Tasty Treats at Summer's End

Indulge with me, as I try my hand at sarcastic food blogging.

Think summer’s not a time for baking? Think again! Even in my tiny, cramped, and hot kitchen, I’ve managed to put my locally-grown zucchinis to use. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t care for zucchini unless heavily seasoned or made into a loaf of various sorts. For me, muffins make the cut every time.

What’s my secret?? Forgetting to get the eggs to room temperature and using them cold anyway! Sometimes lack of planning pays off. I also like to call an audible and cut the amount of sugar in half. They still come out plenty sweet, and you can feel a bit better about eating just one more…

You can almost feel how moist they are…

Another project I’ve always wanted to do—stashed away in a list on my phone titled “Stuff I’ll Never Get To”—is to pickle cabbage. Well, our CSA-bundle didn’t come with cabbage this week, but it did include half a dozen pickling cucumbers. I bet you can guess what I did with em!

My pickling station

For the brine I did a 1:1 ratio of white and apple cider vinegar, along with sugar, salt, lime juice, and a dash of cayenne. I also added a jar of red and white onions, and the smaller carrots from the remaining bunch. I wouldn’t say the heat of the cayenne really came through, however—next time I’ll be more liberal with it.

I’ve had these pickling for about a week and a half now and the pickles and onions turned out great! In line with their personality, the carrots are stubborn and haven’t picked up as much flavor, but get better with each passing day.

To put these morsels to use, last week we had some friends over for dinner. We adorned our burgers with these snappy little suckers, and let me tell ya—that’s a crunch you don’t want to miss out on! Along with an ear of sweet corn, a few sweet potato wedges, a cold drink, and good conversation, summer evenings don’t get much better.