Summertime means squash

Today marks the end of the Spring delivery of my Community Supported Agriculture or CSA.  Rebecca Cantey is an adorably lovely lady who has spearheaded the CSA at Ovis Hill Farm for the past two years.  Her enthusiasm for organic gardening and her adoration of vegetables puts her pretty high on my list of very cool people.  Being part of a CSA for the last couple of years is a really self satisfying way to know I am giving back to my local farming community, and doing something good locally.  It also provides, for a type A like me, spontaneity, in the form of vegetables. Spontaneity.  It sounds fun, in theory, for others I mean.  I guess I have found kindred spirits amongst my fellow CSA members, because someone OTHER than me, asked Rebecca right out loud if we could know in ADVANCE what we were getting each week, which she graciously agreed to and now provides in an email the day before our weekly pick up.   And in all reality, when you are type A like me, and a planner to boot, that was just about the best news I could have gotten. So that's sort of spontaneous, right?  I get whatever vegetables are seasonally available, but I get to know in advance.  We call that compromise around these parts.

    Now the other thing that you get when you sign on for an entire growing season worth of a CSA, is seasonal produce.  In the very short timespan that our country has gone from an agricultural country to one of agribusiness, I don’t remember a period of my lifetime where I had ever to concern myself with seasonal.  Random Tuesday in the middle of January and I have a hankering for Asparagus?? No problem.  Strawberries in September, certainly! Convenient for sure, but at a great sacrifice to, the most important, or at least one of the most, important aspects of eating, taste.  The sometimes inconvenient aspect of eating seasonally is repetition.  Vegetables have a specific, preset, unless of course Monsanto has genetically altered it,  harvest time.  You plant a seed and you pretty much know, more or less, when said item will be ready to pick.  So as the season progresses from cool Spring, to hot Summer, back to cool Fall, there are definite periods when you have a LOT of one type of vegetable.

    And here in the South mid-June, It’s SQUASH time ya’ll.  We’ve had it grilled, sauteed, grilled in the basket with onions, casseroled, and even made into bread and muffins.  And there is still more squash yet to come.  And, don’t get me wrong, I really like squash, but sometimes the monotony, both production and consumption forces me to fire up my creative side and develop something different.  Enter Squash cakes.  Because lets face it, every single body, likes whatever it is you are cooking when you call it cake.  Crab, black bean, shrimp, Potato, corn, all delicious and all cakes.

    It all began, as it usually does around here, with some PlannedOver Squash Casserole, determined not to heat and repeat, I tossed in some bread crumbs and a little parmesan cheese, pan seared to create a textural contrast and voilà* Squash Cakes!!

Pan Seared Squash Cake

Squash Casserole

Yellow Summer Squash - sliced

Onion chopped

Greek Yogurt

Low Fat Mayo

Parmesan Cheese

Saute the squash and onion until soft, adding water to the pan if it gets too dry. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper, approximately 10-15 minutes. Add equal parts yogurt and mayo and sprinkle parmesan cheese to your liking, combine and bake at 350 until golden.

Squash Cakes

PlannedOver Squash Casserole

Bread Crumbs

Parmesan

Add enough bread crumbs to mixture so that it holds together when forming cakes.  Pan sear over medium heat in butter until golden on each side 4 or so minutes per side.

Enjoy!  Happy Eating! And Happy Summer!

*Anyone who knows me can attest to the atrocity of my spelling.  I had to consult, Google, MG, and the sister, all to produce the correct spelling of this word.  And let’s not even begin to discuss my half hearted feeble attempt at trying to unearth exactly where to locate an accent.  Grateful for the cut and paste.