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Zucchini Season!

It is not summer without zucchini!
(And I feel like every summer I have to relearn how to spell zucchini.)

Growing up we always had an influx of zucchini around this time every year.  Everyone had so many zucchinis in their gardens they passed them off to other people by the bag.  I loved the story in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about their abundance of zucchini and tomatoes.  When I was young, we were the happy recipients of the abundance!  So even without our own garden we had so many zucchinis!

Our first go to zucchini recipe was always zucchini bread from a local cookbook where you can find the page by glancing at the closed book because that page has been used far more frequently than any other page in the entire book.  It is just not summer without zucchini bread.  We could throw the ingredients to that bread together in minutes and we have it down to a science.  Karen & I would fight over the heels.  If I walk into the house after it's cooked, I immediately know the smell of zucchini bread.  I have suffered many burns from not waiting long enough for my first slice.  But let's be real,  it's too delicious not to.

Luckily, a couple weekend's ago, my grandma gave me a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread so now it can officially be summer.

My parents also sent me back with zucchinis and tomatoes fresh from gardens.  Monday night I made a quick zucchini and tomato saute to eat over rice this week at work.

Mom also sent me back with zucchini pie, which tastes basically like apple pie.

There's also this casserole Mom would make growing up of zucchini lining the bottom of a 9x13 dish, shredded cheese on top of the zucchini, broken ruffles chips on the very top and you bake it awhile.  Note:  this one's not excellent as a leftover.

Here's a quick round up of zucchini recipes if you're looking for ideas:

-Summer Sqaush Gratin with Gruyere and Salsa Verde

-Buzzfeed roundup.  They all look pretty delicious, but #2 the frittata calls out to me first.  But, man, those #6 burgers.  I could go for those too!  (They probably require a bit more effort...)

-Want more of a chip?  Zucchini Parmesan Crisps 
Or you could just season the zucchini however you wish (salt will be particularly useful in reducing the water from zucchini) and bake.

Fun Fact:
A good thing to know: We tend to refer to summer squash as summer squash when it’s yellow, but as zucchini when it is green. They’re actually both summer squash and can be used interchangeably in recipes because they all taste and cook similarly. When making exchanges, use weight, of course, not number of squash as zucchini the size of bats are a real, actual thing. (source)

Let me know if you have your own favorite zucchini recipe!

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