Week 10: Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We had a great time in Maine last week, but its also great to be home--there's a lot to do and too much time away from the farm makes me itchy! I dove right back into working on fencing at Chestnut Hill Farm and am making pretty good progress. So, back home, back in the field, and back to a full kitchen, its time for one of my favorite summer recipes: cousa mihshi. This ground-beef-stuffed summer squash recipe was given to us by a CSA shareholder about 10 years ago. Her father was Lebanese and she said that he made it every year only during the summer because that was when the zucchini were the sweetest. This has become the staple stuffed zucchini in our household and we look forward to it every summer as well.

Cousa Mihshi
1.5 lbs of cousa or zucchini squash up to 8 inches in length
1 small chopped onion
butter for sauteing
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 lb of ground beef
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp salt
pepper to taste
1lb can of stewed tomatoes

Cut the squash lengthwise and remove the cores leaving 1/2 inch of sidewall, careful not to pierce the sides. Rinse in cold water and drain. Saute onions in butter in a large pan. Place rinsed, drained rice in a bowl and add meat and seasonings, mix. Add half of the diced tomatoes to meat mix. Stuff the zukes 3/4 full. Arrange the stuffed zucchini over the onions and pour the rest of the tomatoes on top. Barely cover with water and a little additional salt. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 35 minutes or until the rice is done. Enjoy.