zucchini larceny 191out of reach for everybody that doesn’t have wings. The blue jays get their
share, but we still brought in quite a haul this year. Mom pits the cherries,
staining her hands the purplish- black color of pen ink, while I heat water
and honey on the stove. We mix the fruit and syrup together and let the
concoction chill so it will be ready to pour into our ice cream maker after
supper.
The baguettes don’t take long to bake in the hot stone oven. After about
fifteen minutes we take them out and cut them open. The smell is enough
to make you give up on cooking a gourmet meal and just eat bread instead.
We resist, however, slicing the whole loaves lengthwise and laying the ba-
guettes open- faced on a pan. We stack them with grilled vegetables and
cheese, starting with slices of mozzarella we made yesterday with the help
of my little sister and our Italian grandmother. Next we pile on slices of
nicely browned yellow squash, pattypan squash, green peppers, eggplants,
and onions that I’ve just taken off the grill. The final layer is fresh tomatoes
with basil. We stick the pans under the broiler for a few minutes, then
sit down to enjoy our meal. I feel like I’ve been cooking all day, but it’s so
worth it.
The soup is amazing after its rest in the fridge. It’s the perfect finish to a
humid afternoon spent chopping vegetables or hovering over a hot grill.
We savor every bite, and then bring out the vegetable- loaded baguettes.
The broiler has melted the cheese just right, so everything melds together
into one extraordinary flavor.
After we sit a while talking, it’s time for cherry sorbet. The dessert is al-
most too purple to be real, and an ideal combination of sweet and sour. Ev-
eryone finishes smiling. This has been one of the best meals of my life, not
only because it was so delicious, but because all this food came from plants
we watched growing from tiny seeds to jungles. We witnessed the moment
in the mozzarella’s life that the milk turned into curds and whey. We saw
the bread go from sandy-colored glop to crusty, golden gorgeous. We had a
relationship with this meal.
Here are the recipes that went into our fabulous midsummer menu. I’ve
also included two for secretly serving lots of zucchini. Another very easy
way to cook squash is to slice it lengthwise, toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt,