Zucchini

When you get tired of zucchini, a new way to cook it is as "fettuccine." Sliced in very thin ribbons with a mandoline or vegetable peeler, it mimics the long, flat shape of the popular noodles. Quickly sauteed in a little olive oil with garlic and some lemon zest, the zucchini fettuccine makes a great accompaniment to about anything you can think of. I've served it with real fettuccine pasta for a great combo, but also as a side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken. In this instance, it becomes the bed for lamb burgers served without buns.

Seriously Simple Holidays By Diane Rossen Worthington The Healthy Hedonist Holidays By Myra Kornfeld Simon & Schuster / 2007 / $19.95 This paperback offers fodder for a year of "multicultural, vegetarian-friendly holiday feasts," including recipes for Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year and Cinco de Mayo. There's plenty for poultry and seafood eaters, too, such as a variation on gefilte fish for Passover and an Ethiopian chicken stew for Kwanzaa. I did wish for some at-a-glance graphics to let me know which recipes were vegan.

Brownies for Mom's day or any celebrationIf you're searching for a delicious Mother's Day gift or a treat for a special occasion, look no farther than Ellicott City, where stay-at-home moms Joann Francavilla and Linda Lawrence have come up with the most delectable brownies I've ever seen. These chocolate squares feature a truffle-like base topped with a creamy layer of raspberry, espresso or creme de menthe. A dozen of the brownies cost $12 and are prettily arranged on a gold-scalloped platter wrapped in festive cellophane and colorful ribbon.

Do you ever feel as if you're committing a crime when you serve your favorite baked goods? Pat Wolf, who wrote to us from Pittsburgh, does."I enjoy making loaves of this Chocolate Zucchini Bread for my friends," she writes, "but I feel as if I'm killing them. Can you reduce the fat and calories and still produce a nice moist loaf?"The recipe was very satisfying to reinvent. Our version has the original's tender crumb, crunchy nuts and rich, chocolaty flavor, but only one-third the fat. It was so good, in fact, our staff tasters unanimously agreed that we have indeed created a loaf to die for.Streusel-topped apple bread was an old favorite in Louise Watson's family.

THE FULL, tragic impact of the drought struck home like a thunderbolt recently when Doug Lamborne informed me that yes, he has no zucchini.Here it is, early September, a season when the backyard gardeners around Eastport usually are scrambling to dump their bumper crops of zucchini on any sucker who will take them by the bagful, and it seems there are none on the whole peninsula.I've been reeling from the implications of the loss since Doug strode by my office on Second Street, carrying a mere paper cupful of green jalapeno peppers, a little orange habanero and a teeny red cherry tomato -- the surplus harvest of his usually dependably verdant Third Street garden.

A handy spoon for yogurt eatersIn the "why-didn't-somebody-think-of-this-before" category, Colombo has attached a snap-out plastic spoon in the lids of its 8-ounce yogurt containers. The two-piece spoon is easy to pop out and assemble, and extremely handy. No more frantically searching for a utensil.Being neighborly with zucchiniIf zucchini is taking over your garden and kitchen, help is on the way. Sunday is "Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night." Really. Thomas Roy, an avid gardener in Mount Gretna, Pa., started the celebration several years ago. Now, it's catching on around the country.

Light but zesty foods can taste just right in the heat of summer. This vegetarian pasta yields lots of garlicky veggies and very thin spaghetti or capellini. The large portobello mushrooms have become a staple and are considered the steak version of a mushroom. Many supermarkets now carry them sliced. Of course, they are very low in calories with no cholesterol.A substantial spinach salad with crunchy croutons rounds out the easy feast. Keep the chill going during dessert with fresh mango slices topped with a fruity sorbet.

GROWING ZUCCHINI is like owning a good dog. It is loyal. Regardless of the weather and the mood of other vegetables in the garden, zucchini is always there for you.Zucchini may not be the most exciting vegetable in the garden. Its annual arrival may not prove that I am a master gardener. But when those familiar cylindrical green gourds show up early in the season, like the first guests at a party, I am happy to see them.When a few showed up the other day, they were a source of solace. So far this summer, the other vegetables have been difficult.

Anyone who has ever sown a few basil seeds in a patio container can testify that the herb absolutely loves warm, humid weather.This fragrant, fragile herb is easy to grow and produces prolifically if you trim off the flowers. Right about now, pesto-weary gardeners are wondering how much basil one clay pot can produce.Like many of the culinary herbs, basil also is a strong herbal medicine. A member of the mint family, it can be used as a tonic and an antiseptic. Rub crushed, fresh basil leaves on skin to relieve insect bites.

Mint-flavored vegetablesLooking for something to do with fresh mint besides putting it in iced tea? Use it to dress up a couple of common vegetables.Minted Carrots and ZucchiniServes 21 tablespoon butter2 carrots, peeled and sliced thin2 small zucchini, sliced1 tablespoon finely chopped mint leaves or more to tasteIn a small saucepan, melt the butter and cook the carrots, covered, in a little water over low heat until they begin to soften. Add the zucchini and cook, covered, until just tender.

When Charlie Gailunas harvests zucchini from his lush Catonsville garden, he might overlook a specimen camouflaged beneath a canopy of leaves. "Sometimes you miss one," he says. By the time he finally discovers the hidden squash, it may have grown to baseball-bat proportions, far beyond the zucchini's capacity for tenderness and a pleasing, mild taste. Gailunas, a retired hospital administrator who has cultivated his 700-square-foot garden for 30 years, doesn't toss the zucchini, nor does he pawn it off. He makes Gagutz, a Sicilian soup introduced to him by a neighbor's mother who lived in Little Italy.

Marvin M. Pumphrey, a retired farmer and excavator who was a prolific vegetable gardener, died of colon cancer Tuesday at his home in Glen Burnie. He was 85. Mr. Pumphrey was born in Hanover and grew up on his family's large truck farm there, where vegetables were grown on several hundred acres. He graduated from Glen Burnie High School and worked on the farm until the late 1950s, when his family sold it. Mr. Pumphrey married Dorothy Tacka in 1946. Even after the family farm closed, Mr. Pumphrey continued growing vegetables in the yard at his home in Ferndale.

Deep-frying is the bacon of cooking techniques: It makes everything taste better. Do it with beignets, though, and you get the irresistible results in a more lyrical package. The word is almost as satisfying to say as the real thing is to eat. Beignets sound so much lighter and airier than fritters, but they are no easier to pass up. The most famous beignets in this country are a New Orleans specialty: squares of yeasty dough fried until puffy, then smothered in powdered sugar, to be eaten with the local chicory coffee.

Seriously Simple Holidays By Diane Rossen Worthington The Healthy Hedonist Holidays By Myra Kornfeld Simon & Schuster / 2007 / $19.95 This paperback offers fodder for a year of "multicultural, vegetarian-friendly holiday feasts," including recipes for Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year and Cinco de Mayo. There's plenty for poultry and seafood eaters, too, such as a variation on gefilte fish for Passover and an Ethiopian chicken stew for Kwanzaa. I did wish for some at-a-glance graphics to let me know which recipes were vegan.

When you get tired of zucchini, a new way to cook it is as "fettuccine." Sliced in very thin ribbons with a mandoline or vegetable peeler, it mimics the long, flat shape of the popular noodles. Quickly sauteed in a little olive oil with garlic and some lemon zest, the zucchini fettuccine makes a great accompaniment to about anything you can think of. I've served it with real fettuccine pasta for a great combo, but also as a side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken. In this instance, it becomes the bed for lamb burgers served without buns.

Chez Jacques Traditions and Rituals of a Cook Chocolate & Zucchini Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen By Clotilde Dusoulier Broadway Books / 2007 / $18.95 Clotilde Dusoulier named her popular food blog, and now her first cookbook, to convey her agreeably split culinary personality: health nut with a sweet tooth. In her chatty, accessible book, she combined the title ingredients in only a couple of dishes - Cacao and Zucchini Absorption Pasta, and Chocolate & Zucchini Cake. But unlike veteran French chef Jacques Pepin, this Internet-era upstart does not shy away from offbeat food pairings.

You know it is garden-glut season when free zucchini sit untouched outside the garden gate; when bags of tomatoes appear in the office; and when summer squash shows up at every potluck supper. This is the season of plentitude, of bounty, of overkill. It is in full bloom in August but its roots go back to the enthusiasms of April. That is when we gardeners succumbed to the notion of planting extra rows of vegetables. Now those once-timid seedlings have morphed into towers of hairy vegetation, pushing out produce faster than the assembly line at the old Broening Highway plant used to push out Chevys.

Most of my friends are social creatures (just like my spouse and I) and love to entertain. However, when it's so hot outside that cooking an entire meal seems more like hard labor than pleasure, my fellow cooks and I often opt for preparing a meal together. We choose a menu, then each pick a course to make. I love this idea, because it means that I can concentrate on a single dish. For such a meal, I recently suggested that we begin with a chilled soup, followed by a grilled, butterflied leg of lamb plus sides, and a fruit tart for dessert.

When I tire of brats or other sausages on the grill, a whole chicken makes a great change. Usually a project for a weekend meal when I have more time, a chicken grilled indirectly and flavored with herbs or a marinade is delicious. But even as it's cooking, I'm thinking about the leftovers. Plenty of chicken will be left to be boned and used for another meal. This hash is born of such leftovers. Joe Gray writes for the Chicago Tribune, which supplied the recipe analysis. Menu Chicken-and-zucchini hash Leaf lettuce salad with avocado and olives Ice cream cones TIPS Don't have leftover chicken?

It begins with a spring trickle -- a few peas, some spinach and those first tender green beans. Then it picks up speed like a raging river. Summer progresses, squash and cucumber vines become laden and tomato plants sag with the weight of their red globes. Then we move into the first fall days when it is time to snip broccoli and the last of the fresh herbs. Carrots, onions, leeks, garlic and parsnips are ready to be pulled from the ground. It is a veritable vegetable avalanche and happens just when one feels ready to turn on the oven again and take advantage of all of this bounty.