Tag: <span>zucchini</span>

Tag: zucchini

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 21

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Just something simple for this week.  I’ve had an overload of tomatoes and STILL zucchini from the garden, so I figured I’d go with it.  The sauce is the 4th batch from the tomatoes we grew, and the zucchini, I can’t even count how many pounds I’ve eaten this year, not to mention the pounds of zucchini that I’ve given to friends and neighbors!  The pasta is home made, using the same recipe I always use – 1 cup flour to 1/4th cup liquid (water in this case).  With this post, I’m finally caught up on my backlog of posts and we’re nearing the end of our local summer.  There are still a few good weeks left – all the fall squashes are coming out, but it’s slowing down a bit.  I’m not sure if my zucchini plant is aware of this though.

Pasta with Roasted Zucchini:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Tomato Sauce – Tomatoes from our Garden
Onion – Jack’s Farm
Zucchini – Our Garden
Non local – salt, olive oil, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 19

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Another week all on me.  We finally got a REALLY ripe watermelon from the garden.  So ripe, it practically burst open the second I started to cut. The watermelon naturally has this glowy orange-yellow inside, so no, your monitor isn’t off.  The garden is pretty small, so I usually only get one watermelon, but that’s enough for me.  A local farm was offering a new product, veal kielbasa, so I jumped on it and got the last package.  It was delicious!  Spiced just right.  I decided to pair it with some zucchini (we’re STILL getting zucchini from the garden) cooked with onions and shitake mushrooms.  The neighbors and I have a little garden exchange program going on, so I picked up a bunch of peppers from them which I sliced, grilled, and stuffed with cheese from the same farm that had the kielbasa.  The beer is a maple porter, homebrewed with maple syrup from the state, even if the malt and grains aren’t locally sourced, I’ll call it part local.

Kielbasa with vegetables and watermelon:
Kielbasa – Birchrun Hills Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Peppers – Neighbor’s Garden
Watermelon – Our Garden
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Onion – Jack’s Farm
Non local – olive oil, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 12

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So it’s not as spectacular as last week’s entry, and it’s still a zucchini pizza, but a little different this time – no polenta.  The ends of those monster zucchini had no seeds, so when I grilled up the rings from last week, I did these too and saved them for ordinary old zucchini pizza.  They were re-grilled to heat them up and melt the cheese a little, but it was an easy quickie dinner and a good way to use up all that zucchini.  The little green things in the front are Mexican Sour Gherkins.  They’re about the size of a fingertip when ripe, and have been my garden snack when I go out to check on things because it’s so easy to grab a handful and munch in the evening.  Simple dinner here, but still delicious.

Plain old Zucchini Pizza:
Zucchini – My Garden
Goat Mozzarella – Yellow Springs Farm
Tomato Sauce – via tomatoes from Jack’s Farm
Mexican Sour Gherkins – My Garden
Non Local – Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 11

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Sometimes, I impress myself.  I’m not one to really enjoy cooking, which is partly what this whole thing has been about.  I force myself to do this personal challenge of cooking locally all summer long, and it makes me actually cook.  Every once in a while, I really enjoy making the meal because it’s something new and different, and that’s what I’ve got here.  The garden has been giving me ZUCCHINI (all caps, on purpose, because they seem to think they’re watermelons and not zucchini).  Anyone who has grown them before knows that if you neglect the plant for two hours, you end up with baseball bats and that I’m really not exaggerating.  Ours, instead of growing in length, grew in width, spectacularly, and seemingly overnight.  For scale’s sake, that’s a 9″ plate.  The zucchini were really seedy inside, but I sliced them up anyway and once I pulled the seeds out, I had enormous zucchini rings.  Then inspiration hit.  Take zucchini rings, grill, add freshly made polenta (1 cup cornmeal, 3 cup water, boil while stirring until it pulls away from the pan) to the center, bake, flip, top as a pizza and bake until the cheese melts.  And that’s exactly what’s on my plate above – I used blue cheese and caramelized onions for the topping, and the sauce was even made from local tomatoes, courtesy of Jack’s Farm who was selling a big big bag of tomatoes for $6 (there’s another whole pint of sauce in the freezer too!).  I really don’t have a recipe to give you for this, because it’s the kind of thing that is very basic and I’d rather give you the idea and let you go create.

Zucchini Polenta Pizza:
Monster Overgrown Zucchini – My garden
Onion – Brogue Hydroponics
Cornmeal – Mill at Anselma
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Tomato Sauce – via tomatoes from Jack’s Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 10

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Yup. Ten weeks already! Our garden is finally giving us a whole bunch of zucchini, so I made the best of a pretty insane situation. The zucchini in question is the 8 ball zucchini which grows in a round, softball shape/size instead of the typical elongated shape of a normal zucchini. They’re much more seedy than regular zucchini, but once hollowed out, they’re perfect to stuff with all sorts of good things, which is what I did here.  I know I did this in prior years, but it’s just so easy (and delicious).  The zucchini is stuffed with chorizo, pepper, tomato, onion, garlic scapes, and topped off with a few slices of goat mozzarella.  I had leftover potatoes from last week, so I put those in tin foil on the grill and used them on the side.  Not bad!  And, there were two whole zucchini, so I’ve got a TON of leftovers.  Also, I have a TON more zucchini, if you’ve got any recipes to recommend!

Stuffed Zucchini:
Zucchini – My Garden
Chorizo – Countrytime Farm
Potatoes –  Brogue Hydroponics
Peppers – Brogue Hydroponics
Tomatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Goat Mozzarella – Yellow Springs Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 8

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Another meal by the husband, and the last one for a few weeks, unfortunately, as he’s back out to sea.  This one is pretty basic, but I just cannot get enough of those grilled vegetables.  We have a pork tenderloin and then carrots, potatoes, snap peas, and zucchini all tossed into the grill.  The vegetables were cooked toether in the grill wok with some salt, pepper, and olive oil, and the tenderloin was covered in a seasoning blend that isn’t local (Maple Jalapeno seasoning from Cabela’s), but is OH SO VERY GOOD.  Hopefully our little garden will be producing some vegetables soon.  The zucchini plants both have wee little baby zucchini on them, there’s a teeny watermelon, and loads of marble-sized tomatoes.

Pork and Vegetables:
Pork Tenderloin – Countrytime Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Snap Peas – Charlestown Farm
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Non Local – Olive oil, Salt, Pepper, Maple Jalapeno Seasoning

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 6

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Zucchini are finally coming into season and we’re indulging in ALL THE ZUCCHINI!  Husband took the lead on this meal again, cooked on the grill, and we dined al fresco.  It’s been so nice that the weather has been compliant for outdoor cooking and eating – we’ve had a relatively nice spring/summer so far.  On that plate is a Maple Apple sausage which really was something incredible.  The outside was glazed in maple syrup and just perfectly sweet while the inside was savory.  Really just the perfect combination.  The grilled vegetables at the bottom of the plate are Zucchini, Broccoli, and Turnips, and the salad at the top is Lettuce, Turnips, Garlic Scapes, Spring Onion, and Blue Cheese, tossed with non local Balsamic Vinegar.  There is a glass of wine along with the meal as well, a Gewurztraminer from the Mount Hope winery.  And, if you notice there, the vegetables take up over half the plate and were oh so delicious.  We have a pan for the grill that looks like someone took a hole puncher to a sheet of aluminum and went wild, and it works great for grilling vegetables – everything mixes together and comes out just right.  This could also be attributed to husband’s chefly abilities.  We did inadvertently agitate the Robin who is nesting under our deck and sitting on some eggs, but apologized profusely to her and allowed her to nest undisturbed for the rest of the evening.

Sausage, Vegetables and Salad:
Maple Apple Sausage: Mt View Organics
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Spring Onion – Jack’s Farm
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Broccoli – Charlestown Farm
Romaine Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Gewurztraminer – Mount Hope Winery
Non Local –  Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Balsamic Vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 5

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The husband is home again and took over full responsibility for this meal.  He went to the farmer’s market and picked everything out and even cooked it too!  The chicken is stuffed with spring onions, mushrooms, and blue cheese, served with grilled vegetables.  Again, all cooked out on the grill, and served with a local wine, Paradocx’s barn red.

Stuffed Chicken:
Chicken – Mt View Organics
Spring Onion – Jack’s Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valey Mushrooms
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Wine – Paradocx, Barn Red
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil