Meatless Monday: It’s Zucchini Time

No doubt about it, Zucchini Season is in full swing.

Zucchini is among the best bargains of the moment at farmer’s markets. 

This mild summer squash can be lightly sauteed, baked, eaten raw if tender (i.e. small), or baked into a cake or brownies. Zucchini is delicious when prepared any number of ways.

Unadorned zucchini is a low calorie, nutritious food. A 16 gram serving of raw, baby zucchini is just 3 calories, but provides 2% of your Vitamin A and 9% of your Vitamin C.

How big can a zucchini grow? The Official Guinness Book of World Records recorded, “The longest zucchini courgette measured 2.39 m (7 ft 10.3 in) on 17 October 2005 and was grown by Gurdial Singh Kanwal (India) in his garden in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.”

Just remember, the smaller the zucchini, the more tender it will be. If you find yourself gifted with a zucchini log, your best bet is to to cut in half lengthwise, seed it, stuff it, and bake it.

I brought home a couple of medium sized, bright green and tender ones from the market last Wednesday. I decided I wanted to try something new and discovered a number of recipes for Zucchini Pancakes. Here is a recipe inspired by one from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Countessa, on the Food Network website. 

Zucchini Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 tablespoon finely minced onion — either red or Vidalia
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons unbleached white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons of mixed herbs
• salt and pepper to taste 
• unsalted butter and canola oil for frying

PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Place a large sheet pan in the oven.
• In a small bowl, thoroughly beat the egg.
• Coarsely grate the zucchini using a food processor or the large grating side of a box grater.
• Pour into a large mixing bowl.
• Add the beaten egg and the onion.
• Stir.
• Add 3 tablespoons of the flour with the other dry ingredients.
• Stir.
• If batter is thin, add 1 more tablespoon of flour. [A fresh, tender zucchini will most likely require the extra flour.] 
• In a large frying pan (cast iron is ideal), over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of oil.  
• When butter is melted, but before oil begins to smoke, lower heat slightly.
• Drop batter into the pan using a soup spoon (one spoonful for each pancake). 
• Flatten each pancake slightly using the back of the spoon. Three pancakes in the pan at a time is ideal.
• Turn after two minutes. The pancake should be nicely browned.
• Cook an additional two minutes and then place the pancakes in the hot oven.
• Repeat.
• After the second batch, remove the grease from your pan with a paper towel. Be very careful as you do this.
• Add new butter and oil, and repeat the process.

It should take about four batches to use up your batter.

When you are all done, be sure to turn off both the burner and the oven.

Serve the pancakes hot.

These are tasty plain, or with a little catsup on the side. Add a salad, and you have a complete meal!

After cooling, store any leftovers in the refrigerator. They are delicious when reheated in the oven or toaster oven.

This recipe can easily be doubled.

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: An Optimistic Gore Opines

The environmental movement 350.org was formed with the stated mission to solve the climate crisis by reducing the amount of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts per million. On May 9 of this year, CO2 levels at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii reached a new milestone of 400 ppm. 

Yet Al Gore, not known for a sunny disposition, expressed hope for the future in an interview with Ezra Klein, published on August 21 in the Washington Post. The link is being circulated by the Climate Reality Project, founded and chaired by Al Gore, a Nobel Laureate as well as former vice president of the United States. 

Read here for Al Gore’s explanation of why he believes we are heading towards major shifts in the global energy marketplace that will speed up the phase-out of coal-based electricity. 

Gore reasons that despite the efforts of the climate deniers, “Reality has a way of asserting itself…And people have noticed for themselves — the rains storms are bigger, the droughts are deeper and the fires are more destructive…people are connecting the dots.”

At this moment, acres of California are on fire. The  “Rim Fire,” burning since August 17 in the Stanislaus National Forest, entered Yosemite Park yesterday. It had nearly doubled in size overnight to encompass an area of 196 miles. [To put that into local perspective, the City of New Haven, CT has an area of just over 20 square miles.] 

California Gov. Brown has expanded the state of emergency he had declared earlier to include the City and County of San Francisco, some 150 miles away from Yosemite. In the area of the fire there are three hydroelectric plants serving the city; the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has already been forced to shut down two of them. Substantial wildfires are also burning in other parts of the state as California experiences its most severe drought on record  — 4.6 inches of rain from January through July of this year. A more usual statewide average is in the range of 12 inches.

Let’s hope the Nobel Laureate is right.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Preserving the Season’s Bounty

Many of you know that I became a Certified Master Gardener in CT last year, and that I could not have done it without the assistance of my mentor, Rachel Ziesk.

Rachel is passionate about organic gardening. She gardens for others and maintains 3 gardens of her own. At this time of year she is very busy harvesting her abundant (and beautiful) crops and storing them to enjoy over the long winter months.

This spring she started a blog — Organic Gardening — in which she shares her knowledge “from seed starting through the last harvest.” Last Monday she explained why you need to blanch certain crops before freezing them and revealed her nifty alternative method for sealing greens without a vacuum sealer. 

Her most recent subject was air drying peppers and herbs. 

These are some of the hot peppers Rachel grew this season. Don’t they look beautiful? It should come as no surprise that Rachel is also a talented artist.

Rachel Ziesk's Hot Peppers on a String

These “necklaces” of peppers were strung with doubled sewing thread (knotted on the end) and will hang in Rachel’s kitchen to be used a few at a time.

Check out Rachel’s blog — whether you want to start your own garden, get rid of pesky pests, or put some seasonal food by for future meals. Her posts are concise, well illustrated, and easy to follow. 

Happy reading.

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food or food issues (and sometimes gardening) on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: Coming to Grips with Unwanted E-Devices

Desktops, laptops, tablets, music players, monitors, printers… Everyone with electronic devices knows that while they may still function after a few years, they quickly become outmoded if you depend on them for work.

What should you do with your stockpile of no longer desirable e-devices?

They are definitely not something to throw in the trash. They are not biodegradable. They also contain heavy metals that pose environmental hazards when not disposed of properly.

In an effort to keep e-devices out of the waste stream, nearly half the states in the US now have mandatory e-cycling programs. The orange states on this interactive map are ones with e-cycling laws in place. By clicking on an orange state you can find out the details of that state’s program. In 2007, my state, Connecticut, passed Public Act 07-189… requiring manufacturers of televisions, computers and monitors to finance the recycling of their products. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) added printers through regulation. This law is based on a "producer responsibility" model where the manufacturer assumes financial responsibility for the end of life management of their product. 

Each municipality in Connecticut is now required to provide convenient and accessible e-cycling for its residents. In New Haven, residents are allowed to e-cycle up to 7 electronic devices, free of charge, at the City’s Transfer Station, up to 4 times in a calendar year.

While e-cycling (if you have it) is great, finding a new home for a working device is even better. In our digital age, there are people for whom owning a laptop still remains a dream. Before taking your unwanted laptop to your e-cycling center, ask around in your community to see if there is an agency to whom you can donate it.

Thanks to the online publication The Daily Nutmeg, I learned of such an organization in New Haven. GiveLaptops.org accepts donations of working laptops less than five years old. Donated laptops are refurbished, upgraded with recent software, and put into the hands of deserving high school  students in the area. 

School will be starting soon. What better time to get your old laptop out to someone who will love it again? 

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: A Plant You Need to Know

Poison Ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, is a member of the Anacardiaceae, or Cashew, family of plants and is native to a wide portion of the United States and Canada (Nova Scotia and Quebec to British Columbia, south to Florida, Texas and Arizona).

It grows quickly and is adaptable to many growing conditions. You can find poison ivy in forest clearings, along the roadside, in trees, in city lots and in backyards. It grows in full sun to partial shade, in dry thickets or in wetlands.

As you venture out to pick your own produce in the coming weeks, or to forage in the woods this autumn, be on the lookout for this ubiquitous three-leaved plant. 

In a vacant city lot in May.

In the woods of the Berkshires in June.

Here’s the story.

The oil resin urushiol is found in every part of the poison ivy plant — its leaves, stems, and roots.  At least half of the people who come into contact with urushiol have a severe reaction to this allergen, usually within a few hours. Washing with water alone will merely spread the oil. Smoke from burning the plant can cause the most severe reaction of all; inhaling the smoke can affect your lungs. 

Identifying poison ivy can be tricky. It can be an erect deciduous shrub OR trailing vine OR climbing plant.  Leaves may be shiny OR dull, stiff and leathery OR thin, coarse-toothed and wavy-edged OR neither. Its appearance varies with the season, and there are many poison ivy look-alikes.

You may think you know poison ivy, but if you take this 55 image quiz that has been circulating among CT Master Gardeners, you will see how challenging a positive poison ivy ID can be.

When in doubt, follow this rule: “Leaves of three, let them be.”

If you are unlucky enough to have a close encounter with this plant, you can find information on symptoms and treatment here. 

Be careful out there. 

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food or food issues (and sometimes plants) on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: Have a Second?

1. Click here. 

2. Visit for a second or two.

3. Be blown away! 

How our world has changed in thirty years!

The site was built with designly.com, a startup whose product is a “site builder anyone can use.“

Have a great Saturday!

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Not Your Usual Blueberry Cake

Native blueberries are in season, and cool nights have returned. What a perfect time to bake a blueberry cake!

I turned to a favorite recipe — Blueberry Ricotta Squares — submitted by Gail Arnold for the Greenfield Village School Cookbook, compiled by the PTO of the Greenfield, New Hampshire Elementary School, under the direction of Kris Bregani (my cousin) in 1997.

Over the years I’ve tweaked Gail’s recipe a bit. I’ve swapped out the shortening for butter. I’ve made certain to use low-fat ricotta, and the other day I substituted almond meal for 1/2 the flour, to lower the carbs and increase the protein.

Here’s my most recent version of her recipe.

BLUEBERRY RICOTTA SQUARES

9 generous servings (as a breakfast treat)

12 servings as a dessert

Preheat over to 350° F.

Lightly grease a 9x9x2 cake pan.

INGREDIENTS

Bottom Layer:

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 cup almond meal

3/4 cup sugar

1-1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 c. milk

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Top Layer:

1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries (washed and drained)

2 eggs

1-1/4 cup low-fat ricotta cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. vanilla

• In a small bowl, combine flour, almond meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
• Add milk, butter, egg and vanilla. 
• Beat with an electric mixer at low speed until well blended. 
• Then beat for one minute on medium speed.
• Pour batter into prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
• Sprinkle blueberries evenly on top of batter.
• Break the remaining two eggs into a mixing bowl [You can re-use the one from the batter.] and beat with a fork. 
• Add ricotta, sugar, and vanilla. 
• Spoon over blueberries and spread evenly.
• Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes. Test at 55 minutes; a cake tester inserted at the center should come out clean.

Cool before serving, and store leftovers in the refrigerator. Ricotta Blueberry Squares are delicious warm or cold. They also freeze well if tightly wrapped.

Please remember that any cake is best in moderation. Despite my tweaks, these Blueberry Ricotta Squares are still high in fat and sugar. They are, however, packed with protein from the eggs, ricotta (35 grams), and almond meal (14 grams), making them a perfect once-in-a-while breakfast treat, far better than a cheese Danish. 

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: “Lost” Tourist Finds Self on Icelandic Tour

I have a growing list of places I want to see someday. One of the more exotic destinations is Iceland — the Land of Fire and Ice, inspired in part by the dramatic images appearing in the flashbacks of Hallgrim Ørn Hallgrimsson, the protagonist of the edgy Danish drama “The Eagle,” which we have been watching on Netflix these hot, summer nights.

After one particularly gripping episode, I decided to google “Iceland” to get some basic travel information to bookmark and store away for future reference.

Near the top of the search list was a link to a contest in which the prize was an all-expense-paid trip for two to Iceland! Closer reading revealed that the winner would be the person who submitted the best travel story from a trip to Iceland taken within the past year. As “Tourist of the Year” the winner and a friend would have the opportunity to “relive” his or her adventure. That ruled me out.

What, I wondered, had inspired such a contest?

The next paragraph on the Iceland Naturally homepage revealed the answer: “The contest was inspired in 2012, when a tourist to the country was mistakenly reported as missing [August 30, to be exact]. Not recognizing her own description, she joined the very search party that was looking for her, and only many hours later did it occur to her that she was the missing woman.”

Here is the link to a story with all the details — “Tourist in Iceland Spends Weekend Finding Herself.” 

The woman had stepped off the tour bus [apparently the best way to get around the country to see the sights] at one of the destinations, and while taking a break, had also changed her clothing. Apparently the driver [and the other passengers] had not recognized her when she stepped back onto the bus.

What, no buddy system!?! 

The police chief in charge of the rescue effort stated, “The people on the bus had not been counted correctly.” Luckily they were spared the expense of a helicopter search due to bad weather.

It’s going to be difficult to top that travel memory!

The contest winner will be announced in December, 2013. 

The next time everything in which you are involved seems totally screwed up, take a deep breath and remember this story.

Have a nice weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).