Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I know for the uninitiated this cake doesn't sound that appealing. Chocolate and zucchini sound like two foods that should never go together, but in reality they make a really delicious cake. Our friend gave us some zucchini from her garden and I needed to use it for something. We were going to a party and needed to bring a dish, so I decided to try this cake out on some unsuspecting party-goers. I found this recipe (appropriately) on the Chocolate & Zucchini blog. I used Droste cocoa powder (available at gourmet grocery stores, and better than the Nestle or Hershey's stuff), and used Tollhouse semisweet chocolate chips. I didn't have a 3 quart springform pan (which is a 10" pan for those of us in America), so I used my 9" springform pan which worked out fine.

This is one fabulous cake. You can't even tell that there is zucchini in it. The zucchini just makes the cake extremely moist. Now, I'm not going to kid myself and say that this cake is good for you just because there are vegetables in it. There is still a stick of butter, a cup of sugar, and several eggs in it. But it is a lot lighter than some of the other chocolate desserts I have made, and still very chocolatey. Next time (and there will be a next time) I'll try bittersweet chocolate chips instead to make the flavor a little richer. (I like my chocolate cakes rich). My brown sugar topping got a little burnt, so I might skip that and just use hazelnuts only or skip that and just dust the top with powdered sugar.

Luckily, we had to leave the party early before too many people had gotten dessert, so we got to take a lot of the cake home and enjoy it for ourselves. Some might say that's selfish, but I would call it being smart, wouldn't you? :)

Penne With Zucchini and Basil

If there's one vegetable that we almost always have in our refrigerator in the summer, it's zucchini. We get zucchini or yellow squash in our CSA basket most weeks now, and we also got a few zucchini from a friend who has an abundance of them growing in her garden. I found this recipe for a quick weeknight dinner this week. I used penne because that's what I had on hand. I used three medium sized zucchini, but really should have used four. I also only used one cup of fresh basil, since that's all I had in my garden (my basil plants are still teeny). We just used Parmesan cheese in a bottle - cheap, and yes, not as good as the freshly grated stuff, but I am not that picky about the type of cheese we use and don't want to spend a lot of money on cheese.

This was a great, easy weeknight dinner. The fresh basil really makes this dish - it would have been nice to use more of it if I could!

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte with Parmesan

We had company over last night, and I wanted to try to use up our summer squash. I found this recipe and tweaked it a little bit. Instead of green onions, I caramelized some Vidalia onions. I didn't have fresh Parmesan so used sharp cheddar instead. I also threw in a couple of sliced leeks since I'm not really sure what else to do with those. I also used russet potatoes instead of Yukon golds, and yellow zucchini instead of crooknecks. I didn't really measure the amounts of potatoes or zucchini - I just cut up enough to fill two 9x13 inch pans. I also used a little more olive oil because it just didn't look like enough - although the cheese does have some oil to it and I hadn't accounted for that. I guess I basically made a whole different recipe. But hey, isn't that what real cooking is all about? Tweaking?

This was pretty good except it was way too salty, so salty that it made it much less enjoyable. I didn't realize that there was so much salt in cheddar cheese. If I made this again I would omit the salt altogether. It was a little too much work for something that was good but not amazing, so I don't know if I'd make it again.

Couscous with Spiced Zucchini and Tofu

I was given a large, green, round summer squash a week ago, and I decided to make this recipe with it. It kind of looked zucchini-like so I thought I could just substitute it. This was just okay. The squash didn't taste at all like zucchini - it was more, I don't know, squashy - and the skin was a lot tougher. I threw in some pan-fried tofu to make it more of a substantial meal - I used a different brand than I usually do, and it was just okay. I can tell when a meal bombs when my husband goes to the fridge and gets out the barbecue sauce. Oh well. At least it wasn't turnip soup bad. It was okay, it just wasn't that flavorful.

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes and Broiled Zucchini with Parmesan Crust

I have decided that I don't like "themed" potlucks. They are way too stressful. We went to an Italian-themed potluck yesterday and I spent so much time online trying to find a good recipe that I didn't have to buy too many ingredients for. I figured everyone would be bringing some sort of pasta dish so I wanted to bring something different. We had a bunch of potatoes so I made this potato dish. It was pretty good - nothing fancy, but hey, they're potatoes.



I also had some zucchini in the fridge so I made this broiled zucchini dish. I thought it was good, but my husband wasn't crazy about it, probably because it was lukewarm when he ate it. Lukewarm zucchini is just not that great. I kind of burned them under the broiler, and I had only had them under there for about 2 1/2 minutes (the recipe says broil it for four minutes). I scraped some of the burnt part off because I didn't want to bring a burnt dish to a potluck! That is too embarrassing. I used bottled grated Parmesan which I wouldn't recommend. Oh well. Live and learn.