three bowls

Before I get into this tasty recipe adapted from My Mexico by Diana Kennedy, I have a confession. My name is Leslie and I have a virulent form of Contrary Maryness.

When free of outside influences, I am fairly agnostic about most things, able to see multiple points of view. But put me in close proximity to someone with a strongly-held opinion, or worse, several people strongly holding the same opinion, and I reflexively swing to the opposite side.

It’s so automatic that it almost feels physical, as though trying to pry my mouth open and utter the words, “I agree...” would be like trying to ask my DNA to re-arrange itself on the spot.

It’s annoying and obnoxious and I know it. But at this point, I just have to accept it about myself, and at best, try my damnedest to keep my mouth shut instead of always acting on my contrary impulses.

So right now the contrary impulse I am trying to suppress is Machismo in the Face of Tweeness.

I love Seattle, I love it so much I have two entire sites dedicated to it. But it is a different culture than I am used to. It’s very...gentle. Gentle sensibilities, gentle senses of humor, gentle language. It's like a J.Jill ad in the form of a metropolis.

It’s a town where things are not “good” or “great!” or “delicious” but rather they are “lovely.” Lovely lovely lovely. When you enter the city limits, they make you surrender all other positive adjectives and give you a laminated card that says “LOVELY.” And everyone just waves them around all the livelong day.

Okay, not really, but that’s sometimes what it feels like. And what’s so wrong with that? Nothing. It’s nice. It’s, yes, lovely.What kind of grumpy buzzkill with two thumbs could possibly have a problem with that? This guy. Cuz when you suffer from Contrary Maryness, the gentle loveliness just makes every foul-mouthed stevedore impulse you already have throb like a tension headache.

But then I started noticing that this gentleness was actually not just limited to Seattle. This kind of twee softness seems to be becoming an actual Thing, like a lifestyle that is being marketed to. Example: this Prius ad:

That thing is so goddamn twee I have sprained muscles trying to hit the mute button on my remote to avoid having that cutesy-poo infection of a sound take over my brains.

Once I started noticing it, it seems that in general grown adults are being marketed to as though they are...toddlers. Rounded edges, pastel colors, tweedly-dee music.The ubiquity of it arouses every Contrary Mary impulse and makesme want to get a motorcycle and run over a stuffed animal with it.

Anyway, this big preamble is mainly to establish that I am currently feeling very anti-cutesy-poo. This makes it even more shameful to admit that my entire house is color-coordinated like I’m some sort of six-year old. It's just tremendously not macho. Look at it.

I mean, it looks like the home of the target audience for that Prius ad.

But I just really like green. It reminds me of trees and I like trees. And I happened to be moving in and buying stuff right during the heyday of what this New Yorker article called “wasabi green.”

And so that’s bad enough, twee enough, if it weren’t for the artificial insertion of an extra recipe below, but this would be the third post in a row where the pictures of my food match my house, as though my cutesy-poo little commitment to a color theme continues into my mouth and down into my digestive tract.

But I promise that it’s all just a coincidence. I mainly am posting this zucchini recipe because Saturday is “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day”. So it’s really just a public service in case you are on the receiving end of some sneakiness. Or, if you are the sneaker, not the sneakee, why not print out a copy of the recipe and include it. It’s the least you could do.

I made this dish for my Mexican Memorial Day party and it was a big hit. I’ve made it again since then and it continued to satisfy. It’s an excellent way to use up a lot of zucchini, and keeps fairly well for a few days. I eat it over long-grain brown rice, but it's also tasty on its own.

And, as mentioned, just for a little accent color, I’m going to also include a recipe below adapted from the same book: Botana de Papas Locas which translates to “Crazy Potato Snack.” They'd make a good little vegetarian meal together.

Zucchini Michoacan Style via Diana Kennedy

Adapted from My Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 2 lbs zucchini, trimmed and diced
• ½ cup water
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro (stems okay)
• 3 poblano chiles OR 1 jalapeno+1 green bell pepper, charred (can do this under broiled or over flame on as stove), peeled, deveined, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup queso anejo OR queso fresco, but queso anejo strongly preferred
• S&P to taste

1. Heat oil in large dutch oven, add zucchini and sprinkle with salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about five minutes. Should be cooked but not soft.
2. Blend together the water, onion, garlic, cilantro and peppers. Blend until smooth.
3. Add liquid to pan, stirring well. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more water if it seems dry, but Kennedy cautions it should be “moist, but not too juicy.”
4. Stir in sour cream, simmer for 5 minutes more. Taste/season, sprinkle with queso, serve.