Zucchini and More Zucchini

I mentioned in previous posts that we have zucchini the size of footballs growing in our little garden. I threw a couple of huge ones away, thinking they wouldn’t be good. Then yesterday we were at the Madison County Farmer’s Market, and I saw…yep…HUGE zucchinis for sale. I asked the farmer if they were good when they were that large (like I thought he would say no?), and he assured me they are. So, I decided I’d try using the huge ones to make bread.
It wasn’t hard to find a huge one out there.

This is the ingredient list I used:

INGREDIENTS
• 3 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 c. whole wheat, 2 c. white)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil (or 1 c. applesauce, 1 c. oil)
• 2 cups white sugar (or 1 c. white, 1 c. brown)
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. I used my pure vanilla that I got in Mexico last week. You can’t beat pure vanilla.

Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well.

Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. I suggest leaving it in as close to the max as possible without it burning, at least 50 – 55 minutes if possible. It’s very, very moist, and might be a bit too moist at 40 minutes. In my oven 50 min was good.

Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

The one zucchini made these 2 loaves, and I had about 1/4 of it leftover. About 40 more loaves, and maybe I can use up the large ones I have left.

Look at my Hydrangeas!!

Do I not grow the most awesome hydrangeas? Boy, you wouldn’t believe how hard I’ve worked on these!

OK, these are actually my neighbor Linda’s hydrangeas. Linda has the green thumb. Click on the image to see just how beautiful the blooms are.

These are my hydrangeas…sadly…

But look at my Russian Sage!!! Do I not grow the most awesome Russian Sage?

Yes, of course it’s my Russian Sage!

Russian Sage has the most incredible smell, and the prettiest light purple flowers. It’s great to grow at the base of something taller. I used it at the bottom of a climbing rose to kind of hide the bare stalks at the bottom…ok, no picture of the rose, it died. OK, not so good at climbing roses maybe, but DON’T I GROW THE MOST AWESOME RUSSIAN SAGE?

Now That’s What I Call a Zucchini!

Our first harvest.

Now That’s What I Call a Zucchini!

Our first harvest.

Summer Time is Salad Time

Summer time is salad time to me. There’s nothing better on a hot summer day than a cold refreshing salad. I love new and interesting recipes, and as it seems we are always so busy and on the run, they have to be easy to make. I have a couple of old stand-bys and one great new interesting one that I just love, and would like to share.

My new interesting one is absolutely delicious, providing you are fond of the 3 (yes, only 3) ingredients it contains. Weird as it may sound, trust me and give it try, I made it a few weeks ago for a group of 10, and only 1 person didn’t devour it.

Pay close attention to these complicated instructions…

Watermelon-Feta Salad
Ingredients – Watermelon, Red Onion and Feta Cheese

Cut the watermelon into bite-sized chunks and place into a bowl.
Slice the red onion very, very thin…then cut into bite-sized pieces and place on top of the watermelon.

Sprinkle Feta cheese on the top, then spread a few more onions on top (I know what you are thinking about now…just trust me).

That’s it! ENJOY. Trust me.

Another of my trusty favorites is Strawberry and Balsamic Vinegar Salad, and goes like this:

1 pint of fresh strawberries

1 TSBP Sugar (I use a little less, do it to taste)
1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

Wash and slice strawberries and place in a bowl.

Sprinkle the sugar on strawberries, and add vinegar. Toss, and let stand for 20 minutes.

ENJOY.

Come on Already!

I am so ready to build this house. It looks like we might be only a few weeks away from breaking ground. Daniel the Builder is already doing a lot of the upfront legwork, getting all the pieces in place. I never knew there was so much involved…temporary utilities, water, surveyor for the house location, insurance, accounts with businesses that will supply materials, engineers…and on, and on and …

Meanwhile, we are trying to do a little biking, working at the property (yes that grass does grow fast), and doing a little gardening in our wee little plot.

The tomatoes are still small and green.

I do believe Ozzie the Terror likes the tomatoes too…we find a lot of half-eaten ones.

The zucchini squash is beautiful, and luckily I don’t think he’s found that yet.

(He does eat chives occasionally, and let me tell you, you do not want him in the same room with you when he’s done that. Just trust me.)

So far he’s left the basil alone, and we’ve really enjoyed it, it’s delicious this year.

I really hope to become a daily blogger soon, with much really exciting (to me and Mike ) house stuff going on. Stay tuned.

Slowly But Surely, We’re Getting There

We are making progress! We’ve interviewed 3 builders, gotten 2 estimates so far and expect the third this week. We are pretty sure we know who we are going to go with. It’s pretty exciting…discussing all the options for our little farmhouse – the cedar siding (maybe), the metal roof (for sure), and the ‘OEC’ as our soon to be builder calls it (my ‘Outrageously Expensive Cooktop’ ), just to name a few.

What we love about ‘Daniel the Builder’ as I’ll call him, is that he focuses on Smart Building – low operating costs, improved environmental quality and energy savings (that’s where the OEC comes in).

We’re hoping to be able to break ground sometime in June – keep your fingers crossed for us.

Slowly But Surely, We’re Getting There

We are making progress! We’ve interviewed 3 builders, gotten 2 estimates so far and expect the third this week. We are pretty sure we know who we are going to go with. It’s pretty exciting…discussing all the options for our little farmhouse – the cedar siding (maybe), the metal roof (for sure), and the ‘OEC’ as our soon to be builder calls it (my ‘Outrageously Expensive Cooktop’ ), just to name a few.

What we love about ‘Daniel the Builder’ as I’ll call him, is that he focuses on Smart Building – low operating costs, improved environmental quality and energy savings (that’s where the OEC comes in).

We’re hoping to be able to break ground sometime in June – keep your fingers crossed for us.

Spring in Full Bloom – Well Worth the Wait

Click on the picture to see the ga-jillions of blooms.

Slow Going on the Home Front

OK, I am probably the worst blogger ever. Things are moving slowly with the house building, so I’ve tended to not update about anything. But, there have been things going on. Our house plans should be finished any day now (waiting to hear), and the next step is to sign with a builder. We’ve had a lot of fun window shopping for the new house…kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, there’s so much cool stuff out there, I can hardly wait.

While we’re waiting, we’re taking care of the ‘not so much fun’ stuff that has to be done. Such as perc tests. The good news is that we have great soil. That’s going to be a good thing since we’re planning to have a garden the size of Ardmore. Guga gave us his sniff of approval.

We did manage to get away for a much needed break last week. We did our annual trek to Gatlinburg for our anniversary, and had a great time doing nothing in our wonderful little cabin.

Well, we did nothing AFTER we did our usual purchasing of our annual necessities, such as a couple of pieces of pottery from Alewine Pottery, you have to have those.

And of course we needed a couple of more ‘Life is Good’ items. OK, maybe we didn’t NEED them, but we started a tradition a couple of years ago of picking up a few things from our favorite little hole in the wall shop, so now we have to. Then there’s the soy candle shop, and the Pepper Palace. OK and breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, have to do that every year. Believe it not though, we did all that in one day, and spent the other few days being couch potatoes and hot tub bums, and enjoying the great view of the Smokies. We’re already looking forward to next year.

I just KNOW I’m going to have new house stuff to share, just any day now.