Black walnut dye being food safe, and this large container being dedicated to dyeing purposes, it was okay to show you the zucchini quiche fresh from the oven right next to it.
This is a nice crustless quiche, courtesy of Diane crustless spinach quiche, except that I often replace the spinach of the original recipe with other things, such as broccoli or here grated zucchini, which I had in the freezer ready for such a use. Note to self: remember to drain frozen zucchini, or you have to bail out the pan. Surprising lot of water accumulates because of the ice crystals in the freezing process.
I grate zucchini as soon as I get it from the farm, and freeze it so I can use it in zucchini bread or quiche or other mixed vegetable dishes. I find it pretty hopeless on its own, needs to be in good company.
This went down very well, and you see what a good pie pan the castiron makes. Puffs up nicely.
Did the sauteing of the onions and garlic on top of the stove, mixed the eggs with the cheeses (used cheddar and parmesan here) and various condiments, mainly kosher salt and black pepper. Then mixed it all on top of the stove right into the pan, sprinkled with a whoosh of red pepper, and baked it for 30 minutes at 350F. Four helpings from this one.
The walnut dye came about when I realized yesterday was a great day for collecting fallen black walnuts from the trees behind my house. And remembered that I had a bag of same in the freezer. So I got them all going in the big pot, simmering for several hours to get the best color out of them. I'll strain out the nuts and hulls, then strain the remaining dye liquid, then we'll see what happens next. I might just freeze it till midwinter to use it then when I can't get out and pick dye materials.
I don't bother with a mordant for black walnut, since you can hardly stop it from dyeing, never mind encourage it. Friend Stefi once laid down a bag of walnuts on her back step and what with one thing and ten others, forgot to retrieve it, and a few days later found it again, also found a permanently dyed back step.
Farmshare this afternoon, almost the end of the season and as God is my witness I will never eat squash again. Waiting to see what's up this week, and hoping for apples.
Another chapter in my long running, mostly failing, saga, with my clever little opponents, the squirrels. When I was doing all the dyeing back there in Art the Beautiful, I mentioned black walnut dye. And how we have black walnut trees out back, and how I've made totally indelible ink and dye from them, beautiful brown.
The squirrels also love the black walnuts, and can open and eat them. This puts them ahead of humans, whose best best for cracking black walnuts is as follows: go to a neighbor's driveway, scatter down your black walnuts in their shells, put a big board or door over them, drive back and forth in your car over the board. Result: opened and pulverized nuts, permanent stain on neighbor's driveway, suggest they refinish it all to match. Don't try this at home, folks, you'll ruin your own driveway.
The squirrels just casually pick up black walnuts and bite holes in them.
Alas, they also digest them, as I just found out. Came home the other day, sank gratefully into the lounge chair on the patio, reading and dozing, long day, and when I went to bed found that I had some brown oily stains on the sitting-down area of my best linen pants. Oh. Ran over in my mind where I had sat all day, been in a number of places, but none of them had oilstains. Next morning I went out and checked the lounge chair and found a little patch of brown oily stuff, gah. Wiped it up, easy to do off plastic, not so much off linen.
And still not knowing what it was, applied every stain lifter known to man or Boud to remove the stain. The pants are now lovely and clean and the stain is forever.
That's when I recognized what it was. Some dear little squirrel after a nice meal of black walnuts, probably eaten on top of my fence, favorite squirrel picnic spot, had, um, deposited the results on my chair...
Sooooo, unless I can figure out a way to rescue the pants -- no the stains are not in a place I want to decorate with embroidery (!)-- perhaps I have to dye them with black walnut.
Anyway, short of that it's squirrels 1 Boud 0. Again.
But on the good side, since the zucchini are coming in like maniacs now we're in late July, I found another way of using some: a quiche. This is a straight swipe from Diane's crustless spinach quiche, except I used shredded zucchini instead, and it worked a treat.
Seen here in the cast iron pan in which I'd sauted the onions and garlic, stirred in the zucchini, then added in the seasoned eggs and grated cheese, all on top of the stove, and then transferred the pan to the hot oven. And sprinkled over some leftover crumbs from a batch of hot biscuits. After it cooled, I sliced and moved the pie to a pie plate, since I can't be putting the pan in the refrigerator until the pie's finished.
So on the Side of Good, it's Zucchini 0, Boud 1.
It all comes out even in the end. Like the joke about the judge who reflects, well, some times I give a poor guy twenty years and really should have made it less, then sometimes I give a guy one year and it should have been more. But it all averages out!
