Stuffed Zucchini Boats Part 2/Bacon: Gefüllte Zucchiniboote

This is another recipe for "Zucchini boats" ... In "Part One" I used smoked salmon as the key ingredient for the filling. This is the link to that recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/02/stuffed-zucchini-boats-part-1-gefullte.html

This recipe uses cheese and bacon for the main toppings, but with a little "lemony" taste. 

Ingredients:

4 zucchini, each about 5 to 6 inches long, halved lengthwise, seeds removed
3/4 cup dry cottage cheese
2/3 cup canned milk (divided use)
1 "good" tablespoon dried thyme leaves
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2/3 teaspoon black pepper
4 to 6 slices bacon, cut into about 1 inch pieces
3 or 4 Swiss cheese (Emmentaler) slices, halved
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Heat oven to 375 F. Blanch the zucchini halves in boiling water for about 90 seconds and then drain them well. In a small skillet, fry the bacon pieces until some of the fat melts and they begin to brown (you don't want the bacon to be crisp, and remember it will cook more in the oven). Remove the bacon to some paper towels to drain off the grease. Mix together the dry cottage cheese, 1/3 cup milk, thyme leaves, chopped parsley and pepper; set aside for a minute or two. Whisk or beat together the eggs and the other 1/3 cup milk and the lemon juice. Butter a baking pan lightly. Fill each "zucchini boat" with the cottage cheese mixture, then top that with a half slice of cheese and then add 3 to 5 pieces of bacon on top of the cheese. Add each zucchini boat to the buttered pan. Pour or spoon some of the egg/milk/lemon mixture over each "boat." Bake the "boats" for about 45 minutes, or until they are tender (a fork easily pierces them).  


With a side salad ....

WORD HISTORY:
Pool-English has more than one word of this spelling, and this is the one with the general meaning, "a small body of water." The more distant history of this word is shaky, and a direct Old Germanic form is uncertain; however, the West Germanic branch had "pol/pola," meaning, "a small body of water." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "pol," essentially with the same meaning and this then became "pool," with the word denoting "a body of generally still water, standing water," rather than of flowing water. The West Germanic form "may" be from a similar Old Germanic form, as Old English also had "pyll/pull," meaning, "pool," but also, "bay, inlet," and Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch, had "pollr," meaning, "pond," but also, "bay." I have to believe these words are all connected, and that they likely share a common Old Germanic ancestor with a meaning having to do with "water collected off to itself from a main body of water." Further, Lithuanian, a Baltic language that has long had contact with Germanic languages has "bala," meaning, "swampy ground, quagmire." A change from a "b" to a "p," or vice versa, is not uncommon, and whether this connects the Germanic form to an Indo European form is possible, although a borrowing by Lithuanian is also very possible. Old English "pol" later became "pole," then "pool." Old English "pyll/pull" later became "pill" (nothing to do with 'pill,' a medication tablet), a word now confined to dialect in Britain for "an inlet of water from the sea." Other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "Pfuhl" ("puddle, pool, murky water"^), Low German Saxon "Pohl" ("pool, pond"), Dutch and West Frisian "poel" ("pool," also "basin??"). Danish "pøl" ("puddle"), Norwegian "pøl" ("sewage pool, cesspool"), Swedish "pöl" ("pool, puddle") are all borrowings from Low German from a few hundred years ago; however, seemingly with more modern influence from German, especially for Norwegian and Swedish. Icelandic has "pollur" ("puddle") from Old the Norse form "pollr."  

^ The idea of such water has also given German offshoot and figurative meanings like, "cesspool, sewage water, 'sin.' "