Extra Veggies? Recipes Beyond the Zucchini Vegetable Bread and Corn Pudding

All these wonderful fresh vegetables but what to do with the excess? Gone are the days when desperate gardeners could drop bags of extra vegetables into open car windows and make a clean getaway. Who leaves car windows open anymore?

Here are a few recipes that may help solve the problem. Both make great dishes for a brunch or a light evening meal. Add or substitute fresh mushrooms, squash, eggplant or even zucchini.

Vegetable Bread: Bunny, 1980s

• 1 cup onion
• ½ cup green onion, chopped
• ½ cup red pepper, chopped
• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup bacon, crisp crumbled
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 3 cans refrigerator biscuits, quartered

Sauté onion and peppers in butter for 3-5 minutes. Use large pan.

Stir in crumbled bacon and cheese.

Add biscuit pieces, one at a time, coating thoroughly

Arrange mixture in a greased Bundt or tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown and bread tests done.

Before your extra mushrooms go bad, use your blender to puree them in a little liquid (water, beef or chicken broth), pour into ice cube trays and freeze until solid. Remove from trays and store in freezer in plastic bags. Great for soups, stews or sauces. Best of Helpful Kitchen Hints, Mary

Ellen Pinkham, 1980

Corn Pudding: Auntie Mary, 1980

• Butter 9 ½ x11inch glass dish
• Sauté in large skillet for five minutes in 2 Tablespoons of melted butter or hot oil:
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon oregano

Add:

• 1-16oz. package frozen corn (substitute fresh corn or half zucchini and corn or other vegetables)
• 1-7oz. can Ortega chilies, drained (throw in some chopped jalapenos for a hotter taste)

Cook 3 minutes and set aside to cool.

Place in prepared pan.

Mix together:

• 8 large eggs
• 3 ½ cups grated Colby-Jack cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper

Add this mixture to the vegetables.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until set.

Keep a container in your freezer and add all leftover vegetables. When you have a sufficient amount, thaw, blend and freeze in ice cube trays. Good for adding additional flavor to soups, etc. Best of Helpful Kitchen Hints, Mary Ellen Pinkham, 1980

Call in the neighborhood kids and use extra veggies as puppets and act out Veggie Tale stories or make up your own script. Mr. Potato Head may have to make room for Ms. Zucchini Blob. Try making musical instruments. Create your own garden style performance. Seriously! And no cooking required. Make sure the drummer goes easy on the tomatoes. Beware: there’s a rapper out there by the name of Casey Veggie whose company is called peas and carrots but his lyrics have little to do with healthy vegetables. Along that line of thinking: wonder how much a baggie of high quality, dried eggplant would go for on the street?