I grew Confection for the first time because I wanted a dry squash, similiar to Buttercup, that kept well. I don't know how long it will keep but this is the dryest squash I've ever cooked. I added some evaporated milk and should have added more. I've been searching recipes so I'm sure I can do a better job the next time. It was so dry it was mealy. In the past we've been careful not to overcook Buttercup because it can get watery. (I don't usually cook Butternut because we think it's too watery.) But Confection although nice tasting needs some extra liquid. On my plate, out of desperation, I mixed in some apple sauce. I'm not sure I would grow it again. We have enjoyed Kabocha varieties from the market but this year we were able to grow winter squash. I got the seed from Johnnie's. We'll have to see how they do in storage since my husband's family felt lucky to have Buttercup last until Christmas. Any thoughts/advice on how Confection compares with other Kabocha varieties?

I love Mexican food too and your menu is terrific. I would enjoy it. Without having seen your menu, I might have come up with these three courses: Sopa de Aquacate Chilaquiles Flan Sopa de Aguacate Ingredients 3 fully ripe Hass avocados 6 cups of your best rich chicken broth 6 tortilla chips (to garnish) Directions 1\. Remove pulp from the avocados. 2\. Use a blender to puree the avocados with the broth. 3\. Heat the mixture to just short of boiling and serve garnished with broken tortilla chips. The avocado soup is ultra simple to make and ultra good to eat. Jim

Suzi, I do have a collection of fans that I can take, including a battery operated one that I got from L.A. Metro at some festival I went to downtown years ago. I'll also take several hats. The one I have from the Ivory Coast keeps my head the coolest, and so I may have to wear that. I am definitely going to the three olive producers, and the remote one is close to Cass Winery, which I thought we would visit on the way there, but I find the descriptions they have of their wines a bit off-putting. I'm not sure I would appreciate "Complex flavors ... with notes of pomegranate, dried cranberries, whole white peppercorns and crushed geranium flowers." I've never eaten geranium flowers, crushed or otherwise, but I generally crush the white peppercorns instead of leaving them whole. I received a DeLorme southern California atlas today, and so I should be okay in the map department. I also received a brochure from the Paso Robles Wine Country Association, and it has a very good large map. The brochure has very good information as well and will be handy to have with us. I will definitely give you an olive report, and I hope to be able to buy some interesting olive oil. I may or may not buy wine - that is less important to me. There should be some small, friendly wineries that we could visit, but they might not be open on the days we are there. Lars

Tonight I made pesto using some of the Pasolivo oil, along with basil from my yard. I diluted the Pasolivo oil with some Spanish oil that I already had, and I had not realized how mild the Spanish oil was. It is definitely in a different class from the oils I just bought but still good to have. I think I will save my strong flavored oils for vinaigrette or dipping sauces, where their flavors can be more appreciated. The Pasolivo oil that I used has a strong peppery flavor (which I like), but since I was adding pepper to the pesto, I thought I might as well dilute it with milder (and cheaper) oil. Most of the olives in Paso are Spanish in origin, although there are also quite a few Italian/Tuscan olives grown. However, the Spanish olives have been in the region so long that they are now considered California olives. I am now able to notice a difference, but I am not sure if that is partly because of the freshness. While I really liked the selections at We Olive, I was not impressed with the people working there. They could not even spell muffaletta and started it with âÂÂMOFFâÂÂ, which prevented them from finding it in their computer. Kevin stored the wine we bought in the garage refrigerator, and I hope we may start drinking some of it this week-end. The climate in Paso is best suited to red wines (or so I was told) and especially the French whites such as from Cote du Rhone. I think the climate is more like Bordeaux, but I did not notice that in the wineries that we visited. I was mostly interested in white wines, but I think I should have gone to Sonoma for that. We did find some excellent sparkling white wine at Rio Seco Winery (on the East side), and that was my favorite winery. We only went to wineries that had free tastings, although some of them had a $5 fee that was waived if you bought something, and we did end up buying something and therefore did not have to pay for the tasting. Rio Seco has complementary tastings with no fee charged whether you buy or not, and they also had the best wine. My thought was that if the winery has great wine, there should be no need to charge for tastings because once you taste it, you will want to buy it. None of the wineries we visited had more than a handful of other people there besides us, and we were often the only people there. We do plan to go back for another visit fairly soon, and next time we will be more educated. It will be a while before we will need more wine, however, but the trip is a very pleasant one. We had great weather, and the woman at Olivas de Oro said that it was really too hot on the day of the Olive Festival, which I do not feel bad for missing. Lars This post was edited by publickman on Sat, Aug 30, 14 at 1:48