Recipe: Stuffed Zucchini

This recipe was created by Angela, one of our CSA members. She said it was delicious, and I think the picture is beautiful, too!

1 medium round zucchini

1 pound Italian seasoned ground turkey

1 can petite diced tomato, drained

cooking spray

garlic salt

Preheat oven to 350. Cut top off zucchini and carve out middle until walls are approximately 1/2 inch thick. Discard seeds and stringy material, keeping most of the inside of the zucchini. Spray inside of zucchini with cooking spray and salt with garlic salt. Bake for 15 minutes.

Dice remaining zucchini pieces. Brown turkey. Add diced tomato and zucchini when turkey is almost done. Continue to cook for another few minutes.

Remove zucchini shell from oven. Pour turkey mixture into zucchini shell and return to oven for 15 minutes. After cooling for a few minutes, slice and serve.

Recipe: Savory Zucchini Pancakes

I learned how to make these from Bhavani at Shoshoni Yoga Retreat. They make a wonderful light lunch or dinner, and the recipe is very versatile.

Makes 3 large pancakes; serves 2-3 people.

2 cups shredded zucchini (or other summer squash)

2 tablespoons minced fresh herbs

1 egg

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

black pepper to taste

dash of tabasco

olive oil or ghee (for cooking)

Mix zucchini, herbs, and egg in large bowl. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring until mixed. Add tabasco.

Pour olive oil or ghee into a non-stick frying pan. Heat oil over medium low heat. Spread batter in the pan, making a pancake about 5-6 inches in diameter. Cook slowly over medium low heat. When the first side is browned, flip the pancake.

Serve sprinkled with salt and pepper. Can be served topped with sour cream or cottage cheese and chopped tomatoes.

*It's important to cook the pancakes over medium low heat so that the inside has time to cook thoroughly. If the heat is too high, the outside of the pancake will cook, but the inside will still be soft.

*You can add any number of things to the batter for variation: chopped onion, diced garlic, or chopped arugula, spinach or chard.

The Joy of Pickling

In June I attended a Colorado Wine Dinner, and I got to spend some time talking to Jake Norris, who makes Stranahan's Whiskey (www.stranahans.com). Jake is a big-time local food guy, and he's got quite the garden. I told Jake that I was interested in learning how to can and pickle food, and he told me to get a wonderful book called "The Joy of Pickling." I followed Jake's advice, and made my first attempts at food preserving.

I started with green beans....

Ta-da!!!!

Next came the lemon cucumbers. The garden this year didn't yield any regular cucumbers, but we had plenty of these pretty yellow ones.

Lots 'o good stuff in the jars.

Zucchini pickles with sweet Indian spices (ginger, corinader, cinnamon) and chiles.

Lemon cucmber, sweet Indian zucchini, and spicy zucchini/onion pickles.

Getting the tomatoes ready.

The tomatoes were very late to ripen this year, so we ended up with a lot of green tomatoes right before the first frost. Rather than giving up the fruits, I picked them to make canned green tomatoes.

Did I say that we had a lot of green tomatoes? Really, a LOT!!

Presenting.... Green tomato salsa, green tomato chutney, zucchini relish, and canned (mostly) green tomatoes.

Mid-September Bounty

Our little potato harvest.

Home grown potatoes really do taste different. Plus, it's fun to hunt for them in the dirt!

The veggie area of our kitchen counter.

The zucchini "boats."

I never get tired of tomato pictures! The lovely dish they're in was a wedding present from our friend Kamala, who teaches pottery.

A few not-quite-ripe tomatoes ready to catch the morning rays.

Fall salad with roasted beets, arugula, squash, and goat cheese.