all in the family (cucurbitaceae)

technically, cucumbers are in the same family as squash, cucurbitaceae (and are therefore fruits, though i don't know that i'll be turning them into dessert anytime soon). last night, as the zucchini bread baked, i decided it was time to make pickles. yeah, it was an odd mesh of aromas in the kitchen.

like their counterparts in the garden, our cucumbers are taking off and are quite large. the recipe i found called for about two pounds and made a few jars of crunchy bread and butter pickles - my favorite. i was happy to find a recipe that used cider vinegar, because we prefer it over white vinegar - so much more flavor.

an onion or two, some sugar, salt, turmeric, and mustard seeds and then, with just a little time - pickles.

it was amazingly simple, and they tasted so much better than store-bought. we've got two strong cucumber plants going in the garden. a third is quite a bit smaller, but may still produce. i imagine we'll be eating and making more pickles in the near future, adding fresh cucumbers into salads, force-feeding ourselves, and giving some away.

courgettes continued

courgette is another name for zucchini. sounds like corvette, which makes me think of the zucchini 500 races they sometimes have for kids at local farmers markets and fairs.

another night of zucchini usage. alright, i'm not going to lie...it's been two nights in a row of experimenting with the sweeter side of squash. on tuesday, we plucked a yellow zucchini about the length of my fingertips to my elbow (though, significantly more girthy). it has since yielded nearly 8 cups of grated zucchini. so what better than to make zucchini bread, right? let me just add that wikipedia backs this up:

"...botanically speaking, the zucchini is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower." hmm. that was potentially too much information, but it lends credence to my baking endeavors.

made a few minor adjustments to a recipe i found online - namely, my trademark substitution of some whole wheat pastry flour for regular white flour (i know, as if it's not bad of me for already trying to jam squash into a dessert). i thought about adding in some ground flaxseeds, but withheld the urge, and instead added cocoa, chocolate chips, and dried figs to one batch; dried cherries and walnuts to another.

since we still had some of the same squash leftover, i went for it again tonight. made the chocolaty batch in the form of muffins, and topped them with a simple glaze (powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla).

all in all, the sweet experimentation has been positive. with a couple loaves in the freezer, we'll be able to enjoy this later in the season when the zucchini in the garden is long gone. then we might even miss it. maybe.

zucchini, again?!

that's the edited exclamatory remark i've been getting from my other half when it comes to meal times. i can't help it - the drive to utilize the remarkably large zucchini in the garden - it's like a personal challenge for how creative one can get with squash.

to date, we've grilled it in sandwiches a couple of times. tossed it and other grilled veggies in quinoa. turned it into dessert through the magic of zucchini-chocolate chip cookies. last night we experimented once again. a dinner of pasta w/homemade pesto (herbs courtesy of the lopez farmers market) and what i'm calling a cross between lasagna and eggplant parm.

inspired by another jamie oliver recipe, i layered grilled zucchini slices (uniformly made with help from a newly purchased mandolin - i can see myself using this tool quite a bit!) with some quickly homemade sauce, ricotta and pecorino romano. then topped it off with a generous amount of fresh breadcrumbs and a little more cheese.

after a few minutes under the broiler, we determined it to be an excellent use of this excessive vegetable. the end product was a nice partner to the pesto pasta. is this the last you'll see of squash? unlikely. we may test out a zucchini bread recipe tonight...stay tuned.

the lopez wave

over the weekend we spent some quality time on lopez island up in the san juans with a handful of friends. enjoyed some really beautiful sunrises and sunsets, delicious local foods, and the warm and inviting atmosphere that is lopez. we love the fact that drivers wave while going past another vehicle.

a few photos of the natural beauty and the farmers market scene:

view from the ferry, headed toward lopez
sunrise w/mt. baker
heirloom tomatoes, some the size of pumpkins!
garlic (we bought several heads to plant next month)
wood-fired pizza vendor - everything looked so fresh

hope to make our way back up to the islands in the near future. thanks, laura, for the great time!

savoring squash, part one

so we've been eating loads of squash. so much so that brian nearly requested i stop sneaking it into things. as evidenced by this photo, some of the zucchini is growing at an explosive rate. this lovely image of gus and company is from friday evening. we've since managed to eat about half of this zucchini - over the course of at least 4 meals.

but it's been fun trying to figure out what to do with the abundance. we've grilled it and made sandwiches with onions, radishes, goat cheese and rosemary. grilled some more of it to go with some fresh pasta and lamb meatballs.

and tonight, i managed to incorporate it into dinner and dessert. (no, i did not make zucchini ice cream). i'll share more in part two of this squash story.

it's getting late, and i'm getting terrible at uploading photos as i take them, so forgive me. we've been so distracted by the olympics, notably the michael phelps phenomenon...

in other news (and on a food-related note), we're headed to one of our favorite restaurants tomorrow, osteria la spiga, to celebrate our second year of married life. we're secretly hoping we don't run into any squash on the menu. (squash blossoms...maybe).

canada photos

this has nothing to do with the garden, but i did say i'd post some. a few of my photos below. see some of brian's on his website...

moraine lake sunrise, banff national park

lake o'hara cabins, yoho national park

takkakaw falls, yoho national park

peyto lake, banff national park















(below) somewhere beautiful in the lake o'hara region of yoho np (near obabin plateau)

oh canada

just back from nearly a week of camping in the beautiful canadian rockies. spent several days in banff, jasper, and yoho national parks (will try and post a photo soon!).

did not get the best nutritional intake at our campsites. meals consisted of dehydrated and processed foods. but, at nearby campsites, we were surrounded by european and canadian families cooking out of their campers and rvs. our last night in yoho, the german family next to us cooked a whole salmon over a fire, made a cold pasta salad with a bunch of fresh veggies, and roasted peaches over the fire, then served them with ice cream. we were quite jealous.

granted, brian pointed out, that you can do a lot more with a full kitchen (we were camping in a teeny tent, and our little stove broke mid-week, until we picked a new one up in banff). still, the contrast reminded me of what seems to be a major difference in the way people around the world view food and mealtimes. seeing the families really savor not just the act of eating the food, but also the preparation, was a nice gentle reminder that we should do the same.

and so, as we return to our garden and kitchen at home, we look forward to really creating meals, and spending time doing so. we're also quite excited to participate in the first ever mercer island farmers market this sunday!!

meals from the garden

the past couple weeks have inspired some culinary creativity. with only the occasional trip to the grocery store, we've primarily been using what we have in the cupboards and garden. perhaps economic downturn isn't such a bad thing...but that's another discussion. wait a sec, though, while i have you reading.

back in the day, during world wars 1 and 2, nearly 20 million americans grew their own food in what were called victory gardens - i suppose in today's rhetoric, we might call them "freedom fields" or enlist some other form of patriotic poetry. but enough with the semi-unwarranted sarcasm. i just wanted to integrate some historical context into present day political and economic discussions.

moving on to the heart of this post - cooking meals from the garden. chard, carrots, summer squash, fresh herbs, onions, and radishes have been finding their way into dinner time at the schwartzes.

last week we made a hearty vegetable soup. we had some help from the pantry on the soup - chicken stock, canned tomatoes and beans, and a potato. from the garden, we added carrots and tons of chard. one of our kitties, jackson, seemed to enjoy:
another dinner found us enjoying some roasted summer squash, carrots, and salmon alongside chard sauteed with butter and parm (they seem to make everything taste good). rounded out the meal with a bottle of washington riesling. yes, the whole bottle.
we jammed yet more chard, green and gold zucchini, italian parsley, rosemary, basil, and red onions into a frittata made with local eggs, topped with tillamook sharp cheddar and some parm. i love eggs for dinner - so easy. with all the veggies it turned into a surprisingly filling meal - with bread, of course. and the spicy crunch of some french breakfast radishes.

lastly, dessert. while none of the items in a fruit crisp we put together last night were from the garden, the peaches and nectarines were from central wa. the raspberries were from grandma doris' yard in beacon hill - she blessed us with two yogurt tubs full of them. sitting in our freezer now, we'll likely put the remainder to use in some homemade ice cream later this summer.

anyway, we love crisps. easier than pies and tarts (at least in our view), the buttery, crumbly topping is so good, they're kind of a stand by. we're growing some rhubarb and huckleberries that will probably find their way into a baking dish once they mature. we enjoyed the peach/nectarine/raspberry crisp with some vanilla ice cream in the company of our family. nephew luca managed to come up to each of us asking for more.

when it rains, it's sure to pour

thank goodness for the rain. granted, it's not so much fun to walk through in the middle of summer, but you have to admit, it's pretty darn refreshing. it clears the air, feeds the plants, and most importantly, it fills our rain barrels. (well, alright, maybe not "most importantly.")

a couple months back, we decided to invest in a pair of 55-gallon rain barrels. i'd done some research online, and the whole process seemed easy enough. you cut short your downspout, place a connector in, and guide it to rest on the rain barrel. the rain hits your roof, goes through the downspout and into the rain barrel, creating a storage place for rainwater. we bought our barrels through seattle rain barrels - essentially a guy living in madrona converting old olive barrels from greece into rain water barrels. we picked up our barrels and had a good chat with tom, an eclectic guy whom i'm sure we'll see again, as we've thought about purchasing more barrels for a couple other downspouts.

since we bought these red beauties, it's rained maybe 2 or 3 times. the first time was a thunderstorm. it took about 5 minutes for the 2 barrels to fill completely. we've gotten so much use out of that rainfall that we have barely needed to tap into the city line to water the garden. it's been great!

but then we ran into several weeks of 80 degree weather...until now, that is. yesterday's rain replenished the barrels a good amount. it's funny how you think of rain in a different light. we'd normally be praying for sunshine, but in the context of gardening, you see rain as a necessity; a nice rest from nightly watering; and a source of life.