A simple supper: light fried zucchini, applesauce, and spicy nuts

Some of my earliest and best memories are watching my grandmother cook in her kitchen. Somehow she is the best and, perhaps perplexingly, skinniest southern chef I know. Every meal there were fresh pies, bread, cakes, cookies, or other delightful treats streaming out of the oven. She can take any three ingredients and make something delicious, five and it will be a feast. She is also super savvy and clips coupons for everything. She can tell you the lowest price to get zucchini or any other single item on any given day in three counties.

But one of my favorite things still is her pan fried zucchini or squash. It revels the crispyness of french fries but with an added sweetness. At her Oklahoma house there was always a big garden some country kin or friend was always coming to unload more of their surplus zucchini, as if she didn't have plenty already. So she sliced zealously and stored extra battered squash in the freezer to use throughout the winter.

To me a plateful even by itself is a delightful dinner or it goes with just about everything. So here is a super simple super.

Kale corn chowder. Nectarine skillet cobbler

I love soup. I could probably eat it everyday. Without remorse. My kids don't feel the same way. They are morally opposed to soup and to "spice". The broad category my six year old assigns to any speck that dare touch his plate. So most soups at our house end up having to be chunky enough that the fillings can be picked out and eaten alone as an entrée. I also have to be sneaky to include herbs. I like the method I recently saw in Organic Gardening magazine of tying herbs together and then removing them at the end. Why didn't I ever think of that?