Margaret at A Way To Garden and Deb Puchalla have gathered together some of the best bloggers to share their recipes for the seasonal veggies. From now until the end of August is the big party, hope you can join us in celebrating the garden.
When gardening, it seems we all need some help to deal with the bushels of veggies from the garden.
It is a cross-blogging party- stop by and leave a note if you love a recipe- leave a link to one of your own and make more blogging friends!
This week is celebrating Cukes and Zukes.
I just planted my first garden and perhaps went a little wild for just the two of us planting zucchini. I only planted three plants, but they have been very generous with us. Not only with zucchini, but my favorite- the blossoms.
In Italy fried stuffed zucchini blossoms are a specialty and are served in many ways.
If you have never grown your own zucchini, here are some tips on how you tell boys from girls!
Usually we fry the boy blossoms as they have no zucchini, but you can also fry the girl blossoms.
I recently posted my Zucchini Carpaccio on FoodConnect.
As for my cucumber recipes- I live for Panzanella in the summer, a celebration of the season in a salad. Recycling stale bread and ripe tomatoes and cucumbers with Tuscan sweet red onions and basil.
Since American bread won’t get stale, I see most recipes use croutons, but I would prefer using cous cous for a more similar effect, the soaked bread really soaks up the oil and vinegar dressing and it is most, not crunchy so cous cous is a better substitute. Consider it a Tuscan Tabbouleh.
But what I REALLY adore making are pickles! Italians do boil some veggies in vinegar to preserve them, but summer seems to bring out my cravings for American flavors and I make my own Bread and Butter pickles every summer. They are so refreshing and easy to make.
Here are some links to the other participants:
- Margaret posted that Size does Matter and inspired me to make a different pickle this year
- Jennifer from Gilded Fork- put together a list of recipes as well as soome beauty tips
- Mark Tafoya, partner in Gilded Fork and personal chef has is Chilled Cucumber Mint Soup
- Michelle at the Cooking Channel went wild with ideas
- Alison at Food2.com is doing appetizers
- Paige at Hey Little Sister has three plants like I do and a great zucchini pudding recipe
- Kelly has me with her Cucumber and Sesame Salad I am so making this today!
- Caron loves the markets like I do and did a lovely summer soup
- Carolyn of Wright Recipes has another refreshing cucumber salad
- Cate shared a spicy Indian wrap
- My Italian friend Giulia has joined in too with her Zucchini Tart
- There are so many ideas here gathered by Tigress in a Jam!
- Nicole’s fab grilled marinated zucchini with lemon
- I adore Shauna’s Cucumber Soup “popsicles”
There are so many others participating too- so check out there blogs:
Alice Q. Foodie
Tea & Cookies
As you can see, you will be at no loss for recipes for the summer over-load.
HOW YOU CAN JOIN IN SUMMER FEST:
Each Wednesday for the rest of the summer (and probably longer), a group of blogging friends including those above will swap our recipes and tips about the following harvest-fresh ingredients. Here’s the schedule:
7/28: Cukes ‘n Zukes
8/4: Corn
8/11: Herbs, Greens and Beans
8/18: Stone Fruit
8/25 Tomatoes
We each post something and then link to one another, so that you can travel around the combined effort, gathering the goodies. Sharing makes the experience even better, so if you have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes, you can do either of the following:
- Leave a comment on participating blogs with a link to your recipe/tip
- Publish a post of your own, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2010 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt Armendariz of Mattbites)
Have fun!!! Please leave me your best pickle recipes!!! of all sorts- I am thinking about trying a Kimchee sort of recipe too spicy cucumbers preserved. Hot and tart!
I love summer, with your recipes I like much more.Thanks. congratulations for the blog.
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