Five of the Easiest and Best Ways to Cook with Summer Squashes

I normally post a recipe a week, not because I have a significant fan base or anything, but because if I don't make myself write down recipes, I forget them. Keeping in mind that I am not quite the only one reading my recipes, I try not to be too redundant, despite the fact that I tend to use the same ingredients over and over based on what's growing in my garden. 

Like any respectable California home gardener, I am now overwhelmed by a bumper crop of summer squash. 
 

A day's harvest of patty pan squash, eggplant and Roma tomatoes

A zucchini that got out of hand

I am eating squash of some kind every day, but it does seem a little annoying to post squash recipes for two months straight. So here you go, I will just throw out my five favorite and easy (but not original) ways to use up squash, with links to recipes that I've tried and liked. I emphasize the word easy because there are plenty of layered and stuffed squash recipes that are great, but they are more fussy.

Then I promise I will not post anything about squash for the rest of the summer, unless I get hit with some wild and crazy, super-original inspiration.

1.  Sliced, floured, fried and salted. Sometimes, the simple stuff is the best. Nice high heat on your olive oil ( a little smoke is no big deal) and fried squash slices with good-ol' homemade ranch on the side. It's just yum.

2. Grated up and put in a fritter. I have several of these recipes posted, I sometimes call them patties or pancakes too, but Nigella Lawson has some tasty ones here- Courgette Fritters

3. Grilled and served in a salad. Grilling adds a ridiculous amount of flavor to a vegetable that isn't super intense in flavor to begin with. Get a little char on there, and don't salt until after they're grilled. Check out My Grilled Summer Salad.

4. Mixed in with pasta sauce. This is so obvious, but it's just really tasty. The trick is not to do it too soon though. You don't want mushy zucchini and you don't want to water down the sauce. I would lightly saute the squash separately in olive oil first, then mix it up with your sauce, or pasta, at the last  minute. I like Tyler Florence's recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, you could use a smaller pasta instead of spaghetti and replace half the pasta with the squash.

5. Mix it up half and half with mashed potatoes. This works well and it's even better if you leave the skin on the potatoes and go for the chunky kind of mashed potatoes. You will want to grate or finely chop the squash and, just like with fritters, squeeze a bunch of the moisture out of the squash first. Replace about a third to a half of the potato bulk with squash and follow the mashed potato recipe of your choice.

Happy Gardening and Eating!

Steak, and Replacing Pasta with Vegetables

Last night I HAD to have steak. It just HAD to happen. No purveyors of fine steak were open late on a Sunday, so I made do with a Safeway steak- a nice double-thick rib eye. To further complicate my need for steak, I don't have anything that passes for a grill right now. 

I persevered.

I gently rubbed the 1+ lb, bone-in rib eye cowboy steak with olive oil. I poured Himalayan salt on it with reckless abandon. I sprinkled it generously with pepper. I let it hang out on the counter, looking good. I cooked it on both sides for one minute each in very hot oil. I then put it under the broiler in the oven for 15-ish minutes, then let it rest for another 10 minutes, taking it to medium-rare heaven in the middle, and medium on the edges. All steaks are shaped differently, so if you're not good at judging the cooking times, there's no shame in using a meat thermometer.

Now in the old days (and by that I mean over a year ago) I would serve this with some sort of starchy goodness, like pasta. Instead, I used all of the good things I would put on pasta, and put them on summer squash instead:

4 yellow summer squash
1/2 a sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup white wine (or water or stock)
2 level tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup chopped fresh arugula leaves
1 oz of your favorite cheese, shredded or crumbled (I use feta)

Saute the onions, summer squash and spices in ONE of the tablespoons of olive oil for about 3-4 minutes on high. Then add the tomato paste, garlic, and white wine and lower to medium and cook until wine is gone and tomato paste looks thick again, another 3-4 minutes at least, depending on your stove. 

Lower the heat all the way down to the lowest setting, add the cheese, the other tablespoon of oil and the arugula leaves, stir it all in and let it hang out on the stove 'til your steak is done. Serve with sliced steak...and a nice big glass of Sangiovese.

Like most of my recipes, this meal will serve 2 people, or 1 person twice...

Costco Angst

Oh Costco. How I love thee and hate thee.

Love. I love the new cookbooks I purchased there, especially Practical Paleo (great book).

I love the prices for organic products, like tomato paste, blueberries, chicken, ground beef, sweet potatoes, carrots, baby kale, celery etc. 

You can get decent pans, knives, small kitchen appliances, and they'll take things back with very little trouble.

Now hate. Maybe hate is strong word, but the latest Costco attitude- I don't like it. Costco employees used to be among the friendliest. Now, I don't know, they always seem slightly irritated, at least they do at the three Costco locations I frequent here in Northern California.

The free samples...both love and hate those. Who doesn't like free food? I DO want to taste the new Greek yogurt. But do I want people crowding the aisles around the sample table like sheep making it impossible for me to effectively navigate when I'm in a hurry? I do not.

And what, may I ask, is going on with the boxes all of the sudden? They used to just box everything for you, and they did it with remarkable speed. Now IF you're lucky they'll ask you if you want a box, and then if you say, "Please box everything, I have to climb stairs with it all," they will box about half it. What is going on? Why are they hoarding boxes? What difference does it make if they go in my recycle bin or theirs? (If anyone actually knows the answer to this I'd like to hear it).

One day my husband asked for boxes and the check-out people actually said (with a straight face and everything), "We're out." 
He eyed them quietly for a moment and then said, "Really?" 
As they stood by, unconcerned, I watched him walk over to the nearest monster sized display of goods (I think it was men's socks and vitamins) and start consolidating items, which enabled him to grab two large empty boxes in about 30 seconds. The employees chatted while they waited for him. I was both vexed and entertained.

Ah, then we wait in the SECOND line, the line to get out of the store, where supposedly the cart gets checked for loss prevention purposes. This line makes me crazy. How do other stores manage to make it without this stupid extra step? Are they all going out of business? I paid for my stuff, just let me go! 

So having ranted like a looney, I will close with this, I will keep shopping at Costco because I am addicted to cheap organic food and the best price for sparkling water around. But I will grab my own boxes as I shop and as I wait at the door to exit while they look over my receipt, I will say over and over, in a screechy panicked voice, "I didn't steal anything I swear!"

Oh and P.S. to Costco. Eggs are not dairy. Dairy comes from wing-less creatures like cows and sheep. Eggs come from chickens. Chickens do not make milk. When I say "Where are the eggs?" and the Costco employee looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "In the dairy room of course," well it makes me want to hurl my free sample in his face.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Cooking with flowers...it's not really an everyday thing. Usually when you think of flowers and cooking, well, you think of them sprinkled over a wedding cake or an over-priced salad. To me squash blossoms really taste more like an herb, or a type of lettuce and they're just the perfect shape for stuffing. If you haven't tried them, give it a shot. Lots of people fry them, or stuff them with cheese, but here's how I like to cook them:

 

Before Baking

 

Lunch!

Thank you, farmer's market! I got a bag of squash flowers this past summer for only a few dollars. These beautiful yellow and orange squash blossom babies are good stuffed with almost any mixture of rice or meat and fresh herbs (think dill or mint), but this time I stuffed 15 squash blossoms with:

3/4 pound good quality grass fed ground beef (or choose the best beef at your store)
1 medium egg
5 dried California plums, diced
2 green onions, diced
Two Tablespoons fresh parsley (I'm weird, I like the curly stuff)
2 tablespoons pine nuts (other nuts or seeds are good too, that's just what I have today)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper (estimate)
1/4 teaspoon allspice (if you've had your allspice for ages, use double)
1 lemon wedge to squeeze on after
a little olive oil

Clean blossoms if they need it and get rid of the stems. Rub baking dish with good olive oil. Mix ingredients and stuff into squash blossoms. Arrange them on the baking dish and spray or lightly drizzle with more olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes (could be longer depending on your oven) basically cook them until your meat is cooked through. Serve warm or room temp. with olives, cheese, and/or fresh bread.