Zucchini Zealotry

 It was a canning day yesterday, but the canning went pretty quickly. When I was finished, I had another six pints of cut green beans. That makes 12 jars of cut green beans, and 6 jars of dilled green beans...a pretty good showing for the bean crop this year.

Earlier, I'd decided I had enough jars of green beans, and so six jars was my limit. There were still a few beans left over, and so I blanched and froze them.

There are still green beans on the vines, but I'll only be picking what we can eat fresh from here on.

While I was doing that, the kitties were taking shifts guarding this little "snack" they'd caught. It's a tiny shrew. I believe they played with it until it was completely exhausted. Just in case it was magically revived, however, they guarded it carefully. First Smitty...

Then Sadie.

Without looking, I'm not sure if it ever was devoured. 

Mike had to make a trip to Home Depot. While he was inside, someone "ducked" him, but leaving this little duck on the running board of our Jeep.

Apparently, "ducking" is a thing if you own a Jeep. Who knew?

There's a whole Facebook group devoted to "Duck, Duck, Jeep," which I joined, of course. I'm not sure the point, but I hate being left out. So there you have it. It seems as if the group is also about having a Jeep. Possibly this will enrich my life somehow. So far, I haven't noticed anything.

With my canning duties complete for the day, I had a couple of hours to sew. Smitty was at the ready, helping me for all he was worth.

He looked skyward for inspiration.

Sadie helped by being adorable.

And, I'm telling you, it's taking every last fiber of restraint I can muster not to show you what I have so far. The hardest part of this is finished now. I'll be adding borders, some thread painting, and some quilting, and then it will be reading for binding. It turned out better than I hoped. Here's your little peek for today. 

Don't tempt me to show you the whole thing. I doubt I'll be able to resist if you do. November can't get here soon enough...for more reasons than this reveal.

After all that helping, Sadie settled into her little bed for a nap, and that was where I left her. 

I'm afraid we're going to have to take her to the vet. She's been digging at her ears. If you look carefully, you can see she has little scabs all along the edges. We thought applying Advantage might help, but it has not. We'll have the vet take a look. She could have mites, but it seems Smitty should have them too. We haven't noticed anything with him.

Okay, so I tempted you with yesterday's photo of the zucchini blossoms.

Last night, I tried this recipe for Summer Risotto with Zucchini, Zucchini Flowers, and Basil Pesto. This turned out to be really good. It's the first time I've eaten zucchini blossoms, although I've wanted to try them for a long time. The little orange flecks you see in the image below are the chopped zucchini blossoms.

Mine was made with sorrel pesto. We have sorrel in abundance, and I used that. It's a risotto like any risotto, made with arborio rice, but any short-grain rice will do. It means adding liquid and lots of stirring. I always make risotto in a large skillet, and so it takes less time for the liquid to evaporate off before adding the next ladle. This was done in about 25 minutes, not including prep time. It was a great way to polish off a couple of zucchini, and having picked their flowers, there will be fewer on the plants too. It's a keeper of a recipe.

Also, I tried a recipe some one of you told me about. I forget who, but if it was you, then thank you. This is a Zucchini Cobbler for Two. Mine was adapted from the full recipe, found right here. The original recipe makes enough to feed a small army, and so I adapted mine to be a "one and done" dessert. I decided to grate the zucchini, which made quick work of it, using my food processor. The trick to making desserts for two is to figure out the difference in volume between the baking vessels. The original recipe was made in a 10 x 15 baking dish. (Do you suppose they meant 9 x 13?) Either way, I decided to reduce mine to 1/3 the original recipe, which meant making a few adjustments when things came out to be 2/9 of something. Mine was baked in a 5 x 7 inch baking dish (1-1/5 inches deep). When it came out of the oven, it looked like this.

We had it with vanilla ice cream last night. I'm telling you, if I didn't know it was zucchini, I'd have thought it was apple cobbler. Mike agreed, although his sniffer is better than mine. He said he could smell the zucchini.

So this is definitely a keeper, if for no other reason than it did away with two small zucchinis. Here's my for two version:

Zucchini Cobbler for Two

adapted from Allrecipes.com

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch ground nutmeg

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cups butter, chilled

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg and cook one minute more. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 7 x 5 x 1-1/2 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine flour and 2/3 cups sugar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 3 tablespoons of butter mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining butter mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Spread zucchini mixture over top of crust, and sprinkle remaining butter mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is golden. Serve warm or cold.

* * * * *

Okay, so I'm tackling the tomato tonnage today (awesome alliteration). I'm expecting to take two days for this, but it make take three. And then...maybe I'll can some beets...but I'm thinking my canning will be finished for the season. I've used well over 100 lids now, and that's enough, don't you think? I'm happy to have my challenge quilt project well along, and I can relax some if there's no time for sewing for a day or two. Summer is winding down, my friends. I don't know about you, but I'm looking ahead to fall now.