Calabacitas: squash, onions, corn, and chiles; yummy side dish or taco filling.
4-5 squash (any combination of yellow squash and zucchini will work), sliced into 1/4 inch thick medallions
1 sweet onion, halved and sliced
Corn (1 can or 3 ears)
1 can green chiles (I often get
Ortega or
Casa Fiesta, but don't use canned jalapenos unless you want SPICY)
4-5 strips of bacon, chopped into 1 inch pieces
In a cast iron or large non-stick skillet, cook bacon over med-high heat until done but not crispy. Add onions to pan and cook until translucent or even lightly browned (6-8 minutes). Reduce heat to medium and add squash in batches, about 1/3 at a time, to make sure it gets its fair share of bacon grease and direct exposure to the hot pan. Add corn and chiles and cook over med-low heat until everything is warm through. This dish can be prepared first and sit while the rest of the meal is cooking.
At the beach last week we used canned corn and only a few chiles because I accidently picked up canned jalapenos and we didn't want to make everyone wince and cry in pain from the heat. On Monday night when we made calabacitas to go with our tacos, we used leftover grilled corn from the night before. We had about 2 1/2 ears left and I scraped the kernels right off the cobs and tossed it in instead of canned corn. Delicious if you have the corn left over but not necessary.
The overwhelming number of summer squash has led me to my first batch of zucchini bread. I used the recipe from Simply Recipes. The suggested add-ins in this recipe are raisins and walnuts. I had neither. 
I made one loaf with dried cherries and chocolate chips. TASTY!! And into the other loaf I added pumpkin seeds and dried figs. Also delicious but a little bit on the health nut side. (You may notice in the pictures that the add-ins are not evenly distributed. I decided I didn't want to dirty an extra bowl so in order to mix different things into the two loafs, I did it in the loaf pans. I put half the dough in one pan and half in another and then mixed in the fruit, chocolate and/or nuts. This is not a good plan. Just dirty another bowl if you want to add different things into each loaf!)
Posts
