I was scanning the NYT health section and came across two delicious sounding zuchinni recipes that I would love to try:

Greek Zucchini and Herb Pie

Provencal Zucchini and Swiss Chard Tart

Let me know if you try either of these. I need to wait for the zucchini crop to explode…

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A Piece of the Rainbow

After the rats ate all our chard, we began to go into withdrawal. We love chard!

Though it was the end of summer we went ahead and started some seeds in an undisclosed location to transplant when the invaders were gone. All the planting charts say to plant chard in the spring. We figured – we’re in zone 9b…we can do whatever we want. Actually, I just didn’t know any better.

In all, we have 12 chard seedlings that we put into the raised beds last weekend. To help them along we set up a frame and covered the beds with clear plastic – a mini greenhouse. We hope this will help them catch up a bit and become hearty enough to get through the winter. We’ve done this with most of our fall/winter beds since we ended up with such a late start due to the garden invaders. So far, all the plants are doing well. Plus we haven’t even gotten our Indian Summer yet. In our area, the best weather comes in early Fall.

Chard loves well composted soil with a pH from 7.0-7.5 and grows best in full sun but can do well in partial shade as well. Hot weather can trigger the plant to go to seed so if your area experiences hot weather, partial shade maybe preferable.

Sow seeds directly into your garden bed or in a pot at least 7 gallons in size from early Spring to late Summer. Chard is a member of the beet / spinach family so rotate accordingly.

The seeds are protected by a fairly hard shell so you can soak the seeds for a few hours before putting them into the ground to help germination. Each seed (as in the case of beets) is actually many seeds in one. When the seeds sprout, you will notice many plants growing in the same spot. When I first planted chard, I kept thinking I dropped too many seeds into the hole.

Thin the seedlings to about 6 to 8 inches apart. Most garden resources say that chard doesn’t like to be transplanted but I have had good luck moving the seedlings with 90% or more survival as long as the seedling has at least 6 leaves. Keep the seedlings well watered until they are establish.

There are a number of varieties: green leaves with white stalks – Fordhook and Lucullus; with red stalks – Ruby Red and Rhubarb; with five color rainbow stalks – Bright Lights. We like the added color of the rainbow in our garden so Bright Lights is our standby.

Leaf miners and aphids are typical pests. Use a dilute soap solution (about 2 teaspoons dish soap in a quart spray bottle) or use the vermin vinaigrette.

Plants usually mature in 50 to 60 days but you can start harvesting tender young leaves in half that time. These young leaves are great eaten raw mixed with your salad greens.
To harvest, cut the outer leaves at the stem an inch or two from the base. You can continue harvesting this way from the same plant for months and months. I’ve even had plants survive through the winter. With the Bright Lights variety, the cold weather makes the colors much more intense.

To prepare – I simply cut the leaves, stalk and all, into 3 or 4 inch cross wise strips and saute in extra virgin olive oil with a smashed garlic clove. I’ll cover the pot for about 5 minutes or until the stalks are tender but still have a bit of crisp bite to them. Generally, chard can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach.

Another idea is to lightly steam large leaves and use them to wrap fish before cooking or in place of grape leaves for swiss chard dolmas

One of my all time favorites is to make a ‘white’ pizza with sauteed chard, sliced cooked yukon gold potatoes and fontina cheese – or these toppings as a filling in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Chard…plant it, grow it, eat it!

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When planting this spring and visiting various nurseries to buy starts – I thought it would be nice to have a pumpkin for the Fall. While searching for a pumpkin plant I saw a butternut squash and my practical side took over. We rarely eat pumpkin but love butternut squash. Done.

Homegrown Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is of course part of the squash family which is related to summer squash like zucchini as well as melons and cucumbers. So, if you are practicing rotation planting be sure to put this into account.

The difference between summer squash and winter squash can be defined by two characteristics.
Winter squash have hard shells whereas summer squash are soft skinned; and
winter squash generally grow as vines whereas summer squash grow more as a bush.

If you planted winter squash you have likely been harvesting for the last month or so depending on when you planted. I was able to pick three fairly small ones this year. I can’t wait to see how we do next year with all that we have learned about gardening.

When harvesting butternut squash you want to wait until it is no longer green – turning into a light tannish color. Of course if you are impatient you can harvest them while very young and prepare them as you would summer squash – maybe sauteed in a bit of extra virgin olive oil and a smashed garlic clove. Know too that any fruits developing after August or so (in zone 9) won’t have time to develop fully so those would be good candidates for the saute action.

Once your butternuts are ripe, cut the squash off the vine so that you have a 3-4″ stem. If you plan on storing through the winter you might want to cure them to further harden their skins. You do this by putting them in a warm place – ideally about 80-85F – for 10 days. If it is warm out you can cure the squash in the sun or indoors in a warm place. After curing, you will want to store them in a cool dark place – between 45 and 55F is ideal. Lay them out in a single layer without touching each other.

There are many ways to enjoy butternut squash – grate and use in place of carrots in carrot cake or if making potato pancakes, replace some of the potato with squash.

Another way to use squash is to roast by cutting in half lengthwise (be careful as the skin is usually very hard – sometimes using a serrated bread knife is easiest), put into a baking dish cut side down with about a half inch of water. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes or until soft. After the squash cools, scoop it out and use as:

• replacement for pumpkin puree in pies and cakes
• filling for lasagna or ravioli
• in soups

Here is a favorite soup recipe:

Thai Squash and Coconut Soup

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 1/4 – 1/2 pound butternut squash
1 tablespoon coconut oil — or vegetable oil
1 small carrot — thinly sliced (no need to peel – lots of vitamins in that skin)
1/2 medium onion — thinly sliced
1/2 stalk celery — thinly sliced
1 medium jalapeno chile pepper — thinly sliced
2 inch lemon grass — smashed
2 slices ginger — minced very fine
1 clove garlic — smashed
1 teaspoon sea salt (Try Redmond)
1/2 cup coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen Organic)
2 cups water or vegetable stock — more if needed
1 tablespoon lime juice

Cut butternut squash in half, put in baking dish cut side down with about a 1/2″ water. Bake at 350F until soft – about 30 – 40 minutes. Cool and scoop out squash from shell.

Heat oil in a 6 quart pot. Over medium heat, saute carrot, onion, celery, jalapeno, lemon grass, ginger and garlic with sea salt until soft – about 15 minutes. Add coconut milk, water, lime juice and squash. Simmer another 20-30 minutes, stir every so often to make sure the squash doesn’t stick to bottom of the pot.

Pull out the lemon grass. Blend soup until smooth and creamy. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or if you can’t do this be sure you have removed all the lemon grass before blending, otherwise you will be picking the fibers out of your teeth. Season to taste with salt and more lime juice as needed. This soup can be served hot or cold. A nice garnish would be pumpkin seeds toasted in a little coconut oil with chopped garlic and parsley or a simple sprig of cilantro will do as well.

Bonus:  To grow your own lemon grass, take a few stalks (choose ones that have not had their bottoms trimmed too far up) and cut off the tops so you have about 6-8″. Put this in a jar of water and in a about 1-2 weeks you will see roots. Plant in a large pot (these guys will spread and spread so I like the control of a pot) and water often. Soon the stalks will start multiplying. Set out in a sunny spot. In a few months, you will have a nice supply. Be aware that the leaves are sharp as razors and will give you paper cut like slices – ouch! So wear gloves.

Happy Fall!

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No, not a savory pie with eggs and cheese and herbs but, well…like an apple pie. With all it’s cinnamony homey goodness. Why not? There’s zucchini bread and muffins and cookies…

Her husband was so happy when he got home and immediately sat down to what he thought was one of her excellent flaky apple pies. I mean the whole house smelled so good. He took a bite and thought, hmmm, this is different…upon closer inspection he realized it wasn’t apple but…argh, could it be…ugh, zucchini!

He was livid! You see, ever since he was a young lad he was tortured with over cooked watery zucchini and vowed never to eat it again.

  Zucchini Crisp Ingredients

My sister swears it tastes just like apple pie so
I figured why not?

I’m not much of a pie baker but love crisps so today
I made the all American favorite… Zucchini Crisp.

Crisp Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup rolled oats, old fashion style
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, Mountain Rose
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, Redmond
• 4 ounces sweet butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. Use your fingers and mix in the butter with the dry ingredients until completely incorporated. The topping should hold together when squeezed together but fall apart into pea size pieces easily. Set aside.

Any extra can be put into a airtight container and refrigerated for two weeks or frozen for up to 3 months. Double the recipe to make extra if you wish, the topping is nice to have on hand for a quick dessert.

Now for the Zucchini Filling:

• 4 cups zucchini or other summer squash cut into 3/4″ pieces
• 1 Tablespoon Minute Tapioca
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350F. Butter a 8-9″ baking dish

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into baking dish.

Top with approximately 1 1/4 cup crisp topping.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the zucchini are soft and the top is a crispy golden brown.

Zucchini Crisp ala Mode

Serve warm plain or ala mode with some home made frozen yogurt or ice cream.

The taste? It’s…squashy – kind of like pumpkin. The flavor does throw you off a bit because you expect…fruit.

Hmmm, I do have some first of the season Gravenstein apples in the crisper…

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I picked a few of the Romas, Early Girls and my fav Celebrity . One more reason I like Celebrity is that is has fewer seeds than your average tomato (so, fewer seeds in the sauce). Only 4 pounds in all but I figured I’d put up a few jars anyway.

The basic recipe I used:

• 4 pounds of washed tomatoes, tops removed
• 1/4 onion, small dice
• 1 small green pepper (I used a small poblano from the garden)
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed & roughly chopped
• 2 sprigs of oregano, leaves removed from stem and roughly chopped
• 12 large basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (Redmond)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Canning is not difficult though it is best to follow the directions carefully from such USDA publications as ‘The Complete Guide to Canning’

Here’s a visual guide to my process:

Gathering up ingredients for Tomato Sauce

 

Removing tomato stem ends with the famous "Tomato Shark"

 

Saute onions, pepper, garlic, herbs, sea salt and black pepper in extra virgin olive oil

 

Add tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Simmer until desired consistency is reached. I usually reduce by 1/3

 

Filling hot sterilized 1/2 pint jars with hot finished sauce

 

Boiling filled jars in a hot water bath – a stock pot with a cake rack on the bottom. Notice there is 1-2" water above the top of the jar. These will boil for 35 minutes.

 

Finished Jars of Tomato Sauce. Plum jam in the background from the day before.

Canned tomato sauce… delicious in QUALITY if not quantity.
enjoy.

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That’s it! The salad tongs have been thrown down onto the wood chips. If I want my share of salad and kale I need to be as crafty as these elusive vermin. Hmmm, I’m feeling a bit like Bill Murray.

So, I read in one of my garden books that some animals don’t like certain flavors and aromas. So I decided to pre-dress the greens with my own special vinaigrette.

Anti-Vermin Vinaigrette

I decided on garlic, spicy hot thai chile pepper, mint and rosemary.

I took half a head of garlic, 1 thai chile, 8 sprigs each of mint and rosemary and blended on high speed with 4 cups of water. Then I strained it through a fine mesh strainer and put into a spray bottle. I thought better of using the full strength so ended up diluting the mix by half.

All the greens in the garden got a nice little spritz of this concoction.

But wait, I thought…For good measure I dug out the bag of extra HOT ground chili powder I got from the Indian grocer and sprinkled it everywhere. Patti got a good chuckle from our very red garden.

Either I made everything nasty tasting for the mystery vermin or they are going to break out the good china for tonight’s dinner. Remy is that you?

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Truth be told, wild squashes tended to be void of edible material and were very bitter, bleck. But, some industrious farmer saw potential and cultivated these wild barely edible gourds to the point that when Chris Columbus landed in the ‘New’ world he had to bring this delectable Native American food back to the Queen.

Zucchini is considered a summer squash and cousin to melons and cucumbers. They come in many varieties with each type sporting distinct shapes, color and flavor. Since these vegetables are in the same family, you can plant these in rotation together. Rotating as in not planting the veggies of the same family in the same bed for at least three years.

In the Territorial Seed Company catalog there are 16 varieties from the more common green zucchini to yellow crook necks to varigated ridged zuc’s to disk shaped saucers in hues of white, yellow and many shades of green to round globe shaped squash. All are tasty, tender and creamy in texture.

Creamy you say?

Why yes. In the case of summer squash, size does matter and the smaller the better – say 4″ in diameter for the round or saucers and no more than 6″ for the elongated varieties. As summer squash grow they fill up with water so when you cook them the flavor and texture – are, well… watery. Most of the time these overgrown watery squash are pre-ordained for zucchini bread – who could complain about that?

Well, its nice to have variety so chefs long ago devised ways to use up these bronto-zucchinis. When I end up with bronto squash – which, well, honestly hasn’t happened this year due to my poor soil – everything is growing slowly and staying tiny…

…Nonetheless, this zucchini lasagna is a favorite among my low-carb cooking clients. For this particular lasagna, I actually had to run out and buy large zuc’s!

Here is the recipe for a 9″ x 9″ lasagna using zucchini in place of the pasta.

One way to reduce the water in any vegetable is to salt it – through the magic of osmosis the water is drawn out.

The ideal size of zucchini for this is about 12″. Take a 10 or 12″ chef’s knife and slice the zucchini lengthwise into approximately 3/8″ slices. Lay these out on clean kitchen towels and lightly salt with a few pinches for each side. Cover with another kitchen towel and weigh down with a sheet pan or cutting board.

Now onto preparing the rest of the ingredients. You can use whatever you traditionally use for your lasagna. One version of mine uses a layer of ground turkey, a mixture of spinach and ricotta, marinara, parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

The turkey mixture is a take on bolognese -

Brown 3/4 pound of ground free range dark meat turkey with 1/2 a diced onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 diced carrot and celery stalk, 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning, 1 bay leaf and a big pinch of sea salt.

When the turkey is cooked through and the liquid is evaporated add 1 1/2 cups (or more) of red wine. Now about that red wine…don’t go using that two buck swill – though you don’t need to break the bank either…just use something you could actually drink and enjoy.

Simmer until it is almost all evaporated. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and simmer until it is almost evaporated.

Now add about 1 1/2 cups of your favorite marinara.

Simmer until it is very thick. Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

For the spinach ricotta mixture: defrost 1 bag of chopped organic spinach – squeeze out as much excess water as possible and mix with 1 egg, a 15 oz tub of whole milk ricotta, salt and pepper to taste.

Then you want to have about 2 cups of marinara or other favorite pasta sauce, 1 1/2 to 2 cups of grated mozzarella and 1/3 cup grated parmesan ready for the next step.

By now your zucchini should have a good amount of water pressed out. You can see in the picture the zucchini strips laid out on the towels.

Before assembly preheat your oven to 350F.

Assembly: oil a 9″ x 9″ pan with extra virgin olive oil

Layer 1: pour in about 1/2 cup of marinara then lay down enough zucchini strips to cover the bottom – overlapping is fine.

Layer 2: spread the turkey ‘bolognese’ over the zucchini and sprinkle over the turkey half of the parmesan. Lay down another layer of zucchini.

Layer 3: spread the spinach ricotta over the zucchini and lay another layer of zucchini over that.

Layer 4: pour a nice layer of marinara over the top and spread to the edges. Pop into the oven.

Bake for about 1 hour.

Remove from oven and top with the grated mozzarella and remaining parmesan. Return to oven and bake another 30 minutes or until the mozzarella has melted and turned a nice golden brown.

Low-Carb, Wheat-Free Zucchini Lasagna

Let rest for 15 to 20 minutes then serve. Enjoy!

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All this from a few sprouted potatoes

Today I harvested a basket full of potatoes. It’s so much fun to reach into the dirt and pull out these little jewels. All of these potatoes are offspring of potatoes I had in my pantry that started to sprout. I use to think – oh these have gone bad and tossed them.

Now I just plant them.

From today’s little harvest we enjoyed some roasted potatoes – before roasting in a 400F oven I tossed them with extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, spanish smoked paprika, sea salt and black pepper. Done in about 20 minutes. Yum.

I also made a Garden Chowder.

First I sauteed half a diced onion, 2 minced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic chives, 1 sliced stalk of celery and 1 sliced carrot in 2 tablespoons of butter.

Then I poured in about a 1/3 c of white wine, 4 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, a bunch of chopped kale, 1 1/2 cups of sliced potatoes, a very generous pinch of sea salt and little pinch of black pepper. But wait! I remembered we had a bag of artichoke hearts in the freezer so I tossed those in too.

I simmered until the kale and potatoes were soft then added a 1/2 cup of heavy cream, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste.

That was good eating with enough leftover for lunch tomorrow.

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