Travis in the Garden
Question asked in late May: Would four yellow squash plants be enough? Would I regret not planting more come July?
July's answer: Four yellow squash plants is three plants too many. We will never run out of yellow squash. Not ever. So what to do with all this squash? As far as I can tell there are only three existing yellow squash recipes in the world. Sauteed squash. Squash gratin. Squash in spaghetti sauce. That's it.
Now zucchini recipes are everywhere. Stuff your zucchini! Julienne your zucchini! Make some delicious zucchini bread. And don't forget to roast it, bake it, and/or cover it in breadcrumbs and fry it! Zucchini is fabulous with mozzarella. Yellow squash? Not so much.
Well, let me add a fourth yellow squash recipe, one that I came up with by accident. I caramelized some onions the other night for a dinner of sirloin steak tips, broccoli and--you guessed it--sauted squash. What I discovered is that if you mix up your sauted squash with your caramelized onions, you've got quite a taste treat on your hands.
You're welcome.
The rest of the garden is coming along. The blueberry bushes are three years old this summer and finally bearing fruit--one berry at a time. We have twelve bushes, and every day I pick twelve berries. Aren't they supposed to all turn blue at the same time? How am I ever going to make jam?
We have three sections of corn this year. This is the Man's doing. He is going to be the Corn King of the Suburbs. If you would like me to mail you a few ears, just leave your address in the comments section. We will have plenty to share.
A Kingdom of Corn
The summer is coming along. We spent last week on Ocracoke Island, frolicking in the exact same spot where a man was bit by a shark yesterday. We're having a bit of a shark problem in general on the NC coast. The Man has decided that next summer we'll take our vacation at a lakeside resort. In the mountains. He saw Jaws at an impressionable age. We'll never go to the beach again.
I'm trying to do some writing and some quilting. I'm reading Seamus Heaney's selected poems, Opened Ground. A poetry teacher I had once said you should adopt a poet every season. I do this periodically. I've done it with William Carlos Williams and Philip Levine. It's quite a wonderful project. You go deep. Usually I go wide.
That's it for now. Hope to see you again soon! Do let me know if you'd like me to mail you some corn.
7 comments:
How about Martha's squash loaf cake? http://www.marthastewart.com/275750/summer-squash-and-zucchini-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#355579
I am trying really hard to grow stuff in my new garden
we MAY have radishes soon
and weeds
lots of weeds
Ha ha ha ha! That's funny and a little bit scary about the squash plants. My neighbor told me I have WAY too many and I must give the plants away very soon because I am going to have one million zucchini. Now I will take head!
Sharks! YIKES! I vote for lake swimming, too.
Yes, I will be expecting my corn package sometime soon.
It's so good to hear from you, good girl.
Well, I'd love you to mail me some corn, but I think Customs would have something to say about it.
I have a recipe pinned on my "recipes to try" board: http://www.budgetbytes.com/2011/08/summer-vegetable-tian/
If you get to it before me let me know what it's like. It looks pretty tasty with all that cheese melted and draped over yummy looking vegies all lined up like that.
I can't tell if yellow squash is yellow zucchini or a butternut pumpkin? I'm assuming it's the pumpkin version? In which case I just use it exactly as pumpkin - it's the only kind of pumpkin I buy because it's sweeter and easier to peel and chop than something like a Queensland Blue, which is hard as a rock. Then you can make pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie, I love a summer salad which uses cubes of roasted pumpkin (roasted in oil and maple syrup and sprinkled with moroccan seasoning). I think the key must be this: call it a pumpkin and you'll be set for ideas.
Oh my, you DO have lots of squash. Too bad your squashes aren't blueberries!
I watched JAWS at an impressionable age too, and I don't like the thought of people being chomped on my sharks! I vote for the lake or a pool!
Happy Summer, Frances.
Do you ever grill? Giada de Laurentiis has a great marinated grilled yellow squash (and zucchini) recipe on the Food Network site.
Sharks, huh? They occasionally spot great whites down here, but to my knowledge they haven't attacked anyone yet. Scary. And yet, I can't get my son to swim in a lake because one of his teachers scared the daylights out of him telling the class about brain eating amoebas that potentially could be lurking in lake water. Ugh!
Odd summer it is in Colorado. I am cherishing five small tomatoes, green, and fervently hoping they will turn red enough to eat. That from two plants I watch like hawks over babies, daily doling out much water and pinching off any growth between branches. Why don't we just buy the produce we need? Is it just woman's urge to procreate?
No, but thank you for the corn offer.
As Angela points out, you can make quick bread with yellow squash as easily as with zucchini, though I think it isn't as pretty. Maybe more would be eaten, though, by children who avoid green specks?
I don't know if you have an overabundance of corn, but have you ever dried corn, to reconstitute in the winter? Once a friend gave us loads of corn from her garden and I dried the kernels in a slow oven and kept them in a big bucket under the kitchen table. You cook them, also slowly, with milk, as I remember, and s & p, and the flavor is incredible. Let me know if you want that recipe. But fresh corn is usually not hard to deal with :-)
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