Green Monsters

I warned you that it was zucchini season, didn't I? We currently have 10 zucchinis hogging precious real estate in our fridge. Two of them are enormous enough that we could get a game of wiffle ball going out back and the person on deck could have their own zucchini bat to swing around too.

I'm not really amped about backyard baseball though. I'm excited about chocolate cake. Actually, at the moment, I'm mourning my empty plate...but my taste buds are still busy quivering with joy and forgiving me for cutting anything dessert-like out of my life for five months.

A Piece of Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Fun fact: this cake, which just pulled into the lead on my all-time-favorite-cakes list, has 3 cups of zucchini in it. I'll admit I was highly skeptical when my mom announced she was making a chocolate zucchini cake with homemade cream cheese frosting earlier today. The pillow of cream cheese sounded like a winner, but why would you want to add three cups worth of vegetable to an otherwise perfectly good recipe for chocolate cake? Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables...but I like them mixed up in a salad, shoved into a pita, dipped in hummus, or neatly arranged next to my protein and my carbohydrate on my dinner plate.

It didn't take long for my vehement oppositions to change into feeble protests...and when the smell of rich dark chocolate started drifting up the stairs, all pretenses were dropped. I followed my nose into the kitchen and turned on the oven light just to make sure the cake wasn't green or anything suspicious like that. Fun fact: zucchini cake masquerades as a regular chocolate cake (only better). Zucchini is something like 95% water, meaning when it's combined with all the standard baking ingredients it loses its flavor altogether and makes for an incredibly moist cake batter. This is the kind of cake that makes you want to reach back in to rescue the crumbs that cascaded down when you cut your piece. This is the kind of cake that makes you want to run your finger along the edge of the base and lick it clean when nobody is looking.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Minus Some Slices

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe:
Serves 8 


Ingredients:
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
1/3 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk or sour cream
3 cups coarsely grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Instructions: 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt the chocolate and oil in a small saucepan over very low heat.
Cream the butter until light; add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Beat well. Add the melted chocolate and mix well.
Sift together the dry ingredients and stir them into the batter with the buttermilk.
Mix the zucchini and nuts into the batter.
Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
Divide the batter between pans.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cake completely before frosting with whipped cream or your favorite frosting.

Our Favorite Frosting Recipe: 


Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
4 cups confectioner's sugar

Instructions:
Cream together the butter and cream cheese until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until well-blended, using more sugar if necessary to get a spreading consistency.

As if chocolate cake wasn't exciting enough, today Mom and I also discovered a new kitchen appliance that isn't atrociously expensive (unlike the Breville toaster I'm itching to buy for my little condo back at school). A julienne peeler is such fun. It looks a lot like a vegetable peeler, only there's a sharp toothed blade that's ideal for cutting vegetables into skinny strips. Somehow, changing the appearance of even the most unexciting produce (i.e. the carrot) makes a world of difference when it comes to digging in.

Julienne Peeler, Source

With the Julienne peeler in hand, Mom found another easy but tasty recipe to add to my recipe book (only recipes that I can make with confidence and without 500 ingredients make the cut). Zucchini Slaw, from Sara Foster's Fresh Every Day: More Great Recipes from Foster's Market cookbook, is perfect picnic food. We ignored Foster's suggestions for dressings and piled grilled chicken strips (that had been marinated in Greek dressing) on top. This dish was wonderfully fresh, colorful, summery, and light. It also was awarded big points because the recipe itself didn't require any cooking and only took 10 minutes to pull together!

Zucchini Slaw Salad

Zucchini Slaw Recipe (doubles as instructions too):

Serves 4 to 6

2 medium zucchini, ends removed and cut into 2-inch julienne

2 yellow summer squash, ends removed and cut into 2-inch julienne

2 carrots, cut into 2-inch julienne

4 scallions, julienned (white and green parts)

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned (optional)

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Now...what to do with the other green monsters I can already see peeking out from under those comically large green leaves? Perhaps I'll make this zucchini and ricotta galette, this roasted zucchini pesto, this zucchini parmesan, this zucchini carrot cake, or these chocolate chip zucchini brownies. 

Maybe I should start keeping an eye out for cucumber recipes too...seeing as there's 15 of them cozying up to the bags of zucchini on the produce shelf. I'm a little worried I used up all my creativity on zucchini season...

One Bowl Dinner

Have I mentioned how much I love dinners at home?

Thinly sliced grilled pork tenderloin (pre-marinated in a mesquite barbeque sauce)
Rao's tri-colored and homemade farfalle (bow-tie) pasta
Stir-fried garlic scapes, mushrooms, eggplant, bok choy, snow peas, roasted red pepper (grilled outside first), broccoli, and zucchini
...all thrown into a big stir-fry pan and sprinkled with salt and pepper

This was hands down the best stir-fry I have ever had. The blend of fresh veggies, textured artisan pasta, and spicy circles of meat was to die for. All exaggeration aside - this dish was certainly worth risking a fork stab from Brother #3 in the sprint for seconds of pork tenderloin.

Mesquite BBQ Grilled Pork Tenderloin*

*Sad story sidenote: my photography skills aren't getting any better, even after three months of experimenting!

Last night involved a new food to add to my growing list: garlic scapes. A garlic scape is the light green curling stalk of a hardneck garlic plant. While the "real" garlic bulbs grow below, the tender stem (if cut early enough) offers a nice mellow garlic flavor to add a little something to any number of recipes. Mom harvested our garlic scapes right out of the the garden and let me play photographer for a minute before she sliced them up.

Quick Morning Harvest, with Garlic Scapes

Bicycle Garlic Scapes!

Tonight was what we call a "one bowl dinner." Much to my delight, the saucepan just got more and more full as the 6 o'clock hour drew nearer.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

And as always, a side-by-side (except not really, because I can't figure out how to get Blogger to let me do this) view of Brother #3's plate and my bowl.

Brother #3's...Mess

My Bowl

Zuke Season

Tonight's dinner menu: Baked mahi mahi garnished with Tex-Mex zucchini and zucchini ribbons, grilled zucchini, zucchini pie, and thyme garlic hasselback potatoes (fun fact: minus the olive oil, we grew all the ingredients this recipe called for!).

Dinner (On Biking Plastic Plate)

Which of these things is not like the other? Perhaps it's these adorable potatoes?

Thyme Garlic Hasselback Potatoes

Zucchini season is in full swing around here. Since this is one of my favorite vegetables, I hardly blink an eye when Mom unloads yet another basket brimming with zucchini from the garden. Dad, on the other hand, is starting to get a little sick of the green stuff...so we've been on the lookout for recipes with clever ways to use up our most bountiful ingredient (including a few baseball bats neglected zucchinis).

Garden Zucchinis

All three zucchini dishes for tonight received a thumb's up. The red-hot tex-mex zucchini that we used as a garnish was actually leftover from a side dish we didn't quite use up last night, the grilled zucchini slices are always a big hit, and the zucchini pie was surprisingly good (I am not a pie person but I loved this). My mom tells me it was more like a quiche than a pie...either way, it was wonderfully creamy and full of flavor.

Tex-Mex Zucchini Recipe
(adapted from FamilyCircle's Quick and Easy Recipes)

Mahi Mahi with Tex-Mex Zucchini and Ribboned Zucchini Garnish

Ingredients:
(8 servings)
4 slices of bacon (we didn't have any on hand so we omitted this...but I bet it would be delicious!)
6 medium zucchini, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1/4 teaspoon of ground red cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cup of salsa (we mixed 3 different kinds: one medium, one very hot, one with corn and black beans)
1 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (we decided we wished we had left this out)

Directions:
If you're going to use bacon, start by cooking the bacon in a skillet until crisp.
Add the zucchinis, all spices, and salsa.
Cook for 15 minutes.
Add 1 cup of the cheese and stir.
Cook for an additional minute.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Grilled Zucchini Recipe
Too few ingredients and instructions to making filling out a "recipe card" worthwhile.

Grilled Zucchini

Zucchini Pie Recipe*
(adapted from Sandra Garson's How To Fix A Leek cookbook)

Zucchini Pie, Minus 1 Piece

Ingredients: 
(8 servings)
4 cups of cubed zucchini
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1/4 teaspoon of iodized salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup of corn oil
1 teaspoon of dried oregano leaves
1 cup Bisquick (gasp! just close your eyes and do it)
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heavily butter or oil a deep-dish 9-inch pie plate or square baking dish.
Mix everything together in a large bowl and pour it into the greased pan.
Bake for one hour at 350 degrees F, or less if using a convection oven.
Serve warm with roasted meat or grilled fish, or as a lunch entree with crusty bread and a tomato salad.
Can be reheated in a microwave.
*This is Sandra's most requested recipe ever, even though it calls for Bisquick (a pre-mixed baking product with a terrifying ingredient list).

I've seen bookmarked recipes for zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini herb cornbread, zucchini slaw, zucchini curry, zucchini ribbon salad, zucchini bread, zucchini casserole, chocolate zucchini muffins, zucchini spaghetti, crispy baked zucchini fries, and sweet zucchini pancakes. I have to say it makes me wonder...will I still be so gung-ho about zucchini two weeks from now?

Growing Gold

Despite repeat invasions from one very fat (and single-minded) groundhog, the vegetable garden's bounty has been wonderful this summer: French zucchini, several different types of lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, garlic, kale, Swiss chard, golden beets, red beets, scallions, radishes, and all kinds of spices (dill, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley, mint, chives, sage, etc.).

Zucchini (Not Quite There Yet)

Teeny Tiny Eggplant!

Cucumber! (So Close)

Pole Beans!

Golden Beet, Breaking the Surface

Tomatoes! (Unripe)

Empire Apples! (Unripe)

Blueberries! (Unripe)

Obviously it's still too early for a lot of our garden produce, but it's just the right time for potatoes! Mom planted her Yukon gold potatoes in early May, and now we have dozens of little golden gems nestled in the soil away from prying eyes.

Potato in the Ground!

Garden Harvest (Dirty)

Garden Harvest (Clean)

Being sent out to the garden to snip a sprig of parsley or cut off a chive stalk feels distinctly like a chore, but going out to the garden to gather potatoes is actually fun. It truly feels like a harvest! Think of hunting for Easter eggs...only the resulting treasures aren't full of quarters and jelly beans. The potatoes grow in between the roots and can be found just by brushing away the topsoil. Now we've collected enough to start thinking about potato recipes! I'm thinking boiled with herbs and butter, mashed with garlic, roasted with rosemary...or maybe even chopped up in an omelet.

Tiny Potatoes, Perfect for Omelets

A Breakfast Place

Classic. Cozy. Comfortable. Cheerful. Creative. Clean.

We officially have a breakfast place. While we have many heavily creased, liberally stained, and partially ripped menus cluttering up the first floor from our favorite delis, bakeries, gourmet restaurants, holes-in-the-wall, lobster shacks, pizza kitchens, artisan bread makers, and steakhouses in our area, we were seriously lacking a go-to breakfast spot that truly has something for everyone (No Dad, Bernie's Place next to Hannaford doesn't count).

The Portland Harbor Hotel Logo

This morning, Brother #3 and I treated Mom and Dad to breakfast at The Portland Harbor Hotel. Located in the heart of downtown Portland (just a block or two away from the water), this note-worthy spot received a figurative 5 stars from each of us. 5 stars across the board...from four of Maine's most critical customers. We like our water glasses topped off regularly, our coffee hot, our servers discrete (yet full of personality), and our food cooked just right. We love dining out just as much as we love talking about the overall experience from place to place. 

At Eve's restaurant tucked inside the aforementioned hotel (which was beautifully decorated with subtle nautical accents), only our inner nitpickers were disappointed. There was simply nothing that could have been done better. The atmosphere was lovely, the service was phenomenal, and the food was outstanding.

The Inviting Waiting Area

Our Table - A Well-Lit and Cozy Half Booth  

A Single Fresh Flower, for Madame

Dad's French Toast for Father's Day

Brother #3's Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Mom's Remarkably Unphotogenic Egg-White, Spinach, and Lobster Omelet

My 2 Egg Pepper, Onion, and Cheddar Cheese Omelet

Admission: I'm still very self-conscious about taking photos of food in restaurants...which explains why each plate only gets one shot (regardless of how horribly the resulting image fails at doing justice to the chef's creation). The photoshoot usually occurs at warp speed to placate hungry family members who have been instructed not to dig in until their entrees have been immortalized...and before the waiter returns to see if he/she can get us anything else.

I can't speak for the pancakes, the French toast, or the lobster omelet, but my omelet surpassed all of my expectations (and set an awfully high bar for future omelet-eating). It was chock full of tiny red peppers and slivers of onion, with just enough cheddar cheese to add (and not overwhelm) the rest of the dish. Thick slices of marbled rye (toasted with butter) added a nice crispy crunch to top off a perfect choice.

We will surely brave Portland's "rush hour" (which is little more than a tap on the brakes compared to the stop-and-go traffic heading into Boston at 8am on any given weekday) to return to this hotel again. I'm eager to take a peek at their lunch and dinner menus...hopefully we will be back when it will be warm enough to dine outside in the garden!

Exceptional Cuisine, Outside



Pretty Patio




Fountain, Roses, Trellis



Shaded Table



Touches of Tranquility



Simply Scrumptious Salads

Around here, summer's arrival is marked by increasingly frequent trips to the garden to snip fresh produce and herbs to spice up our cooking. Although it's still a little early to truly begin harvesting much of anything, Mom's garden has already sprouted handfuls of flavor to add to our nightly salads.

Family Sized Salad on Crate and Barrel's To-Go Folding Side Table

For some reason, I love making salads. Even though it can be terribly time-consuming (last night I was glued to the cutting board for 45+ minutes), I get the same sort of satisfaction from filling a big wooden bowl with neatly chopped colors that I do from folding and putting away a pile of laundry. Or from running around the vaccuum a few times. Or from writing down things that I've already done on my to-do list just so I can cross them out. Or from re-arranging my desk. Ah, I'm working on it. 

Last night's salad* featured the following:

Iceburg Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Romaine Hearts
Watercress

Red Pepper
Organic Carrots
Radishes
Cucumber
Celery

Salted Almonds + Cashews (delicious toasted if you have the time!)
Dried Cranberries
Crispy Wonton Wrappers (stir-fried in olive oil & crushed into small crouton-esque pieces)

Sage
Parsley
Chives
Lemon Thyme

With Zoom!

*Although this salad was quite tasty, my favorite salads incorporate spinach lettuce, carmelized walnuts (try them - they taste like candy!), lightly drizzled parmesan peppercorn dressing, and homemade croutons (try stir-frying the ends of an old loaf of bread in olive oil with pepper & garlic salt).

Often we leave our big family-style salad dry so everyone can choose their own dressings (and add contested ingredients like pieces of hard boiled eggs, bacon bits, olives, etc.)...and so Brother #3 can mix in pasta with sauce and top it off with Thousand Island dressing to his heart's content. It probably comes as no surprise but I get very unhappy when the different parts of my meal touch!

Brother #3's Colorful & Chaotic Plate** 

**Please excuse the suspiciously slimy looking bacon-cheddar-jalapeno hamburger, the glare from the granite countertop, and the reflection off of the fork and spoon. Brother #2 - hurry home so you can teach me how to camouflage my status as an amateur photographer!

Last night I sliced up some leftover grilled BBQ chicken and sprinkled Emeril's BAM IT! salad seasoning on my individual salad. The pre-mixed spice (of garlic, salt, sesame, poppy seed, parmesan cheese, paprika, celery seed, and black pepper) served as a delicious and healthy alternative to a salad spritzer or dressing - although I did wake up this morning with a particularly brutal case of garlic breath.

My Salad (Terrible Lighting Thrown in for Free)

A Medley of Flavor and Crunch from Emeril