Zucchini!

When I was younger, my grandfather on my father's side (Nonno) had this HUGE vegetable garden. My cousins and I spent the majority of the day outside when we visited, feasting on rhubarb, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries during the day. At dinner came the veggies he grew.

I have always wanted my own garden, have attempted one a few times. Once, I thought I was going to be quite successful until the dog somehow got around the fencing and tore it to shreds. It is NOT attractive to see an adult woman sobbing in piles of dirt that is scattered with the remnants of her garden. I will confess to being so furious, I'm amazed the dog lived to see another day.

This year, I decided to try a few garden "pots." Lo and behold, with next to nothing in care arrives the ZUCCHINI!

A favorite of mine is this zucchini soup, which I found on a blog* this past year and tried and absolutely LOVED. If you're into cold soups, it might work. If not, save this recipe until you have too much zucchini and don't know what to do with it. It freezes beautifully and tastes yummy. No squishy zucchini here, it is pureed smooth.

And for those of you on Weight Watchers, I think I remember reading it was a WW soup.

Cream of Zucchini Soup

• 1/2 small onion, quartered

• 2 cloves garlic

• 3 small zucchini skin on cut in large chunks

• 32 oz fat free chicken or veggie stock (I use veggie)

• 2 tbsp lite sour cream ( I use the real stuff)

• salt

• pepper

Combine chicken broth, onion, garlic and zucchini in a medium pot and cook on medium heat.Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Add sour cream. Purée with an immersion blender, until smooth. Or, in a regular blender being VERY CAREFUL not to fill the blender more than 1/2 full.

Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

Top with parmesan cheese.

Let me know if you try it and like it.

* - and as soon as I remember which one, I am going to thank them for posting it!