Gibble, gabble gobble

It's August. (Well, OK, technically it won't be August for another 12 hours, but still...)

I'm hot.

I'm irritable.

I haven't set foot in the garden for over a week. (The zucchini must be as big as baseball bats by now.) And even from the kitchen window I can tell that there is lots of other work to be done.

But I'm just not in the mood.

This is always the worst gardening month for me. The excitement of spring planting and summer's abundant bloom has faded. And so has my garden. (Except for all that red that I wrote about last week...) Sure I could go out at 5 a.m. and deadhead and cut plants back to reinvigorate them, but honestly, I just don't care right now.

The problem is that I know I WILL care in a few of weeks when the weather (and my schedule) cools down a bit. And if I don't do something now, the garden may be unsalvageable by then.

Oh...Sorry...I'm whining again.


Let's talk about something pleasant. Like what I'm going to do with all that zucchini. (The largest ones will go to the compost pile, of course.) I've already made casseroles and spaghetti sauce, used it in salads and baked bread, so I was browsing allrecipes.com for some ideas and ran across a recipe for cobbler. Yes, cobbler! It's supposed to taste like apple cobbler. And the fact that it uses EIGHT CUPS of zucchini at a pop is a definite plus.

If you try it before I do, please let me know what you think.

Zucchini Cobbler

* 8 cups peeled, chopped zucchini with seeds removed
* 2/3 cup lemon juice
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 1/2 cups butter, chilled

* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


DIRECTIONS
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg and cook one minute more. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 10x15 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine flour and 2 cups sugar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup of butter mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining butter mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Spread zucchini mixture over top of crust, and sprinkle remaining butter mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is golden. Serve warm with ice cream or cold.