What to do with a crap ton of zucchini

This is not a cooking blog.  There are plenty of those (see links to the right.)  However, this is a time of plenty.  And I hate waste.  And I know you have some zucchinis in your garden that managed to evade your sharp eyes and grow into monstrous proportions.

First let's set aside any notion of zucchini bread.  Zucchini bread, while tasty, is a bit lame.  There are much better breads/cakes and the zucchini bread is simply a vehicle for zucchini disposal and delivery of sugar, wheat & butter.  Despite the sheen of health provided by the zucchini it isn't actually good for you.  More to the point, it hides the amazing vegetable and the staff here at Wayward Princess are huge fans of zucchini.  Huge fans of huge zucchini in fact!

So what are you going to do with all that zucchini?  You could nervously avoid making eye contact until the weather changes and your zucchini patch turns into its own compost.  But that is a cop out and you know it.

Hopefully you have a Cuisinart with the grating attachment or a big box grater and beefy forearms.  'Cause you are going to need to grate that zucchini.  Gargantuan zucchini really must be grated.  The texture of giant zucchini is rather ho-hum and the taste of the big 'uns gets a bit thin.  You can still cut them up into sticks for dipping into hummus (or other dip of your choosing), but it is an uninspired dip stick and won't make much of a dent when you need to burn through pounds of zucchini.

So a few very basic ideas and starting points are below.  For recipes I suggest you search the world wide web.  Some of my favorite starting points are, as mentioned above, to the right.  If there is an idea below that grabs you I'm happy to send you more details on how I go about it.

• Soup:  Toss cups and cups of shredded zucchini into most any vegetable soup.  
• Minestrone-types would take to this easily
• I like to add it to split pea soup, especially curried yellow split pea soup.

• Cook it down with onions and toss into almost any vegetable, rice, pasta, soup, frittata, etc. dish.  
• Take an onion or two, slice 'em up, toss into a large pan or pot with some neutral oil and caramelize them.  Or if you lack the patience for caramelizing, cook until you run out of patience.  
• Add cups and cups and cups and cups (you almost can't add too much) and cook down until the pile looks smaller and some of the moisture has evaporated.  You could add some salt too.
• Add spices and such (or not) that would go with whatever you are adding the zukes to and then add to your dinner, lunch, breakfast.
• My favorite application:  Disappearing zucchini rice.
• Take a cup or so of slightly undercooked.  Crack and egg or two into the rice and stir until rice is coated.  If your rice is hot, stir quickly after cracking to avoid fried egg rice.  
• Add oregano and thyme to the zuke concoction.  Salt and pepper are good at this point too.
• Add rice to zuke concoction.  Stir on heat until rice has absorbed some of the zucchini juice and is totally done.  Season to taste.  
• End result is a savory rice that is many parts zucchini to one part rice but seems more like many parts rice to one part zucchini.  The egg beefs it up a bit and is totally optional.  You can also do it with pasta like orzo.

• Fritters!  You don't really need me to tell you that one.
• Make sure to set salted, grated zucchini in a colander for a while to let some of the moisture weep out.
• A guy at the farmers' market said he makes his part 'tater and part zuke.
• The Kitchn has a recipe for carrot zucchini fritters.
• I also randomly found a zucchini banana fritter recipe, though I have not even read through the blog post so beware.
• I'm guessing you could find a recipe for just about any zucchini fritter variation you could fathom.  Except chocolate zucchini fritters.  I looked.  Chocolate zucchini muffins, bread, etc. but no fritter variety.
• Pasta?  I've never done it myself but I have heard some rave reviews.  I've also heard some bleh reviews.  Go forth and report back thy findings!
• Freezer.  Have you still a pile of zukes gathering pitchforks and beating on your doors?  Grate the suckers and put 'em in freezer bags.  I suggest 3 or 4 cups per bag as it may be hard to dole out single portion after freezing.

Self Image

How you see yourself is really important.

Right now I'm in this strange place where I recognize that I'm way healthier, feeling really strong, really happy and overall doing great.  But I feel fat.  I am decidedly larger than I've ever been as evidenced by my shirts being tight in the arms, bra too tight across my back, pants tight in the thighs and pinching at waist, the scale at the gym (!) and other such proof points.

But I know I'm doing well.  Pretty much everyone I see, particularly those I've not seen since feeling "better," spontaneously comment on how great I look.  Even my ballerina mother commented positively and this is a person for whom fat = stupid = ugly and whose threshold for "fat" is a body fat percentage higher than 12%.  (FYI, this borders dangerously low levels.)

So I know I'm healthy and part of me recognizes that I look good (it's hard to even type that!) but I feel so big, flabby, chubby, tubby, adjective-of-choice.  And I'm slow!  My running and biking are slower because I'm lugging around the equivalent of 2 gallons of water.

The doc says my body is in "collection mode."  Now that I can finally absorb all the vitamins, minerals and other things my body needs it is somewhat desperately sucking it all up and holding it all in.

I'm supposed to be patient.  She doesn't want me cutting out sugar or reducing calories or anything else.  So for now I'm going to keep eating healthy food, exercising, taking my minerals & vitamins, doing my yoga and focusing on how good I feel.  And secretly hoping that some of my new found poundage loses itself before our 100-mile bike ride mid-September!

I Want to Ride My Bicycle!

You may recall that I wasn't feeling too good there for a while.  But I'm doing much better now.  And it is summer.  And I'm having all sorts of bicycle adventures.  

Christopher pausing in the shade

A few weeks ago we did one of my favorite rides starting out in the Hillsboro-ish area.  It was a nice 44 mile ride with easy rollers through farmlands.  It was a little on the hot side (102!) but we started early enough that we didn't get toasted.

The next weekend were in Bend and did a pre-breakfast 42 miles with some slightly more serious hills (2K of climbing total) on tops of a bit of elevation.  We managed to work in a pit stop at the home of some friends and that was nice.  We also saw cows and I always like that.  And donkeys.  Donkeys make my day any day!

Who doesn't like a nice lil' donkey?

And then last weekend.  For some reason we decided to increase our mileage by 25% and throw in three killer climbs.  But it was a very beautiful set of climbs in & around Skyline with more of that lovely farmland as the backdrop.  At the end of the day my fun lil' GPS app pegged us at 6,700ish ft of climbing.  That'll earn a girl her cake!

Along the way we picked up a stray.  I recognized a kindred spirit when I saw him munching blackberries.  He isn't from Portland, was asking some direction questions and then ended up tagging along with us for our ride.  

The stray came in handy when we got to the "road closed" section.  Signs mentioned "Road Closed at Bridge."  I didn't recall a bridge on the route so assumed it was after we made our next turn.  And if it wasn't we would probably be able to go through on bikes.  It was probably that vague "utility work" or new chip seal or something.

But when they said "Road Closed" they were for serious.  The bridge was gone, the road totally chewed up, tractors strewn about and there was even barbed wire.  We had just spent a couple of miles descending a fairly steep slope though and I wasn't down for trying to re-route our rural course with such serious hills looming around us.  

We were undeterred!

So we fire-brigaded the bikes across.  I held bikes while our stray (Eric) and my Christopher got one bike down the hill, across the creek, up the hill, over the barbed wire, through the construction mess, over some more barbed wire, through some more construction mess, etc.  And we made it through.  With no barbed wire snags!  Eric, however, encountered a cow patty.  His shoe cleat was...  "gummed up" shall we say?  And then he used his finger to clear it... ewwwwwww....  I did NOT share my trail mix with him afterwards.

Horsies at the end of Skyline

Bye for now

Weddings!

Like many 30-somethings I've been on the wedding circuit for a while.  Some seasons are a little hotter than others and this spring/summer was particularly "big."  Partially due to quantity (four), partially due to location (Baltimore, Portland, NYC, Portland) but mostly due to importance.  Two of the four weddings were for siblings and the NYC one was for my dearest friend in the universe.

I'll give a few highlights of each and then get to my favorite.

My bro and his bride before the ceremony

April.  Baltimore.  Brother.  I'd never met the bride!  She and my bro met last summer, got engaged in February, announced in March a date for April and then they moved to Tanzania in June.  As in East Africa Tanzania.  Big year for the guy!  The wedding was lovely, as they always are, but my favorite part of the wedding was seeing how happy my brother was.  Like a lot of little brothers he was, and is, a total booger on a reliable basis.  Like many of us flawed humans the degree of his boogerness has a direct correlation to his happiness.  Happy brother = nice brother.  Unhappy brother = jerk wad brother.  Since meeting his bride this brother has been so incredibly nice and thoughtful that I don't even recognize the boy!  Overall it was nearly a week of events morning, noon and night (hello pirate ship party!), responsibility, obligation and the inevitable family stress but was really a great week.

The groom awaiting the bride

May.  Portland.  Friend.  Ultra low key.  If it hadn't been for the enameled cast iron dutch oven we brought as a wedding present we would have ridden our bikes.  It was a simple reception/party at a cool venue near our home.  The bride and groom made almost all the food and the glasses and plates were all vintage and mismatched with 10 of this type, 8 of this other, etc from the groom's mother's extensive collection.  The food was amazing, the dancing way fun, and the bride and groom were both positively radiating happiness.

Portland brother's ceremony

July.  Portland.  Other brother.  A bewildered, overwhelmed and incredibly happy groom may have been the only sober man in the wedding party.  Yeah, it was that kind of wedding!  Rented suits collected the day of the big event were not those that had been fitted.  Bridesmaids were running to and fro with no evident intent.  No one was really sure what was supposed to happen when.  At the rehearsal dinner my Christopher barrel cooked chicken and tri-tip for 50 people.  I made five full cakes (three chocolate and two lemon) and two giant trays of marionberry crisp.  Best story of the weekend: A certain groomsman got so drunk the night of the wedding that he lost his room key, his wallet, his cell phone and his rented shoes.

Peas in a pod

And my favorite wedding...  Also July, but in NYC and a mere six days before the Portland brother's wedding.  The simple & amusing way to describe the wedding is:  Sunday 8:30am, a Jewish/Hindu wedding at a Quaker meeting house.  Shoulda made the NY Times wedding section by that alone.  It was, however, an amazing, beautiful wedding and I feel so honored that I was a witness and participant.

Beautiful beautiful Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea and her groom are extremely beautiful and wonderful souls.  The one works for the Broncs Public Defenders and the other the Criminal Justice Project.  The Quaker meeting house, with their long and consistent dedication to peace and justice, was extremely fitting.  I've mentioned to some that the ceremony was more than an hour and they shirk in horror, but the ceremony managed to blend the traditions of both cultures in a way that was very meaningful and significant.  Every moment was intentional and engaging.  A friend of ours was the officiant (a lay person but a Harvard Divinity School grad!), I read a poem, an aunt & uncle gave a Hindu blessing, brothers & a cousin brought in the chuppah, friends and family scattered in the crowd read the seven blessings, Sweet Pea's parents washed the groom's feet and the groom's father read a blessing.  It ended with an Irish blessing so all the bases were covered.  And the best part?  Five years ago I could never ever ever have imagined there would ever be another person worthy of her.  She is the most beautiful, brilliant, caring creature I know.  However, as I've gotten to know her husband I realize he radiates kindness and compassion.  Despite the clear surface differences of their flesh they are made of the same stuff and it was beautiful to witness.

Love
by Roy Croft

I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.

Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.

You have done it
By being yourself.

Definitions of Success

I've been thinking about "success" for a couple of months.  Late spring I was feeling fairly rotten and one of the disheartening cherries on top of it all was a bizarre foot problem that popped up out of nowhere.  I woke up one morning mid-April with an odd disjointed feeling in my left foot and by the end of the day I couldn't walk.  The next day I couldn't put any pressure on the foot.  The morning this all started was the day I flew to Baltimore for my brother's wedding and nearly a week of wedding doings.

A couple of days passed and the weirdo thing seemed to be getting better.  10 days after that first morning I went for an easy run.  It didn't feel great but it didn't get worse and sort of felt like it was loosening up.  Then in an instant a whole set of tendons called it quits.  Weeks went by while I couldn't walk - not even to and fro between conference rooms at work.  Even biking stressed my foot.  It slowly slowly slowly seemed to improve and I just iced iced iced and rested rested rested.  I din't even walk the few blocks to the grocery store.

One of the trails in Forest Park

Then came June 5.  First day of the Portland Trail Series.  A set of five trail races in Portland parks every other Tuesday for a couple of months in the summer.  A series I had been planning on since October.  I gave the hamstrings a little stretch, stepped up to the starting line and when they jangled the cow bell to get us started eased into my first jog in about six weeks. Up a big hill and tackled a 5ish mile run.

And I won!  By my definition of success at least.  It was so great to be able to run, even if I was super slow, even if I actually didn't run all the way up that giant hill.  As I was running I was fighting the ego that was chiding me about my slow pace, my place in the pack, comparing my run that day to other people, other runs - even my own other runs when I was "better."

And I thought about why I run.  It sure ain't to "win" in the conventional sense.  I'm faster than a lot of people, particularly those who don't run, but I'm way slower than a whole lot of people too.  I run because I love being in the forest.  It makes me feel good in my body and in my head, in the moment and for the rest of the day.  I love the kind of people I run with or encounter when I'm running.  It gets me out of my comfort zone.  And I really love the forest!

As I ran I thought about what that means outside running and what it means to "win."  At work is it a promotion or raise? A snappy title that will impress someone?  At home is it cable TV?  Three bathrooms?  I think it is more things like enjoying what I actually do all day at work, who I work with, do I have fun, etc but there is so much inertia around titles, promotions, raises it can be hard to remember what the pieces are that actually make you happy moment to moment.

Speedsters in the trail series got gift cards (and glory!) but I totally won.