Music and Cats

Near closing time at the Queen Anne Farmers’ Market each week, a couple of volunteers walk through the market carrying large plastic bins, and ask the farmers if they have any produce they’d like to donate to a charity. Many of the farmers are quite generous, and give large quantities of highly perishable vegetables and fruits. We’ve been taking the surplus produce to a home for children with special needs, just a few blocks from the market, but last week, the home was unable to take all of the produce that we’d collected. There was no backup plan for the donated food (who’d have thought that a facility on a tight budget would turn down such a bounty?), so we distributed some to families in the neighborhood, and took some home ourselves. And that’s how our little family of two came to have several pounds of summer squash and eggplant, a couple of cauliflowers and a dozen ears of corn crowding our refrigerator.

One of the ways that my mother used to coax her young daughters to eat summer squash was to cook it in a casserole, gooey with yellow cheese, bound with eggs. I haven’t had squash casserole in years, but when faced with several pounds of squash, and a cool, rainy weekend (quite a change from last weekend’s heat!), I reached for my copy of the Treebeard’s cookbook, and made some old-fashioned Southern comfort food from local Northwest ingredients.

Squash Casserole

3 pounds crookneck, zucchini or other summer squashes, sliced
1/4 cup butter or olive oil, or combination of two
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 cup cheddar or other hard cheese, grated
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne parsley, or to taste
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup bread crumbs (I made crumbs from a homemade English muffin)
3 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan, bring 3 quarts water to a boil. Blanch squash until cooked but still firm. Do not overcook. Drain squash well.

In a large skillet, heat butter and/or olive oil. Saute garlic, onion and pepper until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; add remaining ingredients. Add drained squash and stir to blend completely. Pour into a large casserole dish.

Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly around the edges and browned on top, 30 to 45 minutes.

Feeds 8-10 as a side dish, or 6 as a vegetarian main dish.

To accompany the squash casserole, this week’s featured One Local Summer meal included cauliflower roasted with mustard, lemon and butter, and sweet corn sauteed with onion, garlic, chopped serrano pepper and tomatoes. Good thing that I really enjoy all of these dishes, ‘cuz we have plenty of leftovers.

I thank these farmers for the food that they provide, both for my family and for those less fortunate:
Alvarez Organic Farm: corn, yellow bell pepper, serrano pepper, lots of squash
Local Roots Farm: squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic
Sidhu Farms: cauliflower
Skagit River Ranch: eggs
Smith Brothers’ Farm: milk, butter
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese: Marco Polo peppercorn cheddar
California: olive oil, lemon, mustard
Far, far away: black pepper, cayenne

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