Potato, Onion, Zucchini Soup & Zucchini Flowers & Fried Green Tomatoes

I made this soup last night, and many times over the years. It freezes well, and tastes so good, pulling it out for a quick winter meal. (Another good use of garden zucchini surplus.)

ZUCCHINI, ONION, POTATO SOUP
3/4 virgin olive oil (I don't measure, just let it form a good puddle in the pan)
3 onions, sliced
2 potatoes, diced
3 large zucchini, diced
1/4 cup tomato paste
juice of 4 lemons
2 bunches of cilantro (you don't really taste it, yet it adds SO much)
salt to taste

Saute onions for about 15 minutes over medium-low heat. Add potatoes (when organic, I wash and keep the skins on) and saute a bit more. Add zucchini and tomato paste. Barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low till everything is soft. Remove from heat and add cilantro and lemon juice. Puree in pan with an immersion blender, or in batches in blender. This is good hot or cold. I didn't think this would be so great without an added broth, but it doesn't need it! I like to serve it with some dollops of my homemade yogurt.

FRIED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS & FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

I'd mentioned earlier about wanting to fry up some zucchini flowers - the ones with the long stems are male flowers that will not produce 'fruit'. So I finally picked a few and tried them. I'd stored some extra egg mixed with milk in a little bowl in the fridge and a bowl of flour, corn meal and salt from trying fried green tomatoes, so used those same batter ingredients for the zucchini flowers. Just dip in the egg mixture (green tomatoes are 1/4" slices, and zucchini flowers kept whole), then dip in flour mixture and pan fry in a skillet with a bit of heated oil. Both were very good! but then almost anything battered and pan fried are good (believe me ... Dawson used to be a bug enthusiast and had me try battered fried Mormon Crickets! ... another story of "man eating bugs"! [that IS the name of a book]).

The bug man could tell me what this is ... 

I'm guessing it's a moth and not a butterfly, on a purple coneflower

Baked Kale Chips

WOW!!! Another recipe from AllRecipes.com. My first words after first tasting, and eating more and more while waiting for my Artisan bread to finish baking and we'd sit down to eat supper - "Addicting"! What a good thing to be addicting: kale!! Kale is probably the most nutritious green you can be eating. All year round we add kale to our salad making. I blanch and freeze my garden kale for adding to stews, soups, lasanga ... or just sauteing.

BAKED KALE CHIPS

1 bunch kale
That's all they say. Most store bunches seem about the same size year round. I should weigh a bunch to see how much kale it actually is. You should wash and spin dry store-bought kale. They cut out the thick stems and rip up; I just ripped the leaves up and away from the stem, putting them in a large bowl for tossing with -
1 Tb olive oil
1 tsp salt
Bake the spread kale on parchment lined baking sheets at 350 for 10-15 minutes, till edges brown but not burn.

I sprinkled them with granulated garlic too. Next time we don't want to use the salt, just the garlic, or our Chef Prudhomme's spunky Italian Seasoning. We froze some and it remained crispy! So guess what? ... I've still got tons of kale in the garden! and I'm going to make tons of these kale chips, bag in sandwich bags, and freeze in a box or one of my freezer baskets - so they don't get squashed.

I'm munching on a bag I test-froze right now as I'm writing this post. Yummmm .....

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

Zucchini Pie

Grease a 9" glass pie dish
Whisk together
4 eggs
1/4 C oil
1tsp baking powder
salt and pepper
1 C baking mix (like Bisquick - I'll give you my proportions of making it up fresh for this dish below)
3 C grated summer squash
1/4 C chopped onion

Pour in greased dish. Arrange 1 sliced tomato on top and sprinkle 1/4 C parmesan. Bake about 35 minutes at 350 degrees, till puffed and golden.

I don't use Bisquick because it's white flour and shortening. You can make up your own with whole grain flours and butter or organic shortening which is palm oil. I looked in my cookbook at the Mile High Biscuit recipe and guessed on proportions for this dish using 1 C whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp sugar, pinch of cream of tartar and 1/4 C butter - cutting this mixture together till fine crumb, either by hand with a pastry blender or in a food processor.

In my cookbook I often mention not using whole wheat flour all the time. So many things made with flour can be made from other grains so we don't overdose on wheat, becoming gluten intolerant. Yeast bread is the only thing requiring some wheat (or kamut or spelt). Muffins, biscuits, pancakes, cookies ... can be made using other flours. Since I grind my own grains I usually have other flours in ziplock bags in the freezer. Oat, millet, and barley flours are mild sweet flours. Buckwheat is distinct (it's not really a grain but a vegetable). Rice flour is what's typically found in stores. Quinoa and amaranth are high protein grains with distinct flavors too.

We like more tomatoes on this than in the picture and more parmesan.

Green Chili Zucchini Casserole

Another zucchini dish ... 'tis zucchini season. This is a dish I'll be doing during winter with sliced zucchini I'm freezing (freeze slices on cookie sheet then bag up).

Slice 8 zucchini in 1/4" slices and steam a bit then place in greased 9x13 dish.
Add 1 C chopped onion
4 oz chopped green chilies
Make 4 cups thick white sauce, simmering the ingredients to begin thickening:
1/2 C oil or butter
1/2 C flour
2 C broth
2 C water
Add 1# grated cheddar cheese and pour over.
Top with 1 C bread crumbs
Bake 1 hour at 350

Whenever Dawson's friends are here they often make grilled cheese and tomato soup. Their favorite tomato soup is Pacific organic Roasted red pepper and Tomato soup in aseptic cartons. Some was left in the refrigerator the last time I made this zucchini dish, so I used it in place of the water in the white sauce ... it made it even more delicious!!!!!!!!!

The last post mentions my freezing a bushel of roasted green chilies, bagging up 4oz portions. In my kitchen's freezer I keep a ziplock bag of bread crumbs. In my pantry I have a papertowel lined basket I drop leftover bread in to harden for crumbling in the food processor or blender. I make homemade bread most of the time and there's often just a slice and heal left in the bread box. I break up the leftover bread pieces some before putting in the basket to dry. Where we live is not humid, nor do we have many bugs. I don't know if this would work elsewhere. I suppose I could leave the broken up pieces in the bread box for drying too.

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.

Zucchini Boats

'Tis zucchini season. What comes to your mind when you think "zucchini". I know ... there's SO many zucchini jokes! Several dishes I like made with zucchini are what I think of. I've posted a Mexican Zucchini Salad recipe already. In my old blog I posted a Zucchini, Potato, Onion soup - and I'll post it here some day. It's a great food for zucchini use that freezes well and we enjoy it all year round. Guests have liked the soup too. I don't plant TOO many plants, and then try and pick them when small, like 5". They are another veggie I like to grill slices of - good any way, but think of sandwiches. Thin zucchini slices are even good in lasanga, replacing some or all of the pasta. And then there's always a quick saute/stir-fry. Lemon juice, good tasting olive oil, and parmesan are my most favorite veggie flavorings.


I'm currently freezing 1/4-1/2" unblanched slices. Simply put on cookie sheet till frozen and bag up. These are good in stir-fry, or breaded and skillet fried. I've dehydrated slices too. All veggie flavors are accentuated when dried and make very good snacks (maybe I'll pull out my dehydrator this year). One year I tried freezing grated zucchini and didn't really use it much. But Heather often made a bunch of zucchini bread we'd freeze, and I make sourdough zucchini bread too. So that's another food to pull from the freezer. Monte loves to toast zucchini or banana bread. His latest bite he had me taste with my eyes closed was some crushed pineapple on a toasted banana or zucchini bread slice. I could not guess what it was!!! It was very good. These toasted warm slices are good with a thin slice of cheese. Don't forget about zucchini relish or pickle possibilities too.


Another favorite zucchini dish that comes instantly to my mind is what I call ...

ZUCCHINI BOATS

I'll give you the recipe's proportions and then you can adjust for however many you want to make.


3-4  5-6" Zucchini, ends removed, nuke about 7 minutes, turning and rearranging, slice in half and scoop out centers (sometimes if not seedy, I add this into the filling mixture)
Chop and mix-
1 tomato
1/4C almonds
1Tb parsley (double if fresh)
small bit of onion (like 1-2Tb)
(I did chives)
1/2 tsp salt seasoning


You're going to microwave again (or sometimes I'll toast tops in toaster oven) so put zucchini in a glass dish or plate. Brush with some melted butter or olive oil. Spoon filling into zucchini shells.


Mix 1Tb butter or olive oil with
1/4C cracker or bread crumbs
(I like adding in some grated parmesan)

Sprinkle on top and press in a bit
Heat uncovered 2-3 minutes.

There's so many possibilities for fillings! Could add potatoes. I added basil, garlic, and mozzarella for this meal. Corn, chipotle chilies, black beans and cilantro. Curry powder, currants, grd meat, and yogurt. Tomatoes, mango and parsley ...


I had some gals here for a felting class and we had a fresh garden salad and a small bowl of chili I'd made and pulled from the freezer. They really liked the corn chunks in it - not typical corn. I'd gotten the idea from making Pozole: Pork and Hominy. Pozole is a bit bland, so I make it moreso a chili. In Arizona I made it using the fresh made cooked field corn. I think I'll do a post about it.

Well ... enjoy zucchini!

Mexican Zucchini Salad

We had house guests: investors interested in Monte's swashbuckling geology. It was an all-of-a-sudden event, and one, the only one we knew, stayed the night. Our typical first meal for guests is Mexican and usually I'll grill stuffed poblanos (I'll post that recipe another time), but didn't do that this time. Since it was a quick throw-together we repeated our mexican chuck roast and radish salsa meal I recently posted about. I did a rhubarb crisp, already posted too, along with rhubarb-ade, and tea. I also made another favorite guests like - Mexican Zucchini Salad. (Monte told me I better take a picture of his plate - he always makes a great presentation of food!)

I have a cookbook from when we were first married, so thirty-five years old, that this recipe idea came from (idea... since I don't totally follow). When Travis got married, Monte and me catered the rehearsal dinner all the way to Ft Collins from our Evergreen home - a Mexican fiesta! This salad was one of the dishes well received.

MEXICAN ZUCCHINI SALAD

3 medium zucchini
1/2 tsp salt
Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and again in 1/4" slices. In a bowl, salt these with the salt, toss to mix, then spread on several layers of paper towel to sit and drain for 30 minutes. Pat dry before adding to bowl mixture.

Combine in a bowl-
5 Tb vinegar (I like to mix some balsamic, red wine vinegar and maybe brown rice, apple cider, sherry vinegar - the recipe uses all white vinegar - how boring!)
2-3 cloves minced garlic (instead of recipe's 1 - I always do more garlic in recipes)
1/4 tsp dried thyme (use more of garden fresh thyme)
1/2C good tasting olive oil
1 can drained garbanzo beans
1/2C sliced olives
1/2C+ sliced green onions (I always do more green onions and love the green tops)
1 canned chipotle chili in adobo, seeded and minced (I always keep these in a jar, once a can is opened, and when I take out a chili I make sure to shove all the chilis into the adobo for better keeping)
1/2C crumbled queso anejo (which I don't usually have, so I use cows milk feta [we don't like goat feta - fresh goat milk and cheese is good, but something happens to it in the processing and time])

I'll make this a bit ahead 30 minutes to 4 hours, and occasionally stir for the flavors to marinate.

After supper, and a rain sprinkle, we walked around the gardens, enjoying the flowers, texture, and mountain air. I had them all eat a sweet cicely seed pod - an after dinner mint. The plant is behind my tarragon plant - both a type of licorice/anise flavor. Sweet Cicely is very ferny and mine has been reseeding (I think last year's moist summer did it) so I moved them about the garden this spring.

An artist friend, Sarah, and me made my Sculpy Dough herb labels last year. They are weathering just fine - I didn't know how they'd hold up. Garden twine holds them to bamboo poles.