Zucchini and Squash Blossom Soufflés

Are you a gardener?

I keep trying, really I do, but I have never had any success with squash. I know they are supposed to be easy to grow, prolific even…but so are the tiny little caterpillars that keep murdering my squash plants year after year.

Which is why I am so grateful for friends with better garden prowess!

This year, one of my dear friends from church gifted me with zucchini blossoms and the world’s largest zucchini. Seriously, it was the size of a small pumpkin.

This soufflé recipe is a perfect way to make the most of the zucchini plants in your own backyard (meaning: you don’t need an industrial quantity of squash or blossoms, so you can make this recipe with what you are able to harvest—or what your friends are willing to part with!). I urge you not to be scared of soufflé. Yes, it’s fancy, and it makes all of your dishes dirty, but it’s also delicious and less delicate than you think! And, bonus, it’s a great way to trick your kids into eating delicious summer veg.

Homemade Gnocchi with Summer Squash and Basil

I’m having a problem. Maybe I can blame this on motherhood (is mommy-brain a real thing?), or maybe old age (eek! turning 30 in 3 weeks!), maybe on the plethora of technologies ever at my fingertips…

I can’t ever remember where anything is anymore. That used to be my superpower. I always knew where everything was! I could always remember where I saw something first, where I left it, where Dave left it, how to find it again.

But now? I keep finding recipes in magazines and cookbooks and dog-earing them to make later, and then never seeing them again.

To be honest, I am really not sure how this recipe escaped that fate. It’s such an odd choice for my family, as Dave hates both gnocchi and cooked squash. Gnocchi is the opposite of a quick and easy meal, so it’s really not what I need in my life right now. And yet, from the instant I saw it, I was smitten.

Dave walked in the door exclaiming how good dinner smelled (good start), enthused about eating it (even better), and ended the meal with a clean plate, saying the flavors and textures were perfect and we should eat this again soon.

Guess it was fate that I remembered this recipe!

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Quiche with Cracker Crust

I laughed out loud when I saw the name of my Secret Recipe Club blog for July: Why I Am Not Skinny. That’s a question I ask myself an awful lot, usually after a bowl of homemade ice cream or a third slice of pizza.

I was seriously tempted to make Maxine’s crepes…lately I have been all too eager to make breakfast, and dinner has sort of turned into a black hole into which I throw takeout and yes, more breakfast foods (and I wonder why all this baby weight is stubbornly sticking around….).

For some reason, both my kids have started losing their cool at exactly 5:00pm. Dinner is hard.

Which is why quiche for dinner is perfect! First of all…it is kind of like breakfast (but healthier and more filling than a plate full of carby sugar)! Second of all, you can prep quiche several hours before baking it, which makes the witching hour much less dreadful.

Salmon en Papillote with Zucchini and Tomatoes

I suffer from side dish apathy.

I have such a hard time thinking up side dishes to serve or including them properly in a meal! The result is that I hardly ever make side dishes unless I am going to a potluck. My cooking style tends more toward making all-inclusive, veggie-heavy, one-dish dinners.

So this month for the Secret Recipe Club challenge, I was actually a bit stumped. Michaela, of An Affair from the Heart, and I are about as different in the kitchen as night and day: she loves cooking meaty dishes and serving fruity desserts, and I avoid both of those things like the plague (my picky eating strikes again)! She readily shares tons of beautiful side dishes, and I can barely figure out where to put a side dish on the plate. (But lest you think I didn’t admire the beautiful centerpieces she makes when she entertains, you’d better guess again.)

When I came across a delicious side dish featuring summer’s best flavors—and a Bonefish copycat, how exciting!—I immediately plotted a way to turn the simple side into a whole meal.

Baking fish (or even chicken) in parchment together with a huge pile of vegetables is fast becoming one of my favorite ways to put a meal on the table. I love that the meal is contained in a neat little parcel, how all the flavors mingle together as the fish cooks, and most of all, that there is so little effort and so few dirty dishes involved!

Farmer’s Market Panzanella

Are you overwhelmed with tomatoes yet? Overflowing with bell peppers?

I really prefer to eat the bounty of summer produce I have been bringing in from my tiny garden and the farmer’s market raw. In their most honest and nutritious and juiciest form. But really…how many tomato sandwiches can one girl eat? (In case you were wondering…the answer is about four per week. Not that I’m counting.)

If we are going to keep up with the greedy volume of fresh fruits and veggies of the summer, we are going to have to get serious. And make a huge bread salad.

What? You don’t think bread should intrude further into salads than the occasional crouton!? Are you mad!?

This panzanella is seriously delicious. The crisped bread absorbs just enough of the tomato juices and sharp dressing to become luxurious, and the hearty base makes the whole meal toothsome and filling. You should make it right away!

The Zucchini Anchovy Pizza

When I was a kid I was a complete bookworm. Also a pizza-holic.

(Imagine my delight when Pizza Hut started rewarding young readers with personal pan pizzas! I had no trouble with that task, none at all.)

But I digress.

I have a vivid memory of the first time I came across the concept of an anchovy: I was (naturally) reading a book in which some of the characters were ordering a pizza. Everyone was stating their preferences, and one person said they would eat anything except anchovies.

I asked my mom what that was, and when she told me anchovies were little fish that some people liked to eat on pizza, I blanched. Gross! Fish on pizza! Who would do that to themselves!? Don’t you people know that the only truly great pizza topping you could ever want is cheese with extra cheese?

P.S., I have no trouble admitting that I am still a bookwork and a pizza-holic. I still love me some cheese pizza. But…I guess I have expanded my palatte a little. You should, too!

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

A while back, I mentioned that I am growing acorn squash this year! I have a little container vegetable garden on my porch, and almost everything I am growing is thriving.

Except, sadly, for my acorn squash. It all started out brilliantly: I had four plants that were green and leafy and growing like gangbusters. About a month ago, a crazy amount of blossoms started opening up and I got pretty excited for some squash to reveal itself. But…only two of the blossoms on all four of the plants sprouted squashes. After a while of not seeing any more little babies growing, I mentally threw up my hands and decided to start harvesting the blossoms. (Maybe that was my mistake? Who knows.)

Immediately after harvesting my first bunch of blossoms, the plants started yellowing. I am not an experienced gardener, people. I was at a loss. Eventually I found that one of the vines was being eaten from within by a worm—and there went one of my two baby acorn squash (augh!). I still can’t figure out what’s wrong with the others.

So. Believe me when I tell you that these quesadillas were a labor of love. With these, I used up the last blossoms my poor, sad acorn squash seem like they are going to produce.

What a tasty way to go out!

Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms

I love my friends.

I especially love it when I receive texts out of the blue that say things like, “Hey! I am growing zucchini! Do you want to have my early squash blossoms to cook something awesome?”

Um…YES.

Zucchini blossoms are a definitively Spring-season foodie find. (Although, I believe all types of squash produce yummy blossoms…so stay tuned for potential acorn squash blossom goodness, grown by yours truly, later on!) Zucchini, which ripen around these parts in early Summer, bloom with delicate and completely edible flowers in the Spring.

And, um, did you know that there are girl flowers and boy flowers? (I felt a little like I was at a middle school dance or health class when I typed that.) That’s right, flowers have gender, and girl flowers come complete with tiny, baby zucchinis attached. Which, obviously, grow into adult-size zucchinis if you don’t cut them off the vine to eat the tender blossoms first.

And although you may want to save some of your zucchinis for actual zucchini purposes later on, like zucchini and corn tacos or zucchini bread, you should definitely select a few of those blossoming beauties to snip early and eat this Spring.

This delicious dish is dedicated to Jessica, who furnished me with home-grown, organic squash blossoms and a bunch of my favorite herbs. Just because she’s awesome.

CSA Week 13: Salmon-Squash Kebabs

Um…do you ever get all excited about a picture of a recipe, only to read the ingredients and realize you totally misinterpreted what you saw in the picture?

Yeah.

I found a beautiful picture of salmon kebabs this week and did a little dance about how pretty the squash medallions looked with the salmon and how interesting the combination was…only to realize the original recipe had thinly sliced lemon threaded between the chunks of salmon, not yellow squash. Oops.

But since I had two beautiful yellow squashes from the CSA this week, I forged ahead anyway! And let me tell you, these kebabs were perfection!

Squash Ribbon Salad

Summer squash are still abundant around here! We have had lots of delicious dishes, like fresh spaghetti with shredded pattypan squash and parmesan, red curry squash and snap peas, and this light and pretty squash ribbon salad!

I love this salad because it is so fresh. With a barely-there dressing and a sprinkle of cheese and chives, it comes together quickly and just sings summer!