Zucchini Hotdish

Today’s recipe for Zucchini Hotdish comes from my mom’s file. I don’t know where she got this recipe, and I don’t remember her ever making it for the family, but it uses up your garden produce and it’s delicious! This time of the summer we’re all trying to figure out what to do with all of those zucchini we have exploding in our gardens. What to do with it all? You can only make so many Chocolate Zucchini Cakes and loaves of Zucchini Bread, right? This is a more savory way to enjoy those zucchini. It works for both kinds – the huge zeppelin types and the smaller ones, too. I made this in a 9″ x 9″ square baking pan, but you could also just add enough vegetables to make a whole 9″ x 13″ pan and feed a crowd.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Zucchini Hotdish

Brown:

1/3-1/4 pound of bacon

1/2 of a medium onion, chopped

1/2 of a large green pepper, chopped

1/2-1 cup mushrooms, chopped (I didn’t put these in, so I added 1/2 of a red pepper instead)

Season with:

1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper (I used just pepper)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Layer in 9″ x 9″ pan:

2-3 medium zucchini, sliced or cut into chunks

1 can of whole kernel corn

Bacon mixture

Bake at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

Add:

Seasoned croutons to cover (I made my own instead of using store-bought)

Sprinkle on:

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Bake another 15 minutes or until browned.

I didn’t have any store-bought croutons in the house, so instead of making a last-minute dash to the store, I made my own with a loaf of bread I had in the freezer. Cube up the bread, drizzle a little olive oil over top, sprinkle on salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder, then toss gently.

Put the croutons on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes. Turn them over and give them another 5 minutes or so.

These got a little dark, so keep an eye on them. They were still delicious! So delicious that I wish I hadn’t tasted one – if you know what I mean! 🙂

Next I browned the bacon, onion, and peppers.

Into the pan goes the zucchini and corn.

The next layer is the bacon mixture, then into the oven.

On go the croutons and Parmesan cheese, and then back into the oven.

Absolutely delicious!

This dish is so colorful and full of tasty vegetables and bacon – how can you go wrong?!! I loved this one – it’s so, so good. It’s a little bit different, I guess because it doesn’t have any “cream of anything” in it, but it really doesn’t need anything more. This is perfect to go with anything you could grill for dinner, but I loved it for a nice, light lunch. I hope you try this savory Zucchini Hotdish and use up some of your oh, so plentiful zucchini!

THE Mashed Potatoes

Today’s recipe for THE Mashed Potatoes comes from my mom’s recipe file. I really don’t know where she got this one – maybe someone she worked with or a neighbor – but these mashed potatoes have been a family holiday staple (mostly Thanksgiving and Christmas) for at least 45 years!  These really are THE Mashed Potatoes – the only ones ones you’ll ever need! There is nothing better with Turkey Gravy or the gravy that I make from our Christmas ham (made exactly the same way as the Turkey Gravy only with ham drippings instead of turkey drippings), than these ridiculously delicious mashed potatoes. If I ever dared to NOT make these potatoes – there would be mutiny!!!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

THE Mashed Potatoes

Cook until tender:

6 pounds of potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2″-2″ pieces (I use russets)

Drain potatoes and mash (I used a hand-held potato masher – don’t use a mixer because that will make the potatoes too gummy).

Let them cool just a few minutes.

Mix into warm potatoes:

1 pint sour cream

1-8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

2 teaspoons onion salt (more or less to taste – I use onion powder) and salt and pepper

You can put the potatoes into a crock pot to keep warm, but the best part – you can make these potatoes a day ahead and refrigerate them overnight.

If you’re serving these the next day, you can re-heat them in a crock pot on low for 2-4 hours, stirring occasionally so they don’t stick to the bottom.

This is the hardest part of making these mashed potatoes – peeling and cutting up the potatoes. I shouldn’t say it’s hard – it’s just a little time consuming. That’s why I enlist the help of our middle child. She loves to peel potatoes, and this is now her job every holiday. I love that. 🙂

Don’t cut the potatoes too small because you don’t want them to get too water-logged. 1 1/2″-2″ chunks will be fine. It only takes about 20 minutes to cook until the potatoes are tender.

I put the steaming hot potatoes into a large bowl and let them cool down for a few minutes.

These really are a 4 ingredient wonder. The flavor of these simple ingredients just can’t be beat! Put the sour cream, softened cream cheese, and onion salt (I use onion powder) right into the bowl with the potatoes and mash them all at the same time.

It’s not really any harder than just mashing the potatoes, so why not save yourself some time and mash the potatoes at the same time as you’re mixing in the creamy goodness?

After everything’s mashed and mixed in, now is the time to taste. You could use half the amount of onion salt and go from there. My family likes 2 teaspoons, but you need to taste and see if that’s ok for you. Adjust the onion salt (or powder) and the salt and pepper from there. Funny – no one seems to have any issue with being a taste tester for these. I always have plenty of volunteers for that! 🙂

These potatoes MUST be served with turkey or ham gravy for best results, and for my family, they MUST be served in my great-grandmother’s old gravy boat (which Grandma’s oldest sister found out in the woods years after a couple of their brothers had been playing with it and left it out there).

There really isn’t any better accompaniment to your Christmas turkey or ham than these potatoes.

My family absolutely MUST HAVE these potatoes at every holiday, and we’ve been doing just that for years and years. They’re so tasty and they’re ridiculously perfect with turkey or ham gravy and even turkey dressing. We have had Christmas turkey over the years, but many years ago our family settled on a Christmas ham every year. That ham gravy is also amazing with these mashed potatoes, so I know that no matter what you serve for your Christmas dinner, our favorite potatoes will be just perfect with it! I hope you try this easy make-ahead side dish and enjoy THE Mashed Potatoes – the only mashed potatoes you’ll ever need with your Christmas dinner!

 

Canning Salsa

This recipe for Canning Homemade Salsa came from one of my husband’s co-workers. The original recipe name is Siebenaler Salsa, but that isn’t the name of the person who gave my husband the recipe, and he didn’t get the story on where that name came from. We just call it Salsa. He came home (many years ago) raving about this salsa and he even had the recipe for me to make a batch of it! This is a canning recipe – and it makes 6-8 pints of salsa. We joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this summer, and we have very much enjoyed having a great variety of fresh fruit and vegetables every week. Some of it has been things we can’t grow in our own little backyard garden, so this has been fun. As part of the CSA, we have had the chance to purchase larger quantities of a few different things during the summer, one of those being tomatoes. After conferring with our kids, we decided that we should purchase 2-half bushel boxes for making Grandma’s Tomato Soup, Hot Bath Tomatoes, Marinara Sauce, and this Salsa. Well – long story short – we ended up with a LOT of tomatoes! I really hadn’t planned on making Salsa this year, but we had so may tomatoes, I made a batch of this, too. What better way to share it with all of you wonderful readers. So – without further ado – let’s get on with making and Canning Homemade Salsa!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Salsa

Blanch, peel, and core:

20-30 tomatoes

Chop into quarters.

Finely chop:

8 green bell peppers, seeded

8 jalapenos (seed to your desired heat level – I left them in)

4 onions

Cook for 2-3 hours.

Add:

2 large cans of tomato paste

Cook another 30 minutes.

Can in pint jars.

I apologize for the goofy photos in this one, but between the bad lighting over my stove and the steam of things cooking, it was rough. This is how many peppers go in the pot! Make sure to protect your hands from the jalapenos if you’re sensitive to the hot peppers.

It’s also a lot of onions.

You can see how much is in the pot – the tomatoes are heaped up on it. I only used 20 tomatoes, but they were very big. This does cook down so it won’t look that full for long.

After it’s cooked, I put it into pint jars and water bath canned them for 20 minutes. You can find how to do that on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website where they have instructions and other recipes.

I got 8 pints out of this recipe, but I did have some really big tomatoes from our CSA and that might have made it just a bit bigger of a batch.

For some reason, I never seem to get it hot enough for the heat lovers in our family. You could substitute Habanero peppers or something hotter, if you want to try that.

This batch of salsa turned out great! It has the perfect heat (for me, anyway) and it’s delicious. This one has a more tomato flavor than some I’ve had, but we like that about it. We serve this with the obligatory tortilla chips, but you know the drill – pour this on tacos, nachos, totchos dip, burritos – anything you love salsa on, you’re gonna want this salsa on! Try this Canned Homemade Salsa and let me know how you heat it up!

 

 

Jalapeno Poppers

Today’s recipe for Jalapeno Poppers is one I made up. You can find recipes for these little poppers all over the internet, so I just decided to try them myself. We didn’t get much rain here in our area of Minnesota this summer, so the jalapeno pepper plants in our garden went crazy – I guess they like it hot and dry! We counted 138 peppers harvested from 4 plants, with at least 20 more out there to pick if we don’t get frost first. We’ve never had that many before! I’ve made 2 quarts and 6 pints of Pickled Jalapenos and have already put some in the freezer, so for something a little different, I decided to try to make these poppers. This is NOT something Grandma would have made. In fact, this isn’t something I would make too often. I’m not a fan of hot peppers, and neither are my daughters. We girls have the Scandinavian palate that doesn’t take too kindly to the heat of said peppers. The boys are a different matter. My husband and my son both love them, and that’s really who I made these poppers for. 

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Jalapeno Poppers

I started with 8 large peppers, then washed and dried them (I had to add 4-5 more peppers to use up all the filling).

I mixed together:

8 ounces of cream cheese

8 ounces of shredded cheddar (I had some white cheddar, so that’s what I used)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

I was planning on piping the filling in, but it was pretty thick.

I cut the peppers in half and removed the pith and seeds. You can leave them in for more heat, if you want to, but I took them out. If the peppers bother your skin (like they do mine), use gloves or what I use is a plastic sandwich bag (like a glove) over my left hand and keep the knife in my right hand. 

The filling was so thick, I used my hands to roll logs (like with Play-Doh), and laid the log right in the half of pepper.

Wrap each pepper with a half of a slice of bacon. They stay together better if you can try to get the ends to stay under the pepper.

I put the peppers on a baking sheet after putting them together- then they go into the freezer to firm up for about an hour.

After they’re firmed up, the peppers go into zip-top freezer bags and into the freezer for when we need a snack for a football game or movie night. Don’t forget to label the bags and if you can, put the baking instructions right on there.

When ready to bake the poppers, I took them right out of the freezer and put them onto a baking sheet. Into the oven they went at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Well – I think I might have filled the peppers too full of filling! They overflowed a bit, but that didn’t change how good they are!

Oh my gosh – they smelled amazing while baking!

The boys loved these poppers – the girls didn’t. They were pretty spicy! They are so easy to make and so handy to have ready whenever you need them – football game, movie night, tv binging, Tuesday night. Pull them out of the freezer and get them into the oven – easy peasy! If you have an abundance of jalapenos this year, you might want to try to make some of these spicy Jalapeno Poppers for all of your hot pepper lovers!

 

 

Dip for Raw Veggies

I found this recipe for a Dip for Raw Veggies in my mom’s recipe box. I’m just going to say that this is a nice base from which to put your own twist on a veggie dip. My husband liked it, but I thought it was a little bland. As you’ll see later on, I had to add my own twist to this one, and you can do the same. I don’t know how long my mom had this dip recipe, but I would tend to think that people weren’t loving things to be as spicy as we do now – at least how spicy my husband loves things, anyway. That’s why I surprised at how much he liked this dip – he usually likes thing with some heat. Anyhoo – I think this will be a nice addition to summertime veggies, crackers, pretzels, whatever you can find to dip in it. This would make a nice snack anytime, or a beautiful platter to bring to a potluck!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Dip for Raw Veggies

Mix together:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used light mayonnaise)

1/2 cup Miracle Whip

1/2 cup sour cream (I used light sour cream)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

I added 1 teaspoon black pepper and 2-3 Tablespoons of fresh chives here, but this is where you could add any other spices you like – maybe some sliced green onion or chopped red pepper – go nuts with whatever seasonings you like in a dip.

Dippers:

Any and all vegetables.

This is a basic dip – the ingredients are very simple.

While you’re mixing, think of what you like in a dip and what you’d like to try in this for seasonings. The possibilities are endless!

My chives are just coming up so I cut a few of those to add, plus some black pepper.

The chives are a little scrawny yet, but they added a nice, oniony flavor to the dip.

Of course, this dip is great for raw veggies – hence the name – but we thought it was also nice with crackers.

A few more cut chives added for garnish and that’s it! Quick, simple, delicious – yep – checks all the boxes for an easy, yet busy summer. Pack up a batch of this and throw in some bags of cut up fresh veggies and you’re set to go. Make this as flavorful, hot, spicy, tangy, smoky as you want – the sky’s the limit with this delicious and very versatile recipe. You’re going to love how easy it is to pull together a beautiful platter and this delicious Dip for Raw Veggies!

 

 

Sharon’s Veggie Dip

Oh how I love Sharon’s Veggie Dip! This recipe comes from Sharon, who is one of my dear friends – the Coffee Babes – 4 friends who have had coffee together every Friday (most weeks) for over 20 years, until we lost one of our babes to colon cancer two years ago. The 3 remaining Coffee Babes still meet on Fridays whenever we can! All those years ago, Sharon and I started a newsletter for our daughters’ volleyball club, met for coffee to discuss it, and have been meeting for coffee ever since! She does a lot of entertaining, and when at her house for a gathering years ago, she had this dip and I had to have the recipe for it. I’m addicted to it – it’s so good – and I make it all the time. I have altered it a bit to keep it more low-fat for me, but that doesn’t change how delicious and addicting it is. This dip is easy, tasty, and made with things you probably have in your frig and cupboard. Perfect for upcoming football parties!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Sharon’s Veggie Dip

Mix all together:

1 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise (I used Hellman’s Light Mayonnaise)

1 cup sour cream (I used light sour cream)

1 Tablespoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1 Tablespoon parsley flakes

1 1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1 teaspoon grated onion (I have used dried minced onion flakes in a pinch – like here)

4-5 dashes Worcestershire Sauce

Let flavors mingle for a few hours or overnight.

This is another great recipe to be able to make from things you probably have in your cupboard and frig. It’s totally alright to make this according to the recipe – it’s delicious – but I use the low-fat options for me. You can also totally use fat-free options, if that’s how low you want to go.

I have to say, this dip is so fresh – because of the dill weed – and tasty – because of the other ridiculously tasty flavors that go in.

It’s great with fresh veggies – carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, pepper strips, jicama, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower – I’ve tried them all! It’s also great with crackers – regular, if you like, or low-fat, as I have here – reduced fat Wheat Thins, Less Fat Cape Cod Potato Chips, Corn Thins! So good!

I have this dip in my frig most of the time – all year round – because it’s just so stinkin’ good! Did I mention that I’m addicted to this? I know you’re gonna love this one – bring it to any upcoming football party and you have your own little less fat, healthier snack amidst all the crazy, high fat, yet delicious options that usually show up at that kind of event. I’m addicted (have I mentioned that?) to Sharon’s Veggie Dip, and I know you will be, too – it’s a good thing to be addicted to!

 

Roasted Winter Squash

Today I’m sharing how I learned to make Roasted Winter Squash. I never knew the name of the squash we made back when I was growing up, but I’ve learned that it’s called Buttercup Squash. This is the only kind of squash we ever had in our house. Our neighbors grew some different kinds of squash in their garden one year, and I remember that it was so exotic to have these weird kinds of squash and weird to try and bake or cook them. Of course those were REALLY weird kinds like patty pan and butternut. This is the way I learned – from my mom – how to bake squash. Knowing how much this family likes sweets, I’m not surprised that the squash we would have for dinner had butter and sugar in it. It’s not necessarily the healthiest way to eat squash, but it was a great way to make the squash from the garden kind of special. My family always used this kind of winter squash – buttercup – but you could use this method with any kind of winter squash like butternut, acorn, Hubbard, whatever kind you happen to find at your local store, farmer’s market, or grow in your own garden.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Roasted Winter Squash

Wash and dry the winter squash of your choice (I think this one is a kabocha squash, not a buttercup squash).

Start by cutting the squash in half and scraping out the seeds. Watch your fingers when you’re cutting – the squash is really, really hard, so use your biggest, sharpest kitchen knife – we don’t need any kitchen emergencies here. You can roast the seeds like Pumpkin Seeds if you want to – they’re delicious! Some people peel the squash and cut it into smaller pieces or cubes, but then you can’t fill the “cup”(s) with butter and brown sugar. This is just the way I learned how to do it. I cut the halves each into half again, and because I didn’t get it cut directly down the middle in the first place, I cut the larger half into half again, so I had 6 pieces – 2 larger ones and 4 smaller ones.

Then I poke the pieces with a fork. I’d like to think that it helps the squash bake faster, and then lets the butter and brown sugar goodness get down into the flesh of the squash easier.

I baked the squash at 400 degrees for 30 minutes initially.

Take it out of the oven and put about a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of brown sugar in the “cup” of each piece of squash.

I baked the squash another 15 minutes and checked it. It didn’t seem as tender as I would have liked, so I baked it another 15 minutes – that made 1 hour of baking all together. You can keep checking in 15 minute increments until it’s done. Keep checking to make sure the squash is tender and not firm – we’re talking tender like a sweet potato here. Look at the pool of goodness made by the butter and brown sugar. That’s what we want. Some of the caramel-y goodness from the smaller pieces dripped down on the baking sheet because the “cup” wasn’t big enough to hold it. It made a delicious, crisp frico of caramel which I put back on top the squash.

This roasted squash is so good with any kind of main dish – Hamburger Hotdish, Meatloaf, Baked Chicken, or Spanish Meatballs. I serve them as is, so everybody gets their own little piece of heaven, but you can also use a large spoon and scrape all the squashy goodness out into a serving bowl or freeze it for serving later. Or you could just bake it plain and freeze it for another time, but try Roasted Winter Squash this way, with the butter and brown sugar deliciousness in it, and you’ll never go back to eating it plain.

 

String Bean Royal

String Bean Royal (with no “e”?) is similar to the classic casserole we all make this time of year using green beans and the obligatory cream of mushroom soup and French fried onions. I have made one kind of Green Bean Casserole (not the classic) but this one has the added flavor of onion and cheddar cheese. While I LOVE the crunch of the French fried onions that we all put on top of the classic, this one used regular sliced onion on it, with the deliciousness of shredded cheddar over the top of it all. I mean, how bad can that be? Not bad. It’s so good! And the best part of all with this recipe – it’s another ridiculously easy one! Yes! We like that! Easy, easy, easy! Did I mention that this one is easy? I think I did. It’s so great!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

String Bean Royal

Drain:

1 or 2 cans of string beans (or green beans – I used 2 cans)

Pour into a greased baking dish.

Mix together and toss with the beans:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup rich milk (they probably mean whole milk here, but I used 2% milk)

Slice thinly and layer on top of beans:

onion (I used 1/2 of a small onion)

Top with:

grated cheddar cheese (I used about half of an 8 oz. package of shredded cheddar)

It didn’t say what temperature to bake at, so I baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Once you have the green beans, milk, and cream of mushroom soup combined, on goes the layer of sliced onions.

Next is the layer of shredded cheddar cheese. I used about half of an 8 ounce package, but next time I’d just use the whole thing. Can you really ever have TOO MUCH cheese?

Out of the oven and it’s bubbly and hot and the cheese has melted – oh my! See – I think more cheese might cover ALL of the creamy goodness – so use the whole 8 ounce package of shredded cheddar.

This might be a new classic for your thanksgiving dinner!

It. Is. So. Good.

This is the easiest and most delicious side dish you’ll ever put in your mouth! Making a Thanksgiving dinner is a lot of work. Why not go easy on a few of those classic dishes that everyone loves and can’t do without? Your guests, friends, and family are going to LOVE this String Bean Royal – and you will, too!

 

Baked Acorn Squash

I love Baked Acorn Squash, so today I’m showing you how I make it. You can find so many different kinds of squashes this time of year, and I love to buy them locally at a farm stand we go to – they’re pretty inexpensive that way. You may have some from your own garden, or from your local farmer’s market, but no matter where you get them, try this tasty recipe. You may want to buy a couple extra, bake them, and put the delicious squash in your freezer for later this winter. For some reason, the smell of squash baking in the oven is so cozy and just smells like fall to me. That’s why this recipe is appropriate for now. Right now. Go out and pick up a couple of acorn squash to bake up this weekend.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Baked Acorn Squash

Wash and dry 1 acorn squash.

Cut the squash in half and using a spoon, clean out the seeds from the middle of the squash.

Using a large, sharp knife, put the cut side down and make slices about 1/4″-1/2″ thick.

Lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and lay the slices, flat side down, on the baking sheet.

Lightly spray tops of squash with olive oil.

Brush with maple syrup and lightly sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until tender.

At this point, you can remove the squash from the skin and freeze it in a container in your freezer.

Watch your fingers when slicing the squash. They can be slippery little suckers – especially if you take the skin off first. You can also bake them in halves, but it does take longer to do it that way.

I got the slices from the whole squash all on one baking sheet.

After baking, the squash is tender and fragrant and absolutely delicious. It goes well with anything – I served it with Pork Chops with Rice for one of our Sunday family dinners.

This squash is so good – it’s going to become a staple for our family dinners, and I’m sure your family will like it, too. That little sprinkle of cinnamon makes it smell like fall when it’s baking, and it will give your whole family the “cozys”! Try this Baked Acorn Squash and enjoy the flavors and smells of fall!

Freezing Zucchini

Yes – it happened to me – we’re Freezing Zucchini today, because I found a zeppelin under the leaves of my zucchini plant. If you read my last post for Chocolate Zucchini Cake, I go on and on about finding a huge zucchini hiding under the leaves of the plant in your garden, and what to do with it. We have a fairly small garden, and we only planted one zucchini plant this year. We’ve tried growing them in the past, and a couple of times we didn’t get ANY zucchini. It was incredibly disappointing! This year we’ve had 3! And one was a zeppelin! I forgot to check (and I swear, it was only a few days later) and lo and behold – a zeppelin. Well, when you freeze the abundant and leftover zucchini from said zeppelin after making the Chocolate Zucchini Cake (from my previous post), or Zucchini Chocolate Cake (they’re totally different – really), you could also make Zucchini Bread, pancakes, muffins, and fritters throughout the winter months. These huge zucchini end up too big to eat (I like them nice and small – they’re more tender) and they have bigger seeds in the middle, so I have made the executive decision to freeze this one. I know that some people freeze them cut in slices or chunks, but I like to shred it. When my family grew zucchini in our garden at the lake, we would plant several zucchini plants and then have a lot to freeze. This is how we did it.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Freezing Zucchini

There really isn’t a recipe, per say, for how to freeze zucchini, so I’ll just show you how to do it using my usual amazing photography. Ha!

He’s a whopper! Almost as big as my cutting board!

The shredder on my food processor is not working, so I had to use a hand shredder. It’s ok since it fits on top of my big measuring cup and I can measure at the same time. Plus, it’s a great upper arm workout. When shredding, I stop at the soft middle part of the zucchini where the seeds are – by that time my knuckles are getting scraped by the shredder and it’s time to stop. Some of these big ones have huge seeds, and I don’t want those in my baking anyway.

I just measured two cups of zucchini per zip top freezer bag – that seems to be how much zucchini is in most of my recipes. There will be some liquid that drains out of the shredded zucchini, so just pour that out before you zip the top. Don’t forget to date and label what’s in the bag! Now just lay them out flat in your freezer, so when they’re frozen and flat, you can fit as many summer and fall harvest goodies in there as possible. That’s it! Except for a few scraped knuckles – simple!

There was enough zucchini in this one big zeppelin to make two (2 cup) bags for the freezer, plus 3 cups of shredded zucchini to make Zucchini Bread, which I will share soon. In the middle of winter I’ll be able to pull it out, thaw it, drain it, and make a delicious Chocolate Zucchini Cake or Zucchini Bread. Try Freezing Zucchini and you’ll be glad you have it to make delicious goodies all winter long!