Our Not so Teeny Zucchini

People. We have a situation on our hands. The zucchini have officially taken over the garden. As in we don't check the garden for two days and we find 5 zucchini. And these aren't little guys by any means. The largest one is 19 inches long and 14 inches around! Seriously!?!? Where do these things hide??

As you can see, this particular zucchini has a superiority complex and has decided to take over the kitchen as well. It's larger than a bottle of wine, not to mention a pitcher, coffee maker, roll of paper towels, and a bottle of beer.

The other 4 zucchini were given to neighbors since we already had about 8 zucchini in the refrigerator.

To avoid zucchini burnout, we're going to attempt freezing zucchini slices for stir fry or pasta and grated zucchini for bread and muffins in the future. Plus, freezing is a great way to stretch out bumper crops and farmer's market impulse buys.

For freezing slices: Wash the zucchini, slice, blanch (cook in boiling water for 3 minutes), drop in an ice water bath to stop the cooking, drain it, and bag it.

For freezing grated zucchini: I read that unblanched grated zucchini freezes really well. Just grate it and pop it into a freezer bag. You can also steam blanch grated zucchini for 1-2 minutes before chilling, draining, and bagging.

To use: Let the bag or container of frozen zucchini thaw in the refrigerator or defrost in the microwave. It will be slightly mushy when thawed, so use it in soups, cooking, or baking. It won't be pleasant to eat raw with hummus.

As for what will happen with this particular beauty? Only time will tell.

Until then, I'll leave you with another zucchini recipe:

Chilled Creamy Zucchini Soup

Adapted from the September 2011 issue of Runner's World and myrecipes.com

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 shallots, minced

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 pounds of unpeeled zucchini, cut into chunks (2 medium zucchini)

1 1/2 quarts chicken stock

Handful of sage leaves (about 1 cup, loosely packed), sliced thinly

Directions

Saute the shallots in olive oil over low heat for about five minutes, or until translucent, in a stock pot.

Add the ground ginger, zucchini chunks, chicken stock, and sage leaves.

Bring to a low boil, then simmer, covered for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and puree.

You can either use an immersion blender or conventional blender. If you use a conventional blender, let the soup cool for a little bit. When you puree in the blender, take the small lid cap off (not the whole lid). Cover the small opening with a kitchen towel and hold the lid down tight. Work in small batches if necessary.

Cool the soup in the refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Notes
You can garnish the soup with salt and pepper, sour cream, crackers, paprika, additional herbs, or any combination of the above.

You can also serve the soup hot once the weather cools down.

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Zucchini Bread, Cake, or Muffins

Anthropologie apron, green apple KitchenAid mixer, Marimekko oven mitt,
Crate and Barrel travel dessert plates, Baked Explorations cookbook

It's Friday! If this Friday is anything like my last three Fridays, I'll probably be baking. Which is perfect because this week's Friday's Fancies theme is "back to school." More like "bake" to school since I'd love to go to pastry school :)

My most recent baking adventures included zucchini bread and muffins! It's that time of summer when we pick multiple zucchinis a day. We picked four on Monday night. When I baked last Friday, we had five zucchinis (two extra large, two medium, and one small) in our "inventory."

We've been using zucchini slices to dip in ranch dressing and hummus. We've also added it to pizza, grilled it on the charcoal Weber, and stuffed it with quinoa. A few have been given to neighbors, friends, and family members. It was about time that I made zucchini snack cake/bread/muffins.

I decided to use one of the medium zucchinis for baking. Little did I know that one zucchini would lead to 4 cups of shredded zucchini. By the way, shredding is super easy if you use the shredding blade on a food processor.

These four cups managed to find their way into a double batch of zucchini bread. That translated into two loaves of bread and 17 muffins.

Good thing my Mom told me the muffins and bread freeze well! They also make excellent graduation presents for unsuspecting cousins :)

Zucchini Snack Cake, Bread, or Muffins
Recipe from Mom, who got it from Aunt Carol, who probably got it from The Plain Dealer

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat at medium until well mixed.

Stir in zucchini, raisins, and nuts.

Pour into greased 9x13 in. pan.

Bake at 350* for 50 minutes until toothpick/tester comes out clean.

Alternatives
Muffins: Grease muffin tins or use muffin liners. Fill muffin pan 2/3 of the way. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Bread: Grease bread pan. Divide recipe between two bread pans. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour 5 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

You can also substitute chocolate chips for the nuts or raisins.

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