Crown Prince - the perfect vegetable

For several years, I have grown Crown Prince squashes, they are easy to grow, prolific, very handsome and store well. I have used them as hall decoration for most of the time, waiting until the tell tale seeping of fluid from beneath them reminds me it's time to put them on the compost heap. Now that I am avoiding going into shops and getting shopping delivered, I have found I need to stay up until midnight to get onto the supermarket websites to book a slot 3 weeks hence, and the Crown Prince look much more appealing than they did. Yesterday I circled the squashes, photographed them, Tweeted them and set about cooking with one, and thought I'd record the process because these are strange times, and the smallest activities become significant.

 Above my haul of squashes with one of Elsie's ink drawings in the background. They do look quite attractive grouped together. That is a large courgette in the foreground which has somehow survived the winter in the hall.

Above is the largest squash chosen for cooking

 I thought I'd weigh it, it was almost 4kg, nearly too heavy for the scales.

 It was hard to cut open, requiring a saw, just visible below right in the photograph. I was very pleased to note that the squash was in perfect condition.

 I skinned it, copped it up and fried it with leeks, par-cel and onions from the allotment, and added fresh and dried chillies.

 I gave some away to a neighbour, and still had this amount left which I offered to my daughter, she wasn't keen to I offered it to Patrick who had been appreciative of the squash on Twitter.

 Having cooked the veg, I added some curry paste, a tin of tomatoes and some prawns

The result was delicious, and there are 4 meals left!
I normally sow the seed under cover in early May and plant out after the risk of frost is over, and it romps away. The three squashes in the front of the photo germinated from where a compost heap had been so aren't 100% certainly Crown Princes.