Daily Dose of Zucchini

Zucchini Lasagna

Before I forget what I did with these recipes, I need to chronicle last week's zucchini experiment.

The week started with zucchini lasagna, always a family favorite. The zucchini isn't quite a star ingredient here. It's pretty stealth actually, grated up and mixed in with the ricotta.

 Next up: zucchini bundt cake with orange glaze. The recipe from Martha Stewart Living was absolutely amazing. It's currently my favorite cake and I plan to make it again. I made a couple modifications.

Instead of straight zucchini, I used a mix of zucchini and yellow summer squash. I also used granulated sugar for the glaze, which turned out to be a bad idea. I'd have been better off jumping in the car and restocking my pantry with powdered sugar. But considering the family demolished the cake, the crunchy glaze didn't ruin the dish.

Sauteed Ribbon Summer Squash

The sauteed ribbons of summer squash was just really fun to make. I kept looking up recipes and found all sorts of dishes made with these ribbons. I went simple.

After using a veggie peeler to make the ribbons, I sauteed them lightly in olive oil with chopped shallots and garlic. I finished it off with a little Kosher salt. Even the kids couldn't find a reason not to eat it. Delish.

Zucchini Pickles

To wrap up the week and to use up the rest of the zucchini/summer squash bounty from our CSA, I whipped up a batch of Judy's Zucchini Pickles.

I just love this recipe. I'm not exactly sure why I needed to sterilize the jars for refrigerator pickles, but I did for good measure. I did forget the mustard seeds, but I didn't miss them. Next time I won't forget.

These are great as a cold summer side dish or as a starter or afternoon snack.

Girl and a Crew of Work Goats

Future Farmgirl with young Brownie Scout

Over the weekend we had a lovely visit to The Farm and finally had a chance to see all the progress that these hungry little goats have made this summer.

Back when I was a kid, there was no view of the fields from this hill. In fact, I don't think I could get to this hill without a chainsaw.

The cleanup crew will eat just about everything and clear close to 70 feet a day. They've already cleared parts of the woods I've never been to, even in winter. They're clearing up views and, more importantly, gobbling up invasive plants and making way for native plants, especially young oak seedlings.

The kids will get to see their progress day-to-day for the next two weeks on their annual farm visit. I can't wait to hear what the goats teach them.

Abracadabra! A Wand in 11 Simple Steps

One of the best parts of the kids' summer has been the weeks they've spent with my niece watching over them.

That's because she's not really content to just watch over them. She always has some sort of activity planned or adventure to go on.

Yesterday, she took the kids to a thrift store, picked out a set of plain dishes and had them make their own designs with Sharpie pens. Bake for 20 minutes and the ink is permanent I'm told. The directions are here. Way cool.

But today was the best. On Pinterest, she found this activity to turn throw-away chopsticks into Harry Potter wands. A little hot glue, old beads and acrylic pain and voila...a wand that looks like it came straight out of Ollivander's shop.

Check out the step-by-step here.

Where Burgers are The Boss

With an early day at work and the kids free for the afternoon, we headed out for some errands.

The only problem: We were all starving. Sim hadn't had lunch and I'd only had cucumber soup to chase down a light beat/goat cheese salad. And the kids, well, they're growing.

So we got our bearings and started throwing out options...finally settling on a new (to us) place I'd been wanting to try: Burger Boss just beyond Oak Park on North Avenue right down the street from the iconic Johnnie's in Elmwood Park.

Great choice for us. And I expect it would be for you too.

I have some Five Guys snobs in my family. There have been weeks when my son has asked to eat there every day. Every day. We didn't oblige. But still.

Even so, it was unanimous that the burgers and the fries at Burger Boss beat Five Guys, hands down. The burgers and sauces were delicious. Though you can have your 100% Angus beef burger made to order, we opted for the Bleu Boss (me) the Firecracker (Sim), the monthly special. The sauces were flavorful without overpowering the sandwiches. But I think what I enjoyed most was the fresh toasted, but light and still soft brioche bun. Nothing ruins a burger for me more than too much bread. Oh, and the fries. They were perfect. Fresh cut shoestring Idaho and sweet potatoes.

Delighted, my daughter immediately strung them up as a garnish on her burger...her kid-meal burger (with drink and fries for $5.25).

Though Burger Boss is close to home, I wasn't aware of it until Phil Vettel's recommendation earlier this month here in the Chicago Tribune.

Besides the food, we were impressed with the customer service, atmosphere inside and out, and the prices.

It's also worth noting that the owners, who also operate Oak Park's popular Cucina Paradiso, have a commitment to locally produced and sourced foods. Their cups are biodegradable corn. Even the interior was built with recycled materials. All things that will easily bring our family back through the door, again and again.

Update: My son wanted me to be sure to mention that he would still go back to Five Guys for the Coke Freestyle machine. I probably would too...until I can get peach Sprite somewhere else.

Cucumbers, Mint & Yogurt: Do You Drink it or Eat it?

Considering I forgot a spoon the last two times I took this refreshing, chilled cucumber soup to work with me, I'll go with drink.

My co-worker simply refers to it as soup crack. It certainly is addictive, so you may want to double up the recipe, especially if you plan to share.

I've tried several versions of cucumber soup. I'm partial to this recipe I saw on Food & Style, not for the adorable accompanying how-to video featuring Viviane, but because it's made with plain yogurt instead of cream.

The recipe calls for mint, which adds an extra summertime burst of flavor and a lovely green. But it's just as good without. Play with the garlic amounts too. I've tripled the garlic, which is fantastic especially after chilling for several hours or, better still, overnight. And as a bonus it's a great way to keep the vampires away.

Another bonus is that it's super easy to make.

Just get your food processor ready and add:

1 3/4 lbs seedless cucumbers or 2 lbs regular cucumbers, seeded and peeled, then cut into 3 chunks. [I use a grapefruit spoon for easy seeding.]
1/4 medium red onion, skinned
1 clove garlic, skinned
1 jalapeno, stem removed, halved and seeded [I've also used serrano or several dashes of hot sauce.]
2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
2 tbls lemon juice
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp Kosher salt
6 oz Greek yogurt or other plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup or more to taste of water [The original recipe calls for spring water, but I just use filtered water.]

Pulse a couple times to mix things up a bit, then blend for about 2 minutes. Chill for at least two hours or overnight for best results.

Viviane serves her "green gazpacho" in lovely glasses with colorful garnishes you can see on her site. So far, my soup hasn't survived long enough for me to serve it to guests. Maybe at our next dinner party or cookout.

Practicing My Salsa

I'm not much of a dancer, but I got plenty of salsa in this weekend. Only instead of the dance floor, all my moves were in the kitchen.

Motivated by my children's sudden love of all things salsa and almost complete disregard for what's in it (or so I thought), I jumped at the chance to do some salsa experimenting.

Using almost all in-season and local ingredients (except the limes and pineapple), I chose four recipes all featuring one star ingredient: radishes, peaches, grilled pineapple, and tomato.

So which did my kids enjoy the most? I was floored that they skipped past the sweeter peach and pineapples salsas in favor of the radish salsa. Their only complaint was that it didn't have any tomatoes. So I ended up mixing the radish salsa with a traditional tomato-based salsa. That was the combo that had us using chips to scrap up every last drop.

Finally! I've found something to do with a bumper crop of radishes.

Here are the results:

Radish Salsa

Over at Mark Bittman's food blog, there's this recipe for radish salsa. If you'll follow the link, you'll see it calls for 2 cups of chopped radish. Yes. Two cups. That's actually quite a few radishes. Luckily, my daughter had way too much fun harvesting radishes at her school garden the other day, so we were pretty flush.

The salsa had a very nice flavor. I did heed his advice and added more salt and lemon juice than the recipe called for. It also helps to let this one sit a bit and let the flavors mix before serving. The three boys plus my husband tried this and all liked it OK. But they devoured it when I mixed it with some traditional tomato-based salsa.

I also enjoyed this as a salad topping.

Peach Salsa

My son, after discovering that he likes salsa, even with a bit of heat, went on a tasting spree at our Farmers Market the other day. His favorite by far was the peach salsa from Stover's Farm [He's also a big fan of their apple butter.]

We tried this recipe from Two Peas in Their Pod. This was a super easy recipe to pull together. And it was wonderfully sweet thanks to the fully ripened peaches. It would be great served with fish tacos or a chicken dish. I really liked this recipe, but the kids weren't so impressed. Unlike the Stover's version, this doesn't have tomatoes. By this point, I could see that without tomatoes, my kids don't believe it's actually salsa.

I may mix this with tomatoes for them or just polish it off myself.

Grilled Pineapple & Pepper Salsa

This recipe for grilled pineapple salsa from Serious Eats was the most time consuming yesterday because of the grilling and pineapple prep involved. The results were worth every minute, even though my children have yet to fully appreciate this one.

The flavors of the grilled pineapple, red pepper and jalapeno are a wonderful combination. The lime juice, onion and cilantro do a nice job balancing out the sweetness from the fruit. No surprises, my kids wondered where the tomatoes were. They were also pretty full of salsa at this point.

I'll definitely make this again, especially for a summer party and cookout. Like the peach salsa, this would be great alongside fish or chicken or a teriyake dish.

Tomato & Cucumber Salsa

Finally, the tomato salsa. Only this one didn't turn out so hot. The tomatoes I picked up at the Farmers Market weren't quite ripe enough, so the cucumber and onion only further watered out the flavor. I'll give this one a try when the tomatoes ripen a bit more.

For now, it'll be mixed with the radish salsa.

Weeknight Family Meal: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

I'm always on the hunt for easy-to-make meals that don't require me to turn on the stove in the summer.

No surprise I was immediately drawn to this recipe for slow cooker chicken tacos. I made a few modifications to the recipe I found here at Pass the Sushi.

In the crock pot:

• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 8oz can green chili enchilada sauce
• 1/4 cup green chili [I used fresh, which made this dish a bit more spicy than if I'd used the canned variety.]

Add after 5-7 hours of cooking on low, shred the meat with forks (and mix with all the delish juices in the pot), then add and mix:

• 2 oz cream cheese [I used reduced fat cream cheese and didn't notice a lack of creaminess.]
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese [I used a mix of sharp and jack because that's what I had on hand.]

Serve with tortillas and your favorite toppings, including:

• chopped cilantro
• black beans w/ green chili
• salsa
• diced red onion, diced