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Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini

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Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini

Zucchini stuffed with Israeli couscous, fennel, marinara and cheeses. This dish was born of leftovers as many of my recipes are, but it's so good, I had to share!
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Italian
Keyword fennel, israeli couscous, marinara, mozzarella, parmesan sauce, zucchini
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Author misangela

Equipment

  • 1 9x13 baking dish

Ingredients

  • 3 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise and scooped out Find straight ones for easy cutting, leave 1/2 inch all around to hold filling
  • 1/2 cup fennel, finely diced Sub onion or celery
  • 1 lg shallot, finely diced Sub 2 Tbl onion or omit
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely diced About 1.5 Tbl
  • 1 cup cremini mushrooms, fine chop
  • 1 cup prepared Israeli couscous Or more if you like
  • 2 cups marinara sauce If you don't have your own, buy the Mezzetti brand. It is the best! Or you can make my recipe, search 'marinara'.
  • 1 Tbl dry marjoram Or use basil, oregano or all three!
  • 1 Tbl fresh thyme Or 1/2 Tbl dry thyme
  • 2 Tbl fennel fronds, fine chop If using fresh fennel
  • 2 Tbl sherry vinegar Sub red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup ground parmesan The dry kind found on the Italian aisle or you can use a little shredded
  • 2/3 cup shredded parmesan
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella You can use fresh, but I think shredded works best here
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs Mixed with 1 Tbl EVOO
  • S/P to taste You'll use more than you think
  • EVOO Used in various places

Instructions

  • Spray baking dish with food release and preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Cut ends off zucchini, hollow out with a spoon leaving 1/2 inch all around and at the ends to hold filling. I did not use the flesh, but you could if you wish. Just chop and add to filling and adjust seasoning. Place boats in baking dish, drizzle with EVOO and season generously with S/P. Remember: zucchini is bland!
  • Prepare couscous as directed on package. DO NOT use any flavourings that might be in the package, you want plain couscous. Make sure it's seasoned with S/P. You need to layer your seasonings since veg dishes need more seasoning in general.
  • In a skillet over med heat, add 1 Tbl EVOO and sweat the fennel, garlic, shallot and mushrooms. Once veg is soft, add about 2/3 cup marinara and the herbs.
  • Add in couscous and reduce heat to med low. Allow to simmer just a couple of minutes, then turn off heat. Add vinegar and ground parm, then allow filling to cool for about 10 minutes.
  • Taste the filling to check seasoning - you want it well seasoned. It should not be too dry, adjust marinara if needed.
  • Fill zucchini boats with filling, fill them as full as you can get them and allow couscous to cover the tops completely.
  • Add the rest of the marinara, making sure the ends of the zucchini are covered and the couscous has plenty of moisture. Keep on top of the zucchini, it is not meant for the squash to cook in sauce. Some overpour is fine, it will make a lovely crisp!
  • Top with parmesan, mozzarella and finally the panko. Again, any overpour will create a nice crisp at the bottom! (See photo.)
  • Cover with foil and bake at 375° for about 45 minutes. Check the zucchini's doneness with a spoon. You want it cooked, but still strong enough to hold the filling. When done, return uncovered to the oven, under the broiler to brown the panko. Watch this! Panko goes from raw to black quickly!
  • Allow to stand for 10 minutes or so, then serve. One zucchini is a serving, but 2 is fine. It's veg, dig in!!

Notes

Do get the fennel for this dish! It is delightful. If you hate fennel, celery will work. 
Fresh mozzarella could be used, but I like the dry shredded better. It doesn't form a blob and is not as bland. 
Many stuffed zucchini recipes call for sausage, which is fine, but I like how this turned out without it. It is light, but very satisfying with the fleshy zucchini. 
Of course this can be made vegan by using vegan cheese. 
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My City Lies In Dust

But, whoa, oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Whoa, oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Your city lies in dust
– Cities In Dust, Siouxsie and the Banshees

Long time no post. I know. I have finally hit the wall with the burnout and have closed down for the most part. It’s what I do when I reach this point: I shut down. And BOY have I shut down this time! I let it go way too far and I’m done. I’m dust.

This burnout started in May with the two conventions back to back. I knew it’d be hard, but I underestimated the long term effects of all that. June was consumed with catching up from May and Nick was occupied with sorting junk for the SFGE sales, which was last weekend.

I hit the wall Wed night, as did Nick, I think. My reaction to all this bullshit is to shut down. His is to drink too much. I drink too much, too, but the shut down usually halts the drinking for me. In any case, Thursday was rough; I did nothing but eat junk, sleep and watch movies. I don’t think I spoke at all that day. Yesterday (Friday), I had to do TEV errands, but after that, I again did very little. We had leftovers for dinner and I had a little sake, in bed by 10.

Only to be rudely awakened by our idiot contractor at 6:50am, demanding his check and thinking he can start running jackhammers at 7am in a residential neighborhood on the fucking weekend. He cannot. BUT, OF COURSE, I had to look this up, since a PROFESSIONAL – with the goddam internet in his hand!! – cannot be bothered. And I really didn’t want a noise ordinance ticket from Tucker.

This is the root of my burnout and general dissatisfaction with humanity right now: I am sick of doing all the work for everyone who is too lazy or ignorant to use the goddam resources available to solve their own problems.

I am tired of doing all the logistics for stupid fucking games and stupid fucking JUNK that needs to be gone.
I am tired of doing all the problem solving for, well, everyone.
I am tired of being the rescue system for so many.
I am tired of being broke.
I am tired of being rejected from even menial jobs because I won’t sign my life over for P/T.
I am tired of the constant struggle just to survive.
I am tired of not being able to help Nick at all with his shitty job and low pay.
I am tired of being tired.
I am tired of this burnout that seems to have no end in sight.

I’m sure there’s more I can whine about, but that list will suffice for now.

I know that things are not that bad in the big scheme of things. We have a place to live and are mostly paying our bills. All the credit cards are maxed, but hey, it’s the American way, right? We are healthy (bodily, anyway, mentally? not so much) and so is the cat. The fucking Ranger is patched up and working for now. The driveway is being fixed by an annoying, clueless contractor, but fixed nonetheless.

So I guess I should just SHUT IT.

And I will. But I think I’ll take this weekend to get over myself and start fresh on Monday. Nothing else to be done. I’ll do some cooking and perhaps mix with the neighbors for a bit for their Annual Bourbon Party. I doubt I’ll be able to put up with people for long, but it’s an opportunity to cook and have some good bourbon, so go I shall.

Guess I’ll just take this dust and make bricks. It’s the only way to go forward. On to the next thing.

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All My Wedding Rings!

I just had a pair of rings commissioned for us! I love all my wedding rings (below), but I wanted a set that was matched for us. It only took 18 years to get around to it! LOL



We got married in the first ring, then got the thinner one soon after (matched), but I never cared for them much. The third and fifth rings are the ones I wear the most. I usually have a blue stone, usually a blue topaz, but the third one is a Mystic topaz in Peacock and the seventh one is opal. The fourth one is a really large adjustable ring that I got at Decatur Arts Fest when I was fat and couldn’t wear my peacock ring (also an arts fest purchase). The cool antique one (#6) is off ebay and I adore it, but it’s a tish big. The last one, the current one, I’ll tell you all about below!

Here is the pair of rings! Cool, right? Here are the sexy pics taken by the artist:

I’ve been stalking the artist, Dominic Rossi, on IG for a while now (IG: @Dom_Ross) and one day he posted some reticulated silver rings that caught my eye. Reticulated silver is cut to size, then fired until the silver starts to bubble – that’s what gives it the texture. So I contact Dom via IG message and we started discussing a plan. He showed me some Burmese spinels in several colours and I decided to break with tradition and get a purple one. Now we we’re off to the races!

I had to devise a way to get a good measure of Nick’s finger. Since the accident, it is larger than before and a rather hard fit. He’s been wearing my size 10+ bubble ring and it’s too big, so I was concerned he’d lose it. (I’d been thinking about getting him a new ring when this awesome artist popped up.) I told him the bubble ring was too big and he needed something else. I got my ring sizers and got a measurement of his finger. Armed with this info, Dom and I calculated what size was needed – it is actually pretty complex when you take into account the width of the ring (8mm) and the thickness of the ring (2mm, VERY thick). We settled on 9.75 for his and 8.5ish for me. We were amazingly accurate – both rings fit PERFECTLY!

Dom turned around the commission in just a couple of weeks and his price was excellent. Nick saw the first PP payment and asked what it was and I said “it’s for a thing”, which worked! The second payment I intercepted the email, so he was none the wiser! HA!! Waiting for the rings to arrive was torture! I told everyone about the rings EXCEPT Nick and I kept it off FB, natch. Last night I presented him with the ring and he LOVES it! I am very pleased with my ring, too. The spinel changes colour in different lighting. Lovely!

If you are thinking of a commission or just looking for some really cool jewelry, I HIGHLY recommend Dominic Rossi! He’s in CO and you can find him on his IG: @dom_ross or FB (new page coming): https://www.facebook.com/domb.bomb1

And here are the rings on our old hands:


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That’s a Wrap!

With MomoCon in the rearview, it’s time to reorganize and change gears.

MomoCon was spectacular this year! They blew past their previous attendance numbers and we are so proud to be a part of it! The GWCC police were dicks, as usual, but everyone else was great.

Our games had lines most of the time and we got lots of positive comments about how nice our games are. We appreciate the support!

If you don’t know, Player One Arcade Services is our side hustle. We bring games to conventions, mostly, but sometimes we’ll do a random party or reception. Furry Weekend Atlanta and MomoCon are our two biggest events. If you are into cute, FWA is for you – even if you’re not a furry! If you are into anime, gaming or other nerdly pursuits, MomoCon is for you! We HIGHLY recommend these cons! Furry is not particularly kid friendly, but MomoCon is DEFINITELY kid friendly.

We’ve got games to repair: Simpsons’ display finally pooped out at Momo; Ms Pac cocktail at My Parents Basement is having major display issues; Millipede and Donkey Kong III both need to be fixed. It never ends.

Nick would love to do nothing but games, but it’s just not feasible. Even if we had 75 games like one of the vendors, we’d have to travel continuously and STILL not make much money, so NO to that. We are still underemployed and in debt, which is never a good place. I’m working on getting a p/t job and soon I’ll be combing the intertubes on Nick’s behalf for a new job. He really hates that stupid print shop and the hour long commute – and I do not blame him.

So, that’s the state of the Weasels at the moment. Tyler Bryant said it best:

I ain’t last, I ain’t first
I ain’t blessed, I ain’t cursed
I been better
But I sho’ been worse
Sho’ Been Worse, Tyler Bryant

Wish me luck with the p/t job and finding something better for Nick. Peace out.

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Notes From an OG Internet Geek

Today, I am reminded that 90% of the people using FaceBook are either young (under 30) or old (over 50). On top of that, these are people who either grew up on FB (the youngsters) or think that FB *is* the internet (the olds). And the overlap of just dumb people who share characteristics of both groups.

Sure, there are plenty of us on FB who have been internet users since the 90s. We were there for AOL, dial-up, Mindspring (RIP), the platform wars (Apple vs Microsoft), Nutscrape (3.0 GOLD!!), Dogpile, Alta Vista, HTML websites, screen savers (Boris, Flying Toasters), Hamster Dance, chat rooms, usenet and having to manually find answers to EVERYTHING. WE are the OG Internet Geeks and WE know what’s up. We knew the nascent internet, when it was pretty useless unless you were very persistent and crafty. WE WERE. We still are. We know the true shitshow that is social media, because we remember the ‘net without it. And it was GLORIOUS.

Here is my take on the various groups and what it’s like to be an OG. It ain’t pretty.

The Youngsters
The youngsters are oblivious to everything and can’t do a Google search to save their lives. They have grown up with the sum of human knowledge in their pockets, yet are unable to use any of it. I really don’t understand WHY this is, just that it is. If I had $1 for every time I’ve done a simple Google search and hand fed the answer to a youngster, I’d not be worrying about my bills. It is at the same time extremely irritating and fascinating. I think it’s the generalized dumbing down of education that is the root of this lack of intellectual curiosity and intellectual laziness. It’s also lack of training on how to use a search engine to find what you’re looking for – a basic internet literacy course would go a long way. These users are using FB less and less, mostly because they don’t want to be on the same platform as their parents and other clueless olds. When they do use FB, it’s spotty and not nearly as obsessively as other groups. They generally are not too bothersome on FB because they are too busy with TikTok.

The Olds
The olds are ALSO oblivious to what is actually going on with FB, but they THINK they are not. They think that they control their accounts and FB can be trusted to keep personal memories, photos, etc. They also think that FB is the whole internet and they use FB like a search engine. This is because they don’t know how to use The Google, and they can’t understand the difference between The Google and The FaceBook. These are the people who post stupid shit without checking it, play every game presented, give out their personal info, then go insane when their account is hacked. They then ask for help, but reject what they are told – which is generally: too bad, so sad, welcome to FB, the miner of personal data. These people are not worth engaging, they are militantly ignorant and will not listen to a word you say. These are the ones who insist that making a police report will solve the problem. LOL They also scream about “cybercrime” a lot. I’ll get back to this.

There is a subset here of people who are not all that old, but they are still ignorant AF about the internet and how it all works. These are the people who act just like the olds, but are not in that demographic. They, too, cannot use Google, just like the youngsters. I call them the Dumbasses, and these are to be avoided just like the others. Lots of Karens in this bunch and they will TOTALLY call the manager to get this FB issue FIXED. LOL

Then there’s us, the OG Internet Geeks. Most of us are Gen Xers with a smattering of Millennials. We are ALWAYS ignored, but we actually are the ones who know what’s up.

Poor us.

We are the ones who put up with these other assholes day in and day out. We listen to their whines about how unfair it all is, how FB is to blame for their account being hacked (not that abc1234 pw or the info given out to data mining, of course), how you just can’t PROVE anything on the internet, there’s no way to find information, blah blah blah.

We try to help these morons, yet it is a thankless job, since they typically don’t really WANT help, they just want someone to commiserate and validate their butthurt.

Today I was in the mood to troll a little, and I found the perfect Karen for it. I had TRIED to offer her help with her hacked account, firstly by telling her that calling the local police was a waste of time. Which it is. What did I get for my trouble? Well, a scolding, of course! What else? I don’t think this person is an old, but she is definitely a dumbass Karen. After I told her that local police do not control FB (I’d deleted by the time I did the SS), she went OFF about how she lost her something something and can’t get it back and she has a “background” in criminal justice, so SHE KNOWS WHAT TO DO!!! So, I wrote back, “Didn’t realise this was a PERSONAL ISSUE, not a FB issue. NEVERMIND. Jaysus. You’re not looking for assistance, you’re looking for validation. I misread your ask.” She is so oblivious that she ANSWERED THAT. The snark went right over ole Karen’s head. ::cackle::



I wish this was an isolated incident, but it is not. Notice the indignation that I dared to actually help – not commiserate – and the dumb’s favourite claim: “cyber crime”. Yep. FB is a cesspool of ignorance. I am there because I admin umpteen pages for our stuff and clients. I get really sick of this shit, y’all.

I DO know how it all works. I DO remember when the internet was snarky AF, but you knew that going into a chat room, so it was OK. I DO remember having to word your searches just so to get any decent results. That is why my Google Fu is strong, I’ve searched without it! I do remember hand coding sites and I’m damned glad there is CMS now (WordPress). I do remember BLOGS and the vast amount of content we dumped into them. (This one is 23 years old and has 1473 posts!) I have a whole different view of the internet than the above mentioned and I DO know that social media has fucking ruined society because I’ve watched it happen.

I’ve watched the internet, the sum of all the knowledge of humanity, become a zoo full of shit flinging monkeys.

Twitter, FaceBook, InstaGram, TikTok, YouTube, ALL OF IT is nothing more than distraction. It is trash. We OG bloggers know this, but good luck getting the FB crowd to see it.

This is why we OG folk are coming back here, to our blogs. No more content given to FB or other bullshit social sites. We are taking back our content and some authors (including me) are starting up Substack email newsletters (free and paid) again. We are going back to pre-social media times and controlling our content. We are sick and tired of FB using our content for free. Yes, our blogs are public and free, but we are not handing over our content to an entity who can do with it as they wish – AND we are getting our content indexed by Google rather than being ONLY in FB. Substack is set up for monetized newsletters, which I think is GREAT. People are used to subscriptions for everything now (another rant for another day), so why not subscribe to an author you like, right?

So, we OG Internet people invite all of you to leave the walled garden of FB and the others. Come OUT to the internet. See its expansive content.

It is the sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips; it is amazing and mindblowing and beautiful and terrible and VAST.

Come on out here. Leave the curated and algorithmed bullshit of platforms. Come out and learn things. Come out and see the art of 1000s of people, the cultures of 1000 societies, the recipes of 1000 cuisines, the languages of 1000 places.

JUST COME OUT OF THE CURATED BULLSHIT AND EXPLORE THE WORLD. IT IS RIGHT HERE.

Just ask The Google for what you want and go from there. You never know what you’ll find. You might even begin to understand why we OG internet folks are sick of your shit… ;)