Gardeners' Holidays 2022: Squashmas

We're a few weeks into zucchini season now, and our crop so far isn't as crazy as it was last year. We seem to have managed to strike a happy medium between having too few zucchini because we've lost one or both plants to squash vine borers and being absolutely inundated with them. So we have enough zucchini to enjoy, and not so many that they cease to be enjoyable.

Last night, Brian threw a few of them on the grill, along with some fresh corn on the cob from the farmers' market, a sliced potato, and some free-range turkey franks. These were an impulse purchase that came about in kind of a random way: a few days ago, I started seeing rumors on Facebook and Reddit to the effect that our local Stop & Shop, the one real supermarket here in town, was closing down. Troubled by this news, I went out to the store on my walk to see if I could find any sign as to whether it was true or false. I didn't, but while poking around, I found these hot dogs on sale for $4.49 — cheaper than the plant-based alternatives — and grabbed a package.

Having the dogs, we then had the question of what to serve them on. My doctor recently advised me to start watching my blood sugar, which means cutting back on low-fiber carbohydrates like the classic fluffy hot dog bun. No doubt we could have found a store selling whole-wheat ones, but Brian decided it would be more fun to try making them instead. He'd already had some success making hamburger buns with half whole-wheat and half white flour; for these, he decided to go full whole-wheat. He also added some soy flour added into the mix, since he'd found this helped his whole-wheat bread hold together a bit better.

Well, the buns did indeed hold their shape well — perhaps a bit too well. The problem was, they didn't puff up at all when baked, so they ended up looking less like buns and more like narrow, flat little loaves. I was able to make a sandwich on one by carefully slicing it open, cutting my hot dog and zucchini into small pieces, and piling them on, but it was a bit awkward.

So, clearly, the bun recipe needs a bit more work. Maybe it would work better to ditch the whole "bun" concept and use whole-wheat pitas or tortillas, in which we could wrap the dogs and zucchini strips up pig-in-a-blanket style.

The hot dogs themselves, however, were quite satisfying — much better than any meat-free alternative I've tried so far. The fake-meat manufacturers are doing a good job coming up with burger alternatives, but so far as I can tell, they've really fallen down on the hot dog front. Unfortunately, we can't seem to do better ourselves, so I guess this will continue to be one of the few areas in which we either indulge in real meat or do without.

Oh, and the news about the Stop & Shop, sadly, turns out to be true. The mayor has announced that she's in negotiations with Stop & Shop's parent company to "ascertain all the facts and options," presumably with an eye to keeping the store open. Failing that, she says it's "one of her highest priorities" to find another store to take its place. Folks on Reddit have suggested that our smallish store would be ideal for a limited-assortment grocery chain like Aldi, Lidl, or Trader Joe's, all of which we have patronized regularly over the years. But since all three chains already have stores within a few miles of our town, I fear that's unlikely to work out.