Zucchini Season

Zucchini season has arrived in Florida. The Windsor Zucchini Festival is May 12 this year. Craig and I went years ago; it's a cute small town festival. Maybe we'll take the kids this year. They love zucchini. Haha. Not.

I got two kinds of zukes in my CSA share yesterday, the regular dark green kind and a bi-color yellow and light green color-blocked one. I'm planning on making grain-free chocolate chip zucchini muffins in the next couple of days with the dark green ones. Tonight I made zucchini noodles with the bi-color ones. Use a vegetable peeler and peel strips from the zucchini until you reach seeds.You can toss the seed part of it into the pan as a chunk. Heat up extra virgin olive oil and toss the noodles in the oil until soft. I seasoned them with Italian seasoning and garlic powder, no salt needed.

A huge bag of basil leaves was also included in the CSA bag. What do you do with basil, besides making mojitos? Pesto! Walnut pesto, to be exact. I ordered raw, organic walnuts through the local buying club, so I have some hanging out in the freezer.

My cooking and baking philosophy is to use recipes as jumping off points. I like to tinker with recipes I find online or in books. I found a basil walnut pesto online and followed it, but didn't measure. I just eyeballed and tasted until it was yummy. I had to use a Boar's Head parmigiano reggiano because that was the only p-r available at Publix! However, it was a raw cheese imported from Italy. If the ingredient list says milk instead of pasteurized milk, you're eating a raw cheese. Also, if there is a seal from the country of origin that looks "official", it most likely is a controlled name cheese. That means it is made in the traditional manner from unpasteurized milk.

 I served the pesto on baked chicken breasts and rice noodles.

I experimented for dessert. I baked a butternut squash yesterday and didn't use it. I whipped up a butternut squash soufflé for dessert. It...wasn't great. After putting the squash in the mixer, I added three eggs, maple syrup, heavy cream and cinnamon and baked it on 400.  The maple syrup as sweetener just wasn't enough.The texture was fine; the taste was a little flat. I sprinkled some succanat on top to sweeten it up. Meh. Maybe I'll fry some up tomorrow morning in coconut oil for breakfast and put an egg on it, just to use it up. I didn't bother to feed it to the kids. I knew they would turn their noses up at it. I almost did.