The Great Zucchini Bread Secret

The first summer Rocky and I were married we didn’t have a vegetable garden, but the following spring I knew I wanted to make one in the raised bed on the south side of our rental house. So we planted peas, broccoli, carrots, green beans, sweet peppers, watermelon, and zucchini. Lesson #1 for first-time gardeners: Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Lesson #2: Don’t beat yourself up when your broccoli, peppers, and watermelon don’t make it.

Lesson #3: If you plant zucchini, you will need to find friends to share it with, or many many MANY recipes.

Image from buckcooks.com

The go-to recipe for most people with an overwhelming amount of zucchini is bread. It’s easy, tastes good with or without butter, and is a good way to get your kids to eat some veggies.

The very first time I made zucchini bread, I followed my mom’s recipe, which called for “2 cups grated zucchini.” After making a huge mess with the cheese grater and finally making two cups worth, I was vowing to never make zucchini bread ever again. It turned out great though, just like I remembered when I was a kid.

Then my husband approached me with two comments. First: “Do I taste cinnamon?” Yes, of course, it’s in the recipe. “Zucchini bread doesn’t call for cinnamon.” To which I showed him my mom’s recipe, which indeed called for 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. To which he showed me his mom’s recipe, which was the EXACT same recipe – minus the cinnamon…

It was our first second married argument discussion.

His second comment: “You should just chop the zucchini in the blender.”

Really?!

I read his mom’s recipe: Put 1 cup oil in blender and fill with chunks of zucchini until 3 cups. Blend until free of chunks, but not too long.

BRILLIANT!

I never was a big fan of the stringiness of grated zucchini in my bread and muffins anyway.

So that’s the big zucchini bread secret I wanted to share with you today. Maybe it’s not such a big secret. But it sure was news to me. And I love it. You don’t even need to peel the zucchini, leaving the skin on the chunks gives nice little green specks in the bread (which might not be so great if you have picky eaters).

So tell me… is this idea news to you? Or has the rest of the world been making zucchini bread this way forever??

(oh and tell me, cinnamon or not?? :)

The Saturday 7: August 6-12

1. I missed doing my Saturday 7 post last week because we were busy hosting a mini-reunion of our college friends! We try and get together with our "group" once or twice a year to catch up, hang out, eat food, and now let our kids play together. We had 9 adults and 4 kids under 2 years old. Great times!
2. Abby and I got to go on a mini-vacation Tuesday & Wednesday (see this post for some more details)! 
3. I think Abby has finally mastered the stairs. She's been able to go up for awhile, it's coming down that's been the problem. Our basement is a little more usable now, so at least once a day she and I will go down and hang out in the drywalled-but-not-painted-or-carpeted playroom/living room/family room. Although yesterday she was refusing to turn around and go down the stairs backward -- she wanted me to hold her hands while she went down forward, like big people do...

4. We went to the Kent County Fair last night. She was much more interested in the animals this time than when we went to the Mecosta County Fair a few weeks ago! It's amazing how much I still miss "Fair week", now that I'm 10 years out from it. Sheesh, I feel old...
5. I'm talented. I managed to grow 5+ zucchini plants in my garden, each with at least a half dozen blossoms, but have failed to get any zucchini. Then I discovered the true culprit... squash bugs. Yuck. Now I'm wondering if I'll have this issue every year...
6. Tennis season has started back up for Rocky again. He's the JV coach for the boys' team at the school he teaches at. Practice started on Wednesday, and they already have a scrimmage today. If it's stopped raining at the place they're going. It's been storming here the last few hours...
7. I've been busy preparing for the GEMS "Coffee Houses" I get to help lead over the next few weeks. I'll be doing the same session at 5 workshops between now and mid-September. It's my first year as a Leadership Trainer for our area, and while I'm excited I'm also kinda nervous & anxious. Please pray that my sessions go well, and that we have a great turnout of GEMS leaders at these workshops!

The Saturday 7

So I'm stealing borrowing this idea from Sadie over at Lovin' Life with Lucy. Every Saturday she posts 7 things that happened during the previous week. I like the idea, since there are usually fun little things that happen in our lives that I don't feel are quite worthy of a whole post about that one thing... :)

1. Abby has picked up on a few more signs this week. A couple months ago she learned to shake her hands in the air for all done, and the really helpful one was to put her hand over her mouth (often smacking her face!) when she's hungry. There are a number of signs I've been doing around her, hoping she'd catch on, and of course the ones she just learned are the ones I haven't been practicing that much! She started seeing pictures of dogs in books and will stick out her tongue and pant. One night I told her it was bath time and she rubbed her hand up and down her torso (the real sign uses both hands, but oh well!). Then just yesterday I complained how hot the laptop was sitting on my lap, and she came over and started blowing air at me (like when you're trying to cool down a piece of food or something). So cute!

2. She still only has 4 teeth (2 top, 2 bottom). But she's been drooling buckets this week, so I'm really hoping there are a few more ready to come out. Just as long as they don't give her a high fever like last time...

3. I've been in quite the garage-saleing mood. Yesterday I walked to the end of our subdivision where about 10 houses were having sales. It made me want to host my own (maybe next year!), but also got me thinking about what I'm going to need for Abby's clothes for this coming fall and winter. Hopefully over the next couple weeks I can stock up and not need to buy any clothes for her again until garage-sale-season next year, but it so hard to know what sizes she'll be wearing -- will she continue to be big, and have me needing 3T by next spring, or will her growth finally slow down and she'll wear 24month all winter long?? (we're currently in 18 month stuff!)

4. The three of us watched the final launch of a space shuttle yesterday. I even got a video of Abby watching it. I remember being fascinated by space when I was in elementary school. I did a science fair project on the space shuttle program in 4th grade, I even made a model of the shuttle and fuel tanks that were attached by velcro so they could separate when they blasted off.

5. I really wish I was in Colorado right now. This weekend is the Annual GEMS Leaders Conference, and it's in Ft. Collins this year. They're going to have speakers like Lisa Harper and Ray Vanderlaan. I was the only one from my church who was able to go, and I couldn't justify spending our GEMS funds on just me. Next summer it will be in Chicago though, so our club is DEFINITELY making plans to go!

6. I picked my first few servings of green beans from my garden! They were soooooo yummy. I already can tell I won't have enough to freeze for use over winter -- everything I've picked fresh so far we've eaten for dinner. :) I'll need to plant 5x more beans next year...

7. Rocky's sister got married last Sunday. I might make a whole post about it, but just in case I don't... It was beautiful. So fun. Rocky played piano, and he & I sang "Dancing in the Minefields" for their unity sand song. Yes I said unity sand. It was such a cool idea -- taking two vases of sand and pouring them together. And Abby was the flower girl.

Carrie, Carrie, quite contrary...

...how does your garden grow?!

Last Tuesday night was a beautiful evening for being outside -- and I took advantage of the weather to get outside and work on my garden for 2 hours after Abby went to bed. I'm just as excited as I was last fall in this post to work on my own landscaping and gardening stuff. Those new bulbs I planted came up beautifully -- the alium are blooming and filling in some little spots of color now that my tulips and irises are gone, before the lilies and hibiscus bloom! The bluebells also came up, but haven't bloomed yet. I bought a few flats of annuals to fill in some color, but it's been so dry I hope I haven't killed them... This spring I also got some black edging that I put in around the front and side of the house to hold in the landscaping I've done, and put down mulch. My, it looks so much different than when we put in our offer on this house two years ago!

What I'm really excited about, and where I spent most of my time last week, is my new "project area." Originally I was thinking of using this space for landscaping and maybe some berry bushes and plants. Nothing too fancy.

Then Rocky put the idea in my head of using the space for my vegetable garden. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I watched it for a few days, and realized it does get a lot of sun (I'd thought it was the north side of the house, but it's really more northwest).

So away we went! The day I put the edging around the front of the house, I put edging around this section too (it's behind the garage, down a hill to the walk-out basement).

The next big job was tearing out the grass in the area I wanted to use.

Eventually the rest will come out too, but this was as much as I could do that day. And I didn't want such a big garden I'd be too overwhelmed to continue.

On Mother's Day my gift was uninterrupted time outside. :) I scratched in some topsoil, and planted my seeds. Keeping it simple this year -- peas, carrots, beans, and zucchini.

A few weeks later (on our anniversary actually!) I got some marigolds to go around the outside -- hopefully deterring little creatures from eating my plants. I'm trying to keep up with watering, and last week, like I said, I spent almost 2 hours out there weeding one night. It was so great to see the progress!

Now I need to dig out as much of the rest of that area as I can -- I have a friend with strawberry plants who wants to split them once their season is done, so in just a few weeks. I saw some green peeking out of the grass, and look what I found!

I guess I'll be transplanting a couple hosta plants too!


Sorry for the long post, I just couldn't contain my excitement. :) Do you have a garden this year?

Organics

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of organic things, is "why are they so expensive?!" The second thing that comes to mind is the variety of organic things available: food, cosmetic items, etc. And the third thing that comes to mind is "if I want my family (and my baby) to be healthy, I should buy organic..."

With it finally feeling like spring, I'm finding myself dreaming of produce stands and farmers markets. (<-- this picture makes my mouth water!!) It is so stinkin' hard to get quality produce the majority of the year here in Michigan, especially when all that's available is the stuff shipped in to Meijer from across the globe. I've forgone many "fresh" fruits and veggies the last few months because I can't find anything truly "fresh." And frozen beans and corn can only go so far.

I look at my daughter's meals on any given day and often cringe. Pasta. Bread. Occasional chicken or ground beef. Cheese (she loves cheese). Bananas are the one fruit I always try to have on hand for her. I want her to grow up with a love of healthy food, but how do I expose her to it? Other than the 3-4 months of fresh produce we have here, what can I do?

Why is the organic food section of the store so much more expensive?? I've been trained to always look for the cheapest - generic cereal, generic vitamins, generic generic generic... So why should I pay $2 extra for food that *may* be healthier, when over time that extra cost really adds up?

Sigh. I haven't looked into it, but I really hope there is a farmers market in Belding that Abby and I can walk to every week this summer. I guess we'll enjoy the good stuff while we can...

On another, brighter note, I did plant my mini veggie garden yesterday! So we should have some fresh food all our own. :) That's a post for another day...

how does your garden grow?

Did you know many European homes do not have lawns? Neither front lawns nor back lawns?

They have gardens instead.

I got my package of bulbs in the mail today that I've been waiting anxiously for the last month and a half. I got a catalog that had a $25 off coupon any purchase of $25 or more. So of course I bought 2 kinds of bulbs, totaling $24.99. I only paid shipping.

So I am excited to get out and take another look at the area around my front porch and front side of the house, think about what I did and didn't like this year, and weed and move bulbs accordingly.

Then I look at our front lawn and cringe. The previous owners of our home didn't take care of the lawn. In fact there was no landscaping whatsoever around the house. So I was excited to start with a fresh slate, and this summer I was mostly pleased with the perennials and annuals I'd planted. But the poor lawn. It needs help. The good grass only grows in little round patches, and in between are patches of bad grass and weeds. And a lot of it is brown. Granted, we didn't water it as often as we probably could have, and it's been awhile since it's been mowed. I'm hoping by putting down some fall weed & feed, and getting a jumpstart on weed control and fertilizer in the spring, it'll be better next year.

But in the meantime, I envy my European distant relatives. This picture is from the backyard of one of Rocky's cousin-aunt-removed-something-or-other who we visited when we were in the Netherlands a couple years ago. Her front yard is just as amazing.

Maybe next year I should just forget about having a lawn...