The French really have a thing for zucchini. Huge amounts of real estate in any grocer or market are devoted to the long, green squash, and nearly every basket I see at the checkout counter has a plastic sack of zucchini in there, sandwiched between the 24-packs of yogurt and bottles of red wine.

What was everyone making with the zucchini, I wondered? Enormous vats of ratatouille? Stuffing them with the strange-looking prepared veal mixture at the butcher’s? Putting them in quiches?

Probably all three, I figured, since these seem to be the things that I often see in the French cooking magazines.

I love my zucchini grilled, but alas…that cannot be, as I’ve mentioned a hundred times before. So, I started thinking about what I could do with zucchini, since it’s so abundant, and relatively inexpensive.

It wasn’t long until muffins popped into my head.

I found a recipe on Elise Bauer’s Simply Recipes blog and decided to Cowgirl-ify it a bit, by adding lime and lime zest and my favorite little nut, the pinon, which I toasted. I cut back on the cinnamon and nutmeg, too, so the lime flavor could come through.

See what you think. I’m off to the store to buy some more zucchini.

Zucchini-Lime Muffins with Pine Nuts
adapted from Simply Recipes

INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs
1 ⅓ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 limes
⅔ cup butter, melted
3 cups zucchini, grated
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat oven to 350.

1. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla.

2. Add the juice of two limes, plus the zest, along with the zucchini and melted butter, and mix well.

3. Add dry ingredients — flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon — and stir to combine. Fold in pine nuts.

4. Scoop into lined muffin pans; bake for 10-12 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Conveniently located across the street from the North Texas State University tennis courts in Denton, Texas Pickup was my favorite local spot to grab a burger or a salad after a few hours of playing tennis with my best friend Melanie.

Texas Pickup was a small place, with lots of dark wood panels, and the vibe was more backcountry bar than restaurant, but I just loved it here. Deciding between the burger and the salad was always a hard decision, but more often than not, the salad won, and I’d usually have a basket of home cut fries along with it, because why not?

Sadly, Texas Pickup closed sometime in the 80s, but I’ve never forgotten its Texas-style salad– heaps of warm chili poured over crisp pieces of iceberg lettuce, then covered with a mountain of shredded cheddar cheese and Fritos. That new white dressing, Ranch, was served on the side, which we’d drown the whole thing in.

The key to this is to wait until the cheese gets a bit melty on the chili before you dump the dressing on top — but you’d figure that, right?

Here’s my version of this salad, which uses turkey chili (but obviously you can use whatever you’d like), shredded cheddar, Fritos, and Romaine (because I can’t find iceberg around here). I make buttermilk dressing – a Cowgirlified version with cilantro and jalapenos – and serve it on the side, too.

Don’t you just love those big ‘ol tomato wedges?

All you do is put some lettuce on a plate or a really big bowl, heap some warmed-up chili on top, add a handful or two of shredded cheese, and some Fritos — and voila!

Since it’s now officially chili season, I thought that this would be the purrfect fall salad for our Friday round-the-world Twitter lunch bunch— New York-based Cheryl, Nicole in San Diego, and Karen in Atlanta — along with all the others.

See the other great fall salad posts by clicking on over to Twitter and typing in the hashtag, #letslunch.

Bon appetit, y’all!

Turkey Chili

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds turkey, ground
1 large white onion, 1/4-inch dice
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
½ green bell pepper, 1/4-inch dice
¼ red bell pepper, 1/4-inch dice
3 16-oz. cans kidney beans, black beans, or a mixture, drained
2 32-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 8-oz. can tomato paste
5 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon paprika (smoky)
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 cups water
olive oil

WHAT YOU DO

1. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a heavy, deep stockpot and add the onions and garlic. Turn the heat on medium and cook until the onions become translucent, 5-10 minutes.

2. Add the ground turkey and cook until cooked through.

3. Now, add the red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, beans and spices.

4. Turn heat down to low and cook for a couple of hours, adjusting seasonings if you need to along the way.

Jalapeno-Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing

INGREDIENTS

1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
1 lime, squeezed
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon shallot, diced
3-4 jalapenos (pickled)
1 handful cilantro
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
sea salt

WHAT YOU DO

1. Put shallot, cilantro, jalapenos in food processor and give it a whiz until these things are well combined.

2. Add lime juice, honey, buttermilk, and creme fraiche or sour cream and pulse a time or two.

3. Now, with the motor running, drizzle in the grapeseed oil. Add salt.

Few things make me happier than sitting down to a basket of warm, salty tortilla chips and a bowl of freshly made salsa.

It’s funny, too, how much salsas vary from one Mexican restaurant to another, when they’re all made from the same basic ingredients – there’s a tomato or tomatillo base, and then, onion, garlic, cilantro, and some sort of chile.

This is a recipe for salsa based on my favorite hometown Tex-Mex joint, Mazatlan, which, by the way, is located in an old Dairy Queen, next to the Holiday Lanes bowling alley. You gotta love that.

This salsa is about as basic as it can get, but wait until you scoop your tortilla chip into a bowl of this — you’ll hear mariachis playing in your head.

Enjoy the show.

Mazatlan’s Salsa

INGREDIENTS

1 32 oz can diced tomatoes
1 small white onion
½ bunch cilantro (appx 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper (to taste)
3 jalapenos (fresh is best but in Paris, I use pickled)
vegetable oil

WHAT YOU DO

1. Drizzle a bit of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and add the onions, then the garlic. Turn on medium heat and cook until the onions become translucent, 5-10 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, salt and freshly ground pepper. Let cook for about 5 minutes, and with a hand blender, puree.

Serve immediately.

As my throw-together Greekish dinner was coming together the other night (and I noticed that I had two small cucumbers to use before they’d quickly go south), I decided to make some raita to go along with it all, but with a slightly cowgirl twist.

This is so simple, I don’t know why I don’t make it all the time, and just dollop it on all sorts of stuff.

Actually, I think that I’m going to start, because it’s really quite lovely on so many simple things, whether pitas and the whole mezze thing is going on or not. It would be great on top of Brian Hofeldt’s Green Chile Stew, now that I think about it.

By the way, I thought about using smoky paprika instead of chipotle powder, but opted for the chipotle, because as you know, I’m quite fond of the little smoked jalapeno. Play with this if you want. It’s meant to be cooling, but a little heat seems to make the cool part of this even more so, sort of like the salty-sweet combo.

Cowgirl Raita

INGREDIENTS

2 cups whole-milk or Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, seeded and shredded
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
sea salt

WHAT YOU DO

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate for an hour.

Maybe it was the cold weather knocking at my door, signalling fall…which, to me, wherever I am in the world, still means Texas State Fair time, which means Fletcher’s corny dogs and funnel cakes, and well, anything fried.

Which is how I got the idea to make these little gems.

I knew that I wanted to make something like a donut hole, but with a cowgirl twist. Plus there had to be Nutella, because this, after all, is Round 2 of the Twitter Nutella Challenge (for all of the Nutella recipes, simply go to Twitter and type in the hashtag #Nutella).

First, I made a batch of yeast donut dough, and cut out little holes, fried them up, and sprinkled them with sugar, but the result was not impressive. The little balls cooked up picture-perfect, but what they had in looks they lacked in taste. Kind of like Paris Hilton.

If I’d had a can of biscuits in the fridge, I probably would have cracked one open and called it a day. But I didn’t, and besides, that wouldn’t be very sporting, now would it?

No one’s gonna start calling me Demi Homemade.

My answer: Bunuelos, fried Mexican puffs, with a generous squirt of Nutella inside.

They’re fast. Easy. And you can eat tons of them. They are so small, you know.

I used a syringe to get the Nutella inside the little holes, which worked out just fine. Seems kinda weird, but that’s all I had on hand. They may look at you funny when you tell then at the CVS that you’re shooting up Nutella, but they’ve probably heard stranger stories than that.

Nutella Bunuelos

INGREDIENTS

3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
2 eggs
½ cup whole milk
vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup sugar
½ cup Nutella
2-3 tablespoons whole milk

WHAT YOU DO

1. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Put in bowl or food processor.

2. Add cubes of butter and mix until mixture looks like coarse meal.

3. Add slightly beaten eggs and milk. Pulse until dough becomes a solid mass. If dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour.

4. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut small circles (I used an olive oil cap!).

5. Let circles rest for 15 minutes, at least.

6. Put oil in deep pot, and turn heat on medium high. When the temperature is at 360, carefully drop small batches of the dough circles into the oil. Work fast — these will only take 20-30 seconds total to cook.

7. Roll in sugar, and with a syringe, poke a hole in the sides and squeeze a bit of Nutella inside. Yummy, right?

We were driving down the little two-lane route nationale D934 east of Paris the other day, and Xavier decided to turn down a grassy road, leading nowhere far as I could tell, because he thought that there might be a good patch of land for Rose to run and play. It didn’t look like much to me, but I didn’t say anything, because I’m shy that way. Just keeping to myself like I do.

We passed a huge cornfield and the road curled to the left, and soon we were smack dab in front of a fat, grassy trail that snaked through hilly pastures filled with white cows that led straight to a forest – lined with gobs of wild blackberry bushes.

Happy dance! I didn’t know whether to just pick them and eat them, or pick them and save them, so I did both.

I didn’t have anything to put the berries in, and neither did Xavier, who realized that my blackberry picking had taken a serious turn, and started walking back to the car to find a plastic bag.

“Wait,” I said. “Your hat – it’s perfect.”

Which is how his Texas Rangers baseball cap became my wild blackberry sack.

Truth is, I’d never picked wild blackberries, and I was clearly a novice, because I kept getting stuck – and stung – by the thorns. Pshaw to the thorns, I said, and just kept on picking. Some were so ripe that they practically fell apart in my hands. These, of course, I had to eat immediately.

The rest made it into these little individual Wild Blackberry Cobblers. I simply used Mom’s Peach Cobbler recipe, and substituted blackberries for peaches.

For fun, I made Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Ice Cream, inspired once again by a recipe in David Lebovitz’s book, “The Perfect Scoop.” Mine’s a bit lighter, with less cream, eggs instead of yolks only, and I used dark brown sugar because I thought that it would give the ice cream a nice caramelly taste, and work perfectly with the wild blackberries.

Turns out I was right. I think that this would go really well with other fruit cobblers and pies, or simply topped with berries, or with anything chocolate. Come to think of it, it’s just fine on its own, too. Way fine, in fact.

Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

2 cups milk
¾ cup dark brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup cream

WHAT YOU DO

1. Warm the milk, sugar, salt in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs together.

3. When tiny bubbles appear on the side of the pan, the milk’s ready. Pour a bit into the eggs, while whisking furiously so the eggs don’t scramble. Then, pour it all back in the saucepan, turn on the heat again and let it cook for a couple of minutes, until the mixture thickens just to the point that it’ll coat the back of a wooden spoon.

4. Remove from heat, add the cream, and let cool. Put in an ice bath if you’d like, or let cool, then put in fridge for 4 hours or so, until well chilled.

5. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Then, scoop and enjoy.

Makes 1 quart.

Turns out, they were pretty good sous-chefs, too. And the song and the green chile stew?

Take a look and see for yourself. Enjoy the show.

Brian Hofeldt’s Green Chile Stew

INGREDIENTS

12-16 Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 pound pork
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 medium red-skinned potatoes, chopped into large chunks
4 tomatillos, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch chile powder
1 cup cilantro, chopped
1 lime, squeezed
1 bottle beer
sea salt
pepper
olive oil
cilantro (for garnish)

WHAT YOU DO

1. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a heavy stockpot, add onions and garlic, and cook on medium heat until onions are translucent, 5-10 minutes.

2. Add pork to mixture and cook until meat cooks through, about 5 minutes.

3. Add tomatillos, potatoes, carrots, chicken stock, beer, lime and spices, and let cook for an hour, at least, until all of the veggies are soft and the flavors have come together.

Garnish with more cilantro, pop open a beer, and turn up the music.

I once dated a guy who didn’t like cornbread. Can you imagine?

No wonder it didn’t work out.

Jalapeno cornbread was a staple in our house, along with regular cornbread, which Mom usually poured into her cornpone cast iron pans, shaped like little ears of corn. Mom always made fresh cornpone when we ate anything in a bowl – vegetable soup, chili, pinto beans, and black-eyed peas, and sometimes just to go along with whatever we were having for dinner — but with bowl dinners, in particular, there seemed to be an unwritten rule that cornbread would be served.

After dinner, Daddy liked to sop his cornpone in a fat puddle of sorghum that he’d mix up with a piece of butter with his fork until it was a thick sugary paste. This seemed like a good idea, so I picked up the habit, too. (These days, I’m substituting with French honey of the forest, which my father would definitely not approve of.)

Daddy didn’t do this with jalapeno cornbread, which is the fancier, cakier version of the cornbreads, loaded with cheddar cheese, onions, and jalapenos — so there’s enough going on already. This cornbread requires nothing at all, or perhaps just a tiny schmear of softened fleur de sel butter.

Even with its bacon-grease assisted crust, there’s an elegance to this cornbread that elevates it to the category of divine, not-to-be missed Southern foods. My mom makes this for me every single time that I’m home.

The other day, because I was making black-eyed peas for dinner – just a big fat bowl of the little cuties – I knew that I needed to make Mom’s jalapeno cornbread, too. Because to have black-eyed peas on their own – or god forbid, with a baguette – would be so wrong.

This is Mom’s recipe, and you’ll see that she likes the Morrison’s mixes – which I import via my well-worn Samsonite to Paris – but there’s a note at the bottom that gives you the particulars if you don’t have Morrison’s mixes in your area, or don’t feel like running to the store if you do.

Main thing is to use cast iron skillets, which give the cornbread its crunchy brown crust. I used two small skillets instead of one large one, which is what mom usually does (and this is why her baking time is 50 minutes or more). My cornbreads were done in 30 minutes flat, so I’d recommend using two skillets for this recipe instead of one. Mom says that the cornbread freezes pretty well if you make too much. I like to slice them into big chunks and use them as salad croutons, or slice pieces and toast them, and slather a bit of you-know-what on them. This is all assuming that you might have any leftover.

Jalapeno Cornbread

INGREDIENTS

2 packages Morrison’s cornbread mix*
⅔ cup sweet milk
2 eggs
1 can cream style corn
¼ cup bacon drippings
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-5 jalapenos (pickled)
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat oven 375-400.

1. Mix cornbread mix, milk, eggs, corn in a medium bowl.

2. Then add onion, garlic, jalapenos and cheese.

3. Put bacon drippings in iron skillet in oven for about ten minutes or until hot.
Add to cornbread mixture and pour batter into skillet.

Bake for 50 minutes or a little longer if necessary. (The cooking time will vary, depending on the size of the cast iron skillet that you use. Mom uses one large one, so it takes longer. I used two small ones, and it only took 30 minutes.)

*Morrison’s mix is 6 oz, and has baking soda in the mix. If you don’t use Morrison’s mix, use 1 1/2 cups corn meal and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Also remember to use a bit of salt.

Some things stick with you forever. Years ago, I’d fallen in love with all things Italian – including an undercover detective named Leonardo – and vowed to go back. I watched Fellini movies, rollerbladed to language tapes, and baked Tuscany’s signature saltless bread, pane Toscana, and ate it smeared with butter and Nutella each morning, along with coffee made in my tiny Bialetti pot, just like I did when I lived in Florence.

When I returned one summer to go to language school, my friend welcomed me with a light, late dinner – panzanella and lots of wine.

Now, every summer, when I have too many tomatoes (oh what a problem to have!), I make panzanella, and if it’s not too hot, I sit outside, and with a glass of wine, too, I’m right back in Florence. Salute!

Panzanella

INGREDIENTS

4-6 thick slices stale bread, cut into 1-inch chunks
3-4 medium tomatoes, sliced into large chunks
1 medium cucumber, sliced into thick discs and quartered
1 small red onion, sliced into thin rings
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
10 leaves basil, torn
⅓ cup red wine vinegar
⅔ cup olive oil
sea salt
pepper

WHAT YOU DO

1. Put all of the ingredients, except the oil and vinegar into a large bowl.

2. Mix the oil and vinegar in a jar or whisk in a small bowl, pour over the salad and toss well.

3. Put in fridge for 3-4 hours, at least. The longer this salad sits, the better it gets.