Filling the Freezer with Fritters

Honest, i don't always make total junk food.  Sometimes i take healthy things and turn them into junk food.

All this without grating my fingers!

The CSA from Fair Weather Acres is great.  But like most folks in the summer, we've got an abundance of zucchini and summer squash.  I've already made a few batches of zucchini bread, and even brought some to work, where it quickly disappeared, but i still had way too much to use up and squash bread is less popular.

Then i saw a recipe for zucchini fritters... this sounded interesting!  Grated zucchini with a little flour, egg, spices and fried?  And promised to freeze well?  Hmmmm.  It was rainy out, and supposed to cool off (once again the weatherman LIES!).

This time i followed a recipe by Smitten Kitchen, which was amazing and yum.  My changes were using whole wheat flour, and making a second round with summer squash (which used a little more scallion).

Tasty tasty zucchini

Seriously? Make these.  Try not to eat them as they come out of the pan.  OK, eat the little bits that aren't a whole piece right out of the pan.  Or the ones that are a little too crispy.  Or not round.

Who am i kidding.  These and two muffins (and two hard ciders) were dinner last night.  And some more are lunch today, with some cherry tomatoes and a plum.

Some tips - definitely use a cheesecloth for de-watering the veggies.  I used a towel for the zucchini and it may be green forever.  Also the pore size was too small and took longer.  There is a LOT of water in these veggies and the full 10 minutes with salt makes a difference.

I only have a grater, but the texture was fine, sort of like a hashbrown of sorts.

These should freeze fine, and will update if not.  We'll probably know soon, because i want more already.

Muffin Experiments

Peach muffins

First off, although i didn't run yesterday because of the weather, i did make a rather crazy fitness choice - I signed up for the Warrior Dash.  This is a race that is around 3.5 miles, with a series of obstacles including climbing over walls, balancing on narrow boards, crawling through mud and jumping over fire.  Aimee, who is my running inspiration, as well as my brother will be joining me.  I've got until September to try and gain some upper body strength, as well as continue working on my running.

I did use the evening for productivity.  First off, i made a batch of peach muffins, using Alton Brown's muffin recipe from I'm Just Here for More Food, with a slight modification.  I used half whole wheat, half white flour (by weight).  I sifted the dry ingredients twice, to make sure things were incorporated.  I also used greek yogurt, because that's what i had.  I didn't measure, just went with what i had left in the container, which looked to be about a cup.  Because that's what i had.

I had wanted to use some raspberries in these, but sadly mine had gotten moldy, and the ones that were salvageable were too soft, and i didn't want pink muffins.

Blueberry muffin

I love the flavor the whole wheat added, but i think next time they will need a lower temperature, as the outside came close to being burned had i not turned off the oven and let them finish as the heat reduced.  These muffins were also a little more dense in comparison with the blueberry muffins i made several days ago using the same recipe except using only white flour.  I have done a little reading and learned there is such a thing as pastry whole wheat flour and may investigate such a product.  I don't believe white flour is the devil but any change to get a little better nutrition is nice.

Both batches were not sweet, nor cakey, but felt like something old-fashioned and comforting.  I'm interesting in trying a savory batch sometime soon, perhaps some sort of herb and cheese thing.

Because i made the blueberry muffins before leaving for a trip to Massachusetts for a family gathering, i froze them and found they were still great post-freezer.  They also defrosted quickly, which is handy.  I decided to freeze all but 3 of the peach muffins (two i ate for dinner, plus one for today's lunch, don't judge!).  We'll see if the flour choice has any impact there.

In related news, i recently read two posts from Food 52, one on Food Styling and the other on Food Photography.  Please bear with me as i try and learn (and also use my iPhone 4S as my camera).

Trust & Productivity

One of the things that is critical in GTD is trusting your system.  You have to really believe in your collection systems, or you won't use them.  When that breaks down, the system breaks down.  You have to know something will be in the right folder, or on your calendar, because if you lose faith, you will quit using it.

I'm having a faith issue with a different collection point - my freezer.  Once again, we are out power, so far for  about 36 hours and counting.  Although I live in a fairly urban/suburban area, I also live on a tree-lined street in southern New England, and the weather can be harsh.  In the past several years we've lost all of our cold food more than once, and it's heart breaking.  I haven't gotten too far into OAMC (once-a-month cooking) and this is precisely why.  I can't trust that we will have consistent power to keep too much in the freezer!

I'm not sure how to bridge this gap, short of buying a generator.  Although I can do my best to keep things full with ice and not open the freezer when the power is off, I don't really feel like potentially exposing myself or my family to contaminated food.

Ideas on how do learn to trust my freezer?  See this from a different perspective?