Even more SQUASH!!!!

So yesterday I had another armload of squash. Considering I had just finished making a new zucchini recipe, that bunch made its way into work to be shared....

Here's the recipe I made yesterday morning, adapted from one of the recipes found in Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (Out of a chapter aptly named "Zucchini Larcency"!)

Even more seasonal recipes are available on the book's website at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Recipes.html.

DISAPPEARING ZUCCHINI ORZO
¾ lb pkg orzo pasta (multicolored is fun)
Bring 6 cups water or chicken stock to a boil and add pasta. Cook 8 to 12 minutes
1 chopped onion, garlic to taste
3 large zucchini
olive oil for sauté
Use a cheese grater or mandoline to shred zucchini, sauté briefly with chopped onion and garlic until lightly golden.
thyme
oregano
¼ cup grated parmesan or any hard yellow cheese
Add spices to zucchini mixture, stir thoroughly, and then remove mixture from heat.
Combine with cheese and cooked orzo, salt to taste, serve cool or at room temperature.

I used a couple zucchini and one yellow squash... It was really quite pretty all grated in the bowl:


I, of course, left off the cheese. Instead of using fresh herbs, I used Penzey's Italian herb seasonings. Here's the final product:


I'm thinking my recipe turned out a little dull, so next time I might switch things up a little by adding either some black beans or tofu... Also, I ended up draining the liquid that formed when cooking the zucchini. It gave off quite a bit of liquid and started getting soupy. But give it a try and see what you think!

I couldn't find tri-color orzo, which would certainly make this a very pretty salad.

In a previous post I described a wildflower I was trying to identify. After some poking around online, and extensive keyword searching using the Google Image search, I have identified the mysterious plant!

It's called Jewelweed, sometimes called spotted jewelweed or orange jewelweed. There's lots of information about it on Wikipedia.

It's funny how you can find tons of information on something, as long as you know what it's called!

You might ask, "So what keyword combination finally helped you identify the plant?" (Okay, you probably wouldn't ask that unless you're a librarian or spend way too much time online... But I'll tell you anyway!) I finally found an image after searching for:
"wildflower yellow orange spotted."

Voila!

Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

More Squash!

For my birthday this year Richard paid for a subscription to a local farming CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Each week we can take a short road trip out to Marshallville, Ohio, and pick up locally grown organic produce from Katona's Country Garden.

This week was my first pickup and we received a bag of mixed lettuce, cabbage, basil, parsley, onion, hot peppers, potatoes, and MORE ZUCCHINI!

Between my squash and the zucchini from the farm, I had a couple pounds to work with for dinner. Earlier on Saturday I also visited the farmer's market and picked up some really nice garlic (among other things!)

I adapted a recipe from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors: Cooking and eating from America's Farmers Markets, "Penne with Green and Gold Zucchini and Ricotta."

The recipe calls for a cup of ricotta and freshly grated parmesan (which I omitted to keep it vegan), but Richard added some grated parmesan cheese to his own dish.

I started with the yellow summer squash, zucchini, and pattypan. I cut them into strips:

The recipe calls for either marjoram or basil, and I had basil on hand from the farm. It also calls for 3 cloves of garlic, which I had on hand from the farmer's market.

When I popped out the cloves from the head of garlic it was so fresh and pretty!

I sauted the squash in a pan for about 7-8 minutes, then tossed in the chopped basil and garlic. I then seasoned with salt and pepper.


Here's the final product tossed with the cooked penne pasta! I served it with Italian bread with olive oil with seasonings. It was very easy and very yummy!

Belated Birthday Bash

This weekend we headed out to the Massillon Great Escape theater to a movie to celebrate my birthday. The girls went to see Mama Mia while the boys opted for the more masculine Bat Man.

We all enjoyed our movies, but I think the guys were especially pumped with the Dark Knight. Both agreed to see it again with the girls!

Mama Mia was a very fun movie to see and left us in good spirits. Then we headed out to Rockney's for dinner.

Look how happy everyone looks... Maybe that has something to do with the table of 25 little leaguers who just walked out the door!

Summer Squash Solutions

I know I'm not the only person walking out into the garden and coming in with an armload of zucchini and summer squash...

Here's a picture of yesterday's harvest:

What's funny is that my friend Sharon has a mysteriously similar picture on her blog at:
http://holdermans.blogspot.com/2008/07/cookout-at-jeph-bretts.html

Does everyone have a bowl of squash on their kitchen counter? I guess the difference is what you do with all of that squash! When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. And when life gives you zucchini, you make... Pizza!


Believe it or not, you don't even miss the cheese. I just grilled the squash in a grill pan and placed it on a pizza made from refrigerated pizza dough and jarred sauce. Dinner is ready in a half an hour!

Weed, Wildflower, or Wonder?

Out along our street-side hill there's a bunch of bushes, weeds, and wildflowers. There's one particular plant that appears this time every year and I'm not sure what it is. Is it a lovely wildflower, an invasive weed, or yikes... poisonous? Do you know what it is?

The flowers range from yellow to orange and are tubular in shape. Perfect for hummingbirds or butterflies, I would think...


They also have these delicate little spots...

If you know what it is, please leave me a comment! Thanks!

Bud, Brian, and The Bat

Most every place you work has its pest problems, and for the past couple of years the college has been dealing with occasional bats in the library.

So last week when we heard some angry bat squeeking above the library shelves it shouldn't have been much of a surprise when a fairly large bat started swooping around the library. So when you've got a bat in your library, who ya gonna call? Bud and Brian!

Now, when you watch the video, you unfortunately can't hear the bat's opinion of the events. If bats could speak profanity, you bet this one would have been using some four-letter words! There's also one point in the film when I dive behind the copy machine... Trust me, the bat was big, and he was mad, and if he was flying around your face, you would take cover, too!

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: No bats were harmed in the making of this video...

Dinner experment... Garlic Scapes!

This past Saturday was opening day at the Massillon Farmers' Market. I went with Mom and we picked up a few things: garlic, onions, squash, and honey. My one splurge item was a package of garlic scapes.

What are garlic scapes, you ask? The lady at the market explained that it's part of the garlic plant that sprouts above ground and can be cut and used when it's still green and curly. She recommended using them in a stir fry, but after some poking around on the web I found that most people use them to make into a pesto.

Here's an image I found on the web, since I didn't snap a picture before making the pesto:
http://www.pbase.com/mitzi/image/30882112

They are very pretty and look like thick chives with a closed blossom at the top. You cut off the blossom tips before using them. If left in the ground the scapes will open then turn brown.

For the pesto I simply processed them in the food processor with olive oil. I didn't add any cheese to keep it vegan, then Richard added his own shredded Parmesan cheese.

Here's what the pesto looked like tossed with farfalle pasta:

That's the bright green pesto in the bowl in the background, and we tossed it with the pasta, toasted pine nuts, and Richard added cheese.

How did it taste? It had a spicy garlic taste, but much more subtle than straight garlic. I thought it was fairly rich. Richard topped his with a balsamic grilled chicken breast.

I think I'm still a basil pesto girl, but this was a nice change of pace. A very successful experiment!

Independence Day... Kitty Style!

Okay, for those of you who really know us, you already know that our cat, Buttercup, can't resist the sound of Richard's singing voice.

So we thought that we would help you all celebrate the Fourth with a patriotic rendition of the "Meow-Spangled Banner," a duet featuring Richard and Buttercup.

For all of you meow-song haters out there, get over it! We think it's very funny. But please excuse Richard's inability to hit the high note... He won't be performing at any baseball games any time soon!



Just click on the "play" arrow to start the video...

Now, much to our surprise, Buttercup wasn't finished singing yet. She was very excited and wanted to sing the song again. Soooooo... If you didn't get enough of her meow-y goodness, check out the video below.

WARNING: This video is not for the kitty haters out there! Buttercup is a very bad kitty sometimes! (And please forgive the slight bit of profanity on my part!)



Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!