Once again I’m reminded of what happens when I turn my back and not do anything with zucchini for about five days: I get nearly six pounds of summer squash, looking up at me, threatening to explode into space-aged proportions.
A remedy: Perform the summer version of the tuberous pancakes! The recipe is basically the same, but because summer squash are less starchy than sweet potatoes, you’d need a touch more flour and eggs. For example, for 5 3/4 pounds of zucchini, we used 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups flour, and 6 eggs. I should also note that this dish’s existence was encouraged by the fritter recipe at Simply Recipes!
Magic is not only green, but also deep-fried.
Perfect accompaniments: A bit of something creamy (yogurt, sour cream, crème fraîche, mayo, mustard, etc.), with a side of something tart for contrast. Like pickled beets, sauerkraut or curtido. O:-)
The annual zucchini inundation has been going on since last month. Usually we chop then dry-sautée three or four of them in olive oil, and serve as a side dish. But if we skip cooking zucchini for a week, we accumulate a bagful which sits forlornly in the fridge.
So what do you do with several pounds of zukes or other summer squash? You make a gratin, with the help of rice and cheese!
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During the peak of last year’s plum season, Elise Bauer’s upside down cake recipe provided us with numerous delicious desserts. The apricots had been long gone, so I was eager to apply her excellent recipe to one of my favorite fruits. This year, it worked out quite well, thank you very much.
Rightside-up upside down apricot cake slice. It’s, uh, better looking when upside-down.
There’s a big advantage of the upside-down habit of baking: the sponge doesn’t become nearly as soggy, like in the old apricot tart recipe. Score! Also, you can easily (er, lazily) serve this without turning out, if you want. Yes! Although serving the cake upside down does hide those mini fruit juice volcanoes which could develop while baking, not to mention display the fruits’ bright colors.
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Here are some remodeling resources, divided into organizations and books. It’s too early for me to lay down nitty-gritty advice on how to screen and handle designers and contractors. That might be more appropriate for a post-construction entry — y’know, after going through the experience? 🙂 Then again, I might omit much of that aspect simply out of privacy concerns. But hopefully some of the stuff here will point you in good directions.
If you have remodeling resources you like, please do share!
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After nearly a decade, we’ve decided it’s time. Time to rid ourselves of another eyesore in the house, the ill-conceived, strangely constructed-with-permits Backroom of Doom. But in reality this project is complex, because of how our place is arranged and our usage patterns. Thus it deserves a more honest title: the Big, Scary Remodel, including, but not limited to…
- The bloody backroom. Which means foundation work. Rapture!
- The outdated kitchen, which is not only attached to the bloody backroom, but has the ever common complaint of too little counter space in a crappily arranged area.
- Adding another bathroom. I don’t care what other people say, if there is more than 1 person living in a building, you need more than 1 bathroom.
- Removing the unused, space-hogging chimney. Don’t need it, don’t want it, get rid of it.
- A new roof. Something more energy-efficient, long-lasting, less prone to damage, yet easy to repair if needed. I hear lifetime composite might be in my future.
- A companion for the roof, along with the dream of (some) renewable energy production: solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. At the very least, have a roof well-constructed to take solar in the future, if we cannot do it during this project.
- Central heating, maybe. Did I mention that this house is old enough to lack central heating? It still does.
- Electrical upgrades, as well as fixes to obsolete wiring in which past electricians had failed.
- Too many new appliances.
- Sound-proofing, where feasible.
- Exterior paint. I grow weary of off-white. Death to beige!
- Doing the above in as green a manner as possible, where affordable.
- A dragon. Why ask for a pony when a dragon more appropriately suits one’s needs? Especially a fire-beathing one who’ll intimidate those who might damage our precious garden without a care in the world.
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Yesterday I harvested the last of the fava beans (a.k.a., broad beans). This task reminded me of something: that I haven’t posted a recipe where said legume is the main ingredient.
I’ve long been inspired by an appetizer, foul moukala, that we had at a Lebanese restaurant, Al Waha — all the way in Bayswater, London. Their version is much richer (a lot more olive oil), and included chopped cilantro.
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Fine, three articles in a row on garden plants. And over a month since my last post — I’ve been busy with starting the multifarious, multistep process of starting our big remodeling project, a.k.a., the Replacement of the Ugly Backroom and Kitchen et al. So it goes.
Nevertheless, the spring wildflowers are coming to an end — but they’re going out with a blast of Clarkia! There are very few of the Showy Farewell to Spring (Clarkia bottae), the pale pink ones with white centers which I often see in the foothills.
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I continue to be amazed by the wildflowers in our garden. I had low hopes, since the last time we tried wildflower mixes — which was, oh, six to eight years ago in the front yard and parking strip — all we got were Calpops. Those are nice of course, but they’re rather short-lived, and somewhat boring when they’re the only flowers.
Anyhow, as April progresses, more and more flowers are popping up in the backyard. While the fivespot remains comparatively shy, I’ve seen over half a dozen individual plants. Whoa.
The fivespots seem to prefer sunny borders. Field view of a mound (single plant).
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Some say it’s April showers that get the flowers going, but here in sunny, rainfall-challenged California, things pop out about a month (or more) earlier. Even though March had its typical paucity of precipitation, the single hailstorm — complete with rain and wind — had occurred right at the peak of apricot blossoms. (Indeed, I feared this year’s apricot harvest would be a loss. Mais non! Since last week I’ve seen eetsy fruitlets on the tree. Whew. For a visual example, check out my 2007 entry.)
But the point of today’s post is to record the first results of the wildflower seeds Simon sowed in the backyard at the end of December. I had went wild and bought several annual mixes from Larner Seeds, who specialize in native Californian plants.
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[I nearly forgot about this article, so with winter is coming to a close here in California…] Gratins are an excellent merging of comfort food and decadence. I mean, what do you do with leftover winter squash or root vegetables? Add cheese! Add cream! Bake until bubbly!
Members of the onion family, such as leeks and shallots, pair well with and add an aromatic dimension to dishes with starchy veg. What else is there to do? Would it overcomplicate things to top it all with nuts? Oh, no, not at all. But it is optional, if you wish.
Winter squash gratin with leeks, topped with panko and almonds.
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