same all over just different name which we alrady covered a page or so ago.

Are you ready for a ceramic knife? They are a tool that must be learned . THey break because they are brittle (THEY ARE CERAMIC). But, there is none sharper forever. You will never need sharpening of your tool. They should never be used for chopping just cutting you cannot use one with a serrated edge, the serrations will break, but you can cut through a watermelon or bamboo like it was butter. Cutting meat is a snap, but you dont wanna bone with it. (You know what I mean)