Rural Vegetable Stand

Today I opened a roadside vegetable stand to attempt sell off some of our garden produce and egg abundance. I have been doing my personal best to eat cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and eggs every day, but I can not keep up with the harvest. I do a lot of freezing and I am making unique dishes almost every day, but there is too much. I am giving the vegetables and eggs away to family, but thought I might make a little money on the produce to help pay for things that we can't grow ourselves.  My husband and I painted  a couple of signs to face in each direction on our road.  We live on a well traveled rural road and I am hoping  for some "home-from-work" customers today.  We put up our white EZ-up tent that we have from our days doing craft fairs. We put several signs up and I placed my vegetables on the table.  I am using a peanut butter jar with the "Country Honor System" for payment. There is no time to sit at the stand. Tomorrow I will use a nice tablecloth to make it more inviting!

Sweet Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

I had an abundant zucchini crop last year and I tried many new things with it.  This was a sausage stuffed baked zucchini dish.  My husband's Aunt Pearl suggested it and it was delicions.  Ingredients were a zucchini, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, sweet sausage, marinara sauce and bread crumbs. The first thing I did was to cook up the sweet sausage patties and crumble them up.  The links do not work unless you remove the sausage from the casing.

                                    

The next step it to slice the zucchini down the middle and scoop out the seeds.  Place it in a casserole dish.

I had already cut the end off which, I took some slices from for the top of the zucchini. 

                                 

Use a large mixing bowl and mix the marinara sauce, sausage, grated parmesan cheese and some bread crumbs.  I have no idea how much of each ingredient I used....I use the eyeball measuring method for most things. It always seems to work out.

                                   

Fill the zucchini with the sausage mixture and place some sliced zucchini pieces on the top.

Slice some thick pieces of mozarella cheese and cover the top of the zucchini. Put a small amount of water in the bottom of the casserole dish to help keep it from drying out.  Cover with foil and bake in a 350 oven for 30-45 min.  Test the tenderness of the squash with a fork. 

                                      

When the zucchini is done, take the foil off and put it back in to oven under the broiler to melt the cheese and give it a toasty brown color.

                                    

After it cools enough to cut, go ahead and take a nice sized portion.  Makes a nice lunch or dinner.  Perfect for low carb diets!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

A couple of weeks ago my mother-in-law sent me a recipe for Zucchini Cookies. I finally got around to trying it. I had to modify it a bit since my husband can't have raisins or pecans. I used an extra cup of chocolate chips in place of them. I will put the orignal recipe below. Feel free to modify it as you wish. I think they taste great and so does my husband. My son did not like it at all! I think it was actually the cinnamon that he didn't like in the flavor. When he first looked at it though, he asked if I was trying to hide vegetables again. I told him that I was!

Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened; 1 cup sugar; 1 egg, beaten; 1 cup grated zucchini; 1 cup golden raisins; 1 cup chopped pecans; 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 nonstick baking sheets (I used my Pampered Chef Baking Stone) 2. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl: beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. The dough will be stiff and dry. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. 3. Bake 13-15 minutes, until light brown. Let cookies rest two minutes then remove to wire racks to cool. Makes about 4 dozen. (I got less than 3 dozen...but I made big cookies!)