Tag: zucchini

All Write, Columns

With zucchini, looks aren’t everything

Cindy Hval

Our first zucchini of the season proved puzzling.

It started like a normal green squash, but instead of getting longer, it got progressively plumper.

My husband, Derek, checked the garden marker he’d staked by the plant.

“It’s the same kind we get every year,” he reported.

We kept an eye out for her sprouting sisters and noticed the same development. They looked like normal zucchini until they reached about 4 inches, and then they just ballooned.

I posted a photo on Facebook and discovered we’re not the only ones with oddly shaped squash. Several gardeners reported similar results.

Spokesman-Review gardening columnist Pat Munts weighed in: “The smoke forces the bees into hiding, which affects pollination.”

Others opined that inconsistent watering early on, cross-pollination, or mixed-up seeds caused the deformity.

Since Derek was a Queen fan back in the day, I found the perfect name for our unusual crop.

“What we’ve got here are Fat Bottomed Girls,” I said.

The most important thing is, though they look odd, they taste great!

I chopped some up into a rich, savory Cheesy Zucchini Casserole topped with buttery Ritz crackers.

A large bowl of grated squash turned into two delicious loaves of Cheddar Chive Zucchini Quick Bread and two loaves of Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread.

I have quite a repertoire of zucchini bread recipes, so it was fun to add a new chocolate chip version.

Bottom line? This year’s crop may be plump and slightly unwieldy, but they cook up well, and my freezer is filling with enough baked goods to last until next year’s harvest.

Cheesy Zucchini Casserole

9 zucchini, peeled and sliced (I usually use medium size; obviously this year I had to Google how many cups that might be! Also, sometimes I don’t peel them and it works out fine.)

1 large onion, chopped

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

3 eggs, beaten

Salt and pepper to taste

48 Ritz or other buttery round crackers, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish.

Boil zucchini and onion in a large pot for about 10 minutes; drain. Add butter, cheese, eggs, salt and pepper. Transfer to prepared baking dish and sprinkle cracker crumbs on top.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.

Cheddar, Chive and Zucchini Quick Bread

I always double this recipe. One for the table and one for the freezer.

1½ cups shredded zucchini

¼ cup chopped chives

2 large eggs

¾ cup sour cream

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled

1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Mix zucchini, chives, eggs, sour cream and butter well before mixing in the cheese.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, then pour the batter into a greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven, then add cheese and chives on top. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool.

Remove from pan and slice. Top with butter and enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

2 medium zucchini, grated (about 3 cups)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup canola oil

1½ cups sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

1 cup mini chocolate chips (Make sure you get mini chocolate chips. Regular chips tend to stick to the bottom of the pan.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans. Place zucchini in the center of a clean dish towel and wring out any excess water.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, combine oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Stir in zucchini.

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stirring until just combined. Add remaining dry ingredients in two more installments, stirring until just combined each time. Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Divide batter evenly between 2 prepared loaf pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

Columns

Love in Every Bite

Cindy Hval

For many years, I’ve written an annual zucchini column for The Spokesman-Review’s Food section.

It started when my husband planted our first garden and made the rookie mistake of planting three zucchini plants.

The abundance of zucchini prompted me to delve into my cookbooks and recipe files. It also led me to give the gift of a gourd to friends, neighbors and random strangers who offered to take some squash off my hands.

This was when our two youngest sons were still at home. They resignedly ate the resulting side dishes, casseroles and soups, and happily devoured the breads, cakes and cookies that resulted from our garden abundance.

Flash forward to our empty nest and more manageable zucchini crop. Manageable because we’ve reduced the size of our crop, and I learned how well the resulting baked goods freeze.

My Norwegian brother-in-law is a big fan of my chocolate zucchini bread. He and his wife have a beautiful saltwater swimming pool in their backyard and graciously allow us to swim on sweltering summer days.

A tasty homemade thank-you gift is always ready in my freezer. This year, I upped the ante with chocolate zucchini cupcakes studded with chocolate chips.

Earlier in the summer, a friend had ankle surgery. Her husband is in my writing group. Zucchini isn’t the only garden goodie that lends itself to baking. Our bumper crop of raspberries became a decadent coffee cake. I served some to my group and sent the rest home for Sarah.

Twice a month, we host a family dinner. I never have to worry about dessert because I’ve got plenty of zucchini peanut drop cookies or zucchini chocolate chip cookies on hand. All that’s needed is a carton of vanilla ice cream.

I may have read too many “Little House on the Prairie” books as a child, because nothing makes me feel more accomplished than having homemade goodies on hand. I’m like Laura Ingalls Wilder, but with an upright freezer instead of a root cellar.

Where does it all go?

Well, this summer I served lemon zucchini bread with lemon glaze to a former member of my writing group and his wife.

They’d moved to Montana a few years ago. When I had the opportunity to interview them about their new ministry, I invited them to our backyard gazebo. When they left, I sent the leftover dessert with them to sweeten their journey home.

My Norwegian brother-in-law is a big fan of my chocolate zucchini bread. He and his wife have a beautiful saltwater swimming pool in their backyard and graciously allow us to swim on sweltering summer days.

A tasty homemade thank-you gift is always ready in my freezer. This year, I upped the ante with chocolate zucchini cupcakes studded with chocolate chips.

Earlier in the summer, a friend had ankle surgery. Her husband is in my writing group. Zucchini isn’t the only garden goodie that lends itself to baking. Our bumper crop of raspberries became a decadent coffee cake. I served some to my group and sent the rest home for Sarah.

Twice a month, we host a family dinner. I never have to worry about dessert because I’ve got plenty of zucchini peanut drop cookies or zucchini chocolate chip cookies on hand. All that’s needed is a carton of vanilla ice cream.

Every season, I find new recipes to try, and during my weekly phone call with our Texas son, I told him I’d been baking chocolate chip zucchini bread.

“You should send me some,” he said.

I’ll be popping a loaf in the mail soon.

Last week, I got a text from one of my closest friends. Her only sibling had died unexpectedly.

Stunned and saddened, I pulled a loaf of orange chocolate chip zucchini bread from my freezer. On the way to her house, I stopped at the store and bought a sympathy card and an Uber Eats gift card.

I know she appreciated the gifts and my presence, but it was the zucchini bread she mentioned more than once.

When forced to swallow the bitter pill of loss, a taste of homemade sweetness sometimes offers a moment of respite.

All I know is my freezer full of baked zucchini goods makes me feel prepared for whatever celebration or sadness lies ahead.

Over the years, I’ve cut these breads and cakes into wedges, rectangles and squares. I’ve served it on glass trays, porcelain saucers and paper plates.

Anyway I slice it, it all adds up to love.

Columns

Zucchini Mayhem

Cindy Hval

I know I say this every year, but it seemed like zucchini season got off to a slow start.

No gigantic gourds awaited us when we returned from vacation – just one or two supermarket-sized squash.

Even more shocking, I still had two loaves of lemon zucchini bread and one loaf of chocolate zucchini bread in our freezer.

I blame our No. 3 son. He got married in October and now his lovely wife keeps him well supplied with sweet treats.

This year, I made a vow to slow down on baking and cooking. Unfortunately, our zucchini didn’t get the message. Neither did my husband.

When he hauled out the food processor to shred our first batch, I gave him my second-largest mixing bowl and told him not to fill it to the top.

Derek misheard me and shredded every zucchini in sight, and could barely get the lid on the bowl.

“Oh no!” I said. “I needed some to slice and dice for casseroles and soups!”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Can you wait a couple of days?”

Of course, he was right. Even with only one plant, I’ve got squash coming out of my ears.

It’s a good thing my recipe game is strong, and last year it was augmented by my sons’ former choir teacher, Helen Kennett. After last year’s column ran, she graciously sent me recipes for Zucchini Bacon Quiche and Zucchini Peanut Drops.

Both are wonderful, and I’ve included them below, along with a recipe for a tasty casserole that calls for a box of stuffing mix. It offers a taste of Thanksgiving in August.

Right now, I’m giving thanks for the goodness of the green gourd and the comfort of an air-conditioned kitchen to prepare it in.

Zucchini Bacon Quiche

From Helen Kennett

1 tube (8-ounce) refrigerated crescent rolls

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

6 bacon strips, diced (save 2 tablespoons bacon dripping)

3 cups thinly sliced zucchini

1 medium onion, chopped

2 eggs beaten

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon dried basil

Separate crescent dough into eight triangles.

Place in a greased 10-inch pie plate with points toward the center.

Press dough to the bottom and up the sides of plate to form a crust.

Seal perforations. Spread with mustard.

In skillet, cook bacon over medium. heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings.

Sauté zucchini & onion in drippings until tender.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, cheese, seasonings, bacon and zucchini mixture. Pour into crust.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean.

(Cover edges loosely with foil if pastry browns too quickly.)

Taste of Thanksgiving Zucchini Casserole

6 cups diced zucchini

1 (10.75-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup sour cream

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup shredded carrots (honestly, I usually omit these, and it still tastes great)

1 (6-ounce) package stuffing mix (I use Stove Top cornbread or chicken)

½ cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, cook zucchini in lightly salted water until crisp-tender, about five minutes. Drain and place in a large bowl. Stir in the soup, sour cream, onion and carrots.

In a small bowl, mix together stuffing and melted butter. Spread half the stuffing mix in the bottom of the casserole dish, add a layer of zucchini mixture, and top with remaining stuffing.

Bake 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Zucchini Peanut Drops

From Helen Kennett

1 cup margarine (I use butter)

1 cup peanut butter

½ cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini

½ cup chopped peanuts

3¼ cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream margarine (or butter), peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Stir in vanilla zucchini and peanuts. Combine dry ingredients and blend into creamed mixture. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper).

Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Columns

Home Alone is Risky Business

Cindy Hval

Our youngest son’s move to Texas earlier this month offered me an unusual opportunity – six days home alone.

Sam’s overloaded Oldsmobile meant his road trip would be a father-son-only adventure. Also, I don’t think they wanted to hear me sobbing in the backseat for 1,767 miles.

I’ve never been alone in my house for more than a weekend. When Derek was in the National Guard, he was out of town frequently, but I always had a houseful of boys to wrangle. Honestly, I was looking forward to some solitude.

Here are a few excerpts from my Home Alone journal:

Day one: Knowing I’d have an emotional morning, a friend treated me to lunch. I ordered a large sandwich and put half of it in a to-go container for dinner. Everything was lovely until I forgot it at the restaurant. “It’s Derek’s duty to make sure I don’t leave my leftovers behind!” I wailed. My friend expressed concern about my ability to survive alone.

Needing to shop for some single-lady food, I headed to Trader Joe’s. My purchases may or may not have included a box of wine and three ginormous chocolate bars, but I definitely bought a salad.

Once home, I eyed the two huge zucchini that Derek didn’t have time to grate before he left. I decided to worry about that tomorrow.

Day two: I purchased a food processor because those zucchini weren’t getting any fresher, and there was no way I was going to grate them by hand. Then I went to visit my mom. We had a nice chat until I showed her the picture of Sam in front of the U-Haul the morning he left. Then we had a nice cry.

I might have spent too much time away from home because Walter, our cat, went feral. He slaughtered a fly and ate it in front of me.

This reminded me it was dinner time. I considered the salad I’d bought but opted for making nachos in the microwave. Dinner in hand, I settled into the recliner to watch a movie (you can do things like this when you live alone). That’s when I realized I hadn’t turned on the TV since the guys left and I didn’t know how to find the movie on my watch list. I made it almost 48 hours without a call to tech support (Sam).

Day three: No bacon. Derek usually makes breakfast on the weekends and that usually includes bacon. I eyed the chocolate bars but decided to scramble some eggs, instead.

Then I took a long walk and scheduled a pedicure for later. Weekend days can drag when you’re alone, so I was thankful I had a happy hour with a friend on my calendar.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“Great!” I replied. “But I am talking to my cats. A lot.”

I gave her some zucchini (small ones) and when I got home I took the food processor out of the box. It had several pieces and a large instruction book. I decided to go to bed early.

Day four: Labor Day. It’s officially OK to drink pumpkin spice coffee now, so I indulged. Then I labored in the yard, the responsibility of keeping everything green and blooming weighed heavily. I miss Derek.

Moving inside, I cleaned the house, which took 10 minutes. That’s a benefit of single life I could get used to. Despite my sparkling home, something smelled funny. I checked the zucchini. They were fine. Then I remembered with Sam gone, I’m responsible for the litter box.

I really miss Sam.

Day five: I interviewed a lady about her rock collection and worked my way through my overflowing inbox. In the afternoon, I went out to the shed and got out the leaf blower to clean off the deck and gazebo. The battery was dead. I called Derek and he told me to take the battery out of his drill and use that. By golly, I figured it out!

That’s not the kind of risky business I envisioned for my week alone. Thankfully, it was time to meet a friend for dinner.

Day six: I hosted my writers group in the gazebo and when they left I decided to water the lawn. I turned on the water and got a blast in the face. I texted Derek, “A leak! The house sprung a major leak!”

It’s hard to text with wet hands, so Derek was relieved that the hose was leaking and not the house.

With his return imminent, I returned to the food processor. I wanted to get those zucchini taken care of. Then I read another bold print section, “Warning! You can be killed or seriously injured if you don’t follow these instructions.”

If I’m going to die or be dismembered, I want my husband with me.

When I picked him up at the airport the next morning, he asked how I enjoyed my week.

“Home alone is fine,” I replied. “But home with you is better.”

Then I handed him the food processor instruction book.

Cindy Hval can be reached at dchval@juno.com. Hval is the author of “War Bonds: Love Stories from the Greatest Generation” (Casemate Publishers, 2015) available on Amazon and bookstores nationwide.

Columns

Zucchini: The Sequel

Cindy Hval

“We went on vacation – the squash did not,” Cindy Hval said in an email about Tuesday’s harvest, shown. “It’s like the zucchini are mocking me.” (Cindy Hval / The Spokesman-Review) “We went on vacation – the squash did not,” Cindy Hval said about Tuesday’s harvest, shown. “It’s like the zucchini are mocking me.”

Every great adventure deserves and sometimes demands a sequel. Such is the case with my previous column about surplus squash.

When I wrote about the Great Zucchini Invasion of 2017, readers responded with recipes, suggestions of where to donate the surplus, and offers to take some zucchini off my hands – or countertops.

It turned out that reader response to the column was as prolific as, well, zucchini.

The irony was in the few days after the column ran: My harvest trickled down to near nothing. In fact, I almost put away the grater and the freezer bags, but then I blinked. Yep. More zucchini and the giveaway began anew.

A Facebook friend stopped by to take a few. My monthly writers group met at my home – each writer took home helpful critiques, encouraging words. And zucchini.

I hosted my annual Great Gazebo Girlfriend Gathering and sent the ladies home with a squash or two, except for one friend who sneaked out without taking her fair share. That’s OK. I know where she lives.

And, of course, we celebrated National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch day on Aug. 8. We may have celebrated a bit too much as most of our neighbors are still avoiding us.

Yet the zucchini just kept on coming. An online commenter offered this solution: “Cindy, if you put your surplus crop in a box at curbside with a FREE label, no one will take them. But if you label the zucchini $1 each, someone will steal them after dark. Problem solved.”

Others requested some of the recipes I mentioned in the column, so I’ve included a few of those here.

Speaking of recipes, a reader offered to send me a recipe for zucchini relish and pickles. Both sound wonderful, but the recipe requires canning and I’m not quite that desperate. Yet.

One reader offered to trade farm fresh eggs for zucchini, and I just may take her up on that.

Others suggested nonprofit organizations that might welcome fresh produce.

Mary Ellen Gaffney-Brown said Meals on Wheels gives out fresh produce every Wednesday. I called the organization to confirm and discovered that they often welcome veggie donations, but cautioned readers to call first.

Barbara Hill notified me of a wonderful program run by Refugee Connections. These folks actually come to your garden, glean it, and then donate the produce to the East Central Community Center.

Another fun way to share garden goodness is to take it to your local library for a produce swap. The summer bounty program sponsored by Spokane County Library District invites folks to bring their extra fresh produce to select branches, and take home something different from another garden. Leftovers are taken to a local food bank and the produce swaps continue in September.

So if you find yourself swimming in surplus squash, don’t despair. It turns out there are plenty of ways to share the wealth. That said, sequels are fine, but I’m really hoping the Great Zucchini Invasion won’t become a trilogy.

Columns

The Great Zucchini

Cindy Hval

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Zucchini chips (Cindy Hval / The Spokesman-Review)

Unfortunately, the most valuable life lessons are often learned the hard way. This summer I’ve been schooled in the veracity of the adage “be careful what you wish for.”

Last year my husband experimented in the Glorious Garden. He tried growing zucchini, vertically, in pallets. The experiment failed, and I was disappointed.

“Next year, I want zucchini. LOTS of zucchini,” I told my hardworking spouse.

He heard me. Boy, did he hear me.

Two weeks into this summer’s zucchini season had me yelling for mercy – praying for drought, pestilence or plague. No such luck. Our bumper squash crops shows no sign of slowing down.

It’s come to this – last week, I went to a party. I took zucchini as a hostess gift.

I returned my sister-in-law’s baking dish – with a squash tucked inside. Our relatives are starting to avoid me.

Our teenager used to eagerly ask, “What’s for dinner?”

Now, he hesitates.

In the last few weeks I’ve made zucchini cornbread casserole, cheesy zucchini, zucchini and rice, zucchini fritters, zucchini chips, zucchini stuffing casserole – and that’s just for dinner.

I’ve also baked dozens of zucchini chocolate chip muffins and many loaves of chocolate zucchini bread.

I have bags of shredded frozen zucchini in the freezer, and Derek recently bought a spiralizer. He wants to try zucchini spaghetti, but I’m not sure I’m ready to make the vegetable-in-place-of-pasta leap. Ask me next week.

And yes, I should know better, because many years ago, I used to write for a now defunct section of this newspaper, called HOME, and one of my assignments was to cover ‘The Great Zucchini War’ between two Spokane Valley neighbors.

It was actually more of a story of the gift that kept on giving. In the 2006 article, I chronicled the tale of a super-sized squash that made its way from bench, to birdbath, to treetop, as two neighbors escalated the art of re-gifting.

The Pedens and the Fairhursts took the squash war to unheard of heights. The much maligned vegetable was camouflaged in orange, black and silver and set afloat in a koi pond. It was transformed into a replica of a Flying Tiger fighter plane. Sporting wings, tail fins and the snarling teeth of a tiger, it perched in the upper branches of a walnut tree where it remained until a ladder tall enough to reach it could be found.

When last seen, it was Halloween and the re-gifted gourd was growing soft in the middle. It had been painted white, covered in ghostly draperies and encased in concrete – on a neighbor’s porch.

That was 11 years ago, and one can only hope the extra-large zuch was given a decent burial somewhere, or at least turned into enough bread to feed the ’hood.

Which brings me back to my squash stash. I’ve been trying to make eye contact with my next-door neighbors, but surprisingly they always seem to be in a hurry to peel out of their driveways or slam shut the sliding doors on their decks.

I’ve pondered placing the surplus squash in a box in our front yard with a “free to good home,” sign, but I worry they will rot in the hot summer sun before they are adopted.

There’s always Craigslist, but I don’t relish getting caught in some kind of undercover sting operation. I can just picture a jaded cop in a deserted parking lot mocking me. “You thought you’d get cash – for squash!?”

Last week I interviewed a longtime greengrocer who told me, “If you have to buy zucchini at a store, you must not have any friends.”

Well, at the rate my freezer is filling, I won’t have any need for zucchini or friends until roughly, 2020.

Listen to me dear readers; be careful what you wish for – especially if it involves produce.

Contact Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com. previous columns are available online at spokesman.com/ columnists. Follow her on Twitter at @CindyHval.