Zucchini Overload

Well it is that time of year.  I now have zucchini coming out of my ears.  Although the G and I love to eat all of the fresh things coming out of my garden, there comes a point when I have so many stashed in my fridge and on my counter that I dread having to eat another one.  Usually we just throw it on the grill, but on occasion we have it with pasta, in a salad, or if its not unbearably hot I will bake a few loaves of zucchini bread.

Luckily, we have a giant chest freezer in our basement just waiting to be filled!  In past years I have simply grated and bagged zucchini to freeze for zucchini bread.  But this year my single plant is doing so well (or maybe we just haven't been eating as much?), that I have started to blanch and freeze chunks of zucchini from my garden.  It will definitely make a nice addition to stirfrys and pasta in the winter months!

It is easy to do - just cut the ends off the zucs and chop into evenly sized pieces.  Get a big pot of boiling water going, and a big bowl of ice water close by, with a strainer or slotted spoon.  Toss the pieces into the boiling water for about a minute (you want it to be cooked a bit, but still pretty firm), and immediately transfer to the cold water bath to stop it from cooking.  I like to put the pieces onto a tray with a silpat to throw into the freezer for a couple of hours.  I find it freezes better this way, and prevents the chunks from freezing together.  Note - you could skip freezing the chunks on a tray and go directly to a freezer bag, but it means that you will likely have to use the whole bag at once since they chunks will freeze together.  Then I throw the frozen chunks into a freezer bag, seal it up and toss it in the chest freezer until needed.

What are you doing with your zucchini this year?