Summer Veg

When we got home from the beach on Saturday, we were greeted by a scary sight:

our yard after a week of rain + sun.

Cooper's mom did some picking for us, but she didn't take anything home.

So we've got a lot to eat.

This is just one part of the bounty:

It is taking up QUITE a bit of counter space in my kitchen.

Before we left, I threw a bunch of sliced cucumbers, jalapenos, and banana peppers

into various half-filled pickle jars we have in the fridge.

I call it the lazy man's pickling process - but it works. The jar full of cucumber

and jalapeno slices is especially good right now.

Yesterday, Cooper did some real-life pickling - the kind using pickling spices -

so now we are seriously set for pickles.

We're also set for tomatoes. I've got a bunch of romas and cherries

roasting in the oven right now (toss with olive oil, salt and pepper

and stick in the oven for about 90 minutes et voila).

Plus we had this heirloom tomato, basil, mozzarella and bread salad last night:

You can't go wrong, really, with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes.

The zucchini are especially daunting.

I don't love zucs when they're gigantic - and ours grew to ENORMITY

while we were at the beach.

When they're really big, I just don't think they have much flavor.

Fortunately, flavor doesn't matter quite as much when you're making fritters.

I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, following it just about exactly.

And this is what I got:

They were fantastic and extremely easy to make.

I'm sure I'll make them again this season. They'd make an excellent

hors d'oeuvres - and they're very easy to make ahead and reheat.

Tonight, I think it'll have to be some sort of pasta with tomato sauce.

Then maybe stuffed peppers tomorrow.

I really need to use this stuff. I need my counters back!