It's raining! (finally)

The rain finally returned to Seattle. We were feeling alittle parched after our recent heat wave. The garden smiled and immediately churned out zucchini! We used 2 in the recipe for dinner, but harvested 7 more! If you're keeping count on the Zucchini 100, we were at 68 - 2 + 7 = 73 to go. Time to bake more zucchini bread and another chocolate zucchini cake!
Here's the haul from today's garden harvest: red, white, and blue (ok technically purple) potatoes, chard, Lacinato kale, green and purple beans, 7 zucchini, a yellow summer squash, our first acorn squash, 1 big red tomato, 1 green zebra stripe tomato (yes, it's ripe), 9 cherry tomatoes, and chives.

The refrigerator is ready to explode due to the volume of veggies. What to do?

Whip up a big batch of Julie Ann's Versatile Gumbo.


6 Tbsp of your favorite fat: olive oil, butter, margarine, bacon grease, etc.
6 Tbsp of flour
2 large onions: white, yellow, red, sweet or sharp, diced
1 cup of celery or bell pepper (red, yellow, orange, or green) or some of both, diced
2 more Tbsp of your favorite fat
1 lb of okra or green beans or some of both
1 lb of zucchini (yeah!!!) and/or summer squash
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 16oz can of diced tomatoes with juice reserved
2 quarts of your favorite stock: shrimp, veggie, chicken, etc
1-2 pounds of your favorite protein: seafood (shrimp, crab), sausage, chicken, or firm tofu (all work)
1 tsp thyme
4 bay leaves
3 sprigs of fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Louisiana hot pepper sauce

How to:
1) Make a dark roux by gently heating the 6 Tbsp of fat in a heavy skillet. Stir in flour. Cook until roux is caramelly colored (or darker if you like a stronger blackened flavor).
2) Add onion and celery and/or bell pepper. Cook until tender. Transfer to large stock pot.
3) Add remaining oil to skillet. Saute okra and/or beans with zucchini and/or summer squash for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
4) Add drained tomatoes (reserve liquid) and garlic. Cook another 5 minutes.
5) Add veggie mix to large stock pot along with 2 cups of stock and reserved tomato juice.
6) Add thyme and bay leaves. Stir well.
7) Add remaining stock. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes
8) Prepare your protein:
a) Rinse shrimp and/or crab
b) Brown sausages or chicken pieces in skillet
c) Pan fry tofu cubes
9) If using sausage or chicken, add to stock pot and simmer another 20-30 minutes. If using seafood or tofu, let stock pot simmer another 20 minutes, then add these in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
10) Season to taste with salt, pepper, and pepper sauce. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

Notes:
A) This can also go into a crock pot at stage 2 and simmer on low all day. Add the prepared sausage or chicken during the last hour and switch to high. If using tofu or seafood, add during the last 15 minutes on high.
B) We served this up over brown rice and with a bowl of fresh corn on the cob.

Enjoy!