Slow Cooker Curry with Buttercup Squash, Chicken, and Green Tomatoes

This slow cooker green tomato curry is studded with cubes of buttercup squash and chunks of marinated chicken. A flavorful and vegetable-filled warming meal.

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Buttercup squash are kind of homely looking, aren't they? Compared to the smooth unblemished skin of a butternut, they end up looking like the barnacle-covered whales of the winter squash family. No matter what a buttercup squash looks like on the outside, on the inside it's a thing of beauty.


A buttercup squash has rich orange flesh that can be peeled and cubed or roasted whole and pureed. Use it like you would most of the winter squash family (exception:  spaghetti squash). This recipe combines a buttercup squash with green tomatoes and chicken in a slow cooker curry.

Easy Toffee Apple Muffins #MuffinMonday

An easy blender muffin recipe combining apple chunks and toffee chips in a cinnamon-laced batter.

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I'm still exploring my new stomping grounds. Over the weekend we hiked around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, part of the University of Minnesota--those geniuses behind the Honeycrisp apple and the apple I used in today's muffin recipe--the SweeTango. My first bite of this apple I thought 'hmm, nope, it's a bit too tart for my tastes' but it's grown on me as I work my way down to the bottom of the bag. I have a couple left and will make apple crisp out of them, but I can already tell that they're good for baking since they make a tasty muffin!

Cabin Casserole (I know! How cute is this name?) aka Pork Chops Baked with Curried Green Tomatoes

Pork chops baked with curry-seasoned green tomatoes and onions in this homey casserole from a vintage cookbook.

Each time I make this dish, I add a few tweaks on the seasonings but keep the main elements of pork chops, green tomatoes, and onions. I'm happy to report that this casserole is delicious over rice and my family still ate it all up! I used lemon pepper seasoning with the pork chops and hot curry instead of sweet curry on the vegetables--and they were very flavorful.

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Right now the seasons are a bit topsy turvy. The temperature swings from shorts to sweater weather. I'm excited to turn on the oven but still using the grill. The trees have started to change colors and I foresee leaf raking in the not to distant future. Yet the tomato plants are still plugging away, producing plenty of tomatoes. Once the night temperature dips far enough, there's no amount of sunny days that will bring me red tomatoes. I need to bring them in to ripen--or learn to love green tomatoes. This recipe is one of the ways I've embraced green tomatoes, and I'm glad to re-share it with you.

I love to read cookbooks.  I may be terrible at actually following the recipes, but I never come away from a visit with a cookbook without inspiration.  The other day was no exception.  I was looking through the index of my mom's OK it's mine now 1950 1st edition Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook for something in the Cs, and I came across this recipe name:  Cabin Casserole.  I flipped to the page and saw this:

CABIN CASSEROLE

A heart-warming dish for a cold day.

Place in alternate layers in buttered casserole sliced onions

and sliced tomatoes (green preferred) . . . using in all 1/2

cup of each for each chop and sprinkling each layer with 

salt and curry powder.  On top, lay browned seasoned pork 

chops. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees (mod. oven) 45 min.

Then cover, and continue baking until tender
 (30-45 min more). Serve hot.