Zucchini Noodles with Peanut Sauce

This year I was fortunate enough to get one of the community garden plots in my condo complex and I've had a great time tending to it this summer. Like most gardeners who plant zucchini I suddenly found myself with more squash than I could possibly eat. Sure, I gave some away, shredded and froze some, but I really wanted to use as much as I could while it was fresh.

I found this scrumptious-looking recipe for zucchini noodles on the excellent food blog, Kitchen Confindante. I even ordered one of those crazy shredding tools mentioned in the blog post to make the noodles. I have a mandolin which would do the job as well but being a bit clumsy I sliced open my thumb using the mandolin and decided my digits would be better served using the $5 tool.

The recipe was very simple and a perfect light meal for a warm summer night. The leftovers were terrific for lunch the next day too.

It's Time to Make the Pesto

The basil plants that I have in my planter box are, um....thriving. I had to trim it back before it bolted to seed. So, with my bounty of basil I made pesto over the weekend. I used this recipe from Food Network.

But, seriously, how much pesto can one girl eat? Obviously not enough (even if I invite friends over) so I froze the pesto in an ice cube tray.

Last night I popped the pesto cubes out of the tray and put them in labeled freezer bag for future use!

Peppermint Layer Cookies

Yesterday, Ryan and I made Christmas cookies. I let him pick what he wanted to make. That will teach me! I am very pleased with the way these Peppermint Layer Cookies from Sunset Magazine turned out although making them was a several hour affair.

Next up, Italian Fig Cookies! These were a staple when I was growing up, my great-grandmother made them every year at the holidays.