Zucchini highs and lows....

I really like Zucchini. Chopped fresh with some veggie dip, grilled, in the form of bread, etc. I was so excited to see all the flowers on the plants. They were huge and beautiful and producing like crazy. Then... the borers came. Sigh. No more zucchini. The plants are all but dead. Is Monsanto working on any Bt Zucchini plants? I'd really like to prevent losing my zucchini in the future,so that would be awesome.

Two weeks ago I made zucchini bread for my entire team. Yep. My four direct reports and one of my work friends. They loved it. But, the zucchini bread used very little zucchini, so I've got to use it in some receipes!

Tonight's dinner was my Zucchini Enchilada Bake.

It is essentially my enchiladas with zucchini replacing the tortillas and it becomes more like lasagna.

Ingredients:
3 medium zucchini cut lengthwise
1 can tomato soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Salsa
1 lb ground turkey
Taco seasoning
Onion
Shredded cheese

So, I just used an extra large zucchini, but it was a little short when it came to layering. I generally boil it prior to putting it in the oven (which is preheated to 350)

I also browned all my turkey, onions, seasoning together.

You mix the tomato soup, cream of mushroom and salsa together. The salsa is probably just to taste, around 3/4 to 1 cup. I then spread a little of the mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Follow that with zucchini, a layer of meat, sauce cheese. Then repeat.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

It's pretty good, but doesn't always hold up on a plate:

That's all for tonight. I sure wish my tomatoes would turn red. The rest of the garden is also continuing to grow...just no updates on mature produce.

Another Love: Spaghetti Squash

Ok, I have to admit that I am still a little annoyed that the spaghetti squash has taken over my garden. But, I am also very excited that I've started seeing some results.

Spaghetti squash is an awesome vegetable substitution for pasta. I wouldn't mix it with pasta, because it's not EXACTLY the same thing, but it's close enough to give you the texture you want, without the added carbs.

I picked one spaghetti squash last week, but failed to take a picture of it. But, here are two more from the garden today. (There are also about 10 mid-sized ones out there, that should be nice and huge by the time I get back from traveling next week.)

So, what do I do with spaghetti squash? Oh lots of things! I can't wait to share! Standard cooking:

Cut it in half length-wise
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Empty out all the seeds and excess stuff (think like a pumpkin).
Set the Spaghetti squash cut side down in a 9x13 pan with a little water.
Puncture skin with a knife to allow heat in.
Cook for 40 minutes.
Pull from oven and shred. If you want it hot, serve immediately.

I was a little nervous about the one I picked last week, so I went ahead and changed dinner plans to not hinge on it working out. To my pleasant surprise, it actually turned out AWESOME. It was a little young, which resulted in more "angel hair" spaghetti squash vs. the normal stuff that is a little thicker.

So, I decided to make a little pasta salad to accompany my lunches this week. YUM! Here's how it turned out:

I guess I have a little bit of my grandma in me, because I dont usually measure things when I make things on the fly. But this is what's included if you want to try it yourself:

Spaghetti squash
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Italian Seasoning
Artichoke hearts
Black Olives
Tomatoes

Mix ingredients, serve chilled.

Enjoy! Oh - and stay tuned for my lesson on what happens when you plant Zucchini and Spaghetti Squash too close together.

So...you like to garden?

While I was out in the garden yesterday - weeding, blah - I started thinking about this question: "You like to garden?"

I get this question often. And, it usually is followed with: what sort of flowers do you plant? So, should my answer be "no"?

I'm not a big fan of flowers - my husband is thankful for this, by the way - I just am not a landscaper.

But how can I have this garden...if I don't like to garden!?!?!?

Oh wait - I know. I like to eat. And, I like to cook. These two things are definitely the motivation behind this garden. So, you won't be shocked...that this will actually be a food post.

My garden inspiration for today's post:

I have really fallen in love with zucchini since my last garden. I just love cooking with it. And, thanks to Skinny Taste (www.skinnytaste.com), I can make things that are delicious - but not quite as bad for me as Grandma Rassi's zucchini casserole...or Paula Deen's zucchini bread (which I plan to bake like a mad woman soon enough).

Today's adventure was Zucchini Lasagna. I've made it before, so I know it's delicious. And, just like regular lasagna. The second or third day is even better than the first night :)

Here's tonight's dinner:

And here's the recipe for those wanting to try it:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/zucchini-lasagna.html

What A Month It Has Been...The Case of the Spaghetti Squash Monster

Sorry for the lack of updates on the garden! For those true detectives from the last post, my garden was planted at my new house. Patti (who was referenced in the last post) was our WONDERFUL seller, who not only offered to let me plant my garden -- but even had it tilled for me.

So, a couple things have prevented me from posting about the garden (or even getting into the garden). We moved. Two houses. And, it just keeps raining. Poor Ryan hasn't even been able to mow very much.

This week I finally had to stop ignoring the garden. I did snap some photos before we finished weeding, so these photos look TERRIBLE!

First up - Spaghetti Squash

I've never planted spaghetti squash. I had no idea its ability to completely take over my garden. I thought I had spaced things out appropriately. I THOUGHT WRONG. It just kept growing and covering everything else. I've heard similar things about cucumbers, I should have done my research. The solution was to just chop off the ends and pray for the best. So far, it looks like it has decided to flower instead of continue to grow - Yay!

Zucchini

The zucchini has the biggest leaves I've ever seen on a plant. It has remained pretty contained to its space, but there are a million flowers. I see a lot of zucchini bread in the future, along with a bunch of new recipes that I make with zucchini. I really love zucchini, so I'm looking forward to having some. I anticipate it will be ready within the next week or so!

Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe was a late addition to the garden. I wasn't sure how it would react. The plants are pretty small, but it's already flowering. We'll see what happens!

Tomatoes

Our tomatoes were an interesting situation. We were only able to cage two plants prior to our moves. So, this is one of the ones that was caged early. They are doing great and I think they will produce abundantly. However, the other 4 plants are a different story. We've had some pretty strong storms and were only able to cage them this week. Hopefully they will recover and be able to support themselves, but I'm not sure what to think right now.

Peppers

The peppers have been caught in spaghetti squash's quest to conquer the garden. They seem to be ok, but I worry about their strength since they've been shaded by the monster zucchini and spaghetti squash leaves.

Watermelon

Ryan's watermelon. We thought early on that it would not do anything. Now, it is going quite well. We should see some things later this summer.

Three nights of working in the garden made it look quite pretty this week. Hopefully we can keep up on the maintenance and it won't take as much work in coming weeks :) Is it time to eat this stuff, yet?!?!

Here it is...in all its glory

A special thanks to Patti for tilling my garden. Here is the new location:

Yep, it's a little smaller than I've had in the past, but it will work quite nicely. Ryan and I picked up our vegetables (and fruit) last night and planted this afternoon.

Watermelon - Ryan loves watermelon, so we decided this is a great addition to the garden.

Welcome to the Big10 - this addition to the garden was picked solely on the name: Rutgers Heirloom Tomatoes.

We only had room for two tomato cages in my car. So the rest will have to be caged later. They are Beefsteak, the name reminded me of Ryan the beefcake (it's good he doesn't read the blog! HA!) #HotRyan:

Because you don't want various squash to cross-pollinate, you can't plant them next to each other. Hopefully, I will find some cantaloupe to fill this space. Or, it will be a great place for weeds:

Next up, green peppers. MMMMM. Can't wait to munch on these:

Since my last garden, I've fallen in love with Spaghetti Squash. Talk about saving some money by growing my own!

An old stand-by, Jalapenos:

And the final vegetable: Zucchini. YUMMY! I can't wait:

It will be awhile before we get back to the garden, so hopefully everything goes well.

Hello, Me Not Dead!!!!!!!!! (Major Annoucement)

I'm going to have a garden this year!!!! It's happening. After three long summers without one, the garden will return. It will be small in scale compared to my last garden, but I am super excited to get this rolling.

I look forward to sharing my garden harvest and all of the great things I make with the produce along the way. We also have some wild onions we plan to transplant, so wish me luck with that adventure.

So far, I'm planning the standards of Tomatoes, Peppers, Jalapenos (for salsa!), Zucchini (for zucchini bread, duh!) and Cantaloupe. If Ryan is good, I may plant some watermelon for him. ;)

I also plan some new things: kale and spaghetti squash. We shall see how that goes.

*happy garden dance*

Transitional Year = No Garden?

Well, I've been in denial for awhile...but there likely won't be a garden this year. :( I'm heartbroken, but not sure I can take on the added responsibility of managing a garden from afar.

For those of you who aren't aware, I'm in a transition period in life. I took a new job in St. Louis last fall. Ideally, I had hoped to be in a permanent home by now, but unfortunately god has different plans. Because I'm in a townhome, I may try to do some square foot gardening on my deck, but we will see.

Ryan wants to go ahead and plant the garden at our other house, but it just seems like a lot more work when I'm not there on a regular basis.

Fall = Winding Down The Garden

The garden is winding down. It's been a good year for some things (zucchini, lettuce, snow peas) and not so good for others (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes). The last month was slow. We had a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon, but really - that's boring.

Because the zucchini plants died, the cantaloupes over-ripened and the eggplants just weren't right - we had a surplus of rotten produce. What can you do with rotten produce? Shoot it of course!

Ryan and I used the leftover produce as target practice for his new .22. It was completely random and totally awesome at the same time.

A cantaloupe was the first victim:



Mid-way through the experiment:



We wanted to make sure the cantaloupe was completely destroyed:




The mini-sized eggplants may have been terrible to eat, but they were great target practice:



I think I nailed this thing about 20 times!



I also took A LOT of video - but I realized it's not as exciting as I expected. I tried to upload a file, but it didn't work. Oh well!

Happy fall!

Midget Mutant Eggplants Have Purpose

The midget, mutant eggplants have a purpose. They are the perfect size for eggplant fries!!! (and the crowd goes wild). Eggplant fries are a recipe I found on the internet last year. They are wonderful and go great with anything you would normally have french fries with.

You start out with cutting the eggplant. With my midget version, you don't even have to cut them that much!



Mixture is made of 3/4 c flour, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp parsley flakes (salt and pepper to taste). No eggs, milk or breadcrumbs (which make most fried recipes messy to prepare).



After mixing, deep fry to a crispy, golden brown. These delicious guys were the perfect side:



Yay to eggplant fries! Maybe I should edit the eggplant tag to "mutant midget eggplant". LOL.

Bummer Summer

This summer has been a bummer, in the garden and for life in general. But - there are always positive things that spring out that keep me going. I went out this morning (before the excessive heat warning goes into effect for the next 4 days) to check on things in the garden.

I found NINE cantaloupe. Not two, not four....NINE. In fact, I found 11 but two were already mush. I can't believe it. I realized as I dropped them on my front porch, that I have a lot of produce accumulating - good thing I'm visiting friends and family this week!



There is a mix of peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, cantaloupe and a few more mutant eggplants. The garden hasn't turned out quite like I was hoping - but I am going to be satisfied with what I've achieved!

Blossom-End Rot Strikes Again

I thought I was safe from any more damages from blossom-end rot. But, I was wrong. I have been patiently waiting for my eggplants to grow like they did last year. Unfortunately, this week I realized that last year we had mature egg plants at this time. In fact, we were well into the "Summer of Eggplant". Hrmph.

Today, I began to examine my eggplants a little more closely. They had started to rot...still attached to the plant. So, our plans for eggplant fries galore have been reduced to "we'll have some."

Here are the minature eggplants all ready to be eaten (the non-rotted ones):



As I mentioned previously, the green peppers were affected as well. They were already miserable looking, but I took the opportunity to take a picture of this "bell" pepper. They are already turning red...at this size:



Oh well, next year we may have to scaled back the garden and focus on the important things.

Fresh, Farm Picked Melons!

I've been keeping a close eye on my cantaloupes. Last week, I came out to find one all cracked up and bug filled. Bummer. I wish I had some advice on how to pick them perfectly, but I haven't figured it out yet!

Earlier this week, in anticipation of it becoming over-ripe, I picked a cantaloupe. It was terrible. Not completely green, but it was the type of cantaloupe you are served in a restaurant when it's not really in season. It lacked flavor.

Today was a big day though! I had two perfectly ripe cantaloupe. I have a hard time not eating as I cut these. They are so good!



Plenty more where that one came from! Odd that the cantaloupe is ready about the same time as last year, despite getting in the ground about 3 weeks earlier. Interesting observation, I might make a special note.

The Joys of Summer

I love tomatoes. I love to cut them up and eat a whole plate as a snack. Or, as a meal! They are one of my biggest joys of having a garden and one of my favorite memories from Grandpa's garden growing up.

I could seriously write a love poem to garden tomatoes,but I'll keep that one to myself. It probably would have a sad last verse since this year has not been the greatest for tomatoes.

I had a decent hall from the garden today, I picked about 10 tomatoes and a few more peppers. Now,I'm going to sit back and enjoy this:



Delicious.

Zucchini Bread A Fan Favorite

I've made a lot of zucchini bread this summer and I plan to at least freeze already portioned bags for later adventures. Of course, I was happy when Ryan liked it and thrilled when my friend RR (and family) liked it. BUT - I received the BEST compliment of all time today.

The pickiest little eater I know LOVED my zucchini bread. In fact, he said "mmmm" and just to make sure I heard him he said it again even louder "MMMMMM".



I had to refrain from giving him any more than just the one slice. While the Zucchini part is oh so healthy, the bread part isn't. He did choose my bread over his normal go-to of mac n cheese. Point, Aunt Kayla.

Elsie's Salsa

The blossom-end rot delayed my salsa making plans this year. I have been slowly gathering ripe tomatoes, resisting my desires to eat them and putting them in a gallon bucket, anxiously awaiting a full gallon so I could make salsa.

Our 2009 garden plan was basically this: make "grandma's salsa." The grandma in this case was Ryan's grandma, Elsie. Ryan has great memories from his childhood of his grandma canning her salsa. The taste brings back all of those memories and it's something that my non-food loving husband, LOVES. I tried making it last year, scared to death that it wouldn't taste the same, but Ryan and his sister both agree that it tastes just like they remember.

So, aside from the gallon of tomatoes, the salsa also includes green peppers (obviously not from my garden), jalapenos, onions (also not from my garden...can you tell I'm bitter?) and Serrano peppers (or, a hot chile pepper).

Mixed all together and cooking on the stove:



After cooking and hot water bath canning..... we have 10 freshly canned salsa jars (and one larger jar with the leftover). I am not very good at planning how many jars I need, but I made a note for next time, I need 12 pint jars!



Hopefully, this is just the beginning of our yummy salsa making 2010. If you want the full recipe, please let me know.

Picking Peppers to Pickle....

I did not realize two weeks passed since my last garden post! I have no excuses, other than life happens! Things in the garden have slowed down at the moment, which makes no sense to me - it should be flourishing!

Since this post is about peppers...I'll get down to the nitty gritty. The green peppers were basically wiped out. There are some peppers growing, but they are so tiny they are not useful in recipes and certainly aren't going to be added to a veggie tray any time soon (or ever)!

The banana peppers are great. I already prepped one can (aka jar) of them and I've been using them on sandwiches. The jalenpenos are doing ok, what is left of them. They also didn't see the growth that we saw last year, but I am getting enough to be able to can and possibly make poppers.

Here are the picked peppers waiting to be canned:



(I will need quite a few more jalapenos, so I'm working on it!)

The serrano pepper plant and the cayenne pepper plant are also growing long, beautiful peppers. I am a little afraid to eat them...they are going to be HOT!!!

Hopefully things will pick back up, so I can have more posts!

Blossom-End Rot

As someone who has spent a lot of time writing about Rhizoctonia Root Rot or Phytophora Root Rot (both soybean diseases for those of you going "huh?"), you would think I would be thrilled to talk about my new discovery: Blossom-End Rot . WRONG. It's in MY garden!

Blossom-End Rot is happening all over my tomato plants and from what I can read on the internet, there is nothing I can do about it! Blossom-End Rot is associated with calcium absorption into the plant and is caused by many things.

Here is what my friends at THE Ohio State University Extension have to say about it:

This may result from low calcium levels or high amounts of competitive cations in the soil, drought stress, or excessive soil moisture fluctuations which reduce uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive nitrogen fertilization.

Summary: I had too much water followed by no water, my plants are screwed.

This picture was taken from tOSU's website and displays what is happening. I keep forgetting to take pictures when I am out in the garden.



While this problem will not spread from one fruit to another, it can cause quite the problems throughout the garden. Again, tOSU says

This nonparasitic disorder can be very damaging, with losses of 50% or more in some years.

So far, I have tossed as many tomatoes this year as I have picked. I am hoping that it is just on the early ones and we can continue on to a successful growing season. Unfortunately, a lot of the plants are already struggling due to the various dead parts caused by the flooding.

Blossom-End Rot also appears on peppers and eggplant. My eggplants are troopers and I am seeing no signs of this disorder on them. However, the peppers are getting taken pretty fast, so their likelihood of survival is very low.

Let's hope some rain and balance of calcium can get these plants out of their stressed disposition! To read more about blossom-end rot from tOSU go to this link: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3117.html. And, please remember to use "the" before every mention of Ohio State. Thanks.

What To Do WIth Zucchini - Part One Million

I've lost count on the zucchini attempts. I've done fries. I've added it to pasta dishes. Ryan and I have used them in a jousting match. I even tried to convince Albert Pujols they would work good as bats!

Oh, and I made Chilled Zucchini Soup:



Today, I try use #1,000,001: Using it to barter a new car. Wish me luck and happy Tuesday.

A Whole Family Of Tomatoes!

I picked a whole family of tomatoes today. We've got big daddy, momma, brother and the twins....



Tasty!

What To Do With Zucchini - Part Cinq

I knew high school french would come in handy! We're now on to part five of "What To Do With Zucchini". I've lost faith that any of you are reading these, but I'm going to keep posting them. SO THERE!

Today's adventure in Zucchini came from self-titled, Jeannie Zucchini. The recipe? Chocolate Zucchini Cake. For those wondering, Jeannie Zucchini is my cousin's mother-in-law.

I started out by "grating" the Zucchini in my KitchenAid Mixer (it's getting a workout this summer with all this baking!).



Next, I prepared the dry ingredients in a bowl, so they were ready to be sifted later.



Then, I mixed the "wet" ingredients together following the recipe (no Zucchini yet). It looked something like this:



After sifting the dry ingredients, the cake mixture looked like this:



Time to mix in the zucchini, put it in a cake pan and top with mini chocolate chips:



45 minutes later and we have a finished product:



It smells WONDERFUL. I can't wait to eat it for dessert later. And, of course you can have the full recipe:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

½ c margarine
1 ½ c sugar
½ c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ c sour milk*
2 ½ c flour
4 tbls cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
2 c grated zucchini
mini chocolate chips
chopped walnuts (opt.)

Cream margarine and sugar, add oil and eggs then sour milk and vanilla. Sift in dry ingredients, then mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into 9x12 pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts (opt.). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let stand for at least 5 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream :)

*NOTE: Sour milk by adding ½ tsp. lemon juice.

Have a great weekend!