Thursday, September 1, 2011

On My Mind - Giant Zucchini

On My Mind is a feature of Rhonda Jean's blog, "Down to Earth"

On my mind today is giant zucchini...

.....and what to do with it!  This is a real-life sized chair, and a real life sized zucchini! We have grown five or six more almost this size in the past two weeks. Needless to say, we are getting a little tired of zucchini. So I have been looking for new recipes (this weeks favorite so far has to be zucchini hash with potatoes and onion and plain yogurt), giving them away to friends and to our "take some, leave some" produce basket at church (which feels good as I am usually taking produce!), and freezing some for later. To freeze zucchini, you have to blanch it for three minutes first:
Then you dry them with a clean cloth or paper towels if you use them, and put in a ziploc baggie for some delicious ratatouie in winter time!  My next zucchini project, which is inspired by my new favorite cookbook "Nourishing Traditions", will be to can some with some whey and salt - a zucchini and onion version of sauerkraut.

What is on your mind this week?

11 comments:

  1. My friend gave me one of those! We chopped up onions and mixed it with ground beef, tomato sauce, and some of the zucchini. We split it in half length wise, scooped out the middle, filled the middle with beef mixture, put some motz cheese on top and baked it. yummy! Your ideas sounded yummy too! Good job with your garden - I am jealous!

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  2. Anonymous - thanks for the idea - been meaning to try stuffed zucchini, and as I have a new grocery budget for the beginning of the month, I will!

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  3. I've dropped over to visit from Rhonda's D2E blog. The saying about untidy things looking 'like a dog's breakfast' is an old Aussie saying; very typical dry humour. Now your zucchini is sure big!! We have a recipe here in Australia that is quite popular, called Zucchini Slice. You can also put it in little muffin tins and cook for only 20 mins to make nice little snack size ones. If you're interested, here is the link...
    http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5546/zucchini+slice

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  4. I came all the way over from Australia to visit you...even though I am just across Arizona on US 10 to El Paso and then head north a wee bit to me!!

    I had a squash summer and wrote many a post about squash recipes including the family summer recipe winner 2011! I love the gigantic zucchini. The only bad zucchini recipe we ever found was for zucchini cookies...which we made in 2007.

    Have a lovely weekend!!
    Jennifer

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  5. Marie - I don't know why, but I just love the expression! I feel kind of silly knowing that it is a common Aussie saying. I will give the Zucchini slice a try - thank you!

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  6. Jennifer - I will definately be checking out your blog to see your recipes! Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. Your zucchini are huge! I have been buying zucchini lately and the ones we've seen in the stores this year are almost miniature. It is okay because that way I am sure to use it up. Today I fried up some pre-cooked barley with onions, garlic, chopped red peppers, chopped broccoli and chopped zucchini. I also added some hot sauce. It was delicious. I add the zucchini to virtually everything like pastas, pasta sauce, stir frys, soups, etc. You can also make zucchini cake, like a carrot cake but with zucchini. I would also add to ground beef and rice and fill some green peppers for baking Happy cooking.

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  8. Joyful - I do that - add zucchini to almost everything.....eggs in the morning, spagetti, anything I can think of! I will have to make one batch of zucchini bread, but that involves buying expensive ingrediants because I am allergic to wheat - maybe it will be my birthday present to myself!

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  9. Last time I visited here you had lots of zucchini .. I forget how many plants you planted (LOL). This year I only planted three and it's been the perfect amount. Funny how you can skip a day of picking and they get huge! .. I like to grate them, squeeze them dry a bit and cook them a bit like you would for potato pancakes. Carrots and onions add a nice touch too. About once a year I splurge on the calories and fry them. Slice about 1/4 inch .. dip in flour .. then a beaten egg with just a little milk .. then into panko or Italian bread crumbs. Shallow fry them in very hot veggie oil .. dry on paper towels. Sprinkle with a little salt and/or Parmesan cheese. I just saw you're allergic to wheat .. I think there are alternative flours/crumbs to use.

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  10. Mrs. Mac - it has been the summer of zucchini, lol. I planted six plants - next year I will do less to make room for other things! I love the pancake idea - been making that for the last few days actually, and they are delicious!

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  11. I'll be interested in how your zucchini bread turns out and what wheat substitute you use. Sometimes I experiment as I'd like to cut back on wheat products ;-)

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