You can go your own way

This is an exciting food-related post for me because it's the first time I've really come up with a concept for a dish without relying on someone else's recipe.  I'm generally not the most creative cook, and it makes me nervous to stray too far from printed instructions - recipes that I'm fairly sure will produce at least adequate results.

But I wanted to venture outside my comfort zone, and I was inspired by my CSA box (zucchini again!!!!) as well as some food blog posts I've seen about "pasta" made from thinly sliced zucchini.  I added some sweet corn, roasted tomatoes and fresh herbs and ended up with a lovely dish.  Roasting the tomatoes and making the corn broth took a bit of time, but this work could easily be done ahead.

Zucchini "Pasta" with Sweet Corn Broth and Slow Roasted Tomatoes

For the roasted tomatoes:
Cherry, grape or other small tomatoes, sliced in half
Olive oil
Fresh herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)

Heat the oven to 225. Spread the herbs and tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut side up, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 2-3 hours or until the tomatoes are mostly dried. (It depends on how large the tomatoes are).

For the Broth:
2 (or more) corn cobs, kernels cut off and reserved
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tsp salt
2 sprigs thyme
2-3 cups water

Add the garlic, salt and herbs to the water and bring to a boil.  Break the corn cobs in half and add to the water. Simmer for about an hour.  Remove the garlic and thyme. Scrape the corn cobs with the dull edge of a large knife to make sure that all the corn flavor has made its way into the broth.

For the "Pasta":
2 medium zucchini, sliced into thin strips with a vegetable peeler or mandolin
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic minced
Chopped thyme to garnish

Add the oil to a large pan over medium heat, along with the chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute and add 1.5 cups reserved corn kernels and 3/4 cup broth. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and some additional broth and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes and stir to incorporate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and chopped thyme and serve.

An Embarrassment of Riches... Zucchini-wise

I may have mentioned that in California we don't have seasons.  Or at least our seasons do not conform to the conventions that many of my agriculturally astute friends and relatives are familiar with.  When I talk to my sister about the contents of our CSA I commonly hear "But those aren't in season!"  Au contraire, sister.  My CSA begs to differ.  Anyhow, this brings us to our current predicament.  3 enormous zucchinis, totaling 2lbs this week.

We have precisely one zucchini recipe that we like and it's not exactly vegan (thanks a lot Gwyneth, you smug so and so).  Also, my parents are coming to visit tomorrow (YAY!!!!) and my mom and zucchini do not generally get along.  I was reminded of the chapter in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle where, during zucchini season people sneak bags of the stuff onto their neighbors porches and then run away.

But then I remembered about zucchini bread!  And I confirmed that my mother is on speaking terms with zucchini bread. And I know that Kevin is delighted by anything that involves chocolate chips (like cookies, or muffins or a handful of chocolate chips).  And so my mission was clear.

I used this recipe as a template except I adjusted the oil/applesauce ratio and decreased the amount of sugar by almost a cup.  I have a sweet tooth, but 2 cups seemed like a typo, especially with the natural sweetness of the applesauce and zucchini (and chocolate chips).  I also made some of the bread in muffin form.

I had to try a muffin to make sure they tasted alright... Success!!

Vegan Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/2 c warm water
• 1 c turbinado sugar (or light brown sugar)
• 1/4 c oil
• 3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2½ c grated zucchini (In case you were wondering, this was ONE of our zucchinis)
• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 c whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• ~1 c chocolate chips or raisins, optional (I used about 2/3 cup chocolate chips)

Instructions

1. Grease two loaf pans. (I made one loaf and 12 muffins)
2. Mix together flax seeds and warm water.
3. Add sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla; beat well.
4. Add grated zucchini; stir til combined.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients.
6. Add dry mixture to wet and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened and everything is incorporated evenly; some lumps are fine. If adding additional mix-ins, fold them in now. Divide batter between prepared pans.
7. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, for loaves or 10-15 minutes for muffins (until knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean). Let cool a few minutes before slicing

June gloom

Most people think that California is a land of sun and beaches year round, but while San Francisco is sunny a fair amount of the time, it's only rarely beachy.  And once it starts to get really warm inland, around June, the city, and especially the part of the city closer to the ocean (like where we live) becomes quite foggy.  Today was particularly intolerable.  It was windy and misty and we had to get away.

So we drove down the peninsula to ride our bikes in and around Palo Alto.  It was a little windy, but gorgeous and sunny!  I had never ridden in that area, so it was great - plenty of trees, breathtaking hills and for some reason a bunch of horse stables that were providing tours and horse drawn carriage rides:

Miniature horses!!!

When we got home, we wanted to keep in a summer-y frame of mind so we drank some sparkling rose and watched the HBO Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra.  It was pretty well done, but Rob Lowe's face is probably going to give me nightmares:

For dinner I made this grain salad from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/health/skillet-brown-rice-barley-or-triticale-salad-recipes-for-health.html

I used farro as the grain, lowered the amount of olive oil in the dressing to 1/4 cup, and used only about half of the dressing.  Otherwise I followed the recipe pretty closely.  It turned out really well.

Farro Salad with Mushrooms and Endive

Here's hoping the gloom clears a little before my parents come to visit next week!

One Week in Paradise

Our trip to Maui was pretty great.  We rode bikes, ate and drank a lot, sat by the pool, read books and generally had a fabulous time.  You want proof?  Here it is:

All packed and ready to go!

First drink in paradise

Toes in the sand

I'm hoping SFPL will let me open a Maui branch

Our anniversary dinner at Mama's Fish House

The view from our hotel room's balcony

My elevator calling method

Ready for the beach!

The view of south Maui from my solo bike ride in upcountry

The Maui winery vineyard!

On our hike on the Hoapili trail

See I was riding my bike up there.

We hiked through volcanic rock and across beaches

Riding the West Maui Loop

The views are gorgeous

More views from the West Maui Loop

And another!

And even one with COWS!!!!

Kevin takes a lot of really good pictures

Isn't that pretty?

Hiking on Haleakala

Headed down to our cabin

Tiny panorama of Haleakala

Our cabin, from far away

Our cabin, close up

"Roughing it" in our CCC cabin

Our bunks

See?  We're having fun!

Cloudy view out front, note the nenes

Looking out across the volcano

Hiked out to Kiwilinau, a 65ft. cave.  I'm scared of heights

Boys like throwing rocks.

Up at 7,000 feet it looks like you can walk out on the clouds

And just to prove we relaxed a bit - us hanging out on a hammock

Headed home, but already dreaming of our next adventure