Summer Vegetables and Desserts: Zucchini and Rosemary Delights

Our summer garden has been particularly bountiful this year, especially with zucchini squash. I was excited about having the fresh zucchini and cooked the harvest almost every day. However, zucchini is kind of like having out of town guests - you are really glad to see them and happy they are there until a week later when the visitors become annoying  but you feel too guilty to throw them out! (Not visitors I have had, by the way!) We had so much this summer that I decided to look for creative recipes. Since I am a lover of sweets, I looked for desserts that used zucchini, and found some very tasty ones.

My first attempt was a blueberry zucchini cake. I thought it interesting that the recipe called for zucchini and blueberries, as well as the usual flour, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, and sugar used in standard cakes. The frosting consisted of powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice. This zucchini and blueberry combination was a 2 layer cake which was rich, moist and really yummy, with the lemon buttercream frosting complementing these wonderful flavors. I topped the cake with nasturtium flowers from my garden. The recipe made a huge cake and although we loved it, I ended up freezing part of it until later. And it was just as good later! This was a tasty way to use our extra zucchini, and I will definitely make this again.

I decided to make a zucchini bread, but one with a different twist. I made a chocolate chip zucchini bread that also included fresh orange zest. The recipe used walnuts or pecans as well, and this made for a filling and irresistible treat that was especially good for breakfast or afternoon snacks. Another good thing about zucchini bread is that is freezes beautifully, so that you can use a lot of that excess zucchini that is still laying around, make several loaves, and use for your out of town guests! This is another recipe that I will use again and again! While on the subject of zucchini, I did discover a couple of unique, non dessert recipes, such as zucchini lasagna, and they were delicious. Obviously, the Internet is filled with people willing to share "excess zucchini" recipes!

The summer also brings fragrant herbs. and I use fresh herbs in most of my dishes. I am fascinated by desserts that include herbs, and decided to make the "Rosemary Honey Shoofly Pie" from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book by the Elsen sisters. This pie included ingredients like eggs, sugar, flour, milk, cinnamon, cardamon, honey, and rosemary - and interestingly , coffee! The pie was described in the book as tasting like coffee cake and indeed it does. It is great with our morning coffee. The texture is somewhat of a cross between pie and cake, and the hint of rosemary flavor is present.

So, these are my summer vegetable dessert creations. It has been fun to experiment with these, and makes me consider using other herbs and vegetables to satisfy my sweet tooth. A cucumber pie, perhaps? Maybe not, but you never know!