Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Over Labor Day weekend, I spent an afternoon on my grandparent's farm. With spacious skies, fresh air, and endless fields of rolling grass, the prairie reminds me why I call it home. My grandparent's farm could come out of a children's book with the bright green tractors, dirt and ducks, and big red barn. A small garden near the house overflows with zucchini and cucumbers. The smell of bread and butter wafts from the windows of the house.

The farm is a place to escape from technology and learn to appreciate the simplicity of nature.

My sister and I love to go on "adventures" whenever we visit, exploring the land as it changes between seasons. This time we walked through a sunflower field, dancing between the plants as we weaved a path to the center of the field, the smell of plants and dirt filling the air. The bright green plants with brown flowers towered over our heads, the distinct yellow of the sunflowers fading as the seeds inside prepare themselves for the harvest. Twenty feet into the field, our entrance was completely obscured. The sunflowers appeared to go infinitely in every direction, an endless field of life and growth.

Taking a break to rest in the dry dirt, my sister and I stopped to sample the fruits of the flower's labor. The heads of the sunflowers were twice the size of my own, facing the ground instead of the sun from the sheer weight of a fruitful summer. It took two hands to lift the giant flowers up towards the sun; I never knew sunflowers could grow to be so unbelievably large.

We sampled the sunflower seeds, plucking them from the center of the flower, admiring the fuzz that surrounded each seed as if it was a ripe peach. The soft fuzz was a surprise for both of us, never imagining that sunflowers were or could be anything other than smooth. The seeds were pure white; the taste subtle. I felt a little closer to the earth that rested beneath my feet.

The rev of an engine drew us back out of the field. Hopping on a four-wheeler, we drove around the golden fields, the wind tangling my hair as we circled around hay bales, the sun peeking out behind the clouds to illuminate the golden grass. Dinnertime drew us back into the house and the scent of German cooking filled the air. We never fail to eat our fill.

At the end of the day, it's hard to leave the farm and go back to reality. I never get enough of the crisp air and piercing stars after a setting sun.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins feel like a pleasure from a simpler time. The muffins are surprisingly moist and flavorful. Even though zucchini is added to the batter, the vegetable flavor remains subtle. With the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate chips, the muffins are given the feel of a spice cake (with a bite of chocolate every now and then). A simple spread of butter is all these muffins need to make a lasting impression.

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Cucumber & Zucchini Cream Cheese Slices

First and foremost, I want to apologize for my leave of absence for the last few weeks. I have not disappeared or taken an unannounced break from blogging. Instead, my explanation is rather simple, albeit mundane—computer problems. The moment I returned from vacation, my hard drive crashed spectacularly, rendering my computer completely unusable. Thanks to my wonderful father and his hard work installing a new hard drive, I have a fully functioning computer sitting in my lap this evening.

I can say with great sincerity that I have missed these small moments we share together.

August is one of my favorite months when it comes to food; it's the beginning of harvest. After a trip to the local farmer's market, my kitchen is suddenly host to my obsession with fresh vegetables. As they line the counter tops and spill out of the refrigerator, I often sit back and seriously question myself on what I've just done, convinced I'll never manage to eat my way through them on time. After a few pasta dishes and makeshift hashes topped with an egg, the vegetables quickly disappear and I find myself back at the market in a week's time.

This is a cycle I wish I could enjoy more than a few months out of the year.

On my most recent trip to the farmer's market, I picked up a bundle of cucumbers, zucchinis, and leeks, among many other vegetables. More often than not I don't have a plan for using them, choosing instead to find inspiration in front of the stove when dinner time comes around. This time the inspiration came from my mother.

During the summer months, she occasionally whips up traditional German summer fare (I come from a long line of German heritage). One of my family's favorite dishes is made with small dumplings which are covered in a cold cream sauce with thinly sliced cucumbers or lettuce. Without her recipe to guide me, I created an inspired version of the dish for myself, turning it into an open faced sandwich so I could easily pack it in my lunchbox during the work week. The ingredients may be simple, but the flavors in this dish are wonderfully complex (and it'll use up some of those ripe vegetables still sitting in the garden).

Cucumber & Zucchini Cream Cheese Slices is a deconstructed version of one of my mother's traditional summer dishes. Thinly sliced cucumbers, zucchini, and leeks are sprinkled with salt and pepper and splashed with vinegar. This salad is then placed on top of French bread spread thickly with cream cheese to create an open-faced sandwich. The acidity of the vinegar and the tang of the cream cheese complement the mild tones of the cucumber and zucchini (with a zing from the leeks) in an unexpected, but welcome manner.

A tip of advice: the thinner the vegetables are sliced, the better the salad comes together (if you have a mandolin, now is the time to pull it out of the cupboard).

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Zucchini Bread

About this time of year, gardens everywhere begin to overflow with ripe tomatoes, peas on the vine, fresh cucumbers, and... the dreaded zucchini. Now don't get me wrong, I like zucchini. We're real good friends when he's fried in butter with onions and potatoes. But there's only so much zucchini a person can take. Even a couple zucchini plants in the garden can produce a monstrous number of zucchini children.

And oh do those children grow up fast...

In my neighborhood, zucchini is rampant. We've become so infested with the green vegetable, we'd certainly be doomed if they ever gained sentience and turned on us (zucchini apocalypse, anyone?). I'm not only faced with the problem of having about 10 zucchini too many, but so is everyone else. It's reached the point where we can't even give zucchini away.

Just a few days ago, someone left a bag of zucchini under the mailbox. The poor zucchini sat there for a long time, begging to be picked up, to be loved, to be eaten. It was a couple days before someone took pity on the poor souls and brought them home. You know the infestation is bad when people turn away from garden ripe vegetables.

My parents have a running joke with friends that around this time of year you need to keep the car doors locked and the windows up because someone might just leave a zucchini in your car if you aren't careful. They've even taken it a step further and stashed zucchini in their friend's cars when they weren't looking. I have a hard time imagining my father as a zucchini fairy, but too many vegetables can mess with your mind.

If you happen to have this very same green vegetable problem, zucchini bread is a great (and delicious!) way to use up a few of your vegetables. But, if you still find you have one too many of these vegetables after baking up a storm, you could always find an open car window...

This Zucchini Bread is moist, dense, and lightly sweetened. The bread has hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and is made with brown sugar, which gives a hint of molasses to the finished product. The best part of this bread is that you can customize each loaf with an extra touch. I made one loaf with chocolate chips and the other with walnuts (though I imagine a loaf of zucchini bread stuffed full of raisins would be a dream). Topped with a thick spread of butter or jam, this bread is perfect for using up all the extra garden zucchini.

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