I had no idea summer could be so busy. I thought this was our time to relax? My own memories about summers as a kid are usually filled with spending my days walking from my grandmother’s house to the public pool in the morning and returning home later in the afternoon; always carefree and always beyond low key. I don’t however believe my own children’s summer memories will be quite so simple as it feels like we are the go-go-go train every day.
There are areas of life that suffer most from our daily busy and besides the laundry pile and lack of vacuuming, the garden often has to stand on its own for days at a time. Along with large weeds, tons of Japanese Beatles and what was once a tiny not so intimidating snake, our garden is working hard producing those monster zucchinis that just aren’t as sweet as their younger smaller fruits.
| Our Garden Gone Wild! | |
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Of course we made the yearly batches of zucchini bread, some with added carob chips and some without. We also made a loaf of zucchini cheese bread that was really dense, but also delicious. Trouble is that each year I try to make zucchini cakes with the giant zucchini’s and each year we don’t end up eating our cakes. They either taste greasy or don’t stick together well enough to be considered a meal. I am happy to say that this year we were able to break from our zucchini cake tradition and make some cakes that were absolutely great!
It was funny because I had made crab cakes just the night before I made the zucchini cakes. This was completely unintentional but honestly it was hard telling which was which. These zucchini cakes were moist and delicious, oven-fried up well without the greasy factor…it was just delicious!
While I hope everyone else in the world is tending to their gardens because their lives are not spinning around in crazy circles, I also hope that some of you let your zucchini go wild just to try these delicious oven-fried zucchini cakes.
| Oven-Fried Zucchini Cakes |
- 3 cups grated zucchini (no seeds), drained, squeezed
- 1/2 tspn salt
- 1 cup panko flakes
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tspn Old Bay
- 1 tspn spicy brown mustard
- 1 tblspn mayonnaise or nayonnaise
- 1 tblspn oil
- preheat oven 400 degrees
- mix together everything except the oil, zucchini, panko flakes and cheese. Once mixed thoroughly add zucchini squeezing out all excess water as you add it. Then turn in cheese and panko flakes.
- Pat into cakes (small for apps and larger for dinner).
- Spread oil over a baking sheet and place cakes on sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes then flip and continue to cook for another 8 minutes.
If you don’t have any Old Bay you can use this recipe for spices:
1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1/8 tsp onion powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp oregano, 1.8 tsp dried thyme
