Italian Meatloaf in Zucchini

volunteer squash at bottom - chipmunk planted sunflower

We are having the warmest September ever, and still no rain for over a month. Watering just doesn't compare with rain. I planted so many salady type seeds for fall to winter harvesting, but the ground is so dry from below, it's just immediately sucking away anything I contribute, so I'm not seeing many sprouted seedlings. And we did get a little frost - like a ghost frost that whipped about at ground level nipping at some things. I've got these volunteer squash I let grow at the kitchen garden's edge, and their leaves took the brunt of the frost, as did most of the zucchini leaves. Basil and beans, which are tender, are still going, as are the tomatoes. I've got most of the tomatoes covered now with a white 'floating row cover' material. You can see some of the material over the peppers in the garden picture.

So I think my zucchini season is over. I've got several large zucchini sitting on the counter for making a zucchini, potato, onions soup, which I'll eventually post. This soup tastes great over winter as I pull portions from the freezer.

Every year I say I'm going to batter and fry squash blossoms. But I still haven't. The flowers with long stems are male flowers. Those are the ones you'd harvest. The short stemmed flowers are the fruitful females.

This recipe is from AllRecipes.com. I get daily emails of recipes from them, giving me great ideas.

ITALIAN MEATLOAF IN ZUCCHINI BOATS

1 large zucchini
Cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle these halves with 1 tsp garlic salt. I don't use garlic salt, just granulated garlic. I got to thinking that if you don't grow zucchini, you rarely find large zucchini in stores. This time, because of a smaller zucchini than they must use, I had enough meat mixture that I tried filling a halved pepper to see how it would work. It tasted great. So I think smaller zucchini and peppers can be used in the baking dish. Eggplant slices would be good too, I bet.

Saute 1 chopped onion in
1/4 C olive oil
Mix together -
1 pound ground beef (they use 1 1/2# and I never have)
2 eggs
1 1/2 C seasoned bread crumbs (I never buy bread crumbs, using my homemade bread, dried and ground in the blender, and season myself, so used 1 tsp of an Italian seasoning mixture)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tb dried basil
1/4 C grated carrot
1/3 C grated parmesan
add in the sauted onion, mixing all well and mound in the zuccnini

Pour a jarred spaghetti sauce over, covering the meat and letting drip over edges. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes till meat is cooked thru.
Sprinkle 1 C grated mozzarella cheese over all and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.
You can serve with more spaghetti sauce if you want.
These are great leftover!

Sedum turning from green to soon, a deep rust red

Crustless Quiche (can add zucchini/green chillies ...)

Mistress Karey,
somewhat contrary,
how does your garden grow?

I've been harvesting zucchini and beans primarily. Next week will be the broccoli. I planted more salady type seeds all over in gaps - next to the greenhouse too. It's a southern exposure and a warmer mini-climate than the rest of my gardens. I had a cold frame there that kept us in greens thru most of the winter. I'm making a pvc pipe protection for that space now. It's a raised bed lined with rocks and I think I'll put water bottles in it for further warmth.

Elk are bugling. We've had a bear visitor. It's cooling off. Supposed to go down to 36 degrees tonight. We've got guests again. Three men. One, Monte's long time partner in geology, Stan from AZ, gets the guest room. Two new acquaintances from California say they want to sleep in the bunk house! We'll see ... I'm waiting on going out to eat - they want to treat me. Tomorrow I cook.

I'm a MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers) Mentor Mom - been one for almost ten years now. The new year has begun. I brought an egg dish I somewhat created. I had to take a small bit to taste and see if it was good ... it's a keeper. What I added was a grated zucchini and chopped roasted green chilies.

I always get a bushel of green anahiem chilies roasted about this time of year. LOVE that smell in the vehicle! I bag up 3 chilies per sandwich bag and put about 8 of those sandwich bags in a gallon ziplock bag for the freezer. The 3 chilies are the equivalent of a 4oz can of chilies. I don't remove the blackened skins till I'm ready to use the chilies, and then chop or use them whole.

Crustless Quiche

1/2 C butter, melted (could probably use oil)
1/2 C flour (I've used whole wheat, spelt, or even masa)
1 C milk
6 lg eggs
1 pint ricotta cheese
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix all this together and pour over 1# grated cheese (like jack - I typically have colby-jack) in greased 9x13 baking dish.
Bake 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Like I said, I put a grated zucchini and 4 oz chopped green chilies in the greased dish, and then put in the grated cheese. I left out a cup of the cheese to sprinkle on top. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese, mix it around a bit. Top with the extra cheese and bake.

I'm betting all kinds of things could be added to this dish. Like you could use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Cumin could be added, and maybe cilantro. Or go a more Italian route with basil and zucchini and tomato and some parmesan cheese on top. Alone as is it's a great brunch dish!

This Velveteen House is turning moreso into a retreat center for science, with me on call for cooking. I often get paid in some way. I like it. Young adults are less frequent now that Dawson's living by school.

Basil Pesto and Uses

Last night I wanted to make something with pesto. I'd just made up a bunch of the pesto recipe below and froze. Tho not typically combined with pesto recipes I've found, I wanted to add chicken, so had a bone-in breast boiling, to create some broth.

In my Hearth & Home cookbook I have this pesto recipe and mention making a meal of it with adding potatoes in the pasta boiling water, drain the potatoes and pasta, and toss with pesto. The actual dish is called Trenette Al Pesto. You boil several quarts of salted water, adding 3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced not more than 1/4" thick. I always cut the potatoes like french fries and boil them about 5-10 minutes before adding 1# of linguine or fettuccine pasta. And actually, I boil chicken first and then cook the potatoes and pasta in the chicken broth, debone and shred the chicken, and toss it in with the pesto. The recipe doesn't call for broth or chicken, I just do it.

Traditionally, pesto is made with an Italian basil. Non-Italian variations are made with other herbs and greens, and some have olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Differing 'nuts' can be used too: like walnuts or almonds. They could be toasted. Pesto is originally made by pounding the basil and mixing in a mortar and pestle. Cook's Illustrated Complete book of Pasta and Noodles has you first put the basil in a sealable plastic bag and pound with the flat side of a meat-pounder to bruise the leaves before processing in a food processor.

BASIL PESTO

3 C basil leaves
1/4 C pine nuts
1/2 C good tasting olive oil
3 lg garlic cloves
Process this in a food processor till grainy.
Fold in 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese.

When freezing pesto, I don't add the parmesan till I'm using it in a recipe. This time, since I quickly decided to clip off most of my garden basil, I made it without the garlic too, since I didn't have enough on hand. So my large ziplock bags, full of smaller bags of the recipe, are labeled "without garlic and parmesan", so I know to add it later.

There's differing basils, and not all make good pesto. I grow a large leaf Italian basil called "Genovese". Basil needs a lot of pinching off of the tops for branching and not getting leggy. So I cut back the basils pretty close to the ground, leaving some leaves and will get more before they're frosted out.

Another recipe using pesto, Rigatoni alla Fornaia, sautes onion, garlic and tomatoes, cooking down with some white wine, then adding a few tablespoons each of pesto and ricotta, tossing it all together with cooked pasta.

Last night I wanted homemade pasta. And I found another recipe similar to the potato one above with added green beans. I have a hand-cranked pasta machine. Though you can make eggless pasta, I prefer it with eggs. I always feel having some protein helps in better assimilation of carbohydrates - so not as much of a gaining weight producing food. I use my fresh ground (bagged in the freezer) whole wheat flour.

PASTA

3 large eggs, beaten
2 C flour
Have it all at room temp. Pulse in a food processor with the metal blade until dough forms a rough ball. If it seems too dry (flours differ, and too, humidity makes a difference) add water 1/2 tsp at a time; or if too sticky, add some flour 1 Tb at a time. Turn out the dough and knead a few minutes till smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap to relax at least 15 minutes. I divide the dough in 6ths, working with one at a time. Follow directions of the pasta machine, or hand roll it very thin and hand cut. Fresh pasta cooks up in boiling water in just a few minutes. Freeze whatever you don't use.

The recipe I made last night is called  
PENNE WITH GREEN BEANS, POTATOES, AND PESTO
tho I didn't use penne pasta but fettuccine (wider flat pasta than linquine). And I'd been boiling up that chicken breast, I started this post with. They boil the potatoes in separate water and the green beans and pasta together in water. I used the chicken broth, boiling them all in it, starting with the potatoes till almost tender, since the beans and fresh pasta only needed to boil 3-4 minutes. And I tossed in the shredded chicken from the cooled, deboned breasts. Someday I'll post about "umami", the fifth taste. The chicken broth is my umami addition to the recipe.

1# potatoes, slice 1/4" thick
1# green beans, ends cut off and cut in 1/2" lengths
1# pasta
pesto recipe above

Cook as I suggest above, toss together and serve immediately. Should serve 4.

I freeze some pesto in ice cube trays, so the bag has lots of pesto cubes, probably about 2Tb. I LOVE pesto spread on a toasted piece of my homemade bread! I also like to cut tomatoes in half for baking/broiling with pesto on top. I make a pesto pizza, spreading the dough with pesto and adding fresh sliced tomato and mozzarella cheese.