When Life Gives You Zucchini (make cake!)

Aaaaaaahh.....zucchini. The brunt of all summer jokes about leaving zucchini in people's cars and such. I read an article in a recent issue of "Hobby Farms Home" magazine that was quite humorous about these garden monoliths that somehow become giants when you aren't looking. The author also had a few great ideas about what to do with the abundance of zucchini. The other day, Country Girl 1 was harvesting produce in the garden and we heard her say in the distance, "You don't want to see these zucchini." That was quickly followed by the yelps and cries of children and then an abundance of laughter by us all when we saw just how BIG they were! The picture above doesn't quite give the perspective on just how big it looks or is, but I'm sure you can imagine it.

So, what to do when life gives you zucchini?? And LOTS of it? Well, that is something that internet search engines sure can be helpful for! But I have been blessed to find quite a few winner recipes for these green beauties--even ones that my children will eat without necessarily knowing there are zucchini in it (shhhhh.....don't tell!)

I've made these zucchini fries (though they served more than 2) and they were pretty popular. And last week I grilled zucchini like this:


Last night we had a delicious dinner of Zucchini Garden Chowder (I purposely left out the name "zucchini" when telling my little children what was for dinner) and some Zucchini Yeast Rolls (again, following the above little rule). They were quite devoured. My Young Warrior, upon seeing the title of my post today, said it should say something like "The Not-So-Yummy-Zucchini Except in the Soup." Makes me laugh.





These recipes came from the "Simply in Season" cookbook, which is one of my very favorites for good recipes using local and in-season produce.

In addition, of course there is the standard zucchini bread which I am stocking in the freezer. And my friend gave me a great recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cake. What's that about cake? I did mention it in the title of this post. The picture doesn't quite do it justice....but oh yes, I've recently discovered a wonderful chocolate zucchini cake for all of you chocolate lovers! We've been making this one a lot lately too (it's also good for the freezer). And it's absolutely true that there's not even a hint of the taste of zucchini in it, yet it uses a fair quantity. Rich, moist chocolate cake---which is perfect with a little vanilla ice cream. This doesn't last long around here! I think next I'll try the zucchini brownies.

So, you see, zucchini can bring out the adventurous in our culinary skills. And I, for one, am enjoying it. I think my family is too--even those less-than-enthusiastic about zucchini. For who can pass up chocolate cake after all?