Garden, Baby! (and some recipes)

Today, I used up the last of my zucchini. I feel a little conflicted about this: 

• Hooray! I used it all! I am a provident and healthy lady!
• Danggit! Now it's all gone and I have to wait until July to get more. (insert sad face here)

The sun is shining, and it's almost 70 degrees. Mark came home for lunch and uncerimoniously kicked all the children out of the house to go soak up some sun (and wallow in the mud). We walked to the library for our weekly story hour, it is so nice out. 

The snow has melted and I am feeling the need for green, growing things.  It's the middle of February, but I am starting to obsess and scheme and plan for the whole garden thing. What should we plant this year? Hmmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmm. 

We have been part of a family garden co-op for several years now. I like it. It's not all sunshine and produce, of course, but it is definitely worth it. The whole "by the sweat of thy brow" thing, teaching my kids to work, and letting them reap what they sew; it's all good stuff. Plus, yummy fresh produce! 

That's the hardest part for me, to be honest. Because it's like "Attack of the Over-Abundant Garden!" It starts, and then it's non-stop until the first frost. And you can't reschedule it: "Hmmm, let's see, we have that family reunion, so let's push the corn and the zucchini back and pencil it in for the middle part of August, shall we?"

No, you have to just give your life and your kitchen over to the abundance, and either use it or process it at that exact moment. Or all your hard work ends up feeding a colony of fruit flies. Or replenishment the compost pile. Or both. I'm better than I used to be, and we do pretty well. Tomatoes still kill me. But the corn and the zucchini are in the bag...er, deep freezer. 

Here's what I do with my zucchini: we peel it, and then shred it, and measure it out into freezer-quality zip-lock bags. I freeze it in the increments my zucchini bread recipe calls for, because I'm lazy smart. I love making zucchini bread in the heart of the winter. It's such tasty comfort food! 

Here's my recipe. It's so yummy!  Take all that zucchini overkill from August, grate it, and freeze it in 2 cup increments.  Then pull it out in November, and everyone will be your new best friend! (Although, it uses A LOT of sugar, if you have something better/healthier, please share!)

Zucchini Bread

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

I stumbled on something fabulous this week. I was making banana muffins for breakfast. Having already measured out ingredients, I was fully committed. That's when I learned that someone had eaten the bananas I thought I still had. (Of course.) Except one, which isn't enough. 

It was either inspiration or desperation, but I tromped down to the deep freezer, and pulled a portion of zucchini from my stash. I thawed it, and pureed it in the blender with the sole banana. I figured pureed produce of any kind would work, as long at there was some element of banana. 

And I was right! In fact, my children raved about the banana muffins, saying they were the best ever. I waited until they were mostly done eating before I revealed the "secret ingredient". They all approved: gross-but-healthy veggies in a portable, yummy format. Win-win.

I did it again this morning. I had one serving of applesauce in my fridge, and I wanted to get it used up so I could get the huge, mostly-empty container out of there. So, I made breakfast muffins. I used the same banana bread muffin, but I used zucchini and applesauce. Another batch of gobble-worthy muffins. So, I think I have hit on something here: banana bread really will work with any pureed produce. Try it! Tell me what you think! Be brave.

Banana [Nut]* Bread

by Angeline Kreuger

*we never use nuts, as Mark is allergic. Of course, he doesn't care for bananas either, but it's the principle of the matter...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two loaf pans. In a large bowl, cream together:

½ C. butter

1 C. sugar

2 eggs

1 T. lemon juice

¼ t. vanilla

1 ½ t. sour cream

Add in the following until fully incorporated:

2 C. flour

1 T. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

3 lg. or 4 sm. bananas, purred (1 C.)

Blend until smooth. Pour batter into the loaf pans, dividing evenly. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

For muffins (makes 24+):

Greas muffin pan with shortening or line with paper liners.  Pour batter into paper liners, ½ to 1/3 full.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

For cookies:

Add just enough flour to batter to make a dough (I don't know how much, as I have never made the cookie option).  Bake on a greased cookie sheet 12 minutes (or until done, may need more time).  Frost with burnt butter frosting.

I triple-dog-dare you to try cauliflower!