By DAVE KESSLER
Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted 

Eureka – I have found it! Here’s a way to use zucchini without being able to taste or even see it. (I’ll have to admit this recipe doesn’t use very much zucchini, though, so you’ll have to figure out a way to use the stuff up totally.)

Everybody who raises zucchini gets a bumper crop, and lots of them want to give some to me. I never heard of zucchini for the first 40 years of my life, and I’m doing my best to avoid the stuff for the rest of the next 40.

Many people take great pride in raising super-large zucchini just to show what they have accomplished.

Others claim it’s the smaller ones that have the best flavor.

I have never talked with anyone who eats just plain zucchini. They all mix it in with something to get rid of it. These camouflaged zucchini foods range from cookies to cakes, and from stir-fry to chili.

Today’s column falls into the camouflaged zucchini category and proves when mixed in with enough sugar, pineapple and apricot gelatin, you’ll never even know it’s in there.

6 cups of peeled and grated zucchini

6 cups of sugar

8-ounce can crushed pineapple (1 cup)

6-ounce package of apricot gelatin

Bring to a rolling boil the zucchini and sugar.

Boil for 10 minutes, constantly stirring it.

Add 1 cup of crushed pineapple to the zucchini and sugar mixture and boil for 6 more minutes. Remove from the stove and add the gelatin, stirring until it’s dissolved.

Pour the mixture into pint jars and seal while it’s hot. Process in a boiling-water bath for 5 minutes.

Use this on toast or warm biscuits. I know some Florida folks who mix horseradish into the marmalade and use it as a sauce for deep-fried breaded shrimp.

With or without the added horseradish you can also use this as a topping or sauce for Oriental rice dishes or on eggrolls.

Enjoy as much of this as you can eat. Please.

Readers with questions or comments for Dave Kessler may write to him in care of this publication.