Monday, July 25, 2011

Zucchini and Compost and Buggies, Oh My!

It's "clean out the fridge" week here at A4S Headquarters. Along with the White Bean & Cabbage recipe I posted in the previous post, I also made Zucchini Pancakes. I thought it would be a weird combination, but it didn't really matter to me. It turns out, since both recipes were seasoned with thyme, they kind of tied together nicely. I am sure it's been said before, but Z boy will eat anything if it's made into a pancake.

  • 2 medium zucchini
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed

  • 1. Shred the zucchini and onion on the large holes of a box grater or in a food processor with the shredding disk. Place the shredded vegetables in a colander in the sink and sprinkle with the salt. Toss to combine. Let drain for 30 minutes, then pick up by the handful and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Place on a kitchen towel or double layer of paper towels.

  • 2. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, garlic, cheese, herbs, lemon zest, and pepper. Beat well with a fork. Add the drained zucchini mixture and mix together. Sprinkle the flour and baking powder on top and mix with a fork just until well combined.

  • 3. Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a wide, heavy pan. When the oil is hot, drop the batter into the pan by heaping tablespoonful. Cook for about three minutes on the first side, until nicely browned. Flip and cook for about two minutes more. Place the cooked pancakes on a paper towel-lined plate and repeat with the remaining oil and batter. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt, sour cream, tzatziki or applesauce.

I love sour cream, but didn't have any on hand, so I just added some lemon juice to plain Greek yogurt and called it a day. It was a nice topping for them, I thought. I also think it would be yummy to put both sour cream and applesauce on them, as I do with potato pancakes.

I also wanted to mention a website that my husband found for me that acts as a sort of database for recipes found on different blogs and such. It's cool because you can type in the ingredients you have on hand and get ideas. You can quickly see the ingredients required so you know whether to bother clicking on the link, so once I saw a recipe that included cabbage and other ingredients that I had, I was in business. That's how I found that recipe. The other cool thing is that you can also list foods that you do not like, and it won't include recipes containing those. So, while I can't choose "vegetarian," I can at least say I don't want recipes with beef, pork, chicken, et al. Check it out!


Composting has been going pretty well. Mr. A4S actually kind of took that baby in and made it his own. He's growing tired of the setup, however, because we end up with SO MANY food scraps now that we've increased our fruit and veggie consumption. We were eyeing a tumbler at BJ's Wholesale Club in the beginning of the season, but wanted to make sure it was a solid investment and something we would keep up with. We decided to go see if they still had any in stock, and they did...for $20 less than they were a couple months ago. Hopefully it will make his life a lot easier, because he's a huge help! It should also get us more compost in less time, which will be nice as we try to expand the garden.

Thanks to a friend of mine with several years of gardening experience under her belt, I purchased neem oil to keep my garden organic, but work on the bug problem. What a lifesaver! I noticed the change immediately and I'm so grateful to have someone to help with these problems! Unfortunately, she's now having groundhog problems in her garden, so I'm sad for her.

It's been very hot, so my lettuce is done for now, and I'll plant more in the Fall. I had some great salads with it, though! And I was lucky enough to receive canning supplies for my birthday, so I can start working toward my canning goal as well. I hope to make fruit preserves and tons of basil pesto!


1 comment:

  1. I love canning jam! I used a different pectin this time and really liked it, I think it was more natural and you didn't have to use sugar.
    Do you watch the amount of "brown" material in your compost? We have plenty of "green" but not enough brown...

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