Each year I have two primary and somewhat related problems.  I want to grow too many types of vegetables and I want to grow too many varieties.  As a result each summer I have too many vegetables.  Excess goes to friends, neighbors, and of course Second Harvest Food Bank. This year I really really tried not to overdo it.  But it's just so hard.

After much effort I was finally able to choose this year’s garden: Beans, Cucumber, Eggplant, Parsley, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Basil, and Tomatoes.  That's 2 herbs and 6 vegetables which is a pretty good number for the size of my garden.  Unfortunately, while I was able to restrain myself to one variety for the beans, cucumber, and parsley but for all of the other choices I ended up with more than one varietal, even basil!

You may not believe it, but this really is a shortened list from what I wanted to grow and from what I've grown in the past.  Left out are peppers, potatoes, corn and a few other herbs.  I've never grown potatoes before and I really wanted to try them but I just couldn't justify the space.  Looking over the list it looks like this summer we will have lots of interesting meals but before that happens I have to plant the seeds and let them grow.  Oh, and I have start scouting out for all of the appropriate recipes... let me know if you have any that will work with my upcomming garden bounty!

Fall has arrived here in California and the summer garden is slowly dying.  I recently, pulled out most of our summer garden - the cucumbers, zucchinis and green beans are all gone.  The eggplants and peppers will go this weekend.  About the only thing left is a few tomatoes that haven't decided if they are going to ripen this year or not.  I'm always a bit sad when the summer garden goes but I've been sick of cucumbers and zucchinis for a good two months now so I'm not really upset to see them gone.  Besides we still have a surplus of cucumbers in the fridge.  

The green beans, however, will be missed.  We grew tiny French haricot verts style green beans this year called Nickel.  They were exactly as haricot verts should be thin, relatively short, and very tender.  I can't wait to grow more next year.  As I pulled out the plants I picked the last bunch of beans which meant I had a small amount of green beans to cook into the final summer vegetable garden meal.  I made the easiest of all green bean dishes - mix some oil, salt and pepper with green beans place on a hot baking pan and cook 20 minutes.  Viola! Roasted green beans.  Yummy.  To bad it’s the end of the summer garden.

But summer leads to fall and that means it's time for the winter garden.  Not being a native Californian it has taken me several years to learn how to winter garden.   I think my biggest problem, initially, was starting too soon - it seems in gardening the early bird doesn't always get the worm - you have to wait for the weather to cool some or the winter plants bake in the lingering summer heat.  Last year was my first moderately successful winter garden with a rather large harvest of Onions and a few heads of garlic. 

While I only recently planted this years fall garden, I'm already dreaming about what I'm going to make with my harvest of Walla Walla onions, snow peas, garlic, and Fava beans.  The Fava beans are doing particularly well having already reached about 10 inches in height.  I think I may have to search for more Fava bean recipes because right now I only have one - Fava bean risotto.  In fact that's why I am growing the Fava beans.  But for a Foodie that's the fun of gardening, picking your bounty and finding recipes to use it in... 

...Ah the lure of gardening for the cooking aficiando. I get caught-up in it every year. And every year something I plant does really well. I mean really well, actually too well in that I get tomatoes, or eggplant, or zucchini, or cucumbers galore. This year its zucchini and cucumbers. For the past month I've been picking a zucchini or two everyday and about 20 cucumbers a week. I think they are finally starting to slow down. But what to do with all those cucumbers and zucchini? Well if I truly have too much I give excess to food banks such as SecondHarvest. But more often it’s a matter of I'd like to use the food but I'm sick of raw cucumbers.

Cucumbers seem difficult to find diverse recipes for. The best thing I've found to do (other than giving Husband 2 a day for lunch) is to make pickles. Now I'm not talking about canning pickles where they cook on the stove and you have 20 gallons of cucumbers for the year. I'm talking about cucumbers that go directly into the refrigerator. Its quick, easy and they taste great. If you've never done it I highly recommend you try it. Generally the recipes use 5-10 pickles, take little or no cooking and are edible in 12 hours. I make both Dill and Sweet pickles this way.

As for stuffing my zucchini with my cucumbers - I'm sure such a recipe exists out their but do we really want to combine two ingredients that are about 95% water?

Dill Refrigerator Pickles (modified from here)

1 onion sliced or coarsely chopped
2 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. non-iodized salt (ie. canning salt)
Several sprigs of dill or 1 tbsp. dill seed
4-6 Cucumbers

1. Place onions through dill in a gallon glass jar.
2. Fill jar 1/4 full with cold water.
3. Shake jar to mix ingredients and dissolve sugar/salt.
4. Wash but do not peel cucumbers. Slice cucumbers and put into gallon. Continue adding cucumbers until jar is full.
5. Fill jar to the top with cold water. Shake jar with above ingredients. Fill jar with cold water to the top.
6. Place in refrigerator. Pickles will be ready to eat in 12 hours. Keep in refrigerator. They generally last 3 - 6 months.

Notes:

• I have found 4-5 sprigs of dill works for our tastes.
• I do the initial 1/4 filling before cucumbers are added to ensure the ingredients get well mixed.
• The cucumbers can be cut into a variety of shapes including lengthwise slices, wedges, and crosswise slices. It’s really just a matter of personal taste.

Sweet Refridgerator Pickles

The sweet pickles recipe I use can be found here. I only use half the amount of celery seed.

Grilled Zucchini - classic grilled zucchini work nicely as a veggie side for most meals.

2 zucchini depending on size and amount desired.
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 T olive oil

1. Cut zucchini into 1/3" diagonal slices.
2. Mix zucchini and remaining ingredients.
3. Grill zucchini approximately 5 minutes per size until tender.

Zucchini Chips - great to just munch on but also work as a nice summer side dish.

2 zucchini depending on size and amount desired.
1 Whole egg, slightly beaten
3 T water
3 T flour, more as needed.
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs, more as needed.

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Slice zucchini into 1/4" think crosswise slices.
3. Combine egg and water in a breading bowl stirring with a whisk.
4. Place flour in another breading bowl.
5. Place breadcrumbs in another breading bowl. If using unseasoned breadcrumbs add oregano, powdered garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
6. Dredge 1 zucchini slice in flour, dip in egg mixture and then dredge in breadcrumbs. Repeat procedure with remaining zucchini placing slices in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
7. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes flipping slices after 10 minutes.

Notes

• I highly recommend using the Williams Sonoma breading set for this and any other breaded recipe. Otherwise you can use pie dishes or some other flat bowl.

Zucchini Lasagna (adapted from Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna in Cooking Light April 2001)

Zucchini Chips from 2 large or 3 medium Zucchinis (see previous recipe)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, finely grated, divided
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
15 ounces ricotta cheese
12 ounces cottage cheese
1 whole egg
26 ounces tomato pasta sauce.
12 9 whole lasagna noodle, cooked.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

1. Combine 1 cup mozzarella, 3 T parmesan, oregano, basil, ricotta and cottage cheese in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Spread thin layer of sauce on bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Place 3 lasagna noodle over sauce. Top with half of cheese mixture, half of zucchini chips and 3/4 cup sauce. Repeat noodle layer followed by remaining cheese and zucchini and 3/4 cup more sauce. Top with another layer of noodles, remaining sauce and remaining cheese.
3. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 35 minutes or until cheese melts.

Notes

• You can substitute low fat mozzarella, ricotta and cottage cheese.
• Any ordering of the ingredients within the lasagna works - feel free to experiment.

Zucchini Filled with Corn, Chilies and Smoked Cheese from Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville. Annie is the Executive Chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. This is one of the many wonderful vegetarian dishes she shares with us in her Fields of Greens cookbook. I used home grown Walla Walla onions the first time I made this and liked it much better than with the red onions called for in the recipe.