This very nice Costata Romanesco zucchini

Has become for loaves of zucchini bread with walnuts

All of which are now in the freezer. I find this is the best way to preserve zucchini, otherwise it gets all mushy. I even had enough left over for supper! All is not lost in zucchini land!

MMMMMMM! I can just smell it! Ya know, I probably could make some with the next cucuzza squash. I picked that one today and it was 2' long but tender!

Brenda made 50 or 60 loaves last year, plus the ones given away. Usually pecans and golden raisins but I did talk her into making several with walnuts, pecans and dried cranberries. Those didn't last long, much better tasting than her originals. Wrapped in tinfoil and two to a Ziploc bag took up almost a whole shelf in the freezer. A slice with a couple of pats of butter and heated in the microwave is pretty tasty.

We haven't made any yet this year, I may have to go to the farmers market and buy a bushel or so. We were gifted a couple of big boxes of zucchini last year is why she made so many. Don't think she was a happy camper. I think we have maybe a dozen left.

Yeah, that's a LOT of work, even if your recipe makes two loaves as mine does! They do make good gifts, don't they? Homemade goodies seem to be at a premium these days. And I'll have to try those recipe variations. Pecans and dried cranberries or golden raisins sounds interesting.

What can we do with a 2' squash other than put some up? Some how, some way, so we have that taste of summer in winter.

We just eat summer squash fresh. Freezing it makes it too watery for me.

Adding dried cranberries to the nuts in zuke bread sounds good! I'll have to try that. Thanks, @Ken4230!

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2024 8:06 am We just eat summer squash fresh. Freezing it makes it too watery for me.

Adding dried cranberries to the nuts in zuke bread sounds good! I'll have to try that. Thanks, @Ken4230!

@GoDawgs I love Zucchini Bread and Brenda is usually willing to experiment for me. I am really lucky to have married her.
Sunflower Seeds are good in it also, they give it a slightly different texture, which I like. As long as it is chocked full of nuts and other goodies, I'm a happy camper. Never tried dark raisins, have always used golden.

Hope you stay safe through all this bad weather you are about to endure.

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2024 7:27 am Yeah, that's a LOT of work, even if your recipe makes two loaves as mine does! They do make good gifts, don't they? Homemade goodies seem to be at a premium these days. And I'll have to try those recipe variations. Pecans and dried cranberries or golden raisins sounds interesting.

What can we do with a 2' squash other than put some up? Some how, some way, so we have that taste of summer in winter.

On the squash, we puree it raw unblanched and then into a qt. freezer bag. Stacks really well in the freezer. Used in soups or whatever. I have even made it into silver dollar size patties, lightly flowered and deep fried. Okra the same except cornmeal as breading. Both are tasty.

We have an ancient cookbook, front and back cover missing plus several of the first pages. Been handed down several times. It has complete instructions on slaughtering cows and hogs. Has awesome recipes. The recipes are easy to double, triple and quadruple. When Brenda makes a big batch, she does 8 at a time. Being one of fourteen children, she is used to preparing big meals.

Cookbook will go to the granddaughter because my oldest girl is NOT what you would describe as a homecooked sit-down meal type person.

My grandmother had such a cookbook. Unfortunately it was written in Cyrillic, which none of us could read. Her parents came over on the boat from Poland in the very early 20th century.

I grate my squash for bread but as I’ve said, it gets mushy in the freezer. Winter squash is cooked, portioned, and frozen. That holds up pretty well. I’m not a huge fan of okra, which doesn’t grow well up here anyway.

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2024 5:43 pm My grandmother had such a cookbook. Unfortunately it was written in Cyrillic, which none of us could read. Her parents came over on the boat from Poland in the very early 20th century.

I grate my squash for bread but as I’ve said, it gets mushy in the freezer. Winter squash is cooked, portioned, and frozen. That holds up pretty well. I’m not a huge fan of okra, which doesn’t grow well up here anyway.

Had a friend in the Marines who could write and read Cyrillic. at least he said it was, we did not understand anything he wrote or read. From Poland, he spoke English, Polish, Greek and Russian. He was terrified that the big wheels would find out that he spoke and understood Russian.

Kapuscinski had one major problem: alcohol. On payday he would be drunk and broke before dark. The loansharks would have his entire paycheck plus some before the next payday. He thought he was a craps shooter(he wasn't by a long shot). We finally solved the problem by confiscating his money on payday and doling it out a little at a time throughout the two weeks. After I had a talk with the head shark, he agreed to forget about the extra money that Ski owed them. Borrow one and pay back two and sometimes three.

Never had a problem with the squash being mushy, but we didn't grate, we pureed. Okra is Deep South, Heat and Water.

Decent of you and yours to take care of Ski that way. Financial literacy would be a great addition to the high school curriculum but there are some who would miss out anyway. Alcoholism is a serious disease with serious consequences.

I know that okra is a Southern thing. I tried growing it in my garden last year and got these sad, spindly plants that produced very little. The previous gardener at the food pantry garden liked to grow it even so. Thankfully he's the Previous gardener.

Yeah, I grate my zucchini for bread. Freezing that once yielded a mushy mess. I tried blanching & freezing cut zucchini one year to the same effect. Now I either eat it or make a quick bread and freeze it that way.

When you are in service, your outfit is just like family, you live and die together. Been around alcoholics all my life, watched several die of Cirrhosis.
I was an extremely heavy drinker, almost never drunk. Brenda told me one day that one of the three of us was leaving: Me, her or the alcohol. We are still together and getting closer as we age.

Ken4230 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2024 1:07 pm When you are in service, your outfit is just like family, you live and die together. Been around alcoholics all my life, watched several die of Cirrhosis.
I was an extremely heavy drinker, almost never drunk. Brenda told me one day that one of the three of us was leaving: Me, her or the alcohol. We are still together and getting closer as we age.

Good for you. I'm so proud of you for making that choice. It's one tht my husband could not make. It ended up costing him his family and his life.

Many of us are affected by the disease of alcoholism. Some of us loose everything to it before it kills us and some of us are blessed with the gift of sobriety and recovery.

Someone told my new wife I could out drink everyone in the bar.
My wife was flabbergasted at hearing this
The truth is I would drink about 4 beers in about 4 hours and play pool for free because everyone was drunk and I kept winning and getting better.
Then I would walk home as it was only a block from the bar.

I love zucchini bread but no one else likes it. But me

AKgardener wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:21 pm I love zucchini bread but no one else likes it. But me

What's up with the stuff?
Just another way to hide these things in something so people will eat it?

@worth1 to me it’s just like eat banana bread without the nuts of course.. its comfort food

AKgardener wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:47 pm @worth1 to me it’s just like eat banana bread without the nuts of course.. its comfort food

I actually like all this stuff but not going to the trouble to make it.

I was more curious as to how someone even came up with the idea.
I guess they planted too many squash plants like I did one year.
I mean if you plant 15 or 20 squash plants no matter what kind you're going to have a lot of squash.

I would have to agree with you on that I have no idea what they were thinking haha but it works

one of my absolute favorites. I also LOVE zucchini Chocolate Cake and Muffins. Yum yum yum.... now if only I could get our plants to pollinate better... hmm...