Cooler, with a chance of baking
Jul. 24th, 2011 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clarentineWe caught the edge of a thunderstorm last night and, as a result, this morning is about ten degrees cooler than it's been most of the rest of the week (that is, 72 instead of 80). It'll get awful again in a bit, as soon as the sun comes up above the trees, so I'm taking the opportunity to bake up a squash casserole.
One of my books calls zucchini "tiresomely productive" - I have never heard a more accurate description. >:-) Just as it starts to get really hot in the afternoons, the zucchini begins to pop fruit left and right. If you don't keep up with it, you'll very quickly end up with a dead plant surrounded by a bunch of baseball bats. Of course, the plants are usually short-lived anyway, thanks to the bugs, but while they're healthy you have to pick them every day. Which means you pretty much end up with a fridge full of zucchini!
This casserole is a great way to use up some of that excess. It's my mom's recipe, and the one my son insists I use. Feel free to substitute any portion of the zucchini with yellow crookneck (or straight neck) or any other summer squash overflowing your kitchen.
Squash casserole
4 Cups summer squash, chopped, steamed and drained
3 eggs, beaten
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 Cup butter, divided
2 1/2 Cups saltine cracker crumbs, divided
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat your oven to 375F. Grease a three quart casserole dish.
While the squash is steaming, crush the crackers into crumbs (I use a zip bag and my rolling pin) and chop the onion. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup cracker crumbs, the onion, 2 1/2 Tablespoons of butter cut into smaller pieces, and salt and pepper to taste. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Drain the squash and put them in the bowl with the onion mixture. Stir it around to cool it off a little bit, then add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
Melt the remaining butter in the microwave (should take about 15 seconds; make sure you keep a paper towel across the mouth of your container in case it spatters). Pour the butter into the remaining cracker crumbs in their separate bowl and mix to distribute.
Spoon about a third of the squash mix into the greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the surface of the layer of squash with a thin layer of cheese. Repeat with a second and third set of layers until all squash and cheese is used up. Top with the reserved crumb-butter mixture.
Bake until firm and browned, about 30 minutes.
***
The worst part about heat like this is that it makes it hard to want to be in the garden, or to go outside at all, and so you miss amazing sights like the sulphureous explosion of cosmos, or the way the borage flowers look like stained glass against the sky, or the dragonflies dangling from the Queen Anne's lace.
Go out. Seize the next cool morning and walk. You won't be sorry - probably in need of a shower, but not sorry.
***
On the writing front, I'm in the third act in the Bells novel - oh, let's start calling it by its current name. Maybe then it'll stick. Allow me to present to you Tocara, Cantara, Lloré.
...in the third act of Tocara, having finally made it out of the rewrite of the dreaded middle. Changes in the second act are having their expected ripple effect here. I poked and poked at the opening passage, dissatisfied with the emotional resonances, and after a lot of work I got what I think is a pretty damned satisfying scene.
(I'd share, but it's full of spoilers. Sorry.)
I like this book again. Here's to hoping I can sustain that.
One of my books calls zucchini "tiresomely productive" - I have never heard a more accurate description. >:-) Just as it starts to get really hot in the afternoons, the zucchini begins to pop fruit left and right. If you don't keep up with it, you'll very quickly end up with a dead plant surrounded by a bunch of baseball bats. Of course, the plants are usually short-lived anyway, thanks to the bugs, but while they're healthy you have to pick them every day. Which means you pretty much end up with a fridge full of zucchini!
This casserole is a great way to use up some of that excess. It's my mom's recipe, and the one my son insists I use. Feel free to substitute any portion of the zucchini with yellow crookneck (or straight neck) or any other summer squash overflowing your kitchen.
Squash casserole
4 Cups summer squash, chopped, steamed and drained
3 eggs, beaten
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 Cup butter, divided
2 1/2 Cups saltine cracker crumbs, divided
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat your oven to 375F. Grease a three quart casserole dish.
While the squash is steaming, crush the crackers into crumbs (I use a zip bag and my rolling pin) and chop the onion. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup cracker crumbs, the onion, 2 1/2 Tablespoons of butter cut into smaller pieces, and salt and pepper to taste. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Drain the squash and put them in the bowl with the onion mixture. Stir it around to cool it off a little bit, then add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
Melt the remaining butter in the microwave (should take about 15 seconds; make sure you keep a paper towel across the mouth of your container in case it spatters). Pour the butter into the remaining cracker crumbs in their separate bowl and mix to distribute.
Spoon about a third of the squash mix into the greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the surface of the layer of squash with a thin layer of cheese. Repeat with a second and third set of layers until all squash and cheese is used up. Top with the reserved crumb-butter mixture.
Bake until firm and browned, about 30 minutes.
***
The worst part about heat like this is that it makes it hard to want to be in the garden, or to go outside at all, and so you miss amazing sights like the sulphureous explosion of cosmos, or the way the borage flowers look like stained glass against the sky, or the dragonflies dangling from the Queen Anne's lace.
Go out. Seize the next cool morning and walk. You won't be sorry - probably in need of a shower, but not sorry.
***
On the writing front, I'm in the third act in the Bells novel - oh, let's start calling it by its current name. Maybe then it'll stick. Allow me to present to you Tocara, Cantara, Lloré.
...in the third act of Tocara, having finally made it out of the rewrite of the dreaded middle. Changes in the second act are having their expected ripple effect here. I poked and poked at the opening passage, dissatisfied with the emotional resonances, and after a lot of work I got what I think is a pretty damned satisfying scene.
(I'd share, but it's full of spoilers. Sorry.)
I like this book again. Here's to hoping I can sustain that.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 01:49 am (UTC)The heat broke here as well, after I played a game in the woods.