Zucchini

"What do I do with all this friggin' zucchini," is a question you may have asked yourself.. perhaps not...maybe you don't even know what a zucchini looks like! In late summer, these squashy behemoths are popping up everywhere and people have to come up with creative ways to get rid of it all! Personally, I love the stuff. I saute them with S and P in a little olive oil, or pop slices straight on the grill- But like I said- there is a ton of it... you need to find new ways to cook it. Here is one of my favourites.

Also, making his Blog debut, is Felix! He didn't help cook, or even eat. But, instead, he helped demonstrate how monster the Zucchini are.

Wicked awesome zucchini cake

1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cup chocolate chips
1t vanilla
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t salt
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (leave the skin on)

Put the stick of butter, and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips into a bowl and microwave for 1 minute (you can also do this on the stove.) Stir until the butter and chocolate chips are melted, and the mixture is nice and glossy. You may need to heat it a bit longer- do this in 15 second increments. Add the sugar, and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and eggs. Mix.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture. Stir just until mixed. Add the zucchini and remaining cup of chocolate chips.

Spread into a greased 9 -inch cake pan, or my persona favourite, 4-4-inch round springforms.

Put into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes (cake pan) or 35 (small springforms,) it is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Flip on to a cooling rack, and let it cool off a bit!

This is great with fresh fruit! the topping I made was,

1 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
1T maple syrup

Cook on the stove until boiling, Let it cool for a few minutes, then serve on top of a slice of cake. You should probably put whipped cream on it too. Thats what I just ate......for breakfast.

Pie!

So we have a massive rhubarb shrub in the yard. Seriously, this thing gets to be 8 feet tall in the summer. Right now it is a perfect height, with tender ruby colored stalks. Cousin Erika brought over a big basket of monster strawberries on my birthday, she had picked them only an hour before at Belluz Farm. If you have ever had a freshly piked strawberry, you will know how delicious they are. They come in all shapes and sizes, some are round, oval, pointy but none bigger than a half dollar. Take a bite and your fingers and mouth are stained bright berry red, by the sweetest and most delicious fruit the season has to offer...and that is the secret.. they are in season! These aren't the supermarket freaks, with all of the taste bred out of them so they would ship better, and who knows where these flavorless fruits originated anyways. The difference between fresh, local and seasonal vs year round grocery store fruit is like night and day.

I never even really liked strawberries. It's because I never had a real one before.

So with all of these delicious fruit what is a girl to do? The strawberries cant sit on a shelf for a week, you have about a day until they start to get soft. So I figured that the perfect solution would be a pie of course!

The problem is that I am a terrible pie maker. They are generally about as good as my cakes, which up until last week i hadn't succeeded in. But, I figured that since I managed to make that red velvet, I would give this another shot as well.




The main problem when it comes to pie is, of course, the crust. Im awful at it. Usually ill go grab one of those Pillsbury refrigerated shells, and were on our way! But since this pie was on a whim, I didn't have one on hand. But I followed a basic recipe, and had success!



The crust is the hard part, but not the fun part! the fun part is the pie filling!



I mixed 1 cup rhubarb, 3 cups berries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup corn starch, and a pinch of cinnamon.... well a few pinches.

After i poured it into the pie shell I put a few pats of butter on top, put on the top crust, did and egg wash, and voila! It was an ugly pie, but thats not really the point.




It was delicious!