eviction notice
zucchini bounty and strawberry cream
Hello again, my friends. Sorry to be a downer right off the bat but we’ve just been given two months’ notice by our landlord. We suspected this was coming, but it still really sucks to be losing our home of the past six years, and to have only two months to find a new one when the market is so tough. It’s also been a hectic week ahead of a vacation, and I’m trying to scramble this short newsletter together after my last day of work until the 31st. I can’t decide if it would have been worse to come back to this news rather than trying to enjoy a holiday with it hanging over our heads, but I guess it’s sort of like asking if I’d rather be kicked in the kneecaps or the stomach.
I didn’t end up going to the Shipyards movie last week because I had a bad day (the matter seems so unimportant now…) and wasn’t up for a crowd, but we did get some sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken at Chicken Box and walked around at sunset instead, which was a definite improvement on my mood.
This Saturday we will be in the Okanagan for a wedding at a winery, and we’ll be sticking around for a couple of days afterwards, too. Last year’s wine trip was an eye-opener as to how expensive things got during the pandemic, so we won’t be visiting too many places (and we also don’t need to replenish too much of our wine cellar), but I’m looking forward to visiting a couple of our faves. Things are a bit up in the air after that: our intention is to visit Jeff’s dad in Quesnel, but a lot is dependent on the fire situation, so we may end up staying in the Okanagan longer instead. We’ll see how it goes. Either way, I’m looking forward to some time away and some good tunes in the car.
Over the weekend, I was motivated by my friend Emily’s tweets about strawberry mousse to make the recipe she linked, for strawberry Bavarian cream. It’s essentially a whipped cream that’s set partway using gelatin and the addition of strawberry purée. I didn’t have quite enough strawberries, so I made up the difference with black raspberries from our garden, which gave it a really deep, rich colour. When I make whipped cream I use the whisk attachment for the hand blender and a measuring cup, because it’s super quick, and it always leaves me in awe of the fact that it’s technically possible to make it using just a whisk and your own elbow grease. People before the advent of electric mixers were truly on another level.
I made a half batch, which was still a lot, and my initial plan was to use it as a cake filling, but I was too lazy for a layer cake. Instead, I made Alicia Kennedy’s lemon zest olive oil cake, leaving out the rosemary because I didn’t want it to distract from the flavour of the berries. This is a delicious and simple cake that I’ve made a couple of times since she published the recipe, and it was a great match here. I let the cream set in a shallow bowl and then scooped servings out with an ice cream scoop. Maybe not as aesthetically pleasing as individual serving dishes, but that didn’t stop me from being proud of it.
I also made enchiladas on the weekend, something that is a bit of a production, but not so bad if you have one or two of the elements ready to go beforehand. I had sauce in the freezer from the last time we made these, and I cooked pinto beans in the morning so they’d be ready for assembly at dinnertime. This filling is based on the potato-kale enchilada recipe in the Veganomicon, but I find it a bit bland on its own, so I always add beans, more spices, and cheese on top. I also prefer flour tortillas to corn— using eight of the 6” ones is just enough to use up all the mix and fill my 11”x7” casserole dish.
Even though I still had to wash a frying pan, a pot, a colander , and the cheese grater, the cooking time (35-40 minutes) is long enough that I was able to do all those and still spend a decent amount of time sitting in the yard drinking a glass of wine and reading while I waited. These were so good both for dinner and lunch the next day, and now I’m a little sad because I’ll have to make sauce again next time I feel like eating them
The theme for the rest of the week was desperately trying to use up as much zucchini as possible before we leave on Friday. The plant has been nicknamed the hydra, because every time we pull a ripe one off, two more seem to appear the next day. Even after giving one away to our neighbours whose dog is obsessed with Jeff, and cooking four of them, we have five still in the kitchen. I’m the ‘why can’t I hold all these limes’ meme but with yellow zucchini. Anyway, I was either too lazy to make the nicer dishes I gravitate towards to use them up, or tired of the things I make with them all the time, so I made a couple of little casseroles to eat with bread (I finally fed my sourdough starters and made a loaf on Sunday, too).
The book Six Seasons has lots of summer squash ideas, and there was a nice-looking one for a sort of tuna melt-esque dish using a variety of thin-skinned squashes, but reading through all the steps it seemed needlessly fussy. Salting the squash for hours and then roasting and assembling the casserole in layers like a shepherd’s pie? And then baking it all again? Who do they think I am? I’m sure it’s great like that if you want to eat it on its own, but I went the more traditional 'tuna melt’ route and just cooked down shredded zucchini with garlic, fresh oregano, and a few cherry tomatoes from the garden, stirring in the tuna and herbs at the end before adding the cheese. I loved it, and I loved that it only took about half an hour to make.
To use up the rest of the pinto beans I’d cooked for the enchiladas, I made a variation of the kind of cheesy baked beans I make often when I don’t know what to make, and these turned out really good. I made sort of a loose tomato sauce with shredded zucchini (again) and smoky-hot chili powder and some herbs from the garden, adding beans at the end and then topping with cheese. Easy and super flavourful, and uses two of summer’s most bountiful harvests, if you find yourself awash in tomatoes or zucchini like us. I’ve included an approximation of my recipe below— I didn’t use a recipe when cooking, this was written down after the fact, so don’t worry too much about the measurements! Just cook ‘til it looks and tastes right to you.
SUMMER BAKED BEANS
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced (or half a diced onion)
1 medium zucchini, shredded (250-300g)
1-2 tomatoes, diced (around 200g)
fresh oregano, thyme, and basil (or use smaller quantities of dried)
½ to ¾ teaspoon each smoked and hot chile powders
juice of half a lemon or 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 to 1½ cups cooked beans (I used pinto, but another mild-tasting bean like navy or cannellini would work too)
water or broth
salt
shredded parmesan and cheddar
Heat the oven to 450°F. Cook the garlic and shallot in olive oil in a 10” oven-safe pan over medium heat until slightly browned and softened.
Add the tomato, zucchini, and about a teaspoon of salt and let cook down for a few minutes, then add the herbs and chile powders. Cook for about 15 minutes over medium-high, until the zucchini and tomatoes are both wilted and saucy looking. Deglaze with 1/4 cup of broth, then add the beans, mashing some of them with your spoon. Add more broth as needed until the desired consistency is reached. Remember some of the moisture will cook off in the oven, so they should be a bit more liquidy than you actually want for serving.
Taste for seasoning, then turn off the heat and sprinkle cheese over top. I used a few tablespoons of parmesan and about a cup of cheddar. Bake for 12 minutes, then broil for 1-2 minutes to brown the cheese.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats (or moving costs 😓) are much appreciated. No newsletter next week, as we will theoretically still be away. Anyway, tell me you didn’t watch this movie as a kid and think the same thing.