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Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe
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Do you think you'll die if you see another zucchini? Well then here's a recipe to die for. The photographer made hers in a Bundt pan, but the recipe below suggest a 13 x 9 baking pan. Either way, you're going to love this cake. Before you know it, you'll be out in the garden pulling back leaves looking for one or two zucchini for another batch.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)
1 6-ounce package (about 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over.
Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan.
Serves 12.
Recipe source: Bon Appétit, November 1995
Photo credit: Tania Ho
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Tomato inspiration
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Are you harvesting tomatoes hand over fist and looking for some fresh ideas on how to prepare them? Well, the global blogosphere is here to help. Below are a few recipes recently posted to some food blogs that you will probably want to get to know better. Enjoy.
From Simply Recipes:
White Beans and Cherry Tomato Salad
Gazpacho
From Chocolate & Zucchini:
Panzanella
From Kayn's Kitchen:
Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Mint, Feta, Lemon, and Thyme
Slow roasted tomatoes
From David Lebovitz:
Marinated Tomato Salad
From Just Hungry:
Tabbouleh with Heirloom Tomatoes and Shiso
From Champagne Taste:
Roasted tomato sauce
From A Veggie Venture:
Baked Eggs with Tomato and Spinach
Photo by D. Knisely
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Pole bean or out-of-control bean?
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By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, August 2, 2007 in The Washington Post
If pole beans are allowed to get into trouble, they will. Early on, they are like a good baby that sleeps through the night. You poke the conveniently fat seeds into the ground, then let the warmth and easy moisture of late spring nudge forth the young shoots -- big healthy-looking things grouped in tidy circles at the base of their poles or lined up in long rows.
A vine will sometimes seem to hesitate in its upward climb, poised like an acrobat a few feet above the soil as if looking for a trapeze to clutch. That's your cue to guide it gently in the direction of the pole, trellis or fence you have provided for its support. Sometimes a lethargic plant will need to be lifted bodily from the ground and taught to twine. But from then on it's go, go, go.
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Garlic's Unexpected Gems
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By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, September 6, 2007 in The Washington Post
Some of the best garden discoveries are made by accident. Last fall a friend gave my husband and me some family heirloom garlic. Against the standard advice, he hadn't removed the flower stems, known as scapes, when they appeared, and when he harvested he pulled up the whole plants -- bulbs, stems and flower heads. Inside the flower heads were tiny bulbils (above-ground bulbs) the size of rice grains. We broke apart the regular garlic bulbs at the base of the plants and poked the individual cloves into the ground the way you normally would plant fall garlic. On a whim, we also planted those tiny bulbils, one by one, just to see what would happen.
What we expected to find, come spring, was green garlic, a tasty scallion-like treat you get by planting any small garlic cloves you think aren't big enough to make full-sized heads. But the green shoots the bulbils sent up were so spindly they weren't worth eating, so we let them grow through the summer.
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Lebanese okra and tomato stew
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A whole range of simple Lebanese vegetarian dishes, referred to as bi zeit in Arabic, are cooked in and primarily flavored by olive oil. This vegetarian dish combines the flavors of okra and tomato with garlic and cilantro. If you have fresh tomatoes from your garden, by all means, use them in place of the canned.
Ingredients
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds fresh or thawed frozen okra, patted dry
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
5 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves
One 28-ounce can peeled Italian tomatoes, chopped, juices reserved
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Procedure
1. In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the okra and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until bright green and crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer the okra to a plate with a slotted spoon; discard the oil.
2. Add the olive oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat until softened and golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cilantro and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and their juices and bring to a simmer, then cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes.
3. Return the okra to the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat until the okra is tender and the sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Serves 6
Recipe source: Food and Wine magazine
Photo credit: Arobotar
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