Zucchini Pancakes with fresh wild blackberries
Back to creative outlets for our zucchini glut. Zucchini for breakfast (or brunch)! Pancakes are an underutilized food group. They can be savory or sweet, salty or caramelized. Eggy, floury, or, in this case, loaded with zucchini. This is a great way to boost the nutritional profile of your pancake, yet still good with berries and maple syrup (grade B, of course!). Continue reading
Tromboncini Rotini – A tasty, colorful, and unique summer dinner
Taking another break from the mass influx of zucchini, it’s time to play with tromboncini squash again. I love Troboncini – they are extremely versatile, functioning as both a winter and a summer squash. Their flavor is somewhere between a zucchini and a butternut. And they have a long, seedless neck.
The parmesan tromboncini discs I made the other day were really yummy. But let’s face it, that’s an appetizer. We needed something more substantial for dinner. And colorful. Time for squash and pasta! Continue reading
Parmesan Tromboncini Discs
Even though we’re getting slammed with zucchini, the Tromboncini squash are also starting to come in. Tromboncini are uncommon, but I’m not sure why. They’re very productive, at least in terms of pounds of food produced (though most of the squash tend to be large, so you don’t necessarily have large numbers of them). They are easy to use – they have a long neck that is entirely seedless, then a bulb on the end that contains all of the seeds, and a skin that’s only slightly thicker than zucchini, so most recipes don’t need peeling. They are versatile – they can function both as a summer squash and as a winter squash (though they don’t store quite as long as, say, a butternut). And they are very tasty, with a flavor somewhere between a zucchini and an acorn squash.
Anyway, we have converted a few true believers at market. Most people are afraid to try them, but those who do usually come back for more. But, due either to the massive pile of zucchini on our table, or too few brave culinarians, we had a few left after this week’s markets. So, yesterday was a day to be creative with Tromboncini. Continue reading
Mom’s Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Another round in the Great Zucchini Conundrum of 2017… I remembered back to the late 1980’s, when my mom made a very popular Chocolate Zucchini Cake. She is at home recovering from rotator cuff surgery, so I gave her a call. It took her a bit to dig up the recipe, but she did!
Classic Pasta Carbonara, with a Zucchini twist
I was flipping through The Flavor Bible, looking for ways to use my excessive zucchini harvest, and I noticed several flavors I love being highly recommended, including thyme, parmesan, cream, and black pepper. Wait a minute! Those plus bacon (which makes everything better) are all the flavors that make the classic pasta carbonara sauce!
Surely I could make something of that! So I did.
Chad’s Brandy Glazed Zucchini Bread
“What can I do with all of my zucchini?” “Google Zucchini Recipes.” “Here, take a zucchini. I insist.” These are common queries among gardeners this time of year. If you live in a small town like Culver, you may not lock your car doors, except for his time of year – when you fear someone might leave a pile of zucchini in it!
Zucchini is extremely seasonal, and generally quite productive. Thus, people tend to look for unique zucchini ideas, recipes that use a lot of zucchini, or that will use them in new ways, Continue reading
Chad’s Brandy Glazed Zucchini Bread
It’s the heart of zucchini season, and so that means zucchini bread. I ran out of printed copies of my recipe at the market, and since, I’ve had at least a dozen people ask me for my recipe, with the urgency of most people with a refrigerator overpacked with squash.
Well, I promised I’d post it this week. I just barely made it, but here it is for your weekend!
The Flavor Bible
There are many cookbooks in my personal library, but only a few would I enshrine in the list of Cookbooks I’d Rather Not Live Without. My second review for this blog will also be one of those, The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dorenburg. Though, truth be told, it’s not really a cookbook, per se…
Blueberry Basil Salad Dressing
I awoke from my post-farmers’-market nap Saturday with a start. I had been pondering what to feed some farm volunteers (and us) who were planning to come by Sunday morning, as well as how best to emphasize the produce we’re harvesting now. And it came to me in a flash. Or a dream. I can almost never remember my dreams…
It’s getting into mid-July, and we’re starting to get some good variety in the harvest, but not really high summer. Some exciting stuff is coming in – we’re harvesting lots of blueberries, cucumbers and zucchini are coming in strong buy we’re not sick of them yet, and the basil is really getting going. Wait a minute! Blueberries and basil might go together!
Blueberry Buckle
I’m not sure where my blueberry buckle recipe originates from. I think it might have been 7th grade home economics class… Nonetheless, I’ve been making it for years, with a few alterations along the way. It’s a great way to celebrate blueberry season!