Roasted Butternut Squash

It's Fall and I love this time of year...the crisp days, the bright blue sky, and the colors: the oranges and the golds, both in the landscape and on my plate.

And I am a sucker for pumpkins, especially these warty pumpkins. These bumps add so much personality to these autumn squashes!

Speaking of squash, 'tis the season for butternut squash. (An FYI tidbit: butternut squash is known as butternut pumpkin in Australia and New Zealand). Anyway, it's in abundance right now and so is the sage in my garden. These two fall flavors make a great combination. Sage pesto has now taken the place of basil pesto and it's just as tasty as the summer basil version.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage Pesto

1 butternut squash
1 bunch of sage
1/3 c. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted
big pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Peel and slice squash into 1/2 inch slices, removing seeds. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil. Place the squash on the baking sheet in a single layer. 

Prepare the pesto: Put the sage, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and salt in a food processor and process until fairly smooth. 

Coat the squash slices with the pesto. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender.

Zucchini-palooza 17 and 18

The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini.  Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables.  At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt.

~  Dave Barry

Zucchini-palooza #17
Use-up-some-leftovers-stuffed peppers

Kielbasa, deer sausage, farro, onion, mozzarella, and you know what! Added a little Sweet Baby Ray's and some sriracha. My son took a couple to work for his dinner and his co-workers were jealous!

Zucchini-palooza #18 and FINALE!

Dug out the old family pumpkin bread recipe and added zucchini to it. 

To make all of these loaves, it took a mere 

17 eggs 

13 c. flour

 12 c. sugar

 5 c. oil

 30 c. shredded zucchini

a few Tablespoons of spices

Zucchini-palooza 13, 14, 15, 16

                           Zucchini is a 24/7 food: appetizer, main dish, side dish and snack ~

Zucchini-palooza #13

Zucchini cornbread 

Needed to find a recipe that would get hubs excited about all this zucchini that's taken over the veggie bin. Mission accomplished!

Zucchini-palooza #14

This started  out as a simple caprese salad and evolved into grilled zucchini caprese topping for bruschetta! (And FYI, Italians pronounce this broo-SKEH-tah).

Zucchini-palooza #15
Zucchini noodle lasagna

Look beneath that cheesy goodness and there are zucchini noodles layered with a meaty, vegetable-y sauce. 

   Zucchini-palooza #16
Zucchini gratin with Gruyere and salsa verde.

O. M. G. The flavors in this are fabulous! The freshness of the salsa verde, the bold Gruyere cheese, buttery bread crumbs, and oh yes, the zucchini! A BIG thank you to my Philadelphia foodie niece for suggesting this recipe. Yum-O! 

Zucchini-palooza 9, 10, 11, 12

Zucchini's terrific! 
Like bunnies, prolific!
 ~ Author Unknown

Zucchini-palooza #9

What happens when the zucchini patch doesn't get picked for a week...Yikes!

Zucchini-palooza #10

Lunch. Grilled zucchini spears.
Quick, easy, delicious ~

Zucchini-palooza #11 to the rescue! 

What to do for a last minute dinner invitation...

Grilled zucchini salad with cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and pecorino cheeses, and kalamata olives with a white balsamic vinaigrette. 

Zucchini-palooza #12

Homemade V-8 (actually 11) juice

Look closely and you'll see zucchini in there, along with carrots, beets, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, red and green peppers, celery, onion and garlic. A garden in the blender!

Zucchini-palooza 5, 6, 7, 8

Five, six, seven, eight,

Zucchini recipes are really great!

Yes, zucchini is so versatile. It pairs well with another wonderful flavor of summer, basil, and goes to the sophisticated side in ZP 5 and 6. But then in 7 and 8, it's comfort food: zucchini-carrot cake (cream cheese icing is a must) and zucchini bread. Good flavors and good feelings.

Zucchini-palooza #5

Grilled zucchini roll-ups filled with spinach and basil leaves and goat cheese. 

A little labor intensive but sooooo worth it!

Zucchini-palooza #6

Zucchini and basil soup 

Very light, very summery, very green!

Zucchini-palooza #7

Underneath that layer of cream cheese frosting is zucchini-carrot cake. 

An all-purpose cake: breakfast, afternoon snack, and dessert.

Zucchini-palooza #8

Zucchini bread twinsies!!

Zucchini-palooza 1, 2, 3 and 4

It's been one heck of a summer. A crazy, turn-your-world-up-side-down summer. But in the midst of chaos, sometimes the most unexpected thing can bring a little order to the world. For me, it turned out to be my zucchini garden. Leave it to a green squash to be my link to normalcy...

Zucchini-palooza 2014 began with the first picking...
"The Dirty Dozen"

Zucchini-palooza #1
Cream of kohlrabi soup with onions, carrots, potatoes, and of course zucchini.
(Those green flecks are the zucchini)

Zucchini-palooza #2

Zucchini-Lemon Cookies 

Very light and refreshing. They lasted two days!

Zucchini-palooza #3

A clean-out-the-veggie bin concoction. 

Cherry tomatoes, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper, a couple Japanese eggplants, onion, a half bag of frozen corn. Sauté the veggies. Add salt and Italian herbs to season. Add mozzarella and Parm and cook until melted. 

Zucchini-palooza #4 

What to do with all the shredded zucchini left over from making the lemon zucchini cookies? Make a stir fry with onion, cabbage, carrots and of course, zucchini. Stir fry the veggies until crisp tender, add a little soy sauce and there ya go!

Zucchini-palooza 2014

It's that time of the year again.

They're coming on fast and furious and they just. don't. stop. The other day there were just a few, maybe 3 or 4, little green zucchini in the whole garden. Today I picked a dozen zucchini of varying sizes. And it's only just begun...

Time to start figuring out what to do with all these beauties.

And did you know that August 8 is Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day? I'm gonna celebrate that one!

First pick of the season...the dirty dozen!

Multi-Colored Radishes

Welp, my favorite grocery store (Dorothy Lane Market) got me again with a tantalizing display of multi-colored radishes! As hard as I tried, I could not resist the brightly colored globes in shades of red, purple and white.

Nothing better than dipping a radish in a little bit of salt and then biting into it...ahhh, the crisp, clean crunch followed by the tang and heat of the radish. Beats potato chips any day!

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad {Zucchini-palooza}

It was a clean-out-the pantry day and a summertime salad fits so nicely into a day like this. 

What to do with a can of pinto beans, a couple cans of tuna, and a red onion...toss them together, add some garden bounty and voila! 

Quick, easy, delicious and light...a perfect summer meal ~

Zucchini, Bean and Tuna Salad

1 can beans, drained (I used pinto beans)
2 cans tuna in olive oil
Red onion diced
Handful of parsley chopped
Small zucchini chopped
Salt and black pepper
Olive oli

Drain beans and put in a big bowl.

Add tuna...DO NOT drain...lots of good flavor in that oil. Add to the beans.

Add onion, parsley and zucchini. Stir gently. 

Taste and add salt, pepper and olive oil as needed.

This salad is so versatile. My brother dropped off some tomatoes and cucumbers, so in the spirit of Tomato-mania, adjust the ingredients, and voila! Another salad equally as good!

Grilled Zucchini Roll Ups {Zucchini-palooza}

An appetizer or a snack...these zucchini bites go like hot cakes! 

Last year I took them to a friend's house for a Girls' Night. My friend said that she didn't like goat cheese...she changed her mind after one! 

They're a little labor intensive but once you get the system down, putting them together goes quickly. 

Be prepared...these will be the first things to go!

Grilled Zucchini Roll Ups

3 zucchini (about 1/2 pound each), sliced lengthwise into 1/4" slices

Olive oil

Chunk of goat cheese

1-2 T. minced fresh parsley

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 c. baby spinach leaves

1/3 c. basil leaves

Directions

Slice zucchini 1/4" thick. Discard the outermost slices of zucchini. Brush the slices with the olive oil. Place on preheated grill or grill pan for 4 minutes on each side, or until tender.

In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, parsley leaves and lemon juice, mashing with a fork.

Put a dollop of the cheese mixture about 1/2 inch from the end of a zucchini slice. Top with a few spinach leaves and one large basil leaf or a couple small basil leaves. Roll up and place seam side down on a platter. Repeat with the rest of the zucchini slices. 

Zucchini-palooza!

I grew zucchini for the first time ever this summer. From a few seeds sprang a zucchini jungle that took every inch of space and spread over the edges of the 8' x 8' garden that was its home. 

And boy, oh boy, did those plants produce! What to do with all this gorgeous zucchini? 

People who grow zucchini always give it away. "July is the only time of year when country people lock our cars in the church parking lot, so people don't put squash on the front seat. I used to think that was a joke." (Garrison Keillor). I did not want to be one of those people!

And I sure wasn't going to throw away these beautiful vegetables, planted and nurtured with love, and guarded with this god-awful, smelly concoction to keep the deer from having a feast!

This was my plan...rather than giving zucchini away, I made zucchini dishes to enjoy at home with family, to give away, or to share at gatherings. My goal was not to repeat a recipe and it worked...and it was fun!

Stay tuned...zucchini-palooza begins!

Summer Lunch {Tomato Sandwiches}

Summer is tomato time! Nothing screams "Summer's here!" like a juicy, freshly picked tomato. 

And one of the best summertime lunches is a tomato sandwich...simple, refreshing, delicious. I could eat them everyday. All that is needed is a couple slices of bread (nothing fancy), a sliced tomato, Miracle Whip, and salt. Sure, there are recipes that fancy things up like using avocado mayonnaise or a dense, whole grain bread, but I will keep with simplicity for mine.

Truly one of life's simple pleasures ~ 

Nutritious, Delicious, Gorgeous {Purple Veggies}

PURPLE!

It's the color of royalty. 

It's bright, fun, radiant, mysterious, luscious, lovely.

Nobody does purple quite like Mother Nature.

Eating purple veggies makes you feel royal, like you're dining on something that not many others do. They're pretty, and good for you, too!

~ Kohlrabi ~

~ Asparagus ~

~ Purple Basil ~

~ Brussels Sprouts ~

~ Purple Potatoes ~

~ Purple Carrots ~ 
Purple on the outside, orange in the middle.
Beautiful!

Zucchini Costata Romanesco

It’s zucchini time!

This is the first year I have grown zucchini in my little garden. I have been hesitant to grow zucchini because it does take up a lot of space and once it starts growing it’s very prolific and EVERYONE is giving away their over-abundant crop. Sometimes people just can’t give it away. I want to be one of those people! 

But I read about a zucchini that is a little bit different from the plant that is typically grown in most gardens: It’s the traditional Italian heirloom, zucchini costata romanesco. According to Johnny’s Select Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com), “This distinctive zucchini is medium gray-green, with pale green flecks and prominent ribs. Big, large-leafed bush with only about half the yield of hybrids, but much better flavor; clearly better textured, nutty, and delicious, raw or cooked. Also a good producer of heavy male blossom buds for cooking.” Sounds like my kind of zucchini...

I prepared my 8 x 8 garden plot for planting and put the seeds in the ground in early May. For quite a while there nothing happened, then a few sprouts popped out of the dirt and that’s what was there for a couple weeks. Then the rains came and the zucchini jungle flourished! 

Zucchini costata is delicious and versatile...ways to use it are endless and as it’s going right now, so is my crop of zucchini!

Summer Lettuce

I grew up eating home grown lettuce in the summertime. Leaf lettuce grew abundantly in my parents’ and grandparents’ gardens. As a kid, I wanted to eat iceberg lettuce because all of my friends did; not the stuff that was fresh picked out of a garden. But now, my tastes have grown up...give me fresh garden lettuce any day!

When we ate garden lettuce salads, we did not use bottled dressings. Mom always dressed the fresh leaf lettuce salad with a very simple dressing made of cream or 1/2 and Half, sugar and cider vinegar. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and it was done. She would always mix the dressing right in the salad bowl and the amount of cream, vinegar and sugar would depend on the amount of lettuce that she had. It was one of those recipes where she eyeballed the quantities.

It’s the perfect dressing for fresh garden lettuce: light, sweet but tangy, and refreshing.

This recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of dressing. Go to your garden or favorite farmers market and enjoy fresh leaf lettuce. It is one of summer's delights!

1 c. heavy cream or 1/2 and Half

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Put ingredients in a jar and shake. Use appropriate amount over lettuce.

Jill's Radishes

Every Monday is "Marvelous Mother Nature Monday" on my friend Jill’s Facebook page. She loves nature and has a vast knowledge of it and her posts are always so enjoyable to read.

“My gardens are thriving (so far!) I get such joy from the beauty and magic that I go out a couple of times a day just to gaze in wonder. Seriously. These plants are my babies. 

My radishes are round, red and ready to be picked and consumed - trouble is, I don't like radishes. No, I hate radishes. Seriously. I know, I know, why did I plant them? I could give you any number of reasons, but, they don't really matter. What matters is that I've got some really nice radishes that nobody over here wants to eat - please let me know if you'd like some! Seriously.”   ~ Jill

Well, well, well...I love radishes. Seriously. 

What to do with these 9 beautiful red gems? I wanted to do something different and so I roasted them. I’ve never roasted radishes. Roasting veggies brings a new dimension to them, a rich, brilliant, caramelized sweetness. These nuggets went from crunchy and spicy to mellow and soft. They reminded me of turnips only not as “bitey.”

But a tray of roasted radishes just didn’t do it for me...it needed some friends, so playtime began! And the end result was a farro salad with the radishes added to other roasted veggies: parsnips, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. There was a beautiful pile of radish greens sitting on the counter and screaming, “DO NOT LET THESE GO TO WASTE!”  What goes good with greens? Bacon. Fry up a couple strips of bacon and saute the greens in the little bit of bacon grease, a splash of olive oil and cider vinegar, add it to the salad and voila...smoky bacon, tangy vinegar, earthy farro, sweet roasted veggies...Yum, yum, yum! 

Seriously.