Summertime, and the livin’is easy. Especially for zucchini.
The gardeners among you will know what I’m talking about. Even in times of dreadful drought, this unstoppable squash seems to thrive. And this year’s rainy weather has resulted in a veritable bumper crop that has all of us – even innocent bystanders like my husband, Ray, and I – up to our ears in zucchini.
You see, while Ray and I do not currently have a vegetable garden, we have friends who do. And like so many unwitting gardeners, our friends, Duncan and Debbie, made the mistake of planting “just a little zucchini.” Now their garden is overflowing with the sneaky green things, which go from zero to 12 inches seemingly overnight and have overtaken half their lawn.
I’ve written about Duncan and Debbie in this space before, noting that their house is the one where everyone gathers, no matter what time of year. The summer is especially busy for them socially, as they have a pool and love to have friends over to use it.
With their home the nexus of our friends’ social activities, I joked that they should make a requirement that friends who visit to enjoy their pool take home at least two zucchinis with them. It seems they took this to heart. Not long after, I swear I saw Debbie quietly slipping a big ol’zucchini into a random, unidentified tote bag left poolside. I do know that Ray and I went home with four zucchinis ourselves.
I hit the computer and looked up different things to do with zucchini. One of the zucchinis got grated and put into Black Bean Veggie Burgers With Zucchini. I also found recipes for Zucchini Zoodles with Sausage and Kale, Creamy Lemon Zucchini, Easy Zucchini Pasta Recipe, the Best Zucchini Brownies From Scratch, “Sneak-In Veggies” Zucchini Cake, and a variety of Zucchini Breads. I even purchased an inexpensive manual “spiralizer” to make zucchini “zoodles” in anticipation of more zucchini down the road.
In the meantime, we went away the following weekend, leaving a zucchini or two in the refrigerator. Mysteriously, we came home to three zucchinis in the fridge. I think they reproduced when we weren’t looking. I got busy with that spiralizer again.
Now, several rainstorms later, things have reached a crisis point. We got a call last week from Duncan and Debbie. “We’re drowning in zucchini. Help!”
Now, we do want to help “D&D,” who are among our very closest friends. So, as a way of ridding their garden of excess zucchini, I suggested a Zucchini Night – in which we eat all things zucchini. A good solution, I thought, since D&D were also hosting Debbie’s sister and brother-in-law, and we could therefore double the recipe
