Squash Solutions

Yeah, yeah… I know… I have totally fallen off the blog bandwagon. You would think with summer and no classes, I would have been better. I guess I have just needed a mental break. Anyways, I have a couple of writing ideas, so hopefully you will see more from me soon. In the meantime, chew on this one (literally) for a while.

It is that time of year where summer squash and zucchini are in abundance and everyone is looking for ways to use it up. I got this recipe from my mama, which means she probably made it while I was home one time and I liked it. It is scribbled on a sticky note and stuffed in my recipe box. Fancy, eh? I needed something to take to a pot luck, and this seemed like a good idea. It was pretty much scarfed down, so I will take that as a seal of approval.

Here are a couple of cooking notes on changes I made. The recipe below is as written, not as made.

It calls for chicken broth, but I used vegetable broth so that it was vegetarian friendly. Clearly, this is not vegan, but you could probably easily make it so with leaving out the cheese (or using a non-dairy one) and using a vegan corn bread recipe. Personally, I think the cheesy goodness is an important layer of flavor in this recipe. The original recipe calls for Jiffy corn bread. Since, I am trying to eliminated packaged foods from our diet, I found this clone recipe online and made it from scratch. Almost as easy as opening the box, I promise! Instead of using the listed spices, I just threw some Penzey’s Herbs de Provence into the mix.

Ingredients

2 cups of zucchini and/or yellow squash, diced (I like a combo of both)

½ c. onion, diced

½ of pan of Jiffy corn bread (or your favorite corn bread or use the link above)

4 oz. cheddar cheese, grated (honestly, I just grated a hunk of cheese without weighing it … so just add to meet your own cheesy preference)

1 c. chicken broth

1 t. garlic

½ t. thyme

1 T. garlic

Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sauté onion for about 5 minutes. Add squash, zucchini, and garlic. Cook all to desired tenderness. Mix in spices, salt and pepper shortly before you remove it from the heat.

Place in bowl, add cheese, and crumble the cornbread. Pour in about ¾ to 1 cup of broth (to desired consistency – should be dampened but not completely soggy).

Spray baking pan. Add cornbread and vegetable mixture. Cover with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove foil and finish baking until bubbly and crisp around edges. Then you let it cool slightly then eat it. Yum!

Apricot Crumble

We received a beautiful surprise of apricots with our CSA share last week. We snacked on a few, but before I knew it they were starting to turn a little soft. I decided that they would make a lovely crumble, and I was right. I used Smitten Kitchen’s recipe as my spring board. Making a crumble or crisp topping is really pretty simple. It is always a combination of butter, sugar, flour, and oats with variations of spices or nuts added. I ended up trying this one because it called for melted butter instead of blending in chunks of chilled butter. That seemed a little faster and simpler, and I was curious what the difference in texture would be. I was really happy with the outcome! I did follow her suggestion and do half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Combined with the fruit, that makes it healthy, right? My other deviations were leaving out the pecans because I did not have any and adding a sprinkle of Penzey’s Baking Spice.

I also peeled my apricots. I have never been a fan of cooked stone fruit skin, so I figured it was worth the extra step. I followed the standard method of scoring the fruit and dropping them in boiling water for a minute or two followed by a bath in cold water. The skin popped right off. Unintentionally, I ended up following her suggestion of just tearing the fruit apart. It was actually easier than trying to slice it!

I happened to be sipping on some white wine while throwing this together and R suggested I add a bit to the fruit, which I thought was an excellent idea. I used the wine to make a slurry with a bit of arrowroot starch and some sugar. I recommend arrowroot starch over cornstarch as a thickener for baked goods. For good measure, I tossed in some dried cranberries I noticed on the shelf. Excellent decision on my part if I do say so myself.

I am so happy I did this on the spur of the moment. It reminded me of how quick and easy it is to throw together a yummy dessert that takes advantage of the season’s fresh fruit. It also redeemed me from several disappointing baking endeavors from in the recent past… I suddenly began feeling under the weather after I finished putting dessert together so I ended up not eating mine last night. I can say it made an excellent breakfast this morning. It’s fruit, so it works for breakfast, right?

Oh yeah, my last production point. I used our cute-as-can-be Fiestaware individual pie dishes and made the crumble as two individual servings. I love Fiestaware!

Summer Is About Festivals

It is summer festival time! It is one of my favorite things about the summer season. No matter where you live, it seems there are all sorts of fun, outdoor events planned to fill your weekends. Flagstaff and N. Arizona is no exception. In eager anticipation of my move to Flagstaff, I started following area news last spring (yes, I know I am ridiculous!). I was excited to start gathering information about my new home so I spent more way time than I should reading about it online last spring and summer. One of the best sources of information I discovered was a page for Flagstaff on Facebook. The regular posts on upcoming events made me anxious to. get. there. already. June, in particular, seemed action packed with all sorts of fun going ons that I was going to miss since I was not arriving until mid July. Well, guess what folks, I just had my first June in Flagstaff and was it ever fun!

First up was Hullabaloo. This event is a spin off of Tour de Fat, which is sponsored by the Fat Tire Brewing Company. Rumor has it that it was a very popular event in Flag, perhaps too popular. Apparently the event people decided we were more than they can handle… The fine people of Flagstaff did not let this detour them from having their fun and their response was to create Hullabaloo. It was pretty wacky. I did not take any pictures, but if you click on the link you will see the crazy outfits people wear. Apparently people love to dress up in ridiculous outfits for the event. The other cool thing that I wish I had taken a picture of was the sheer volume of bicycles locked up around the park. It almost looked staged. The event kicks off with a bicycle parade, even.

So, I actually volunteered with my friend N at this event. We were helping out at the Zero Waste Tent. It was sort of fun, and I guess maybe I helped the environment a little bit? Dunno. I think the jury is still out on that one. Basically, they had bins to sort out compost, recyclables, and plain old trash. Our job was telling people where to put stuff. It was a lot of work, and I suspect some people wished they had just dumped their trash elsewhere after it took 5 minutes to sort out everything they had. Just kidding. Sort of. No really, I think it was educational for a lot of people that came to our waste station, but it was also very enlightening for me to realize how complicated it really can be to try and do the right thing when you are putting on a large scale event like this one.

The biggest fail of the day? Sierra Nevada Brewing was the beer supplier of the day and served their drinks in “compostable cups.” I put that in quotes because they were actually NOT compostable for our event. Since we live in such a dry climate, you need a special industrial biodigester to break them down (which the City of Flagstaff does not own) and you cannot just throw them in your average compost pile as they will not break down on their own. So with every. single. person. who walked up we had to direct them to the trash can instead of the compost bin. And then when they said to us (every time), “but the cup is compostable,” we had to explain why it was going to the landfill instead of being composted, and why it was not recyclable (organic material, not plastic), and finish up with the conciliatory comment that at least it would break down faster in the landfill than plastic does. Geez Louise. I am pretty sure I muttered that all night in my sleep since I said it so many freakin’ times. Ugh.

The following weekend, it was the Flagstaff Wine and Food Festival. Again, this was another one that had been on my radar, since last year! It was held at the Coconino County Fairgrounds, and since that was only about 4 miles away and accessible by the FUTS, we decided to bike it. Our friend, C, wanted to go for a bike ride that day so he joined us on our trek out there. Which turned into a stressful journey, where I am pretty sure he tried to kill us because he got us on I-17. Which is an interstate. With trucks. And fast moving cars. And is not a FUTS trail. Now, I should point out that it is actually legal to ride your bike on the interstate in Arizona, but who would really want to? So apparently there was some miscommunication about the envisioned route and the boys were so far ahead of me on their bikes that I was unable to flag them down and stop them when C hung a left instead of continuing on straight. Clearly, I was pissed and freaked by the time I finally caught up to them about a mile down the road. I am pretty sure I used a few expletives when asking why exactly we were now on the interstate instead of peacefully cruising along the FUTS trail. So at that point there was no legal, safe, or practical way to turn around or get back on track with the original plan. So we biked the two or so miles to the next exit. On the highway. With fast moving cars and trucks. At least there was a super wide shoulder. Clearly, I really needed a drink by that point!

In a moment of perfect happenstance, we ran into some of our friends at the entrance to the fairgrounds who had also biked. So, off we went. Time to put the earlier crisis behind us and eat, drink, and be merry. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we took our time exploring all the local wineries and their offerings. More friends joined us throughout the day, and fun was had by all. I was really impressed by the Arizona wines. I have had a glass or two of local wines, but this really gave us the chance to sample and taste a wide variety. Now I have a winery tour on my list of things to do!

I would definitely recommend going to others, but would also say be prepared to spend more money than the $15 entry fee. Also bring cash. My only criticism is that I wish the process had been made more clear. If you wanted to do just a tasting, you needed a ticket, which could be bought for a $1 a piece. If you wanted a glass or bottle of wine, you needed cash. We used all our cash to buy tickets because we thought it was all interchangeable. Then we had a ton of tickets left, but really just wanted to buy a glass and kick back instead of popping up back and forth for small 2 ounce tastes. We worked it out, but some clearer signage would have been helpful.

This past weekend, we ventured down to Prescott. This was my second visit to Prescott, and I think it is just the most fun little town. I definitely want to spend some more time in this area. There is some good hiking and biking in the area, and the town itself has a nice selection of coffee shops, restaurants, and stores to be explored. It is about an hour and forty-five minutes south of Flag and a slightly lower elevation of about 5000 feet. This past weekend they had the Prescott Bluegrass Festival, which was our reason for heading there.

The Stage

It was free and in the heart of town on the grassy lawn surrounding the downtown County Courthouse. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening. There was lots of people there, but it wasn’t too crowded. We were able to find a shady spot where we could hear the music and enjoy the people watching.

Our Friend, T, Who Joined Us For the Fun

Nice and Shady

We wandered around a bit as well. On the back side of the courthouse, away from the stage, we discovered a number of groups doing their own thing and jamming away. It brought back memories of fun times at the IBMA Fan Fest in Louisville.

Jammin'

And More Jammin'

We slipped away and had an early dinner at The Raven Cafe, which is this awesome restaurant my friend introduced me to on my last visit. They try to source a lot of local and organic ingredients, and they have a RIDICULOUS beer selection. We sat outside on their outdoor upstairs patio and enjoy good food and good beer. After that we headed back, listened to some more good music then headed home. I am already making plans for going back next year.

Their awesome patio

My yummy mushroom sandwich with sweet potato fries

Finally next week, this one, Clips of Faith. I also enviously read about this one last year. Fat Tire beers and cool independent films about beers and bikes? Yes, please.