The Annual Zucchini Roundup

I'm sitting here in my new house, on my new street, in my new neighborhood, in a new city.  Granted, it's just two miles from the other one, but still.  It's new to us.  We are unpacked and making our daily living space work for us.  I am not sure I thought I could be more content with less space than I'm used to, but geez - I'm happy with this space.  It took me a whopping 8.5 minutes yesterday to clean all the rooms but one.  That deserves a "woohoo" if anything does.

Oh, and look at these sweeties: my little kitchen helpers.  Goodness, do they make me melt.  Big Sister just keeps me at the edge of my seat, waiting for the next awesome thing she's going to say (like yesterday: "Hey, Mommy, you're the best mommy in the world.  I like being with you.  Now will you please go out of my room?").  And Little Girl is pure spunk: keeping up with the big kids, and running to give kisses and hugs like there's no tomorrow.  She likes to shush her baby dolls, ask for things by name (I finally figured out "nee-nets" means Kleenex), and generally do everything by herself.  

Oh, the zucchini, you say?  I almost forgot that this is a post about zucchini.

Here: friends from church gave us some.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but look at the one at the back, and then realize that it's as wide as the cart it's sitting on ... which is 18".  Yes, a massive zucchini.  I promised these friends that I'd repay the kindness with a little rundown of what I was doing with the zucchini (as well as a little treat, but shhh, don't tell!).

Here's what we've done so far:

Chocolate Zucchini Bread, with chocolate chips of course.  I actually reduced the sugar by half and upped the amount of shredded zucchini in there.  According to custom, one must refer to this as "vegetable bread" and must eat some whenever one's body needs some vegetables.

Goat Cheese-Zucchini Tart: using this recipe from Fine Cooking as a springboard, I used up about 4 oz. of goat cheese mixed with some local herbs (ehem - from my back herb garden!), spread on a pastry crust.  I did make my own crust, but I think a storebought dough would work beautifully as well.  It's a pretty simple recipe, and the flavors really mix so nicely!

Zucchini tacos: OK, no recipe here.  But I chopped up some zucchini into 1/4" cubes and sauteed them in oil for a bit - so they'd get soft but not mushy - then added a tablespoon or so of fajita seasoning.  Then we just layered them in tortillas with the works before gobbling them up in about 42 seconds.

There's still half a zucchini left: that's going on tonight's pizza along with some eggplant, tomatoes, pesto, and parmesan cheese.

(and yes, it will be followed by vegetable bread.)

Zucchini Four Ways

Are you finding yourself with tons of zucchini these days?

We are.

We are hanging out with some friends who have had a rather prolific garden zucchini season - so prolific, in fact, that they've shared multiple 12-pound zucchinis the size of baseball bats (I'm not kidding) that suddenly showed up in their garden.

Do you see the muscle strain?
This 'chini is no joke.

Just for some perspective.  That is not a mini bottle of wine.

So, what should we do with such garden abundance?  Why, serve it four different ways!

Zucchini Tarts

Zucchini Tart: we used this recipe for a Zucchini Quiche, but layered it in little tart pans instead.  A double recipe made 12 4-inch tarts.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Here is the recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread from the Rhymes With Smile archives.  We have been referring to it as Chocolate Vegetables around here, so that we can eat it whenever.

Grilled Zucchini

Easy grilled zucchini: sliced in 1/4-inch rounds, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper, then grilled over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Cheesy Zucchini Rice

Cheesy Zucchini Rice: a recipe I found on Pinterest.  In a nutshell, cook some rice with a little more water or broth than usual.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 1 pound of shredded zucchini, 8 ounces shredded cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover with lid and let sit for 5-10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.  This was really delicious!

So ... what do you do when faced with lots and lots of zucchini?