Gadzooks

I've kind of been chuckling at all of the photos of zucchini that people are posting on Facebook... it's that time of year when, if you turn your back for a moment, all of a sudden you're knee-deep in summer squash. I think there are worse problems to have, personally, but these plants can easily overwhelm you with food if you don't have a plan.

We eat as much of it as we can as it comes in. I think the easiest way to make them is to just cut them in half, brush them with some olive oil, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, and then toss them on the grill. Cut side down first, and then flip them over... it takes maybe 5 minutes total to cook them, depending on how big they are. Take them off the grill when they're just tender, grate on a little parmesan (or hard cheese of your choice- I also like romano or asiago) and serve. Tasty!

It just keeps coming!

My go-to for dispatching large piles of zucchini is to break out the mandoline and the dehydrator. Slice the squash about 1/4 of an inch thick, and arrange them on they dehydrator tray so that they're just barely touching each other, but only one layer thick. Let them dry until they start to crisp up; it takes about 12 hours or so, depending on the humidity where you are. I usually dry mine unseasoned for cooking, but my mom likes to eat the chips as a snack, so this year I'm going to try a seasoned batch to see how they turn out. 

Today, I've decided to take a stab at pickling some. Last week, I made a test batch of bread and butter pickles with some cucumbers I'd picked, based on a recipe from The Big Book of Preserving The Harvest, by Carol Costenbader and they turned out to be fantastic. So good, in fact, that now I want to see what happens with zucchini. That's another great thing about summer squash- if you experiment and don't like it, it's no big loss. So, keep an eye out for the post on that, next week. (It'll go in a jar today, and I'll give it three or four days to rest in the fridge before I try it...)

What do you do with all of your incoming zucchini?