Zucchini Crisp

My word! This is so good! E keeps asking me for it. He told me that I need to cut up and freeze the rest of the zucchinis so we could have this all winter long. I guess I better get busy!

1 large zucchini (about 1 1/2-2 lbs.), peeled, seeded and cut into chunks (like apples slices)

6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (a little more or less to you liking)

Crumb topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
6 tablespoons butter, (can be pretty cold from the fridge), cubed - if you use unsalted butter, add 1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

In a large saucepan, combine the zucchini, lemon juice, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

While the zucchini is cooking, make the crumb topping. Combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and nuts. Cut in butter--works best using your hands. Keep combining by rubbing it all together until you have a crumbly texture. Set aside. (The crumb topping can be made ahead and chilled or frozen for later use.)

Remove the zucchini from the heat and stir in sugar and spices. Pour the zucchini mixture into the baking dish. Top with the crumb mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

It tastes just like apple crisp! Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream for an even tastier treat. I usually eat leftovers for breakfast. :)

This picture is actually of the crisp using a pie crust for a bottom. I didn't make this, my mother-in-law did. You can use a pie crust if you like, just bake it for a few minutes before adding the zucchini and crisp topping. I forgot to take a picture of my crisp. Next time I make one I'll update the photo.

Enjoy!

I've Been Busy

I have been so busy lately. The warm months are always busy for me because there's always so much to can. This is what I worked on last night:

We have made 19 jars of Hot Salsa, 19 jars of Medium Salsa, and 38 jars of Mild Salsa. And we're not done. I picked more tomatoes on Wednesday so I have more sitting in the basement waiting to be made into something. I told E that we could make some more Hot Salsa since hot and mild are the biggest sellers. I want to make sure I have enough tomatoes, however, to make some spaghetti sauce, possibly more chili, and maybe even some ketchup. I've heard homemade ketchup is to die for.

I don't think I'll be going to the Farmer's Market tomorrow because they are forecasting rain all morning. Fine by me. I love having a break. I think we'll probably either make more salsa or I'll just take a break and work on some gourds are give my self a pedicure. I'd love to do the pedicure, but I really, really need to get some gourds done. The Street Festival is three Saturdays away.

Our corn is finally ready, so last night we had corn on the cob with dinner. Yum!

If I have enough, I'll be canning some again this year. I canned corn for the first time last year and I'll tell ya, that was the BEST canned corn I have ever had. When you can your own veggies, it's always SOOOO much better than what you buy in the store. Here's hoping we have a good crop of corn this year!!

Peace out.

Corny Cornbread

E wanted cornbread with his taco salad the other night so I told him that I'd make some. While he was at the gym I looked all over for the Jiffy cornbread mix but realized I was out. Ahh! I've never made cornbread from scratch before! I found a recipe that sounded good and decided to change it up a bit. It turned out so good!

Corny Cornbread

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 1/2 cups milk (I used 1%)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 can whole kernel corn, drained (or 1-2 cups fresh corn---I used a mix of both)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine corn meal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile in a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs, and oil until smooth. Mix in the corn. Pour batter into prepared pan/s. I used two greased cast iron skillets. One large and one small. You could probably use a greased 13" x 9" pan or cornbread molds.

3. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes (depending on which pan you use. It only took my two skillets approx. 25 mins), or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

E loved it! I think it may have been a little more golden if I had poured some melted butter on top before baking; not quite sure. We've been eating the leftovers every day since I made it. I'm seriously thanking about heating some up for breakfast and slathering it with butter and maple syrup. It's THAT good!

Enjoy!

Update 8/14/09: I warmed a piece of the cornbread up, slathered it with butter, put a hot fried egg on top, and poured some real maple syrup over it all. YUM! Oh, I was in heaven. When E got home, I told him what I ate and he gagged! He thinks eggs and syrup are disgusting. I so disagree. It's so, so yummy!

Squirrels Were Harmed in the Making of this Blog

Sorry, but I'm not gonna lie to you. That's just how nature rolls. It can be cruel sometimes, but on a lighter note, Dixie was very proud of herself!
Dixie caught a squirrel the other day. She was very, very proud of herself. She brought her prize home to me so I could congratulate her. She is weird like that. Kind of like a cat. Another weird thing about her is that she won't eat them! She treats it more like a prize, or toy. She sat there for hours with it sitting next to her. When I found out about it, she just picked it up and carried it closer to me.

This is the same dog that caught a mouse and gulped the entire thing without even biting down!! At first I was terrified the thing would scratch her throat going down or tummy, but after I calmed down and realized that it wouldn't be alive that long, I just worried about her having a tummy ache! Such a weird dog!

On another note, I got my first harvest of the season!! I had to thin out the lettuce so I had a bunch of baby lettuce for salads. I need to go out there this evening and do some more thinning if it ever stops raining!! Well, I can't complain too much because we need the rain and the temps have been nice and cool the past week! I love having an actual Spring. I can't stand Virginia Summers!

I made two coffee cakes this weekend, so hopefully I'll remember to grab the recipes and post them this week. I need to make a cake for the coffee shop so I'll probably be working on one the next couple of days. Thursday I have exams and that evening I need to start prepping for the farmer's market on Saturday. So much to do!!

Grilled Chicken and Roasted Potatoes

Okay. Who doesn't know how to grill chicken? I love grilling. E decided he wanted to try a different seasoning on the chicken. It turned out great. Basically, it's just 2 Tbsp seasoned salt, 1 Tbsp Rosemary and 1 Tbsp Thyme. Mix all three together and rub on the chicken before grilling.
I wanted to have some roasted potatoes with the meal. I just cut up a few small potatoes, sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and popped them in the oven until they started to brown. Very simple, but quite good.

This meal was very quick and very simple. The only part of it that took any decent amount of time was the broccoli salad. Still, it was worth it. I like to have just simple meals every now and then.

Broccoli Salad

I absolutely love this broccoli salad. It's better than anyone's I've tasted and way better than what you can get at the store. I have had some good broccoli salad, don't get me wrong, but this one has the flavors I love. I made it Sunday to go with dinner.


Broccoli Salad

1 large bunch fresh broccoli florets, cut or broken up small
1 cup raisins
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped onion
8 crisp fried bacon - broken up

Dressing:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar

I like to shred my own carrots and cheese. There can be some yucky stuff in the packaged ones.

I cheated with the bacon because I was in a hurry.

Place all of the ingredients from the broccoli to the bacon together in a large bowl.

Stir together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

Pour dressing over veggies, etc. in bowl.

Mix everything together well. Enjoy!

This already makes a large amount. I've been eating this for lunch and dinner the past couple of days and we still have a couple of days worth left. If you're having a big BBQ or party, you can easily double this recipe.

If you're daring, you can make changes to this. You can add nuts, substitute dried cranberries for the raisins, use a different type of cheese, use turkey bacon, add apples, or use different vinegars. I used white vinegar this time but have used cider vinegar and red wine vinegar. Either vinegar makes a delicious dressing, but I think cider vinegar is my favorite.

YUM!