First Week in August

August is a difficult month. On the one hand, the heat inspires langour, and the garden bounty is proof that summer is still very much with us. The ancient Irish knew this, as we have just passed the festival of Lunasa (Lughnasadh), a cross-quarter day that marks the middle of the summer, or the height of the growing season. High summer indeed.

But we are also hastening towards the fall. Back-to-school sales have taken the place of post-July Fourth sales at the big-box outlets, and teachers are beginning to think about fall classes. I'm guilty on that front; my colleague Kari and I are thinking about syllabus revisions for our Evolutionary Biology course at BU, and Paul and I are revising our American Traditional Music online course, due to start right after Labor Day.

I don't want to think about that right now. I want to think about the fruits of summer - what the garden is doing, and the flowers that mark this season. So here are a few photos from the flower garden for this week, the first full week of August. High summer, anticipating a Supermoon on Sunday the 10th, and days full of indolence, sunny heat and sudden thunderstorms.  The syllabi can wait ...

The Garden

This week's best flowers

Hydrangea "Everlasting Summer" and Gooseneck Loosestrife (Lysimachia), around the patio in back.
This loosestrife always reminds me of Acadia National Park, where I first saw a huge bunch of it outside the Jordan Pond House. This is the third season for the hydrangea, and they have been practically carefree and reliably blue.

Daylily season is past its prime, but there are still some gorgeous blooms to be enjoyed. Gardening centers are marking down their plants about now, and I've just bought two additions to the Hemerocallis collection to plug holes.

Oriental lilies, large and fragrant, are putting on a show right about now. This is a lovely, unnamed, cultivar.

An orange rose bud can be seen between the Black-Eyed Susans and the Spirea.

Our pet frog, Fillmore, is happily at home in the fountain puddle. The water lily is a small hardy variety - but it has not yet bloomed. I am still hoping. The hot pink cosmos make a nice fringe for the puddle, as does a small pink Spirea.

An arrangement of backyard blooms:

Here is an arrangement of some of the more colorful flowers now at their best. I've laid the foundation with ferns and Everlasting Summer hydrangeas, and added gooseneck loosestrife, whose curves mimic those of the hammered silver pitcher, which I found at a local antique shop. Red Spirea adds color, and I've mixed in some buds of native Joe Pye Weed and some parsley seed heads for texture and balance. 

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Recipes for the week

What do you do with a monster zucchini? 

Vegetable gardeners, at this time of the year, often face the problem of plenty. Squash plants, especially, produce far more fruits than bargained for when the seeds went into the ground in April. I did not plant squash this year, as the plants always seem to outstrip our appetites. I also knew that we might be the recipients of some other garden's bounty. Sure enough - a box of football-sized zucchini showed up at church last Sunday, with a written (and Biblical - ) plea to "take and eat". Okay. But just ONE. 

So - what to do with a monster squash? Grilling it is not an appetizing option - the center of such behemoths is wooly and tasteless. So I opted for two alternatives for the vegetable, and built a menu around them. 

First, I halved the well-scrubbed squash and scooped out the center (into the composter. Bleah.)

Then I grated two cups of the unpeeled remaining squash, and used it in a really easy and tasty chocolate cake. To wit: 

Chocolate Zucchini Sheet Cake

Preheat  the oven to 325 degrees. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 stick softened butter (I always used salted butter - for reasons of taste - with only one exception. More about that later ...), 1/2 cup canola oil, and 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar. Mix until the sugar dissolves (this is known as creaming. With the added oil, it's more like emulsification).  Add two eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract and beat well.

Measure into another bowl 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 tsp. fine salt, and 1 tsp. baking soda. You can add 1 tsp. ground cinnamon if you like, but it is not necessary.  Mix the dry ingredients together with a whisk - there is no need to sift!

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture alternately with 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just enough to combine. Fold in 2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini, and spread the batter in a buttered and floured 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts over the batter, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean (or almost clean; this cake will continue to bake in the center after it comes out of the oven).

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Well, the cake only used up a portion of the monster zucchini.  As for the rest - it was time to make ratatouille.  This iconic Mediterranean vegetable stew has as many recipes as there are cooks. There are a few constants, though: eggplant, summer squash, onions, tomatoes and peppers.

There are many different ways of making it, as well. I have to agree with Julia Child, however, when she prescribes that the different elements should be cooked separately, and then layered for a final heating to merge the flavors. Here, then, is my way of making ratatouille, in the spirit of the indomitable  Mrs. Child:

Ratatouille

Stem two small eggplants and slice lengthwise into 1/2 inch-thick segments. Place these on a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat) in a single layer. Brush the slices with olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, dried (or fresh) oregano, and dried (or fresh) thyme leaves. 

Stem and slice two small (or the remnants of one monster) zucchini, and place them on another baking sheet. Add slices of red or orange bell peppers. Prepare these vegetables for roasting as you did the eggplants. 

Roast these vegetables at 350 degrees until they are soft and slightly caramelized on the undersurface, about 20-30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, coarsely slice one large or two medium sweet yellow onions, two large portobello mushroom caps, and 3-4 large garlic cloves.  Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large covered Dutch oven over moderate heat, and add the onions. Cook the onions slowly, until they are translucent and aromatic. Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano, and cook until the herbs are fragrant. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and cook, covered, until all the vegetables have wilted and combined well. Add two 14-oz. cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and cook until everything is hot and fragrant. 

Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven, and pour the sauteed vegetables out of the Dutch oven. Now, beginning with the zucchini, layer the sliced roasted vegetables with the sauteed vegetable mix, back into the Dutch oven, ending with a decorative layer of eggplant. Cover the pot and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to combine flavors. 

Let the stew sit on the stove until you want to serve it. I like it best just warmer than room temperature. Add a drizzle of very good olive oil and a sprinkle of finishing salt when you serve it. 

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I served the ratatouille with a simple roasted bone-in chicken breast. My favorite way to prepare this is to marinate the meat for about 30 minutes in Ken's (original) Italian Dressing - NOT the low-fat kind, which is an abomination. Tuck a sprig of fresh rosemary under the skin, and either grill it or roast it. I roasted the chicken this time, using the same sheet I'd used for the eggplant. Yes, with the remnants of the olive oil and herbs still on it. Extra flavor! 

Add some ripe cherry tomatoes to the plates for fresh taste and color, and a loaf of crusty bread, and you've got dinner. 

Plus chocolate cake for dessert! 

Cross off one monster zucchini. 

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In August, preserving gets into full swing. I enjoyed some especially good dilled green beans as part of a ploughman's lunch at a nearby brew pub this past week, and - well - I had some fresh haricots waiting to be picked in the garden.  These are some of the jars from the second pickling episode of the year (okra was first, a few weeks ago, and they are almost ready to be sampled). The other pickles are bread and butter cukes, also made with vegetables and herbs from the garden.  I also started a crock of Edna Lewis' best pickles - they must be finished this week! Stay tuned.