Meeting Cinderella and Elvis at a Virginia Farmers' Market

When I met her in Disneyland (world?  I so get the two mixed up, even though my brother actually worked at the California one, as Aladdin -- no joke -- he looks like Aladdin...and then he dated Jasmine, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella and Snow White, at least two of whom were the same person, it was a confusing time for all of us), Cinderella did not look like a giant orange squash.  But I guess they couldn't call this thing a pumpkin, right? (Btw, bravo to Blogger's spell check for knowing the correct spelling of Cinderella)

The princess with her hand on the Cinderella above is my friend Meghan.  It makes sense she felt a connection because a month ago she was dressed like this, Prince Charming and all!:

*sigh* Back to exotic looking squash. Delicatas.

Spelled Kabocha, I'm going to experiment with these gorgeous babies over Thanksgiving. I plan to use
Tiny Urban Kitchen's wonderful and simple recipe.  Someday, I also plan to take pictures as gorgeous as hers!
For now I'll start with a successful kabocha squash bake.
Look at those little kabochas, you know they so want to be Cinderella when they grow up. Cinderella squash, that is.

(I Am) Awash is Squash

It is rare that my garden gets ahead of me.  But it has happened.

I spent an hour clearing away the dead tomato plants, and then the bad leaves on the squash and zucchini plants. A few months ago, my husband put up a miniature white picket fence to try to pen in the sprawling veggie plants. They were having none of it. They grew right over his one foot fence and have kept growing new squashes right onto his wooden walkway. (Technically it is our walkway, but he did build it himself -- though, I think, mostly, so I didn't walk on the/his grass)

Removing the leaves revealed at least five more fully grown squash.  I can't figure out what to do with them as fast as they produce. 

Brought some inside before I started the clearing:

Because I already had the four above, I decided to ignore the others for a few days, even though they are getting large.  Like this one:

I kinda had no choice, because I could not ignore these monsters:

Chop chop.  Below, You can't even see that big green zuke sliced up because it is completely buried at the bottom of the pyrex dish beneath the gigantic squash slices.  

These were on their way out to the grill. 

Now they are grilled and packed into glass containers in the fridge to eat all week.  Mmmmm!

 

Speaking of yellow deliciousness ... and with no disrespect to the yummy grilled veggies ... the macarons harvested at Saturday's Del Ray Farmers' Market (see recent posts about these beauties) do disappear a little faster than the squash.  

Behold, the Mariana's lemon macaron: 

Blistering Heat That Hasn't Killed My Plants has Made Them Stronger: My Recipe for Super Easy Grilled Zucchini and Baby Yellow Squash w Balsamic

I figured I'd let my garden decide what to bring to a friend's pot luck the other night. I had been away for a few days in not-as-sweltering Boston and downright mild (comparatively) Provincetown. It’s been sweltering in DC and what heat hasn’t killed our plants (At least two baby yellow pear tomato plants bit it), has only made them stronger, sort of in a scary genetic mutation speed-growth kind of way.  My zucchini for example.  I came home to two enormous and odd looking zucchini (alleged zucchini). 



Baby yellow squash, yellow pear tomatoes (a few still green), two enormous green things masquerading as zucchinis, and two of hubby's jalapenos.