Zucchini

It should not surprise me that on this day last year I posted about zucchini. July in Wisconsin is rife with the squash. If you don't grow it yourself, someone else you know does, and zucchini plants are prolific.

And, so, my zucchini supply is bountiful. Just as I use up the last of my supply, more appears.

Last night it was zucchini pancakes, my absolute favorite way to use zucchini as a dinner component.

Today, though, it was time to move onto sweeter fare: a chocolate zucchini cake from an issue of Bon Appétit. The cake is fabulous and with the substitution of whole wheat flour, I can almost believe it's healthy. Healthy or not, it's a perfectly moist chocolate cake. If you can, enjoy it warm!



Chocolate Zucchini Cake

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

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.

Zucchini

No one in my immediate family loves zucchini, including me. I mean, it's OK, but it's not something I crave in the summer, even when it's fresh. Still, though, we always somehow end up with some fresh zucchini multiple times a summer and I refuse to waste a perfectly good, healthy vegetable, so we eat what we're given and, despite the fact that it's not my favorite, I always appreciate the gift of fresh garden produce.

Last night I prepared it a new way and, I have to say, I've never liked it so well. I sautéed two zucchini in a bit of olive oil with some kosher salt until it was cooked through but still firm. I then threw it into a bowl and tossed with with some freshly ground pepper, freshly squeezed lemon juice (about half a lemon) and some diced scallions. It was quite good and even the kids ate their required portions with minimal fuss.

Rhubarb

When I was a child I hated rhubarb season. Mom was a big dessert person and made them often, but in late spring, once her rhubarb was ready to harvest, the desserts all began to have one common denominator: rhubarb. I ate them grudgingly but always secretly couldn't wait until the rhubarb was all gone and we could get back to non-rhubarb desserts.

I don't know when it happened, but sometime in the past few years I started craving rhubarb desserts. Last year I finally bit the bullet and planted some rhubarb plants in our yard, but I can't harvest any until next year (and even then only sparingly). Well, wonder of wonders, Dad brought up a huge grocery bag of rhubarb yesterday full of freshly picked rhubarb that he was given by a friend.

Right now I have this cooling on my prep table:




It's rhubarb oatmeal pie and I can't wait to dig into it. In a few minutes I'm going to start a rhubarb compote which was, funnily enough, my absolute least favorite, most dreaded rhubarb concoction that Mom made every spring. Funny how time and maturity can change your taste buds.

Pathetic Gardening

Today is May 21 and I still haven't planted a thing-- no flowers, no vegetables, not one seed or plant anywhere. For the flowers that's not so abnormal, especially since we're still not entirely out of danger of cold temperatures at night, but for the vegetable garden, it's pathetic. Pathetic! I'm not going to have lettuce at this point until the frost comes again in the fall to kill it. Today. I must get the garden planted today.

OK, now it's written down, so it will happen... right?

Gardening

Growing up I never pegged myself for a gardener. My mom was, of course, and she was an enormously talented gardener. But probably one of the reasons she had such locally famous gardens was because she didn't let her too young daughter near them. (A few examples of my mom's talents can be found in past blog posts here and here.)

And still, to this day, I am not as dedicated to the art of gardening as Mom was. I have other things that interest me more than gardening, and those things are often easier to accomplish with three kids in tow.

Lack of talent or dedication aside, spring usually finds me outside cleaning up the few gardens I have. Mostly these days that has involved pulling vast amounts of weeds (I did not tend to my perennial flower border garden as I should have last summer-- shame, shame!). Yesterday, though, most of the weeds were finally gone-- hurrah!-- and I was able to move onto more exciting endeavors...

...like replacing a rose that didn't make it through the winter, adding some porchulaca as a ground cover and some cocoa bean shells to (hopefully!) stop, or at least slow, all the dreaded weeds. It smells like a chocolate factory outside my house right now, another benefit to my favorite type of mulch,

putting some favorite herbs into pots near the kitchen door (basil, dill, oregano, thyme, rosemary and tarragon),

replacing-- yet again-- some hollyhocks that have been eaten and replaced year after year for the past few years by some sort of critter and never take off.  This year I splurged on a larger containers, I hope this helps ward off my hollyhock kidnappers(!),

and replacing plants that, for whatever weird reason, just disappeared or never came back (salvia pictured here).

But, of course, still lots of weeding to be done. The euonymus in the front has really taken off, and I love how the English boxwood shrubs look interspersed in there (they're new this spring) but I can't stand how big, ugly dandelions spring up in the euonymus and because the euonymus is nice and thick now it's practically impossible to pull the dandelions. So yes, the fun has begun, but lots of drudgery still left. I suspect that will remain true throughout the entire growing season.

Next up, the vegetable garden, which I'm already a few weeks behind on. My excuse? It has been unseasonably cold here for May, but still...

Lazy Saturday

A Saturday is never typical, at least for us. There's no routine, no structure. Appointments, parties and, most often, our whims, rule the day. This past Saturday? A combination of loafing, yard work and, for me, a night out.

We slept in. I don't think Superdad and I got out of bed until 9 a.m., which is unheard of.

The kids want waffles. They occupy themselves at the dining room table while Superdad and I slave away on buttermilk waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit.


Following the meal, the big kids head out and join their friends. Superdad is off to a friend's house to borrow their tiller. He has big plans ahead of him. I clean up the kitchen and then head out and watch Elisabeth run up and down the block. Around lunchtime Elisabeth goes down for a nap and the big kids, plus a friend, request a picnic lunch. No problem!


Superdad begins his work. What's his task? Tilling up the backyard, which is one big weed. He wants to use pesticides. I don't. Who knows, he's probably right (that there's no danger in using pesticides) but poor Superdad pacifies me and, morally opposed to his task, spends five hours slaving away in the backyard with a tiny tiller. Isn't he a champ?


And how was Superdad repaid? I got to go out for a fun night with friends. Yes, I'm a lucky woman.

Superdad, on the other hand, bathed the children, fed the children, put the children to bed and then did work that he'd brought home. Yes, I'm feeling especially sorry for poor Superdad lately. He's been swamped, both with my silly requests and work.

Still though, it was a fun Saturday. And I think even Superdad would say that too.

Vegetable Garden

I love to garden. I love digging in the dirt, planting things and watching them grow. I probably prefer my flower gardens to my vegetable garden because I love to enjoy looking at all the beautiful flowers and smelling the varying fragrances, but I also love my vegetable garden because my little Hanker will help me take care of it. Madeleine runs screaming in terror at the mere sight of a worm and Elisabeth isn't big enough yet, but not my Hank.

Hank says he wants to be a farmer when he grows up. And a cowboy (how 'bout a rancher?). He also possesses an amazing ability to concentrate and take his time with a task. The vegetable garden is our thing, just my little Hanker and me.

Yesterday we worked the fully composted compost pile into the garden. Hank was a real work horse and shoveled (almost) as well as I did, but with much more effort.

Then it was time to plant seeds. Hank pondered what to plant first.

"Salad!" He decided.

"Um, don't you mean lettuce, Hank?"

"Yeah, you know, salad."

First up, butter crunch lettuce.

See what I mean about patience? He was so careful to make sure each seed went exactly where I said it needed to go. Even trickier, if you think about it, for light, tiny lettuce seeds which need to be sprinkled ever so carefully.

Last chore, watering the seeds in. Hank now knows the definition of the word germinate.


Next up was green beans and then a play date. Today we hope to get the carrots and beets in. We'll see if Hank's social calendar permits it.

Flashback: Spring/Summer 2006

It's almost spring; the snow is melting, the mercury is rising and the forecast looks good.

No, still far too soon to contemplate getting out in the the gardens, but it doesn't hurt to dream of what's just beyond the bend.

My backyard.


The back end of my backyard. This is my favorite tree.

Madeleine standing by my rose tree that I bought last year. Unlike my mom, I don't have a propensity for gardening and can never remember what anything is called, but I especially liked this rose tree because it was wonderfully fragrant. I have it wintering on the side of my garage now, protected from the wind. Hopefully there will be more pictures like this in a few months.


And, finally, my prize rose collection. I rescued these from my mom's rose garden before the Japanese Beetles could move in and destroy them. All five managed to survive the transplant and thrive in their new home, along my driveway, last summer. I'm anxious to see if they wintered over for me as well as they seemed to for my mom.

Ah, warm weather, you may not be here quite yet, but you're close, and I'm carefully watching for you. Come quickly!

Flashback: June 2004

Pictured are Madeleine (age 3) and Hank (age 20 months) in June of 2004 at my mom and Bob's house in Silver Lake. Their Nana (my mom) took this photo of them on her patio. As I mentioned once before, Mom was a phenomenal gardener, and she was also good at showing off her green thumb in photo ops like the one featured below.


Going into a weekend that predicts snow, snow and yet, more snow, I long for spring and the days like this that I know are waiting for me just a few more months down the road. Doesn't the scene look so warm and inviting?

Happy Birthday, Mom

Had she lived, today would have been my mom’s sixty-first birthday.

Instead of the cake we would be having if she were here, I’m making Junket tonight. Few people ever know what I’m talking about when I speak of Junket, but it was a common dessert in my home growing up. Mom loved it and made it often enough that I can’t think of a dessert that reminds me of her more than that one.

Mom was an excellent cook, but she excelled at baking. She loved desserts, both the eating and construction of, and in recent years sort of became in charge of desserts at any family gathering. Here are the cakes she baked for Madeleine's baptism party in January of 2001 (which is also where the picture of Mom and Madeleine as a baby, above, was taken):

Her numerous gardens were well-known and spoken of with the highest regard. She knew more about what to grow, where to grow it and what would look just perfect in any given spot than any other person I know, professional horticulturalists included.

Her favorite garden, and mine too, was her pool garden which is pictured here:

She was a warm, interesting and talented woman, one whose absence is noted by many but also, more importantly, whose life is remembered and celebrated by so many.

Happy Birthday, Mom, we miss you!

The First Signs of Fall

The crisp, sixty-three degree air, kids in their sweatshirts and chrysanthemums blooming on my front porch. Fall is on its way!