Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Zucchini Game is ON


This morning I got up at 6 a.m. and baked a cake (because we don't have a/c, all summer indoor cooking must be done at crazy hours).  A chocolate-zucchini cake.  Yes, zucchini.  If you have it in your garden, then you know what I'm talking about.  I don't know why it is so prolific here - maybe it's the sandy soil, or the perfect balance of sun and shade.  I suspect that it's just one of those vegetables that you simply can't kill (like radishes - which we picked last week. Hundreds. Not bad with a mixture of chili oil, rice vinegar, and brown sugar as a dressing).  Jack's magic beans must  have been zucchini seeds - he just threw them out the window and see what happened?  
On Monday evening we received our first bag of zucchini from our neighbor, Chuck.  It had a great assortment of a few regular green zucchini, a round zucchini, and a yellow zucchini.  In the Garden Farms Zucchini Game, we have been tagged, and we are IT.  We now have to either use up the zucchini (thus the cake experiment) or pass it on to someone else (there's a running joke in the neighborhood that if you are seen leaving your house during the summer, you will find a bag of zucchini on your porch when you get home.  It actually happens.).
But AHA!  I have an advantage (besides all of the creative recipes I have stockpiled over the winter....) in the form of 8 voracious hens who will eat just about anything I put in the coop; especially nice, juicy squash.  So when the humans at our house can't stomach any more zucchini in any form or fashion, I can just cut it up and give it to my plump, feathered garbage disposals.  That means, in the Zucchini Game, we win!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Glorious Summer

Hooray!  Summer is here - and best of all, we've already completed our tenth annual family camping trip to Plaskett Creek.  90's at home, foggy and 60's at Sanddollar State Beach (with good surfing).  In true Jamey Pappas style, we pulled into our camp spot and discovered that there were about 8 Cal Poly Crusade alums camping around us in various places.  The man can't go anywhere without meeting someone he knows.  Activities: laying out (Grace), surfing and mountain biking (Jamey), reading (Gretchen), skimboarding (Jason), grilling the best tri-tip (Jamey), cooking spaghetti in a frying pan because we forgot the pot (Gretchen), walking the dog (Grace), making and playing in fires (Jason), rolling in dirt (Max the dog), playing Yahtzee (everyone).  We also busted out the spooky campfire story book and read about 'Red Man' and other creepy things. 
Back at home now, we are filling the hours with work and play, glad for the time away from our 'other jobs'.