I have loved reading all your ideas for zucchini meals. Thank you! Can't wait to try some of them out. Right around that same time, the August issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine showed up in my mailbox. Lo and behold, it's loaded with zucchini recipes. Just in time, too...we're running out of counter space! So last weekend, i decided to try one out. Zucchini bundt cake. It was delicious (notice the past tense there?). It's only Wednesday and this whole thing is already gone.
If you can believe it, that's crystallized zucchini on top. Did you know you could do that? I didn't! Never even had the thought cross my mind. And i have to admit, it was the zucchini on top that compelled me to make this in the first place! I love the ribbon-like appearance of it and the way the dark edge of the zucchini skin creates a kind of scribbly look. One night, we ate it with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, and the next with yogurt and some sliced peaches...and then it was all a blur until we were staring at crumbs on the plate.
Next up, what to do with all these potatoes?!
This year, we tried a new variety called Russian Peanut Fingerlings and decided to experiment by planting some in the ground and some in two giant flower pots. The ones in the ground are not quite ready yet — probably because the ground stays a little cooler and wetter than the pots did — but one of the potted batch was ready to be harvested over the weekend. I had only planted 4 small seed potatoes in one pot and got THREE AND A HALF POUNDS from them!! That's a lot of french fries! or potato salad? or...? heeelp (again)!
We LOVE crispy mashed potato cakes by one of our local restauranteurs/cookbook authors: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100113/LIFE/1130302/0/life.
ReplyDeleteThey're perfect topped with warm applesauce (me) or sour cream (husband) and served with a green veggie. Note: I usually make my cakes about half as big as what's recommended in the recipe.
The same cook also has a great recipe for twice-baked potatoes for all seasons - she'll add roasted red pepper and corn to the potatoes in the summer; spinach, mushrooms, and blue cheese in the winter; peas in the summer, etc.
Excuse me, I need to go take a lunch break. Good luck putting your harvest to work!
Baked potatoes! And that is good reason to grill a steak.
ReplyDeleteMashed potatoes this fall if you can store them.
Potato salad (my great grandmother's recipe)
Hash browns. Fries. Potato soup. Au Gratin.
I'm sure you'll come up with lots of recipe ideas, and you can always give them away to neighbors when you are sick of them!
Kate~
ReplyDeletemy favorite thing to do with fingerlings is very simple...roast them in the oven! I split them down the middle, place an entire cookie sheet filled with them (I have one of those huge sheets that fill up the whole oven shelf), douse them with olive oil, sea salt (the large crystal kind) and pepper, put them in the oven @ 425 for 30-40 min. and you're done. They are fabulous! And if you inter-mingle them with onion slices, you have that wonderful taste combo going on! Try them! Easy!
I'm seeing a vegetable themed fabric line in your future. Zucchini Ribbons with that wavy green line? Cool!(I'm expecting a fat quarter bundle as a Thank-You for this incredibly inspiring idea) In the meantime, I once proclaimed potatoes my favorite food just because they are so versatile...like all the shrimp dishes from Forrest Gump.
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Dear Kate Spain,
ReplyDeleteI'm a pretty new follower of your blog and fabric, and just have to tell you that I LOVE your fabric!! It is just simply beautiful. In fact I went on a computer search for some of your "older" fabrics and received them in the mail yesterday (Christmas in August!). Now I've just got to get up the courage to cut into them......
Thank you for such wonderful designs and colors.
So funny...I thought of all your zucchini when my Martha Stewart Living arrived too! And I can't believe all the potatoes you got from just 4 small seed potatoes!
ReplyDeleteI'm really going to have to try that cake now! Saw it in the mag, have seen it mentioned elsewhere... it looks so pretty. I never have oranges on hand in the summer; that's been the hold up so far. Those are my favorite type of potato -- we love them simply roasted as someone else commented. If you happen to have a cool basement, they will store for a while (though not as long as large potatoes). Yum!
ReplyDeleteWow -- I've heard of zucchini bread, but not cake -- it looks fabulous. The real question is...is that candied zucchini as good as it looks? As for the potatoes (you lucky girl), I love them just coarsely cut, steamed and then tossed with a bit of butter and s&p. I LOVE your new header and background too!
ReplyDeleteChop all those potatoes into big chunks, then toss with olive oil, thinly sliced lemon rounds, and dill. Roast it all in a shallow skillet in the oven until the potatoes are tender. It's a great, summery way to eat potatoes.
ReplyDeleteHeidi Swanson (of the blog 101cookbooks.com) has a really tasty recipe in her Super Natural Every Day cookbook for Broccoli Gribiche that uses fingerling potatoes.
ReplyDeleteIt's basically oven roasted broccoli and fingerling potatoes, tossed with a dressing of mashed up boiled eggs, shallots, and if I'm remembering correctly also capers and oil and vinegar. It's been a while since I made it, but even the small humans here enjoyed it a lot!
A kind of warm potato salad type thing. I need to make it again soon. Mmm...!
As part of my (largely unsucessful) efforts to use up the food we had before our move, I made this recipe as a potato salad (replacing the bulgur with boiled potato chunks) and it was really good! http://www.needleandspatula.com/2011/05/bulgur-salad-with-mushrooms-white-beans.html
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