Sniffle, Sniffle... Goodbye Garden! Tomato Bisque and Whole Wheat Honey Zucchini Bread Recipes

So many things that I don't like about winter... one of them is the day that I have to go out and bring in all the tomatoes before they freeze (or, whoops, after some of them have already frozen). It is also the end of all the other garden fresh produce. Here are a couple of recipes that I made to use up the sudden mass of produce:

This is a recipe from a book put out by the chef of one our favorite places to eat in Sun Valley, Cristina's. The only thing that I changed was the amount of cream. It called for 1 1/2 cups and I only used 1... because my thighs asked me to and it was totally creamy enough.

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients:
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 T finely chopped garlic
2 T fresh basil chiffonade
½ C white wine (I used cooking wine that you can get at the grocery store)
8 C fresh, ripe, Italian tomatoes, diced, with their juice, or 8 C canned Italian tomatoes
½ t red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 C cream
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

Sauté onion, garlic, and basil in olive oil until onions are tender and light gold in color. Add wine and let cook a few minutes. Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Simmer for about 12 minutes, sitirring occasionally. Then pulse mixture briefly in a food processor to obtain a creamy consistency.

Return to pot, whisk in cream, and bring to a gentle simmer. Drizzle each bowl of soup with olive oil and garnish with a fresh basil leaf. Serve with crostino of garlic bread.

I served these with some grilled cheese sandwiches. The recipe also says that the soup is good chilled for a summer evening. Samuel, my “tomato hater” actually ate this. He thought it was “dip” for his sandwiches.

I searched for a whole wheat zucchini bread recipe. I liked this recipe because it used honey. When I have extra zucchini I shred it, measure out 4 cups, put it in a freezer bag, and freeze it for later. I made a ton of changes to the original recipe that I got from allrecipes.com, so here is my version:

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup honey
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups finely grated zucchini
1 3/4 cup chocolate chips (I like the Mini Hershey Kisses found in the baking isle in these kind of breads)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease four 8x4 inch loaf pans and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into the wet ingredients until moistened. Gently stir in the zucchini and walnuts until evenly distributed. Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the crown comes out clean. Cool in the pan until cool enough to touch, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap or store in a plastic bag when cool.