Cupcakes

I don’t bake often, but in an effort to use up all the zucchini I have, I just finished making these cupcakes from Daily Crave.  I was glad to see that it called for olive oil rather than less healthy fats, and honey instead of refined sugar.  I also replaced about a third of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour.  So while these are still a decadent dessert, I can feel slightly less guilty about them :).

The cupcakes were delicious!  I loved the combination of orange and ginger flavors.  And I honestly couldn’t tell that they had olive oil or whole wheat flour in them. Highly recommended!

-R

Squash blossoms

This time of year, my garden is just beginning to decline  — I can already tell my tomato plants are not nearly as prolific as they were even a couple weeks ago.  Normally my zucchini and squash plants follow suit, but this year, for some reason, they are as abundant as ever, and I have far more than I can use.  So, inspired by this article in the Washington Post and this recipe from Fine Cooking magazine, I decided to exert a little zucchini birth control.

I have had squash blossoms at restaurants before, but I had never experimented with preparing them myself.  As the Washington Post article advises, I went out into my garden early in the morning and picked a few male blossoms.  It is easy to tell the difference between the males and females, as the male flowers are attached directly to the stem:

And the female flowers are attached to a little squash:

I wasn’t up for deep frying the blossoms I picked, so I loosely followed this recipe.  I filled each blossom with a mixture of farmer cheese, cilantro and poblano peppers, sauteed them, and served them with a basic tomato sauce similar to the one in the video (left out the olives).

They were awesome.  Such a simple recipe, but has a different, more exotic feel.  I highly recommend them if you’re looking for something new to do with your prolific zucchini!

–R