A friend of ours with a large garden recently gave us lots of vegetables. Zucchini, Squash, and many Cucumbers.
In an effort to cook all of them, I decided to challenge myself to make a full meal using at least one of those vegetables in each dish.
First up were the cucumber pickles. A favorite of mine since I was little, it's been awhile since I've made them. Slicing up all the cucumbers was easy, but then I realized we were out of onion. You simply cannot make cucumber pickles without onion and it looked like I'd have to make a trip to the store before I had planned to.
Instead, my sister's garden came to the rescue! She had planted onions that year, and I managed to dig up eight of the tiny vegetables to use. :)
After I set the cucumbers and onions to drain, I went off to the store to purchase the rest of the ingredients necessary to complete the meal.
Upon returning, I added the vinegar and sugar to the cucumbers and put them in the fridge to chill.
On to the Summer Squash Bread!
I had two kinds of summer squash, so I grated up about a cup of each.
The bread recipe called for nutmeg and cinnamon. After mixing all the ingredients, I took a small taste. It was rather delicious! I was going to put it in the regular bread pan, but decided to use a special bread pan acquired at a garage sale a few months back. It was designed to give bread that braided look.
In to the oven it goes!
Moving on to the zucchini brownies, I decided to chop the pieces of zucchini smaller than I had the summer squash. I mixed up the whole concoction and had a taste. Not bad! A bit crunchy, but I figure the zucchini pieces will probably soften once they are baked in the brownies.
The bread took longer to bake than I had hoped, but I think it may have been the fault of the pan. They finally finished, however, and it looked amazing!
A quick taste proved the look true, and it quickly got added to my recipe book for future baking days.
The zucchini brownies did not take nearly as long to bake, but they were not quite the success I had hoped for. They came out, instead, rather flat. The taste was alright, but nothing phenomenal. Upon further examination of the recipe, I discovered that I had forgotten the baking soda. Explains the flatness. :P
After those things were all ready, I started in on the main course. I diced up what was left of the squash and zucchini, and set it to steam on the stove
I decided to add some fresh garlic, even though the recipe didn't exactly call for it. I have never cooked fresh garlic before, so I decided to just slice it up and saute it with the chicken.
Then I put another pot of water on to boil, and added my pasta, while I used the front burner to saute the chicken and garlic in oil.
20 minutes later, I took the veggies off the stove, drained the pasta, and cooked the last piece of chicken. With no further injuries than a few slight blisters from boiling olive oil, I considered my job well done. Quickly, I combined the pasta, veggies, chopped chicken and garlic.
Then I added cubed mozzarella cheese, minced garlic, more olive oil, some sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesan cheese, and put it out on the table with the bread.
I consider it to be rather a success, after having tasted it. I felt very Italian tonight. ^_^
