SpiderWomanKnits

The Zucchini Post

You really have to love zucchini. It's been so hot and dry here in Vermont and my garden isn't the best it's ever been but those squash plants keep putting out without even the slightest fuss. I've learned to love the burdenous bounty and I thought I would share some of the ways that I preserve and use my zucchini with you. 

First up is the good old fashioned shred. If you have a gigantic zucchini or a pile of "average" size zucchini that are staring you in the face but you're just not in the mood to do anything with them, grab your coarse grater and just have your way with them. When I am grating I grate around the seeded part so I am left with a small core of seeds. That I just feed to my very grateful chickens. And now, from here, you can really go anywhere. 

Let's start with Zucchini Bread. Perhaps you have a favorite recipe? If it calls for 1 or 2 cup portions of grated zucchini just measure out those size portions, place them in a freezer bag, label the bag with the measurement and stick it right into your freezer. I love to flatten out my freezer bags so they are stackable. It makes me feel good to have a neat stack of measured out frozen zucchini, that's just the kind of girl I am. 

Speaking of Zucchini Bread. I love this recipe for Lemon Zucchini Bread.

Often times I will just bake up extra loaves, slice them, freeze the slices flat and then transfer the slices to a gallon size freezer bag. Then, you can pull a slice when you want it, anytime! And if you're the only one in the mood for zucchini bread it's no big deal. Alternatively, you can bake little mini loaves like the ones I did above and freeze those. Just be sure to reduce your baking time by almost half if you are using a mini loaf pan. While we're on the topic of zucchini bread. I also love this recipe for chocolate zucchini bread. It's just outstanding. You could make it in a cake pan, slap some frosting on it and have yourself one delicious chocolate cake as a matter of fact. It also freezes well. But, if you don't get around to baking extra loaves of bread and you have a hankering for some this winter, don't worry! Because you already preserved those perfect portions of grated zucchini in your freezer, right?! We're all feeling really smart now. 

Edited: To make either of these breads Gluten Free just sub in your favorite GF flour mix. I use Bob's Red Mill AP Mix. 

But since we have piles of zucchini that's all grated up why not can up some very impressive and super simple Zucchini Relish?

That's what I've been doing a lot of lately (of course, in the middle of a heat wave, hence my punchy tone). My kids really love this relish. Use it on burgers and hot dogs etc. all summer long. During the winter and fall add a tablespoon or two to tuna salad or slather your favorite sandwich with it. When I can it I use half pint jars instead of full pint but that's just my preference. If you do the same just make sure you process the jars for the same amount of time. This relish also makes a really special gift to pass out to teachers, friends, host/esses etc. Put some up. You'll be happy you did. 

Yet another way that I love to preserve zucchini is to just clean them and then slice them into 1/4" rounds. Freeze those flat on a parchment lined cookie sheet and then transfer to a gallon size freezer bag. The frozen rounds can be used in Zucchini Parmesan Casseroles or Veggie Bakes all year long. I don't defrost them first. I just layer them frozen as you can see in the picture below. 

To sum it up, zucchini freezes really well. You can cube it for stews and soups and freeze those. Grate and freeze it for breads, relish, omelets, fritters. Slice it into rounds for casseroles or the grill before your garden gets hopping next season. Whatever suits your fancy. Oh, and when I am pickling and I have extra brine I'll throw some sliced zucchini in a jar, pour the leftover brine over them and let them chill out in the fridge for a day or two. Zucchini makes great fridge pickles! 

If you happen to find yourself with a cup or two of extra shredded zucchini that you're not preserving do not hesitate to make some of these! 

I really can't stop making these. They are so good. You can find the recipe for Zucchini Fritters here. I've been eating these for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I just squeeze the bejesus out of the mixture instead of waiting for it to drain like the recipe calls for. On one occassion I was clever enough to mix it up the night before and let it drain in a colander over a bowl in the fridge overnight. I feel like whipping some up right now. 

I'd love to hear your favorite ways to use or preserve zucchini. Please do share. 

Hope you're having a lovely summer!

xo Spidey

preserving cherry tomatoes

I am getting about 1 gallon of cherry tomatoes every day. That's a conservative estimate. This year I planted Sun Gold Cherry Toms. We are really loving them. I always freeze a bunch whole to be used for fresh pasta sauces in the winter but this year I am also slow roasting them with cloves of garlic. Oh.My.Wow. These are truly amazing and will be a warm, rich and comforting companion in winter stews, soups or just smothered on a piece of toast.You will have to use all of your will power not to just eat these on the spot while you are filling your jars.

To slow roast cherry tomatoes (or any small tomato) preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I have a convection roast option on my oven which works wonderfully. Wash your tomatoes, sliced them in half and place in a roasting pan (or pans if you have a bazillion like me). Separate whole cloves of garlic from the bulb but leave the skin on and scatter them in your pan. I like to use one clove per jar and I always roast extra. Drizzle olive oil over your pan and sprinkle kosher salt to taste. Place in the oven and roast for approx. 1 1/2-2 hours. I like to set my timer at 30 minute intervals and just keep checking or rotating pans so they roast evenly. You want them to be slightly browned and almost dehydrated though there will be some thickened juices. Fill 4oz Ball jars, leaving 1/2", and add one clove of garlic squeezed from it's skin to each jar. Let cool, cover and freeze!

If you want to just freeze your cherry or grape tomatoes, just wash and dry them. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment in a single layer and set in freezer until they are solid. Transfer to zippered freezer bags.

Enjoy!

 

today's haul

It's not the biggest haul we've had but it certainly is special. Those are the first potatoes we've ever grown! What a fun crop. Still lots more in the ground. We'll certainly make room for more next year. Jorn, Simonne and I spent Vaughn's nap time in the garden together today picking all these veggies. It just fills my heart watching the two of them cooperate and work together to help pick whatever it is we are picking. They are just as excited as I am to see what's available for us on a particular day.

A few nights ago I used the 2 pounds of beans we had picked that day (kentucky wonder, gold rush and purple) to make Indian style green beans. The whole family made me swear that I would not pickle the beans we picked today but would prepare the Indian Style beans again. Here's the recipe. I hope your family loves it as much as mine. It's taken from one of my favorite cook books Whole Foods for the Whole Family.This is the recipe as it is written in the book, we doubled it.

Indian Style Green Beans

1lb green beans

2-4T oil (salted butter)

1t black mustard seeds

1/2 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup thinly sliced carrots

1 t. ground coriander

1/8 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. salt (or to taste)

1-2T lemon juice

Cut beans into 1 inch pieces (I just snap mine while I am washing them) Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Saute mustard seeds until they "pop". Add beans, onion, carrots. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in seasonings, reduce heat to simmer. Cover, simmer until desired tenderness. Stir in lemon juice and serve. We serve this as the side along with the most simple and delicious Chickpea Curry. If you look through the reviews you'll see my mods for that recipe on the site. Oh, and one more picture, just because, I love my Garden Sweetie so much.This was how she was dressed all day today while we were working.

in our garden: bush beans

This year we planted Royal Burgundy and Gold Rush Bush Beans. I have to say that it's really nice not having to hunt for camouflaged beans and so far the yield and quality has been just wonderful. These are just as delicious to look at as they are to eat. If you are not familiar with High Mowing Organic Seeds make sure to put them on your seed catalog list this coming year.

So far we've just been cooking and eating our beans, my favorite way to prepare them is roasting them with our garlic and some of our sungold cherry tomatoes. I also plan on putting up a bunch of dilly beans too. What's your favorite way to use beans? I'm always looking for new ways to prepare or preserve our harvest.

food glorious food

Oh boy. I have been busy, busy doing what needs to be done to begin preserving both our own harvest and the local harvest that surrounds us. In the past month or two I've put up 18 pints of our own sweet pickles, 24 half pints of locally picked raspberry and strawberry jam, frozen 5 gallons of locally picked blueberries, strawberries and raspberries as well as 2 gallons of our own and a neighbor's zucchini so far. It feels so good.

After gobbling up all the fresh berries our bellies could handle from our latest outing to Mad Tom Orchard I made this amazingly simple and delicious raspberry buttermilk cake. Actually, I made two of them because the first one was eaten in 3 minute flat. This is an easy one to make gluten free because the recipe only calls for 1 cup of flour. I used Bob's Red Mill AP Mix for the flour and added a 1/2 tspn of xanthan gum. The recipe is already committed to my memory. It's a keeper.

A few weeks ago we had a very special visit too. Aran and Nadia stopped by the farm. It was such an incredible pleasure and an honor to meet them both and to learn that Nadia is a neighbor. Aran's blog, Cannelle et Vanille, is packed with tempting food photography and the most delicious recipes (many of them gluten free!) I've ever seen. Stop by both of their spaces, you will be inspired.

welcome to the (tomato) jungle

{june 4th 2011}

{june 15th 2011}

{july 17th 2011}

I have my tomatoes and tomatillos planted, separate from my other garden, in an area next to the chicken coop. This spot used to be covered with Bishops Weed, a nice looking but horribly invasive plant. Two years ago we penned our chickens there for a while. They did a fairly good job of turning it into a muddy, greenery free mess. Then, last year, we decided to reclaim the area and did so by planting our vining crops there (cukes, zukes, squash and pumpkins) in black plastic. This year, after taking up the black plastic, I was delighted to find healthy looking, workable soil that was easy to weed since the black plastic kept a lot of what we didn't want from growing.

I hand tilled this area and mounded up the dirt into free form raised bed rows, mulching the paths heavily with straw. After spacing my tomato plants about 2 feet apart I then planted marigold, nasturtium and sunflowers in between each plant based on my whim. Now, I have a very healthy looking (knock on wood), virtually weed free area, if not an out of control tomato jungle. You can tell I am not very good at pruning, pinching or whatever it is you are supposed to do with tomatoes. I'm using this method of support for the first time and I am really, very happy with it.

Here's another view from the other side so that you can see there are still paths in there, albeit narrow ones, to get around. You can't see it in these pictures but I also planted a patch of zinna right up against the coop inside the garden which makes it quite colorful in there and an old elm tree stump (in the bottom right) makes a nice sitting spot.

jammin'

Two of my lady friends and our seven children hit Clear Brook Farm yesterday to pick (organically raised) strawberries. Apparently we picked them all because they had to close down the PYO today. My haul was 11 pounds of berries. We have a great little patch of our own strawberries growing in our garden but they rarely make it into the house. The kids just sit and eat them on the spot. This year I wanted to put up enough jam to meet our needs for the year so picking at Clear Brook was just the right choice.

11 pounds of berries yielded 18 half pints of strawberry jam and one quart freezer bag of whole berries. Yum, yum, yum. I used Pomona's Universal Pectin and followed their 'low sugar cooked recipe' for strawberry jam. I made two separate batches, both doubled. For the first batch I used honey as the sweetener and for the second I used organic cane sugar and added a whole vanilla bean, halved, while the berries were at boil. Oh my, my. It's heavenly.

It feels so god to have the canner out and fired up again. What a joy it is to hear the 'ping' of a well sealed jar. I just love canning. I'm sure that I'll visit Clear Brook again for more berries so that I can put up a few more pints and then have some set aside for gifting.

Photo Credit for the sweet and treasured picture of Vaughn goes to my friend Alexa.

still growing

Well, maybe not still growing but the garden is still keeping me busy. We still have lots of tomatillos and I can't stop making this salsa. It has turned into one of our favorite things to eat this growing season. This year, for the first time, I planted strawberry popcorn. It's so cute. Not the best yield and I can't speak to the 'popcorn' yet because it has to sit for a few weeks but it was a fun crop.

I brought in a bunch of paste tomatoes that were almost ripe (about a 1/2 bushel) and pulled up the rest of my plants to hang in the garage. Each threat of frost is followed by the most glorious, mild fall day you could hope for so my efforts have felt a bit premature. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry though. I also brought in the rest of my beets, have been making nasturtium pesto non-stop over the past few weeks, have been blanching and freezing any extra green beans (I decided that I prefer pole beans to bush beans), put up many quarts of garlic dill and sweet pickles, put up many pints of relish, froze a bunch of cherry tomatoes (we had so many this year), grated and froze tons of zukes and summer squash (this bread is delicious) and generally brought the garden to as graceful of a close as possible. I am really in denial though.

But then it was time to move the clean up crew in. We started raising meat birds this summer! I think I haven't mentioned that here yet. Oh golly. I haven't. Wow. I have a lot to say about that. For now though let me tell you a bit about the birds above. They are Red Broilers and I find them so much nicer to raise than a standard Cornish Rock. Amazingly, they behave like chickens should and they seem very vibrant and healthy.  So far, I adore them and they adore scratching up our garden for us. It's a good deal and it eases some of the sadness (maybe that's not the right word) knowing that they are enjoying all the little bits of our gardening effort this summer that were left behind.

when life gives you tomatillos

Make this salsa. Really. Whether you grew tomatillos in your garden this year or have never even seen one in your life find some and then some time to whip up a batch of this salsa. I dare say that it is the best salsa I have ever had. Really. I made a few modifications to the recipes so I'll write those out here.

You'll need:

2 lbs of fresh tomatillos, husks removed

2 heads of garlic

2 jalapeno peppers (this gives you a pretty good kick, omit one or both depending on your taste)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves (no stems)

2 heaping table-tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4-1/2 tsp ground chipolte

a pinch each of cumin and cinnamon

To make:

1. Preheat the oven's broiler. Arrange the whole cloves of garlic, tomatillos, and jalapenos on a baking sheet. Place under the broiler, and cook for a few minutes. Remove garlic cloves first, as soon as they are toasted, to avoid developing a bitter flavor. Continue to roast jalapenos and tomatillos until evenly charred, turning occasionally. Set aside to cool. Don't remove the charred parts of the tomatillos or the peppers. They add a really nice flavor.

2. Place garlic and cilantro in a food processor and process with a dash of olive oil until smooth. Add peppers and tomatillos and process until somewhat smooth.  Transfer mixture to a saucepan add seasonings and then cook over low-medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to pre-warmed (I just let some hot tap water sit in mine while I was cooking the mixture to prevent the jars from cracking when you add the hot salsa) Ball Jars and then refrigerate until serving. Yields approx 26ozs. Enjoy!

i am an armenian

And I love Luleh Kebob! This is perhaps one of my family's very favorite meals to eat. I can make a double, even a  triple, recipe and still there won't be a single kebob left over. The more I make, the more everyone eats. You should definitely give them a try. Here's the very simple recipe that I love to use. 

You will need:

2.5 lbs of ground lamb (you can use ground beef too but lamb is really the way to go)

1 Tbspn tomato paste

4 ounces of tomato sauce

4 Tbspns of evaporated milk

1 tspn of ground cumin

1/4 cup minced parsley

1 Tbspn minced, dried onion

1 tspn salt

ground pepper to taste

Make:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and form into sausage shapes around 4" long. We sort of just make mini meatloaf shapes but a longer, narrow shape is traditional. Keeping your hands moist will help when shaping them. Place kebobs in a shallow baking dish.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven. Transfer to a platter and reserve pan juices to serve separately. Garnish kebobs with chopped onion and parsley.

Enjoy!

That green bean salad has turned into a favorite of ours this summer too. I completely winged it one night when I had just run out into the garden to pick what was ready.

Red Comb Roasted Green Bean Salad

You will need:

Green Beans suitable to feed your size family, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces

Olive Oil

Ripe cherry tomatoes, a good sized handful

Salt and Pepper to taste

Asiago cheese, shredded, to taste

Fresh basil to taste

Make:

Drizzle your green beans with olive oil to coat and roast in a preheated 450 degree oven until nicely cooked (approx 10 minutes). Meanwhile while your green beans are roasting, rinse and slice your cherry tomatoes into quarters, transfer to a heat proof serving bowl. If you are using basil just toss some washed leaves in with the tomatoes.

When your green beans are done spoon them out of the roasting pan carefully right into the bowl with the tomatoes. Toss, add salt and pepper to taste and serve! Sprinkle each portion with shredded asiago cheese or you could just sprinkle the entire salad too. Enjoy!

P.S. All the patterns in the latest Berroco Remix book are named after famous Armenians! I can't wait to share the 'behind the scenes scoop' from our wonderful day shooting that book with Norah Gaughan and Cirilia Rose. Soon!