Anyone who's grown zucchini knows just how easy it is to overlook one until it is as big as a baseball bat.  Once your zucchinis are that big they get harder to work with.  They're less tender and they can have a lot of big seeds inside.  What do you do when you get one that big?  Zucchini bread is the common solution but how much zucchini bread, but I like savory dishes more than sweet.  One of my favorite ways to use those oversized zucchinis is to swap out the eggplant in Eggplant Parmesan with zucchini. 

This dish is vegetarian as it is made with cheese and eggs, but can easily be made vegan by using vegan cheeses and a flaxseed gel instead of the eggs.

Zucchini Parmesan
1 oversized zucchini
2 large eggs (or use flax egg - see below)
3 cups breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp Parmesan (or vegan Parmesan)
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp garlic powder
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 26oz jars of your favorite tomato sauce
16oz shredded mozzarella or Daiya mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch rounds.  Beat the eggs or make a flax egg with 1 Tbsp ground flax to 3 Tbsp water (let sit until it becomes a gel).  Place liquid in a shallow bowl.  Add Parmesan, Italian seasoning and garlic powder to the breadcrumbs and place in a shallow bowl.

If you don't have breadcrumbs on hand, its easy to make your own.  Just toast some bread until it is dry and process in a food processor until you have crumbs.  I used a local bakery's onion rolls to make my breadcrumbs - the extra flavor of the onions baked into the rolls made a delicious addition to this dish.  If you do make your own you may want to avoid heavily seeded breads but most breads will work just fine.

Dip the zucchini slices first in the egg or flax gel and then into the breadcrumbs, coating each side lightly, then place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, turn each slice and bake for another 20 minutes or until the zucchini has softened and the breadcrumbs have gotten crispy.

Using a casserole dish, coat the bottom with a layer of sauce.  Add a layer of zucchini slices and sprinkle a layer of mozzarella.  Add additional layers of sauce, zucchini slices and cheese until you've used all of the zucchini. The final layer is topped with sauce and cheese.

Place in the oven and bake about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and browning.  If you're using Daiya you may want to broil the dish for the last few minutes to get a browned look.  Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes.  Slice and serve.

Right now, my garden is abundant with both tomatoes and basil, a perfect pairing.  My mouth waters at the thought of a fresh tomato basil pasta sauce, or a simple caprese salad.  These flavors are just meant to go together.

When I picked basil this morning I was shocked.  What started out as two little hydroponic basil plants turned into a massive bush.  I trimmed it down to about a foot tall and I still got enough basil to fill half of my kitchen sink. When I have this much basil to use all at once, I'm forced to find something to do with it that stores well.  That's when I turn to pesto.  It's easy to make and I can use a lot of basil at one time. Since it freezes well, I can make nearly unlimited amounts and have access to garden freshness any time of the year. Pesto is great on pasta, roasted vegetables, mixed into a vinaigrette, or stirred into sauces and marinades, but this recipe for tomato basil bites will give you a new perspective on pesto.

In Tucson, when the temperatures are well over 100 degrees on a daily basis, everything slows down.  This town becomes a quiet, sleepy ghost town.  Everyone that can get out of town does - University students have all gone home, snow birds have retreated north, and anyone who can take a vacation to get out of the heat does.

Getting anything done in this kind of heat is a struggle, even keeping up with writing a blog.  I haven't been very active here or anywhere.  Like most people, I got out of town for a little while, spending a week at the beach in New Jersey with my family.  Aside from that week, I can attribute my lack of posts to the weather, and I also the fact that I've gone back to school to complete the hours necessary to become a licensed massage therapist.  I've been so jazzed about my classes that I neglected my creative outlet, food.

But there's something that comes around for a very short time each year that excites me more than anything else that could possibly happen in these few short weeks - the saguaros begin their fruiting season.