Zeppelin Zucchini

The ebb and flow of harvest is one of nature's miracles. There's no sleeping on the job around here. If you do you'll likely miss the window of perfect harvest. Such was this week's find- a zeppelin zucchini. I'd been checking the plants (kinda) looking for the nice 6-8 inchers that folks seem to prefer nowadays. True, they are delicious in a stir fry or steamed with a little butter and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.....but one obviously got past me.

The funny thing is- this zeppelin is what my family actually preferred. My grandmother's favorite use of zucchini was as a "Boat". She'd take a sturdy zucc- approximately 18-24 inches with a rind that would hold up in the oven, scoop out the seeds and then fill the zucchini with a rice, tomato, onion mixture. Baked in the oven until the zucchini is fork tender- and you have a meal for many that will last a long, long time. These were wrapped in foil and put in the freezer for us to "enjoy" all winter long.

As a kid- I hated them.....mostly because they were on the menu each week from July to September. In the end, the faster we ate them the sooner we could move on to something else the next day.

If I disliked them so much, why do I crave a Zucchini Boat now? I will resist- as with my picky eaters- I'll be eating that Boat for a week or more! The other option is to grate it, minus the seeds- and freeze in quart size bags for use in muffins and bread this winter. It's a great way to sneak in some veg.

In the end................Diligence is key in order to avoid zeppelins!