Next to tomatoes, zucchini must be the garden staple most-often shared with friends and neighbors by zealous gardeners who are over-whelmed by the bounty of zucchini.  Resourceful cooks and bakers have developed recipes such as zucchini bread and zucchini cake so as not to let this precious vegetable go to waste.  Zucchini is loaded with minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.
 
Growing up, the only zucchini with which I was acquainted was more than a foot long, very dark green, and weighing several pounds.  It arrived in my parents’ Chicago grocery store late in summer, always early on Friday mornings delivered in a red truck with gold lettering that proudly read Panzarella & Son, our produce vendors.  While his son Tony carried in the many boxes, baskets, and hampers of vegetables and fruit, Senor Panzarella, whom my Father always greeted in Italian, would make himself comfortable on a chair in our store’s back room and patiently trim away excess greenery from heads of lettuce and such, and he made sure that only the freshest, unblemished produce would be left with us.  One customer always came just as soon as she saw the red truck arrive from Chicago’s Randolph Street Market, founded in 1850.  Edna Ferber wrote about this famous market in So Big.
 
As each fruit and vegetable was unpacked and inspected, my Father would display it artistically on oak shelving in front of the store—veggies by the long window and fruits on a perpendicular wall.  Our early Friday customer would pluck each produce item she wanted and set it on the counter with her other groceries.  I don’t know how she cooked super-sized zucchini, but my Mother made it per this recipe.  If zucchini is bolting in your garden or you find a super-sized one in a farmers market, try this recipe.
 
EnJOY​

​The roux-and-sour cream sauce for this version of zucchini also works very well for green beans, wax beans, and white turnips.  These vegetables, however, require blanching before being added to the sauce.  Can be made ahead.  Freezes well.  Simply thaw and reheat slowly.

Fear no Garlic!
Brian Dean Bondy
 
Ingredients
 
1 lb large shell on shrimp
½ - 1 head of garlic
Olive Oil
Seasoned Salt
Lemon
Red pepper or Chipolte (optional)
 
Something from Spain.  Heat a large frying pan and pour in olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.  Swirl it around on the sides.  For a pound of shrimp (shell-on), use at least half a head of garlic, and make it a large head.  Add a few cloves of the crushed garlic to the oil to flavor it and cook till it’s really brown because that’s Carol’s favorite part.  Then dump in the shrimp and shake the pan so the shrimp are all flat on the pan.  Sprinkle them with salt (or seasoned salt).  Cook till they’re done on that side and then flip them over and add the rest of the crushed garlic.  Sometimes I add red pepper or ground chipotle here, for some added heat.  Remember, the longer you cook the garlic, the less ‘hot’ it will be, though it’ll still be garlicky.  Cook till this side is done; squish at least one whole lemon over them.  Stir them and remove & serve.

Brian loves chowder.  When we visit Seattle if he could, he'd get Ivar's Clam Chowder daily but after our trip to Scotland his favorite may have been replaced with Cullen Skink.  As you can see in the picture, he fully embraced Scottish culture as well.

Cullen Skink is a hearty soup that is traditionally made with smoked haddock, and for me a great way to use smoked fish. The name of this soup originates from Cullen, a small town in North East of Scotland and also the home of this soup, one of Scotland's most famous dishes.

In this version of the famous recipe, mashed potatoes are stirred into the soup creating thickness and flavor. In some recipes, however, instead of mash, scrubbed, new potatoes or potato chunks are added. The best potatoes for this would be waxier rather than the ones used for mash and Jersey Royals work very well.
​
This Cullen Skink recipe is also known as Smoked Haddock Chowder in other parts of Britain as the recipe really is very similar.​

Ingredients
1 1/4 pints milk
Small handful flat leaf parsley (leaves and stalks separated)
1 bay leaf
1 pound smoked haddock fillet (not dyed)
2 ounces butter
1 medium onion (finely chopped)
8 ounces mashed potato (leftover or cooked fresh)
Salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)

Steps to Make It
Gather the ingredients.

• Pour the milk, parsley stalks, bay leaf, and haddock into a large, roomy saucepan.
• Finely chop the parsley leaves and keep to one side.
• Bring the milk to a gentle boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and leave for 5 minutes for the herbs to infuse their flavor into the milk.
• Remove the haddock from the milk with a slotted spoon and put to one side.
• Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and reserve the herb-infused milk.
• Heat the butter in another, smaller saucepan. Add the onions and cook gently until translucent - about 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn them.
• Add the milk and the potato to the onions and stir until incorporated and a thick, creamy consistency.
• Flake the smoked haddock into meaty chunks, taking care to remove any bones you may find and add to the soup.
• Add the chopped parsley leaves to the soup and bring to a gentle simmer and cook for a further 4 to 5 minutes. Do not over stir. If over stirred then you will break up the fish too much.
• Taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed. Be careful with the salt, as the fish will impart quite a salty flavor all on its own.
• Garnish the soup with more chopped parsley or a little extra pepper as is your taste.
• Serve hot with crusty bread.  Although it should be noted without the bread it is gluten free.