Search Results for: zucchini

Mia’s Zucchini

Maybe you didn’t expect to see this post include pics from our local pool and water park. The title of this post doesn’t really fit, does it?

Except Mia is certain that their swimsuits are not actually tankinis or bikinis because both of those terms sound weird to her. She is sure they are actually zucchinis! Either way, both girls are over the moon that they are officially tall enough for the big slides at our local watering hole this year. Our state-of-the-art Aquatics Center was made possible by a local man who left $7 million dollars in his will “to the youth of Moscow.”

Today’s Recipe: Sweet & Smoky Salmon Zucchini Rolls

Today’s recipe, Sweet & Smoky Salmon Zucchini Rolls, is a doozy. It’s a sneak-peek recipe from my book, Glamping with MaryJane, available now for pre-order on Amazon. Hunky hubby went fishing over the weekend and brought home a boat-load of that oh-so-delicious land-locked Kokanee Salmon. If you’re able to use fresh-smoked salmon for this recipe, do! But first, instructions for smoking your prized catch. (Hopefully, you’ve either caught the fishing bug yourself or caught a partner who has.)

This recipe for smoking fish is perfect for your summer glamping adventures. However, when you’re out and about, you most likely won’t have the convenience of an electric smoker like I used here. In the last issue of my magazine, “Best of Show” Aug/Sep 2012 issue, I also suggested purchasing a William Sonoma Stainless Steel Grill Top Smoker Box for your on-the-go food smoking needs. It sits right atop your grill! So load the kids, pack up the glamper. (Don’t forget your pink necktie and cowgirl boots!)

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Young Cultivator Merit Badge: Table Talk, Expert Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,466 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,836 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Table Talk Expert Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I enlisted all three of my fab favorite kitchen minions: Andy, Nora, and Piper. After all, they were all ready to earn this badge and a bird in the hand is worth three in the kitchen. Or something like that.

Anyway, they got to work planning out their menu, since this Expert Level badge was all about making dinner and being adventurous about it, to boot. Adventure is in these kids’ blood, I tell ya, so this was not going to be a problem. At least, that’s what I thought.

Trying to get them to agree on supper plans was pretty exhausting and time consuming. I needed a snack just to keep my blood sugar up. Finally, after some serious arguments, tiffs, quarrels, and squabbles (not to mention arm-wrestling matches), they decided they would each pick out a dish. After all, it was going to be a full meal deal, righto?

Going with their spirits of adventure and trying new things, I steered them away from standby favorites, such as macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, and pizza. I let them browse through my cookbook collection and scroll through Pinterest, and they came up with some pretty interesting menu ideas.

Okay, so they didn’t flow together all that great, but we decided to call it A Trip Around the World Buffet. Andy chose fish tacos, Nora picked Savory Crepes, and Piper had her heart set on Ratatouille.

photo by Arnold Gatilao via Wikimedia Commons

I wished I had a bigger kitchen.

I ate another snack.

Piper’s dish was going to take the longest to prepare and cook, so I let her get started first. She learned how to use a mandoline (no, not the instrument, my peeps—that’s a mandolin, but the slicing kind). The bounty from my garden was getting some serious lovin’. We used eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red and green peppers, fresh basil, garlic, plum tomatoes, and red onion. The smell was divine! She artfully arranged all our slices in a beautiful pattern and we put it in the oven.

Then Nora was up with her Savory Crepes. Crepes are fun for everyone because you can put anything inside of them. Nora took this decision seriously and really got her knickers in a twist over the pairings. She finally decided on mushrooms, pesto, and turkey. We made a simple batter and I must say, she got pretty darn good at flipping. One or two or seven might have ended on the floor, but practice makes perfect and she figured out her crepe-making mojo.

Then we let Andy back in the kitchen, and he was a whirling dervish. It was like the Tasmanian Devil was whipping up the fish tacos. Back and forth he went, stirring his Sweet and Spicy Chili sauce, dipping his halibut in salt and pepper and cumin, heating up his corn tortillas, and chopping up lettuce, cilantro, and radishes.

At the end? We had a feast of epic culinary proportions. We were all so full, it felt like we had eaten Thanksgiving early!

And the state of my kitchen?

Don’t ask.

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Teresa Roberson!

Teresa Roberson (carolinacateyes, #7386) has received a certificate of achievement in Each Other for earning a Beginner Level Plant It Forward Merit Badge!

“I wish I had taken a picture of my small but beautiful garden! I purposely planted more than I can use to give to the elderly lady next door. When I was raising my children on a limited income, she and her husband always gave me vegetables out of their garden. Now it is my turn to return the giving. I delivered extra zucchini and yellow crookneck squash to her yesterday. Next week, I will share the first of the tomatoes and soon there will be fresh corn, onions, and green beans.

Although I plan to can some of the extras out of my garden, I have to remember my next door neighbor, Ruby. She is a widow now in her late eighties and not in good health. After several strokes, she is unable to tend a garden. She is so very excited every time I share produce with her. She knows there will eventually be canned homemade vegetable soup for the winter. I prefer to give back to her; I know where my produce is going and she is in need this time of her life.”

Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Debbie Klann!!!

Debbie Klann (debbieklann, #770) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Bee Good to Your Mother Earth Merit Badge!

“I am not known for having a green thumb; it’s more like a brown thumb! I also don’t have a lot of garden space anymore, but I decided last summer to start small and tuck in a few plants here and there where I could. I decided on zucchini and heirloom tomatoes.

Surprisingly, we had zucchini and tomatoes, and how delicious! I also found 3 organic sprays that I can mix to control aphids and mites, which I will use this year. I didn’t use any pest control last year, but I will have some ready in case this summer is different. I’m planning on using it on all of my roses. I also read the book, Montrose and enjoyed it. I don’t think I could ever garden on a scale such as that!”

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Mica Garbarino!!!

Mica Garbarino (Farmgirl Freckles, #6985) has received a certificate of achievement in Each Other for earning a Beginner Level Lend a Hand to Farm Families Merit Badge!

“I helped a local farmer & his wife while they went out of town for a week. I fed, watered, and cared for their chicken flock and tended the garden. They also let me glean from their garden. I picked tomatoes, butternut squash, peppers, pumpkins, and zucchini. I also got to enjoy their farm-fresh eggs while they were gone.

The farmer & his wife were happy I helped. It turned out great and I will surely help them whenever they are in need.”

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Unprocessed Kitchen Merit Badge, Expert Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,691 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,460 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life   

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Unprocessed Kitchen Expert Level Merit Badge, my plan was simple: My girlfriends and I were going to get our significant others (not to mention small ankle biters … ahem, I mean, children) to eat more salad.

You know. Bunny food.

Amid the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the menfolk, we concocted a plan: Come up with some super-yummy, homemade, DIY, organic salad dressings that would make our muscle men, our Hercules, our testosterone-laden overgrown boys swoon for vegetables.

We spent weeks preparing. The men piped down and slowly stopped peering suspiciously in the fridge (probably due to their lack of energy from eating too much red meat and not enough lettuce). Our logic was simple: Swamp ‘em with flavor. Drown ‘em in deliciousness. Spoon them swirls of ranch-flavored goodness, and they’d never even notice the absence of animal flesh.

And the rugrats? What kind of child could resist a poppy seed and strawberry salad? Or a blueberry honey dressing? Or a barbeque chicken chopped salad? They would be powerless to resist the lure of our potluck.

Each farmgirl brought their A game, so to speak. We brought only the best concoctions to our get-together. And the menfolk? Fat Slim and happy.

Photo by jeffreyw via Wikimedia Commons

But that could be partially due to my homemade bacon bits, I don’t know.

Homemade Bacon Bits

Thinly slice bacon (I like to use kitchen shears), Cook until crisp and drain on paper towels. Flash freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Place in jar or a ziplock bag and keep in freezer. They’ll defrost quickly, and you can pull them out whenever you need a shake on your salad or baked potato. Or whenever you’re jonesin’ for bacon.


Asian Dressing
(perfect for regular salad, but even better on pasta salad, with plenty of colorful veggies mixed in)

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • juice of 1 lime
  • a handful of poppy seeds and a handful of sesame seeds
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 2 small shallots, finely minced (can substitute red onion)
  • 1 t honey
  • 1 t minced fresh ginger
  • a splash of rice vinegar or apple-cider vinegar (more if you like it tangy, or if you’re omitting the lime)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Photo by Takeaway via Wikimedia Commons

Summer Rolls (they’re like salad, to go!)

  • rice-paper sheets (If your grocery store doesn’t stock them, try an Asian market. They’re less than $2 for a large package.)
  • thinly sliced vegetables of your choice (Good options are: purple and green cabbage, green onions, carrots, edamame, chiffonade-style spinach or kale (roll up, then slice the rolls), any and all types of lettuce, sugar-snap peas, fresh asparagus, julienned cucumbers, or zucchini.)
  • fresh mint and/or cilantro
  • shrimp or chicken (optional)
  • homemade Asian dressing (see above)
  • cooked Asian noodles or crunchy ones (optional)
  • peanuts (optional)

Soak rice paper in hot water, one at a time, until pliable (around 30 seconds). Lay flat on a kitchen towel (it will stick to your counter, so a towel works well). Lay your ingredients in the middle, drizzle with dressing, and roll as you would a burrito (sides in first). Roll tightly! This takes some practice. If your rice paper tears, just toss it and try again. The fillings for these are practically endless: try a Buffalo Chicken one with blue cheese and celery, or a Mexican-flavored roll with a taco salad filling. Perfect for lunches and great for little hands, too. Not to mention, they look amazing and you just might get the cover of your favorite foodie magazine …


Bloody Mary Chopped Salad

  • very ripe tomatoes (halved cherry tomatoes are the prettiest)
  • celery, thinly sliced on the diagonal
  • red onion, thinly sliced
  • your best dill pickles (homemade if you’ve got ‘em), chopped (could also use capers)
  • 1 T celery seed
  • shrimp (optional)
  • 1/3 cup clam juice, vegetable juice, or tomato juice
  • splash of Tabasco (adjust to taste)
  • 4 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 T horseradish (adjust to taste)
  • 1 T Dijon mustard
  • black pepper and salt, to taste
  • wedge of lime for each serving

Toss together and let marinate for an hour or so. All ingredients are “eye-balled,” depending on how spicy and flavorful you like it. And of course, if the kiddies aren’t partaking, you could always soak your tomatoes in vodka before chopping …

Photo by anders pearson via Wikimedia Commons

Pink Strawberry and Poppy Seed Dressing

  • 1 cup fresh strawberries
  • 1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • 2 T coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, or avocado oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 T poppy seeds
  • a drizzle of honey (depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

Combine in blender. Store in fridge. If using coconut oil, you’ll want to bring to room temperature before pouring. This makes a beautiful pink dressing, perfect for the pretty princesses in your life.

Garden Donations

If you have a garden bursting into bloom, it probably won’t be long before you’re picking more produce than you can pawn off on your neighbors.

Zucchini, anyone?

Photo by Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons

Baked Zucchini Chips,

Zucchini Pickles,

Stuffed Zucchini with Spinach and Bacon

Okay, okay—enough already!

There must be something else a gardener can do with her extras.

And here it is:

AmpleHarvest.org

This aptly named non-profit is all about creating pathways between fresh garden produce and food pantries for people in need.

“One out of six Americans needs food assistance but can’t get fresh produce from the local food pantry, while millions of American homeowners grow more food in their backyard gardens than they can possibly use,” says the organization’s website. “The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is a national effort utilizing the Internet that enables 40-plus million Americans who grow food in home gardens to easily donate their excess harvest to registered local food pantries spread across all 50 states.”

Photo by Biswarup Ganguly via Wikimedia Commons

How?

Check out the searchable, online list of food pantries at AmpleHarvest.org/findpantry. Every single one of them is ready and able (and sometimes desperate) for fresh food donations.

 

In the Garden Merit Badge, Beginner Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,399 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,095 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Make it Easy/In the Garden Beginner Level Merit Badge, I went shopping.

Outside.

In my yard.

And maybe in my neighbor’s yard.

And by yard, I mean trash.

Ahem. Hey, now, before you get all judge-y on me, farmgirls, (no, I am not advocating a Freegan Badge) remember this little nugget of truth: A penny saved is a penny salvaged. Or is it: A bird in the bush is worth two in the garden?

Well, no matter. Whatever your personal mantra and creed is, your own yard (and your friendly neighbor’s) is an excellent place to find all sorts of treasures to recycle/upcycle/DIY. Golly, I could probably have my own reality television show at this point. And an action figure.

Wait. I AM an action figure.

Well, anyway. Back to the show. My goal was this: Make a garden trellis out of material I could salvage/find/discover.

Don’t get all overwhelmed on me, chiclets—this was going to be easy-peasy. (In fact, a pea or bean teepee was next on my list, to boot.) I had so many ideas, my head was swimming with them. You can make a trellis out of nearly anything …

  • Old doors
  • Pallets
  • Fencing
  • Bamboo (bonus points if this is actually growing in your garden; talk about double-duty)
  • Antique headboard (so French chic)
  • Old windows, with or without the glass
  • Wire (mesh or cable)
  • Chicken wire
  • Saplings and vines
  • Lattice
  • PVC piping
  • Antique mattress frame (the wire part, not the fabric part)
  • Bicycle
  • Bicycle or wagon tires (screwed into a post vertically)
  • Old screen door
  • Anything, really!

“The Grey Trellis,” by J. Alden Weir, 1891

And now that you have a fabulous, unique, one-of-a-kind garden trellis, what to do with it? Well, you came to the right place, doll. Here are a few creepers (and by that, I do not mean a shady-looking character … I mean some climbing plants) and crawlers that adore trellises almost as much as you do:

  • Flowering Jasmine
  • Black-eyed Susan
  • Snap Peas
  • Beans
  • Roses
  • Honeysuckle
  • Morning Glory
  • Hyacinth Bean Vines
  • Cucumbers or Zucchinis
  • Twisting Snapdragons
  • Climbing Nasturtium
  • Raspberries or Blackberries
  • Clematis
  • Passion Flowers
  • Petunias
  • Canary Creepers
  • Decorative Gourds
  • Hydrangeas
  • Squashes and Melons
  • Glory Lily Bulbs
  • Wisteria
  • Sunflowers
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Photo by Stephen McKay via Wikimedia Commons

And did you know these fun facts about growing veggies on a trellis, as opposed to on the garden floor? The fruit and veg will be cleaner, better-shaped, take up less space, will be less discolored (no resting on the ground), easier to water, and easier to harvest.

And this most important reason of all:

It’s totes adorbs!

Try a trellis today. Don’t go shopping for supplies, just use your imagination. Then get planting. You’ll have the cutest, most functional garden on the block (of course, your neighbors might want their stuff back … let ‘em share in the bounty instead). Happy DIY-ing, peeps.

Connecting Growers and Eaters Merit Badge, Beginning Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,035 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,663 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life   

For this week’s Each Other/Connecting Growers and Eaters Beginning Level Merit Badge, I volunteered to take over the gardening duties of my neighbor, Mr. Midgely. Recently, he had taken a tumble down his porch and his shiny new cast wasn’t compatible with getting down in the dirt, weeding, and foraging for vegetables. I said to myself, “Self, you can be neighborly and earn a new merit badge while doing so.”

What could be better?

That was before I knew of Mr. Midgely’s obsession preoccupation with zucchini.

Now I love a grilled zucchini as much as the next farmgirl. They’re a tasty veg, and we’re close friends.

But I never want to see another zucchini again.

Mr. Midgely evidently was preparing for alien takeovers, the zombie apocalypse, or a simple famine, because the dear man planted enough of the giant green vegetable to feed our entire town. And the next one over. Plus, most of Rhode Island and maybe Texas.

Before I knew what I had gotten myself into, I was knee deep in squash. Everywhere I looked, every time I turned around, I found myself surrounded. At first, they seemed a friendly enough sort of veggie, but after a couple of hours in the hot sun, my baskets laden with what felt like hundreds of pounds, they began to form menacing faces.

Remember the singing violets and roses in Alice In Wonderland?

Flowers_frontispiece

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Like that. Only more creepy. And less singing.

I seemed to be making no progress. Zucchinis were pressing in on me from each side. As soon as I picked one, I swore three more grew up instantly in its place! Like amorous bunnies, they were procreating right before my stunned eyes!

zucchini

I had to get out of there. I lugged my two tons of squash with me as far as the porch, then left them behind when I started to hear them chuckling maniacally at me. It had to have been sunstroke, but I wasn’t taking any chances. When the produce starts guffawing, it’s time to take a break.

Mr. Midgely was watching his soap operas when I burst into the house. He seemed to understand my panicked look … after all, it wasn’t his first garden. But I didn’t appreciate the twinkle in his eye, all the same.

After a quick cookie and tea break, I went back to work. I wasn’t going to be licked by a Curcurbita pepo! (You’re welcome for that little bit of knowledge.) I hunkered back down in the dirt and threatened my enemy with all sorts of graphic promises:

  • to be sautéed in butter, and sprinkled with garlic salt
  • grated and used in muffins and quick breads
  • diced into a summer squash salad
  • sliced thinly and added to pasta
  • sliced thickly, battered, and fried
  • puréed into baby food

Or how about …

After my chilling guarantees, the zucchinis started to seem less intimidating and even began behaving themselves. I got each and every one picked, by Zeus, and wrestled into the house to be washed. Mr. Midgely’s kitchen looked like a Zucchinis R Us store when I was done.

USDA_summer_squash

Photo by USDA via Wikimedia Commons

He watched me from his recliner, munching on cookies.

I’m getting skeptical about that leg.