Zucchini and Crook Neck

[JoJoDapyro]

I have a small garden, and of course I have to grow Zucchini and Crook Neck, and mostly they are cooked together. My wife peels, slices, and cooks it in butter with salt and pepper. My sister grills hers skin on, with just olive oil and garlic salt. How do you prepare yours?

[Pat B]

This year we grew straight neck squash. Same as crook neck but straight. I slice it and some onion and put it in the steamer with a bit od salt and fresh ground black pepper. When done I drain the water, add butter and stir it all up.
 My aunt used to sauté squash in bacon grease until almost mush. That was killer too. 

[PEARL DRUMS]

We like to cube it up into 1" squares, then toss it on a cookie sheet with olive oil and roast it in the oven.  Matter of fact, we do almost all veggies that way. My wife has tried no less than 10 veggies that way. Parsnip is super sweet after its roasted. 

[Will H]

I like to cut zucchini into spears and coat them with oil and cheese then stick em in the oven for 20 min at 350.

Both are good just about anyway you cook em. But when you have a garden you get creative at cookin em with the abundance of food. One way I like to do squash and zucchini for breakfast is take a cheese grater to em. Then sauté em in a skillet for a bit and put em in a tortilla with eggs cheese some tomato from the garden. Whatever else you like.

[JoJoDapyro]

I just had a coworker tell me that she has an uncle in Italy who shreds them and pickles them (I canned some pickled asparagus last night). I bet that would be really good as well.

[Marc St Louis]

In the Summer we slice them up in strips or 1" across and toss with olive oil and a mix of garlic and herbs then BBQ till tender.  In the Winter it's the same but in the oven.  We quite often mix them up with red peppers, mushrooms and onions

I used to love parsnips Chris.  Can't seem to tolerate them anymore.

Your breakfast menu sounds good Will, minus the cheese.

[JW_Halverson]

You plant one zucchini and it dies.  You plant two and you have too many.  It's the law.

And you know how if you decide late one afternoon to let that ONE zucchini go another day it, is as big as an Airstream camper the next morning?  Roll that big, green monster onto a wheelbarrow and take it up to the house.  Slice it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seedy middle.  Now stuff both sides with pork sausage or some other forcemeat kinda stuffing, put it back together and pin it with toothpicks to hold together. 

Roast this in the oven until a meat thermometer pushed to the center reads 165 degrees.  Pull from the oven and let rest about 10 to 15 minutes while the table is set and the rest of the meal is laid out.  Slice and gnosh!

I grew up in a small town.  We all locked our cars at night, not because of fear of someone stealing something, oh no!  It was to keep our neighbors from foisting off their extra zucchini on us!

[nclonghunter]

Wash them and slice cross ways into medallions and pile up in the skillet with sliced onions. Cook with butter until tender and eat it all.

[JoJoDapyro]

Luckily I have 180 coworkers at my zucchini disposal! Someone could leave a decaying duck on the lunchroom counter and someone would take it home!

[bubby]

I like my squash small, 3-4 ' long, just slice them in half length wise, coat them in Italian dressing and throw them on the grill till I get char marks and eat'em

[Hillbilly]

Zucchini, I like to grill or use in stir-fry. Zucchini bread is good, too. Try taking some of those yellow crooknecks, slicing them about 1/8"-1/4" thick, soak 'em in milk or buttermilk for a little while, then dredge in seasoned flour, dip in egg wash, and dredge again in a mixture of cormeal and panko crumbs, then pan-fry them in some olive oil. They're like crack cocaine.

[chamookman]

Anyone ever fry the Zuc blossoms ? No.2 used to batter and fry blossoms along with Zuc slices. They were AWSOME ! Bob

[Will H]

Yeah bob we do that from time to time. Be sure and get the male flowers though. I like to stuff em with ricotta cheese and fry em up!!!

[chamookman]

Sounds good Will - gonna have to try that ! Bob