The Good Table At Home: Bonnie's Amazing Garden & Zoodle Pasta Salad

A Note from Pastor Melinda

The difficulty and crisis of the world is overwhelming. It is virtually impossible to bear it without very deep resources. - Dr. Wendy Farley

The Good Table spiritual community will begin a six-week worship and study series this Sunday entitled “Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion”. Email Pastor Melinda if you’re interested in joining us. Find out more about the series here.

From the Garden

Bonnie’s Flower Power
Flowers are like children to me. Their faces change as they grow, their personalities come into focus. They can be silly, like bunny-tail grass, or saucy, like a Julia Child yellow floribunda rose. They can pop up suddenly, like an amazing three-foot tall lime-green Puya mirabilis. And they talk to me when I visit them in the garden. One says: "Here I am! Aren't I beautiful today!" Another says, "Hot hot hot. Water. Please." Another says "I wish I could move into the light."

Over the past few years, I've grown vegetables as well as flowers. They are good companions. Flowers attract native bees and other beneficial insects. Bees congregate by the star-shaped blue borage flowers and the long purple flower tufts of Wild Magic basil, then fly on to help pollinate the zucchini, squashes, pumpkins, and watermelon.

My oldest favorite child is the rose. When I was nine years old, recovering from pneumonia in the children's ward of a Georgia hospital, my mother brought me a single rose in a make-shift vase, a soda bottle covered in tin foil. My father could not visit at all: he was stationed in Iceland that year. My mom had two younger children at home so she could not stay long. The rose was her present and presence. Currently I am training a princess (Crown Princess Margareta) to climb up an arbor. She has a ways to go. I imagine her in full bloom, taller than me.

My newest favorite is the dahlia. My first attempts at growing dahlias in only a sliver of afternoon sun were terrible, really, but were good enough to encourage me to try again. We will see what September brings.

Just as I took portraits of my children while they were growing up, I take portraits of flowers in my garden. And like any good grandmother, I show them off to all who are willing! During this season of covid-19, I have been sharing #somethingpretty on Facebook to the public. For me, this is a spiritual practice. I am thankful for the abundance in the natural world of my backyard, and I hope to provide a pause, however slight, in the stream of frightening news. I look forward to the day we can gather in mass among the plants and flowers at our El Sobrante Good Table home. That day will come.

In the Kitchen

We don’t know about you, but our zucchini is going gangbusters over here! One great way to utilize this squash is to turn it into noodles, or “Zoodles”! All you need is a spiralizer — a handy little tool that spins the zucchini into long threads. Here’s an inexpensive one: Cuisinart Spiralizer

My favorite recipe with zoodles is this one from Sugar-Free Mom: Zucchini Pasta Salad. It’s meant to be a mason jar salad, but you can easily eat it right after you make it. (Mason jar salads are fantastic if you want to make lunch to go, or prep a bunch of salads in individual portion sizes that will last the whole week in your fridge.)

Zucchini Pasta Salad with Avocado Spinach Dressing
by Sugar-Free Mom
Serves 2 (double the recipe if you’d like salads for the week or to serve more people)

INGREDIENTS

For Salad:
1 1/2 cups spiraled zucchini
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

Optional:
1/4 cup feta cheese
2 tablespoons kalamata olives

For Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh packed spinach
1/2 ripe avocado
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt plain, 2%
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Spiral or shred or thinly slice zucchini. Set aside.
In a high powered blender, mix dressing ingredients until smooth.
Pour 1/2 the dressing into the bottom of 2 mason jars.
Add celery on top of dressing.
Add peppers on top of celery then top with edamame.
Sprinkle feta cheese then add tomatoes and olives.
Last place 1/2 the spiraled zucchini into each mason jar.
Cover and refrigerate. Last up to 5 days.
Once ready to eat, shake the jar vigorously then pour onto a plate. Toss with fork if needed to mix dressing.