Four months ago (when it was warm and sunny), I vacuum sealed three potential dessert options for our trip – zucchini bread, zucchini brownies, and chocolate chip squash cake. I know some of you think you wouldn’t even consider partaking of these items fresh let alone four months later. Believe me they are very good – John even likes them, and he swears he HATES squash!
Hypothesis… I thought we would be able to look at the items and determine whether they were consumption-worthy. You know – if there was anything growing on them. If growth – no tasting required.
The unveiling (unwrapping and tasting) took place Sunday. As each item was removed from it’s packaging, excitement and trepidation were experienced. Excitement – would we be able to enjoy these treats on our trip! Trepidation – will we want to remove the item from our mouth in haste and look frantically for something else to eat to remove the non-welcome taste. Upon opening each packages, the items looked squashed but no growths were noted. So the next step was essential – the taste test!
First the brownie. John was a chicken and made me take the first bite using the excuse that he needed to record the tasting with a photograph. In hindsight, I should have demanded a synchronized tasting. It was OK – I didn’t feel I needed to remove it from my mouth. However, there was a funky aftertaste.
Next, chocolate chip squash cake. This was a synchronized tasting. I removed my bite fairly quickly! Oohhh!!! Not a go. I was so busy removing my sample that I didn’t notice what John’s response was.
Now I was really scared to taste the zucchini bread, but it had to be done. However, a smaller sample was taken this time. This bite also landed in the trash.
Results… Zucchini brownies, chocolate chip squash cake, and zucchini bread should be eaten fresh and will not be going on our trip with us.
One positive note – the dogs enjoyed a little treat. They don’t seem to be as picky as we are – they eat dead, rotting animals……
Trial and error, now you know what doesn’t work
Love It………
Not the bad taste, but the trial
[…] Using method one, last week, I dehydrated the ingredients bark, leather, and fruit. Bark can be eaten as a crunchy snack, added to meat and vegetables to create stew, or re-hydrated to make a meal or dessert. Potato bark (2 1/2 pounds dehydrates to 6 ounces) becomes mashed potatoes with meat and vegetables; BBQ potato bark – BBQ beef stew; Corn bark – corn bark stew with ham; Butternut squash ( The original recipe calls for sweet potatoes, but I didn’t grow sweet potatoes in my garden, so….) – butternut squash porridge; Butternut squash pie bark (originally pumpkin pie) – butternut squash pie (This is delicious dry or reconstituted.). Leathers are similar to bark but are pliable instead of crunchy. Salsa leather (similar to tomato sauce leather) can be used to create a Mexican-style meal by combining it with rice, chicken and/or black beans, and vegetables such as bell peppers and corn. Fruit can be added to trail mix or granola. The downside to this method is we won’t be taste-testing the meal before our trip. Kind-of scary! (But not as scary as our Science Experiment!) […]