zucchini larceny 193 until vegetables are partially blackened; you may want to use grill basket for onions and peppers loaves French bread (16 to 18 inches) 8-ounce balls mozzarella large tomatoes Basil leaves Cut loaves of bread lengthwise Arrange bread on baking sheets and layer with grilled vegetables first, slices of mozzarella next, and slices of tomato last Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and place the baking sheets under a broiler until cheese is melted Garnish with leaves of fresh basil Cut in pieces to serve y C H E R RY SORBET heaping cups pitted cherries ⁄4 cup sugar (or honey to taste) ⁄3 cup water While one person pits the cherries, another can combine sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat Stir until the sugar has dissolved completely (syrup will be clear at this point) and allow the mixture to cool When cherries are pitted combine them with syrup in a blender Blend on low until smooth, then refrigerate mixture until you are ready to pour it into an ice cream maker y DISAPPEARING ZUCCHINI ORZO ⁄4-pound package orzo pasta (multicolored is fun) Bring cups water or chicken stock to a boil and add pasta Cook to 12 minutes chopped onion, garlic to taste 194 a n i m a l , v e g e ta b l e , m i r ac l e large zucchini Olive oil for sauté Use a cheese grater or mandoline to shred zucchini; sauté briefly with chopped onion and garlic until lightly golden Thyme Oregano ⁄4 cup grated Parmesan or any hard yellow cheese Add spices to zucchini mixture, stir thoroughly, and then remove mixture from heat Combine with cheese and cooked orzo, salt to taste, serve cool or at room temperature y ZUCCHINI C H O C O L AT E C H I P C O O K I E S (Makes about two dozen) egg, beaten ⁄2 cup butter, softened ⁄2 cup brown sugar ⁄3 cup honey tablespoon vanilla extract Combine in large bowl cup white flour cup whole wheat flour ⁄2 teaspoon baking soda ⁄4 teaspoon salt ⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon ⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture cup finely shredded zucchini 12 ounces chocolate chips zucchini larceny 195 Stir these into other ingredients, mix well Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes Don’t tell my sister Download these and all other Animal, Vegetable, Miracle recipes at www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com S Q UAS H - S E AS O N M E A L P L A N Sunday ~ Braised chicken with squash, corn, and cilantro Monday ~ Grilled vegetable panini, served with green salad Tuesday ~ Sliced cold chicken (cooked Sunday) and zucchini orzo Wednesday ~ Grilled hamburgers with grilled green beans and squash Thursday ~ Egg-battered squash blossoms stuffed with cheese, served with salad Friday ~ Pizza with grilled baby squash, eggplant, caramelized onions, and mozzarella Saturday ~ Lamb chops and baked stuffed zucchini 13 • L I F E I N A R E D S TAT E August I’ve kept a journal for most of the years I’ve been gardening I’m a habitual scribbler, jotting down the triumphs and flops of each season that I always feel pretty sure I’d remember anyway: that the Collective Farm Woman melons were surprisingly prissy; that the Dolly Partons produced such whopping tomatoes, the plants fell over Who could forget any of that? Me, as it turns out Come winter when it’s time to order seeds again, I always need to go back and check the record The journal lying open beside my bed also offers a handy incentive at each day’s end for making a few notes about the weather, seasonal shifts in bloom and fruiting times, big family events, the day’s harvest, or just the minutiae that keep me entertained The power inside the pea-sized brain of a hummingbird, for example, that repeatedly built her nest near our kitchen door: despite her migrations across continents and the storms of life, her return date every spring was the same, give or take no more than twenty-four hours Over years, trends like that show up Another one is that however jaded I may have become, winter knocks down the hollow stem of my worldliness and I’ll start each summer again with expectations as simple as a child’s The first tomato of the season brings me to my knees Its vital stats are recorded in my journal with the care of a birth announcement: It’s an Early Girl! Four ounces! June 16! Blessed event, we’ve waited so long Over the next few weeks I note the number, size, and quality of the l i f e i n a r e d s tat e 197 different tomato varieties as they begin to come in: two Green Zebras, four gorgeous Jaune Flammés, one single half-pound Russian Black I note that the latter wins our summer’s first comparative taste test—a good balance of tart and sweet with strong spicy notes I describe it in my journal the way an oenophile takes notes on a new wine discovery On the same day, I report that our neighbor wants to give away all her Russian Blacks on the grounds they are “too ugly to eat.” I actually let her give me a couple As supply rises, value depreciates Three weeks after the **First Tomato!** entry in my journal, I’ve dropped the Blessed Event language and am just putting them down for the count: “10 Romas today, Celebrity, 30 Juliet.” I continue keeping track so we’ll know eventually which varieties performed best, but by early August I’ve shifted from numbers to pounds We bring in each day’s harvest in plastic grocery sacks that we heave onto a butcher’s scale in our kitchen, jotting down the number on a notepad before moving on to processing At this point in the year, we had officially moved beyond hobby scale My records would show eventually whether we were earning more than minimum wage, but for certain we would answer the question that was largely the point of this exercise: what does it take, literally, to keep a family fed? Organizing the spring planting had been tricky How many pumpkins does a family eat in a year? How many jars of pickles? My one area of confidence was tomatoes: we couldn’t have too many We loved them fresh, sliced, in soups and salads, as pasta sauces, chutneys, and salsa I’d put in fifty plants In July, all seemed to be going according to plan when we hauled in just over 50 pounds of tomatoes In August the figure jumped to 302 pounds In the middle of that month, our neighbor came over while I was canning I narrowed my eyes and asked her, “Did I let you give me some tomatoes a few weeks ago?” She laughed She didn’t want them back, either Just because we’re overwhelmed doesn’t mean we don’t still love them, even after the first thrill wears off I assure my kids of this, when they point out a similar trend in their baby books: dozens of photos of the first smile, first bath, first steps followed by little evidence that years two ... Download these and all other Animal, Vegetable, Miracle recipes at www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com S Q UAS H - S E AS O N M E A L P L A N Sunday ~ Braised chicken with squash, corn, and cilantro... Thursday ~ Egg-battered squash blossoms stuffed with cheese, served with salad Friday ~ Pizza with grilled baby squash, eggplant, caramelized onions, and mozzarella Saturday ~ Lamb chops and baked... seeds again, I always need to go back and check the record The journal lying open beside my bed also offers a handy incentive at each day’s end for making a few notes about the weather, seasonal