Baked Zucchini “Fries” -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: It’s still fresh zucchini season in our neck of the woods. Mr. Right and I both love zucchini, and we can never have enough tasty recipes for it. Two earlier faves I shared here are this Zucchini with Shallots sautee and Zucchini Butter Pasta.

And of course, Zucchini Muffins are a classic. 

These baked zucchini “fries” or sticks are equally easy and tasty. I’d planned them as a side dish with a grilled flat iron steak, but menu plans fall apart sometimes and we ended up eating them with fish. They would be fabulous with chicken, too, or that beef. They'll be a regular in our household, for sure. 

Zucchini and tomato sauce are a natural combination, but if someone in your household disagrees, serve the marinara on the side instead of drizzled over the vegetables. Make sure the herbs or spices in your tomato sauce compliment the flavors of your main dish. 

Buon appetivo!

CONGRATULATIONS to Vicki Delany on the launch today of her newest Year-Round Christmas mystery. I read it last spring while traveling and completely forgot I was in the air in April and not in Rudolph, NY in December! Here's what I said about it:

"Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, the latest in Vicki Delany’s Year-Round Christmas series, is sure to bring good cheer to even the Scroogiest of readers. You’ll be humming holiday tunes and watching for the ghosts of Christmases past and future as you turn the pages, reaching for hot chocolate or a gingerbread cookie no matter what the weather, as Merry and her friends save the holiday." 

Baked Zucchini “Fries” 

Adapted from the Washington Post

Nonstick cooking spray

2 medium zucchini (1 pound total)

1 large egg

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup prepared marinara sauce, for serving 

Place rack in upper third of the oven and heat to 450 degrees. Spray a large, rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. 

Wash and trim the zucchini. Slice each in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, using a small spoon. Cut zucchini into 3- to 4-inch-long and 1/2-inch-wide strips, resembling french fries or sticks.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg. On a plate or shallow dish, combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, garlic, and black pepper.

Toss the zucchini sticks, a few at a time, in the beaten egg to coat. Dip each piece into the breadcrumb mixture, pressing it to adhere, then lay out on the baking sheet, peel down and flesh side up. Repeat with the remaining zucchini and breadcrumbs. If the crumbs did not stick well to some zucchini pieces, spoon remaining breadcrumbs on to them and press gently. Don’t worry about stray breadcrumb mixture spilling onto the baking sheet. Spray tops of zucchini generously with the cooking spray.

Roast for about 15 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender but still firm, and nicely browned.

Warm the marinara sauce in a small pan over low heat. 

Serve the zucchini hot, drizzled with the marinara sauce. If you prefer, serve the marinara separately. 

Serves 4. 

You've heard the old joke about not leaving your car unlocked during zucchini season, or you might find a few left in your seat! Me, I would not mind! What’s your favorite way to enjoy it?   

AN UNHOLY DEATH 
To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in fictional Jewel Bay, Montana, my publisher and I are bringing out stand-alone editions of readers’ favorites from Carried to the Grave and Other Stories. Our first selection is the novella “An Unholy Death,” a historical prequel to the Agatha Award-winning series opener, Death al Dente. Out now in paperback and ebook. 

It’s 1910 and newly married Kate Murphy arrives in Jewel Bay, Montana, with her husband Paddy, proprietor of Murphy’s Mercantile, intent on building their life together in this unfamiliar place. The conditions are rough—as are some of their clientele—and get even rougher when Kate discovers the dead body of the widowed local preacher. She’s determined to keep his young daughter safe, but the task takes all the courage Kate can summon as she faces the first of many mysteries unfolding in her new home . . .

And readers are raving about the latest Spice Shop novel!

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in trade paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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