Miss Rachel

Lately, Whole Foods is sporting and touting a lot of “local” produce. I’m not sure what the criteria for local is because I’ve seen stuff from Maine labeled local and the Maine border has got to be at least 200 miles from here. Still that’s a lot more local than New Zealand or Peru where stuff frequently comes from during the winter months.

Today I found *local* (from Massachusetts) green patty pan squash and I picked up six of them. I cooked them “the balsamic vinegar way” and then served them alongside some whole wheat linguine with pesto. I bought the *vegan* pesto already prepared from the frozen section from a company called Linnabella. I like their website because it explains exactly what you need to know and gives good answers. Such as… how should you thaw it and how much do you use and what do you do with the rest of it once it’s thawed? You can refreeze it! I was afraid I was going to be forced to refrigerate it and use it within a week or something. As delicious as pesto is, it’s a strong flavor and not something I want to eat more than once in a week. Hey, and I just noticed Linnabella’s a local farm too.

Dinner was yummy, and I was pretty tired after my day of doing laundry, grocery shopping and cooking, but I managed to muster the energy to make a blueberry pie afterward – !!! Pie is pretty major for me because the crust is my nemesis, but I’m a baking snob and I don’t think you’re really making a pie if you don’t make the crust yourself. I managed to do a pretty good job (with minimal cracking) of it by rolling the dough between two sheets of wax paper. And the blueberries were local of course (super local – from Connecticut). The pie is cooling now, but Sweetie and I will be sure to delve into a little later tonight.

One of my favorite foods is squash, but I always found summer squash and zucchini a little ho-hum until I learned some different ways to cook them. See, I was steaming them which results in a somewhat bland and mushy product. Tasty with some salt, pepper and Earth Balance, but still a bit lackluster. Then with the help of google, I discovered a recipe for Pan-Seared Balsamic Baby Squashon the blog Vegan Yum Yum. Oh my, summer squash has never been the same since. I’ve made it several times, and I have been so pleased with the discovery. Yum yum indeed.

Here it is served up with some quinoa, a nice summer dinner we had last week.

Cooking sqaush this way has sent me in a whole new direction with it even when I don’t follow that exact recipe. For example, a couple weeks ago, I cut the squash into rounds and seared them that way, without vinegar. I like my food cooked, and sometimes even a little burned so these were A-OK with me. I don’t think I’ll ever become a raw food aficionado, but then I never thought I’d become a vegan either. I served it with some seitan and fried rice Sweetie had bought frozen at Trader Joe’s.

And then there’s zucchini. I found a great way to make zucchini “fries” on this “flashback” post on the blog Peas and Thank You: Groundhog Day. I think I cooked mine a bit longer than she recommended, but they were delish. I seasoned them with nutritional yeast and served them alongside some seitan. I don’t think I want my zucchini cooked any other way.

Unless it’s grilled. I don’t own a grill, but my mom does, and when we visited her on Fourth of July weekend, I suggested we have a grilled dinner. I had brought some Gardein BBQ Skewers with me for this purpose. Sweetie and I had those and my mom and sister had some kind of beef. We also had corn on the cob and some Swiss chard I steamed up. My mom suggested that she would cook the zucchini with some stewed tomatoes and onions as she likes to do, but I said, “You know what I’d really like – if you’d grill it. As long as it’s not too much trouble.” She replied that grilling them would actually be easier. She sliced them lengthwise, scored them and seasoned them (I’m not sure with what – probably oregano was involved). I’m not sure how long she cooked them, but they were pretty much perfect. And they made a delicious addition to this summer holiday meal.