Mendolonium

I received a free packet of organic “round French zucchini” seeds in one of my seed orders this spring.

I like zucchini. Jeff likes zucchini. Thomas likes zucchini. My neighbors like zucchini.

I planted six zucchini plants; it seemed a reasonable number. All of you experienced gardeners or farmers know where I am going with this…

I am about to be buried under an avalanche of round zucchini balls! Help!

I have made zucchini bread, calzone, fajitas, and zucchini enchilladas. I froze eight cups of shredded zucchini this week. And I don’t think that we are anywhere near “peak zucchini”.

If you have good recipes for cooking and/or preserving zucchini please post them in the comments or email them to me. And if you live nearby and and are a fan, stop by and fresh zucchini will be yours. Here’s this weeks menu featuring the ubiquitous squash.

Thursday:

• Quesadillas with refried bean dip
• We were too tired and busy for the farmer’s market. We’ll go to the Saturday one instead

Friday:

• Layered vegetable enchilladas

Saturday:

• Veggie burgers
• Roasted Potatoes

Sunday:

• Falafel (I am going to shred some zucchini and put it in the falafel as well)

Monday:

• I haven’t planned anything specific.  We might go to the beach, we might go on a hike, who knows?

Tuesday:

• Stuffed pasta shells with marinara sauce

Wednesday:

• Thanksgiving in September!  I have been craving Thanksgiving food (it is my favorite holiday) so why not have it now?
• Quinoa stuffed zucchini
• Mashed potatoes
• Steamed green beans
• Biscuits
• Cherry crisp

We now have a rush of zucchini here in addition to our continuing avalanche of tomatoes. We are also harvesting peppers (both bell and hot) and just unearthed our first potatoes of the season. There is far more food than we could possibly eat fresh so we using various food preservation methods. I am freezing marinara sauce (using our tomatoes, basil, and oregano) and put away another 4.5 pints this week. You would think with all of the sauce I have made over the past two weeks that I could do it in my sleep – but you would be wrong.

Yesterday I started making another batch of sauce towards the end of Thomas’ nap. I had just begun sautéing the onions when he woke up. I went off to get him and absentmindedly flicked the burner off as I left the kitchen. Except I didn’t flip it off – I turned it on full bore. Thomas has been a bit under the weather and when I went to pick him up he asked to nurse back to sleep which I obliged. As I was putting him back to sleep I began to smell onions cooking, then burning, and finally the smoke alarm began to wail. Needless to say Thomas did not go back to sleep and now delights in repeating the phrase “No burn onions!”.

Two days ago we made tomato salsa. Making the salsa was a surprisingly large amount work – so many things to chop and seed. I decided to can the salsa which went very well until I dropped a jar and it shattered – spewing hot salsa and shards of glass about myself and the kitchen (a good reminder of why I don’t allow Thomas to play in the kitchen while I am canning). I found I was much more annoyed by dropping this salsa as compared to one that I might buy at the store – so much more time and effort was involved. In the end, we got 6 pints of salsa.

On the upside, I finally developed a recipe for a savory egg-free zucchini bread (I’ll post it later this week). Besides more zucchini bread, here’s what we’re cooking this week.

Thursday:

• I have a “thing” to go to so Jeff and Thomas will fend for themselves
• This also means that Jeff is going to try putting Thomas down to sleep without nursing for the first time in the 643 nights of Thomas’ life. 

Friday:

• Shahi paneer (using our tomatoes)

Saturday:

• Layered vegetable enchiladas (using our tomatoes and zucchini)

Sunday:

• Breakfast for dinner!
• Scrambled tofu
• Roasted potatoes (with our potatoes)
• Pancakes

Monday:

• We’re going to do a belated family celebration of my sister, Sara Ann’s, birthday and she has requested…
• Calzone (again with our tomatoes and zucchini)
• Brownies

Tuesday:

• Jeff’s birthday!
• Veggie fajitas (using our tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers)
• Blueberry pie

Wednesday:

• Spaghetti with marinara sauce

 Tomatoes are power.  With tomatoes many things are possible.

-A basdardization of a quote by George Samuel Clason

Perhaps I am being a bit overly dramatic, but we did harvest over 10 pounds of tomatoes this past weekend.  Over the past few weeks I have made dozens of lunches and dinners with our homegrown tomatoes, made and frozen 8 pints of marinara sauce, and tonight we are going to can 8 pints of salsa.  This week’s menu features our favorite red fruit (actually sometimes, purple, pink, green, and striped) in every meal.

Friday: 

• Drunken penne
• Sauce made from our homegrown, tomatoes, of course

Saturday: 

• Went out for pizza

Sunday: 

• Snacked on bread, cheese, tomatoes, and fruit
• Jeff made a Mexican style bruchetta out of our tomatoes

Monday: 

• Falafel with sour cream, feta, cucumber, greens, and, of course, tomatoes

Tuesday:

• Layered vegetable enchilladas, with fresh tomatoes

Wednesday:

• Shahi paneer

For the past six months Thomas and I have been on a rather difficult diet: no soy, no eggs, no garlic, no pepper, no sesame, and no cantaloupe. Thomas’ issue with soy is an intolerance, not an allergy. Intolerances are more commonly outgrown than allergies and there is some evidence that after food allergens are eliminated intolerances improve. After nearly 6 months on an allergy-free diet we decided to try to introduce soy back into my diet and add it to Thomas’ diet. Over the past month we have been gradually incorporating soy: starting with trace amounts in the form of soy lecithin (a common food additive) and culminating with a tofu and veggie stir-fry. I am thrilled to report that there have been no problems and we can now remove one our major dietary restrictions.

That said, I don’t believe that soy is a “miracle food” and there is evidence that excessive consumption of soy can have negative health consequences. The experience of eliminating soy has also taught me how disturbing our industrial food system is: soy is in a huge amount of processed foods: chocolate, baked goods, ice cream, and snack foods. From a health or taste standpoint, there is no reason that soy is present in any of those foods and we certainly will not return to purchasing these foods now that we have added soy back into our diets. We will be consuming soy in moderation and in it’s simpler forms e.g., tofu and miso as opposed faux foods such as to soy bacon or “facon”. As you can see from this week’s menu I am, however, very much looking forward to partaking of the soybean once again.

Thursday:

• Pupusas and lemonade at the farmer’s market, served in our own containers (tomorrow I’ll post our change of the week: no more takeout containers)

Friday:

• Three cheese, roasted pepper, and basil pizza
• We were supposed to eat this Wednesday night, however, Jeff was sick so we just munched on what we already had in the fridge.

Saturday:

• Summer Birthday Party at Jeff’s parents
• We’ll be bringing black bean burgers, corn (if available at the farmer’s market), and dessert (most likely a cherry crisp and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting).

Sunday:

• Breakfast for dinner!
• Scrambled tofu (A new recipe I am trying)
• Skillet roasted potatoes
• Toast (with bread from the book and homemade strawberry jam)

Monday

• Spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese

Tuesday

• Another new recipe: Ceylon style tofu curry

Wednesday

• Black bean soup
• Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and avocado salad
• Cornbread
• This is one of my favorite meals and I will make a quadruple batch to freeze in Pyrex bowls for a quick lunch or dinner