An August sentiment: Where did these gigantic zucchini come from?

For those of you who keep vegetable gardens, you'll be able to appreciate this August sentiment -- each mammoth zucchini seems to be larger than the last. Wednesday, I thought I had "caught up" on all of the zucchini. Then Thursday afternoon I was picking tomatoes for dinner and found yet another mammoth zucchini hiding under the leaves. So, what's a cook to do?

Besides zucchini bread, relish, and veggie medleys, here's something really delicious that will use one very large zucchini in one blow -- baked, stuffed zucchini.

Here's the size of one from a couple of weeks ago. I put a banana next to it to give you an indication of size.

To stuff:
I used a melon baller to scoop out the center of each half. (Those scoops of zucchini flesh were then later chopped and added to vegetable soup.)
I stuffed mine with a mixture of cooked, chopped chicken breast, bread crumbs, herbs, garlic, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. After filling, I topped with additional Parmesan.
On an oiled baking sheet, I baked the stuffed halves for about 35 minutes, at about 350 degrees, until the cheese was browned on top. The zucchini part was crisp-tender.

You can also stuff with loose Italian sausage, or bread crumbs, herbs and cheese. Since you want the zucchini part to cook well, keep your fillings dense. So, if just doing bread crumbs with cheese, add a bit of milk, beaten egg, or just water to the crumb mixture. This way the filling and the zucchini will cook to about the same doneness.

Bumps in the transition from one cook to many cooks

When there was just one person in the home procuring, managing, and cooking all of the food, staying on top of all of the supplies was fairly straightforward. I knew what I had prepared, what was leftover, and what needed using up. Now, we have multiple cooks in the house, but still one person doing the procuring and managing of supplies. It's not readily known by the rest of the crew what we have in abundance or what needs using ASAP. Asking me what they can use is a regular occurrence. Not that this is bad, but it does put me in the position of saying, "don't use that" or "I'm saving that." Those kinds of statements make me sound like an ogre, when in fact all I'm really doing is trying to manage our stock until the next month rolls around, so that we can all enjoy the foods in the house.

My solution has been to create a weekly list of what we have in abundance and should be used. It's a simple list, kept on the refrigerator. I preface the list with a statement reflecting that the first items in each category are ones that should be used first. I also indicate that not everything is in ready-to-use condition, and may need harvesting. This week, in produce we have apples that need using, and in protein sources, we have lots of eggs. I've also included items that are saved for specific recipes, so those won't be used indiscriminately. Hopefully, this makes me seem less like an ogre about food.

My list focuses on produce and protein sources, as those are the items most frequently asked about. The produce is significant because we have items that won't keep terribly long. And the protein is asked about because it is not self-evident. Meat/eggs may be stored in the freezer, the fridge, or even pantry (canned meat). To complicate matters more, we have 3 freezers, 2 refrigerators, and multiple cabinets in the kitchen, along with 2 pantries. Everyone seems to figure out the grains and dairy products on their own. The bonus to making this list is the act of reading the list, by the cook on duty, stimulates thoughts on what to make. Since sometimes food is just food, reading a list that says we need to use eggs, zucchini, and apples may make a cook whose feeling less-than-inspired to simply scramble some eggs, steam zucchini, chop apples, and serve with bread. Just food, but it gets the job done.

We're seeing the financial benefit, as well, and wasting less fresh produce, which is super important right now as the garden is in high production. Just thought I'd share what is working for us.