Summer Squash & Corn Casserole

I mentioned earlier that J. surprised me by saying he's never liked squash. This casserole is something I tried to make the squash seem less, well, squash-y. It must have worked because he liked it. It's also toddler approved.

The squash, potatoes and corn are all from our CSA box. The goat cheese is from a local farm. I used a knife (newly sharpened by J.) to slice the squash and potatoes as thin as I could, around 1/8-inch. A mandoline would probably be easier and faster but I don't have one. Bacon might be good in this, but it might be over-kill.

Summer Squash and Corn Casserole
2 medium yellow squash, sliced very thin
2 smallish waxy potatoes, sliced very thin
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 ears corn, kernels sliced off
3 ounces goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
Combine the squash, potatoes, oil, salt and pepper.
In the casserole dish, layer a third of the squash mixture, followed by half of the corn and cheese. Repeat layers and finish with the remaining squash mixture. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

CSA Week 6 - Calabacitas & Baby Food

Peppers have started. I tend to choose hot peppers over green bell peppers.

lettuce - salad
tomatoes - salad
cucumbers - salad
potatoes - Grilled Salt & Vinegar Potatoes (101cookbooks.com)
corn - grilled and Calabacitas
yellow squash - Calabacitas
zucchini - Calabacitas and baby food
hot peppers (poblano and yellow) - Calabacitas
chard - sauteed with garlic
blueberries - on yogurt & cereal

For the baby food, I cubed and microwaved the zucchini. Half was pureed alone and half was pureed with microwaved frozen peas. I also made some baby rice which was a bit of an oops. I grabbed the brown sweet rice by mistake and didn't notice until it was pulverized and cooking on the stove. As the texture started to turn into mochi I started to worry. Fortunately, without pounding it is just sticky, not totally adhered together. Some good mashing/stirring with fork into the zucchini-pea mixture and it was only a bit like weird mochi. She liked it, though. She also like beets and pear with the rice. Shouldn't be a surprise my daughter likes mochi any way she can get it!

I modified the Grilled Salt & Vinegar Potatoes by using half white vinegar and half water to simmer the potatoes. These potatoes took much longer to cook than the recipe suggests, more like 15 minutes than 5. Turned out great.

Calabacitas

We had a good sized group of people over for dinner this week. For a veggie side, I tossed all the summer squash, corn, and peppers we had left into one dish.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium yellow squash, chopped
2 medium zucchini, chopped
2 medium Poblano peppers, roasted and chopped
1 small hot yellow pepper, minced
kernels from 3 ears corn
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion. Cook until onion starts to soften. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until everything is softened to taste.