If you’re talking about the zucchini casserole, it has to be baked so my thought would be no. On the Gut Health thread there is a recipe for a cucumber salad!
Have you done refrigerator pickles? Cucumbers and red onion sliced and mixed with some sour cream, salt, pepper and maybe dill?
2 tablespoons of cheese? Who are they kidding! Definitely need more. Always need more cheese than that.
Exactly what I thought! Either quadruple it or just forget about it! 
That’s what I did. Upped the cheese. 
We have a raised bed garden at our house and for the second year in a row, things won’t grow in half of it. The zucchini/watermelon/squash were planted, they started…and that’ s it. Like suspended animation. They aren’t dead, they just aren’t growing. Ideas? Too little sun? I’ve been working on adjusting the pH throughout this season. They get plenty of water. Behind a fence. Just super odd. I have a botanist friend stumped as well.
We are beginning to think that somehow the soil became compacted, which makes no sense but fits the symptoms. The other side has pole beans doing fine and grew peas as well. The peppers there are not exactly thriving, but peppers are picky anyway.
Did you get a soil test?
I did abasic, pH one, and that showed it was a little higher than neutral, so I am fixing that part. But a full blown test has not been done. The garden is 3 yrs old and the soil was from a landscaper.
We had the same problem one year and a neighbor with a very green thumb suggested changing out our soil in the raised planter bed every other year and in the off year adding composting materials and nutrients. We’ve had no problems since we started following her advice.
I was also going to say with a raised bed to turn the soil over well each year and each year add in some new soil, manure - whatever you think it needs. Every time I’ve “refreshed” the soil I’ve had a better crop overall
I think that if you do a full test then you might find that you are missing something.
I for example have one area that is low in potassium. A little bit of muriate of potash makes a big difference. You might similarly find that you are missing something that is easy to add.
Any suggestions on what to do with lots and lots of basil? I’ve made and frozen pesto and basil butter. I’ve offered some to friends but it’s like having season tickets for events–people tell you they’d be happy to use the tickets and then when you offer, everyone is busy.
I just tear off the leaves, drizzles with olive oil and freeze it in a plastic baggy. I then tear off some throughout the winter when I’m cooking. Tastes likes it freshly picked and zero effort.
Here is a recipe for basil-infused vodka, which is one way that I use up extra basil:
BASIL-INFUSED VODKA (BASILCELLO)
(adapted from the Wall Street Journal, 07/16/2022)
Ingredients:
375 ml vodka (i.e., ½ of a fifth of vodka = 1½ cups)
2 cups of loosely packed basil leaves (can include green stems, but no woody stem parts)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
Directions:
(1) In a quart-sized sealable Mason jar, combine the basil and vodka. Use a muddler or a wooden spoon to gently muddle the basil until it is very lightly bruised, about 10-15 seconds. Seal the jar and shake gently; then refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 1 week. (I put mine in the fridge for a week; if you leave the mixture in the fridge for that long, you will have a darker infused vodka but that’s okay because you will be mixing it with other liquids, so the resulting apertif will be lighter in color.)
(2) When you are ready to use the basil-infused vodka, make a simple syrup by putting the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, and stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves. At that point, remove from the heat, and let cool.
(3) Strain the basil-vodka mixture, reserving the vodka and discarding the basil.
(4) Rinse out the Mason jar, and pour the resulting infused vodka back into it; then add the simple syrup. Seal, and shake to combine; store in the freezer (it won’t freeze, because it’s alcohol). If I am not going to mix the infused vodka with syrup right away, I will keep the infused vodka in the refrigerator.
(5) I will often mix the basilcello with lemonade and/or seltzer water in these proportions: 1 part vodka, 2 parts lemonade, 2 parts seltzer water; or, 1 part vodka, 4 parts seltzer water. (If the latter, maybe add a slice or two of lemon.)
For those of us who have a large crop of basil and are likely to make this, or who still have a jar sitting in the refrigerator from a year ago, can you remind us of what we might want to do with basilcello after we make some?
Does it keep for a year in the refrigerator, assuming that it was made with very high alcohol version of vodka?
I kept mine in the refrigerator for nearly a year, although I did strain it once or twice through a fine-meshed strainer.
I use it to spike lemonade and cranberry juice, straight up; and after adding syrup, I usually mix it with lemonade and seltzer water, or just seltzer water with a couple of slices of lemon. Or I imagine that you could also add the version with syrup to iced tea, in appropriate proportions.
Our fig tree (Desert King) decided to gift us quite a harvest this year! Half a big bucket of figs, and more to come. We have been eating them like crazy, and I am glad my husband loves fruit, but that was quite enough- so fig jam is what I will do with the next batch.
I’m jealous. I have lots of trouble keeping a fig tree alive. Plus, I have to bring it inside during the winter.
Somewhere around 18 months ago a friend gifted us what looked like two dead twigs. They were in fact sticks cut from her fig tree. We stuck both in soil. One had a bud that looked hopeful. The other just looked like a dead stick.
After a few months the bud that looked hopeful slowly faded away, and the associated stick died. The other stick had looked like a dead stick since we got it, but after a few months grew a bud, then a twig, then a small tree.
Today it has one single fig on it. Hoping to get our first fig ever, and trying to discourage small furry criminals from stealing the one fig, we have covered the plant with one of our largest cages (just taken from a blueberry bush now that blueberry season is over).
We are hopeful that we will get a fig. The small tree spent last winter in our garage which seemed to work out okay.
Send it to me!
I can! My plant is 4 feet tall!