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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A few things to do with all the produce

If you are anything like me ( By the way in my head all of you are exactly like me ), you keep coming home with heaps and heaps of produce from the market! It's just so inviting and overwhelming all at the same time! Then you stare at it. What are you going to do with so many zucchini and peaches?

Don't you worry, I've got a couple of ideas for you. Neither are new or particularly earth-shattering, but they also aren't ones that I immediately thought of, which, as we have previously discussed, means you haven't thought of them either. Are you following me?

First, let's tackle that zucchini. I don't know what I find to be completely fabulous about zucchini, but I do. Maybe it's the greenness? Or the barely-there white stripes? Anyways, I decided to grate up the zucchini, throw in some cheese, egg, and flour to make latke-like pancakes. Couldn't be simpler or tastier. Then again, everything tastes better with cheese and fried in butter. Hmm...I may be on to something here.

This makes a great side dish for just about any summer grilled meal. I happened to serve my latke-like cakes next to Julia Child's French Onion soup and a little side salad, which was a little strange, I admit, but whatever. I'm a little strange and yes, I fully admit it!

The cakes can be eaten plain or with a little sour cream, unless you're like me and you don't buy sour cream anymore and only use Greek yogurt for everything sour cream and mayonnaise related. I hope we don't put the sour cream business out of business with all of our Greek yogurt consumption. Oh god, what if we do? Oh man, that would be bad! Now I'm giving myself a complex...about the sour cream industry...okkkk!

And on to the peaches! My initial plan had been to throw all the berry and stone fruit in my fridge and bowl into a buttered baking dish, top with a buttery sugary topping and bake. Sounds amazing and thrifty, right? Well, the strangest thing happened. When I woke up in the morning with every intention of making said fruit-disposal crisp the berries were gone! I think the dog ate them. No really. He eats blueberries and bananas and stuff because he has allergies and we now cook for him. Luckiest dog E.V.E.R.

I was looking through the fridge like the crazy lady that I am, because, no really, where could all of the berries have gone too? Alas, someone (ahem, Pete) must have consumed them. Every last one. Sooo, instead of this being a colorful combination of blue's, purples, and peachy-pinks, it was simply a pan of peachy-pinky. Beautifully tasty, yes; yet still lacking the color differentiation I was originally hoping for.

In the end, none of this mattered, because the peach crisp was summer perfection in a spoon. The recipe that soon follows will probably drive you crazy. I'm warning you now. I'm not going to give exact measurements. Honestly, you really don't need them. Plus, crisp can easily be adjusted for however many people you may be serving. This recipe works for any type of stone fruit, berry, or apple you may want to use. Go crazy with it!

Zucchini Latkes
Serves 2

2 medium Zucchini's, grated
1 Egg
1/2c Flour
1/4c Cheese, I used an aged Gouda, but really anything sharp would be great
Salt and Pepper
2tbsp Butter

1. Grate the zucchini in a medium sized bowel. Add the egg, cheese, flour, salt, and pepper
2. In a small pan heat the butter on medium (depending on your oven) until melted. Using a spoon scoop 2tbsp of the mixture into the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, flip, and repeat.
3. Serve immediately with sour cream, green yogurt, or whatever else you want!

Peach Crisp
Serves 6

2-3lbs Peaches
Sugar
Flour
1/2 Lemon, zest and juice
Cinnamon

Topping:
Equal parts brown sugar, flour, butter
Vanilla
Cinnamon
Dash of salt

1. In a large stock pot boil water. Once boiling add the peaches and cook for 1 minutes. Remove and immediately place in a bowl of ice water. Let sit in the ice bath for 2-3 minutes, until cool enough to touch. The skin should peel right off. Slice the peaches and place in a bowl.
2. Coat the peaches in flour and sugar. Add the lemon zest and juice and a touch of cinnamon. Pour into buttered baking dish.
3. In a separate bowl add the butter, flour, and brown sugar. I used about 1c of each. Using either a pastry cutter or your hands, cut the butter into the flour and sugar until it forms the size of pea's. Add the vanilla, salt, and cinnamon and mix.
4. Heap the topping onto the peaches. It may seem like a lot of topping, but the topping is the best, so there really can't be to much can there?
5. Bake for 45 minutes on 350F until the top is brown and bubbling. Let cool for 10 minutes to allow the juices to set. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

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