Garden Update

We have a zucchini problem. I'm not embarrassed about it. I mean, sometimes, in life, you wake up nearly every morning to find new, surprisingly large zucchini lurking where you thought there were only flowers. I did better when N was out of town and I could convince myself that a plate of sliced raw zucchini constituted dinner. And lunch.

But now that he's home and we cook, we've cut back to maybe 1/2, maybe 3/4 of a zucchini per day, and that's just not enough to keep up. Tonight (N is out) I did make Barbara Kingsolver (and family)'s Disappearing Zucchini Orzo. I have to say that while it did make the zucch disappear, this is definitely a dish for a family with kids. I helped it out with some sun-dried tomatoes, but it could probably use more zest. (though I just went back for seconds)

And yesterday we made Sunset's arugula, fennel, and preserved lemon salad. Here's a question for you: are salt-preserved lemons just supposed to taste like salt? Did we miss something? Maybe you should rinse them? It was intense. Nothing like having to hydrate after your salad...

Forgetting...

I think I had forgotten about summer. Not having interns to supervise makes it feel less real. That and being away for its first month. But now it's too hot from noon to 6 pm, too cold right after that, and right now I can hear fireworks (R is, as usual, surprisingly indifferent). Though this strange school schedule means that independence day feels more like the start of summer, not the middle. It's strange how little is going on campus, compared to during the year.

Folks were over earlier and I tried to hide some zucchini in a salad that included potatoes (also from the garden!), grated zucch, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, thyme, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and, of course, salt & pepper. Not great but not too bad. Everyone was impressed by the gigantic-ness of my zucchini plants... but no one knows the cause - more morning sun? afternoon shade? fertilizer anomaly? oh, plants, why are you so fickle?