8.07.2010

Week 10 - With a little help from my friends

[Posted by Ruth]
First, a word about this week's corn.  In her weekly newsletter, Stacia of Stone Gardens Farm said the Montauk corn in our boxes was the sweetest, best tasting corn Fred has ever grown.  We agree!  All through dinner after the Thursday pick up we kept stopping to exclaim, "This is REALLY good corn".  It was truly the sweetest, tenderest, most flavorful corn I have ever had.  Montauk gets our vote Stacia!  We also had a hard time staying away from the yellow grape tomatoes, which we've been eating like candy.

Here is this week's haul:

8 ears Montauk corn
1 head cabbage
4 small white eggplant
potatoes
garlic
2 bunches baby carrots
2 bags yellow grape tomatoes
1 red and 1 green hot pepper
3 cucumbers
2 bunches beet greens
1 bunch kale
2 onions
3 zucchini
1 large summer squash
3 large tomatoes
1 dozen eggs


Friends try their best to look interested when you talk about your blog.  Really good friends actually read the thing and terrific friends send you recipes, especially recipes to handle the onslaught of zucchini that's been coming our way lately.


My learned and terrific friend, Lou Anne, e-mailed me a recipe for Zucchini Blueberry Bread.  Not only is this a good tasting combination, it makes use of two items that are at their peak at the same time.  It's brains like that that earned her all those letters after her name!




 I made a few modifications here.  I found that I liked these best as muffins.  The original recipe called for 1 tsp of cinnamon, which you can certainly use.  Instead, I find that I really like what a bit of lavender does to the flavor of blueberries.  It just seems to make them taste more blueberry.  I also added a bit more baking soda for a little more lift.


What the Doc Ordered Zucchini Blueberry Muffins, adapted from L.A.F.F., Ph.D.
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp crushed dried lavender
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3 eggs lightly beaten
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 pint blueberries.


Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 36 small or 24 medium muffin liners.  (The silicone ones are great here)  In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, lavender and nutmeg.  Whisk these dry ingredients until blended together.  In larger bowl.  Whisk eggs and gradually add sugar until well mixed.  Mix in vanilla and zucchini.  Fold the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture until flour is just blended in.  Gently fold blueberries in.  Spoon into muffin tins.  (You can fill about 3/4 full as the heaviness of the zucchini prevents too big a rise).  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden and until tops spring back when lightly touched.  Remove and cool on rack for 20 min. before removing from liners.  Or, turn batter into 4 mini or 2 regular loaf pans and bake for around 50 minutes.  With the softness and juiciness of the blueberries, muffins seem to work the best here.

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