The usual August dilemma

Around this time of year in the garden, I begin to approach certain plants with reluctance each evening. I thought I showed great restraint by only planting two black beauty zucchini plants, but I have been hauling home about one of these nine inch bats a day for the last two weeks. I've brought them to work, thrown them in with boxed mac and cheese, batter-dipped and fried them till the oil was gone, and made them into the better half of an omelet. Last year I found something to hide them in that I could even share with others without feeling guilty - deep, dark chocolate zucchini cake.

It only uses up about one and a half zucchini, but the nicest part is freezing half of it, and coming home after a crappy winter day at work and tossing a slice in the toaster oven while dinner's cooking. The recipe below comes from The Classic Zucchini Cookbook, which helps with the disposal/preparation of all kinds of squashes.

Deep, Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cake

4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 cups grated zucchini

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9 by 13-inch cake pan.

2. Combine the chocolate and oil, melting in a saucepan over low heat or in the microwave on low.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

4. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk and beat till just combined. Fold in the zucchini and spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for about 40 minutes or till the knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.

5. Eat for breakfast, feeling good about getting your veggies in, feed to your friends, or tuck away in the freezer for a mid-winter treat.

Success!

I've been planting scavenged datura seeds for a couple years now, but this is the first time I've gotten any to sprout. Tonight the biggest one decided to unfurl its first flower and now my house is saturated with its perfume, which is sweet and exotic. I saw some growing in the undeveloped lot south of my house when I first moved in and decided I needed to preserve some of the local flora - glad they finally decided to cooperate. Oddly enough, there is also now one flourishing in the mulch in my garden, possibly dropped as a failed seed from some soil mix in a previous year. Plants are weird.

Booze Cruise '09

The first rest stop

Less than half as many people as last year, but twice the adventure, at least for me. Saturday night taught me that certain types of alcohol don't mix with certain other types of alcohol, no matter how little you consume. This is a lesson I will remember. Saturday's sunny leisure cruise was replaced with Sunday morning's onerous slog back up the road and scramble down the hillside when the hail/rain storm moved in. We made some not-so-beautiful brake music back down Jenny Creek and I indulged in a Florentine at Happy Trails when the ride was finally done. Thanks to all who waited patiently for me at the bottom on day one and the top and bottom on day two, and to Mason and Danielle who greeted us with cupcakes and endless pasta on our arrival. Next time I promise to just stick to the cider and hopefully bring a spare set of legs for the trip home.

Why I have a garden

best snack on a warming, July morning

Race notes

Usually, when one crashes and burns in a race, there aren't too many positive things to take away from it. Saturday's WP race included yet another endo for me, resulting in some more chin damage, some minor scrapes, an upper body that feels like it's gone a few rounds too many in the ring, and some reversible bike problems. I ended up pretty much last in my group, but I'd still consider it a pretty good race for the following reasons:

• I didn't charge out at the start and blow up before hitting the single track. I hung back with my friends, tried to keep pace with teammate Melissa E, who would eventually win, and then slowly picked off a good handful of women before getting off the road and hitting dirt just out of the top ten.
• I felt pretty good, even on some of the gnarly descents, though lower Cherokee still kicks my butt. And I think I was even able to use some of the pump track skills for a brief second.
• After misjudging a log drop that I tried to turn into a log roll and smacking into the trail, I was able to get back up and not panic when I realized my brakes were malfunctioning. I just remembered what Walt showed me the last time this happened and was able to fix them in a few seconds.
• Even after having the wind knocked out of me and after my upper body was toast from all the rocky downhill, I kept riding. I waved lots of people by, but kept a decent pace. I enjoyed the screaming (smooth) road descents and only swore a little at the Creekside baby heads (I had a junior racer in front of me). And I crossed the finish with a smile.
• I'm looking forward to the next race and getting up there early for pre-riding (very important) and then hopefully some downhill fun (can't believe I'm saying that) with my friend Melissa.
  

A new addiction?

Now I know why the boys don't mention the pump track. The pump track is fun! Twenty-five women showed up in Lyons Thursday night and most of the guys scattered. Thanks, though, to the one who stayed and demonstrated the correct leg movement. I think I finally got it on that last time around. Felt kind of like a being on a hamster wheel with bumps. Thanks to Elizabeth for the ride and the photo!

What I did on my summer vacation - Part 1

Let's start at the Minneapolis/St Paul airport...

Apparently Charles Schultz is a native of one of those two cities

Only in the US does the light rail from the airport bring you right to the mall


I checked out the hundreds of tadpoles and one frog in the pond at my mom's


Finally at the Cape with mom and her giant tent

The campground was pretty quiet and there were weird plants there (at least I think they're plants)

First, procure transportation. The guy who rented ancient cruisers from his garage had closed up shop, so I had to settle for this Raleigh cruiser with front suspension and a seat like a sofa. A weird ride, but it beats paying Wellfleet parking fees at the water.

The outer Cape is not for swimming. Much better for watching surfers and walking up and down the beach collecting stones for later use.

When the coast is fogged in, like it was this week, you can walk for quite a ways without encountering a soul. Nothing like a private/public beach.


Heading west, there are plenty of freshwater, kettle ponds for warmer swimming. The fog is usually only fleeting there and the wind less constant. Ponds are the perfect place to work on stone skipping, since you can always dive in and retrieve your errors and try again. I'm much better than I used to be - I think my highest number of skips this trip was seven.

For saltwater swimming, there's always the bay. Oddly calm, more shells, and surfer-free (except for the kite surfers). I still swim the only way I can, like a frog, but I realized how much I miss getting the chance to do it without chlorine and lanes. I thought I was in reasonably good shape, but found myself winded after only a few minutes. Weird. Probably should do it more often.


Yeah, I also had to have one of these. They were something of an obsession in high school, or at least a bad habit, made worse by the fact that my friend worked in a convenience store and let me have free rein of the Slush Puppie machine. Mostly they were good for turning your tongue blue. They still are.

Coming soon: Part II, The Wedding