What's a girl to do with all of this zucchini?

Make zucchini bread, of course!

But even better, make chocolate zucchini bread, and even better yet (so I can actually eat it) make it vegan chocolate zucchini bread!

I found this recipe online and it turned out really yummy!

Adapted from: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=24203.0

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
Egg replacer for 3 eggs
2/3 cup soymilk
2 cups shredded Zucchini
1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 2-9x5" loaf pans with non-stick spray.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl & mix well. Add vegetable oil & using a fork, stir. It will be dry but stir as well as possible. Then add the flax eggs. Continue to mix. Add soy milk & Vanilla & stir until well blended. Add Zucchini, Chocolate Chips & Walnuts & blend them in. The mixture should be nice & smooth, moist looking.

Spoon into loaf pans. Bake 55-60 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove & cool completely. Serves: 2 loaves

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.

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!

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!