Zucchini: Blessing or Curse

Yesterday Peanut and I spent the day at Grandpa Gigi's house. (That is my dad.) He had been wanting his back room re-wallpapered. My aunt, his sister helped me. On Wednesday we picked out the wallpaper and I stripped 3/4 of the old wallpaper off the walls. She hung most of the wallpaper and I helped. We also painted the ceiling for him and I painted the 2 doorways. It looked so different and so nice. Needless to say, I am exhausted today. BUT there was work to be done. As much as I longed for a nap during Peanut's naptime, I didn't. Before we left last night, we went to the garden to find that it had been overtaken by zucchinis! Now I love zucchini so it is fine with me. My dad kept asking, "What are you going to do with all of this?" Eat it, of course! He can never figure out why I love to plant zucchini....I love it!

I love to chop it up and saute it in a little butter and seasoning. Yumm-o! I also love zucchini bread. Gigi's favorite way is to bread it in flour and milk and fry in olive oil. We had a sampling of this for supper yesterday. This summer I am going to make Zucchini Relish. I had this once and oh my, it was to die for!















My trunk is full of zucchini...so during naptime, I took the 4 largest ones and went to work. By large, I mean HUGE, ENOURMOUS! I took the skins off and seeded them. Then I used my box grater and shredded them. The 4 large zucchinis yielded 14 cups of shredded zucchini. I used 2 cups to make zucchini muffins and froze the other 12 cups in quantities of 2 cups each. (Notice the coffee in the background. It kept me going!)















I am going to give you the recipe that I used for my muffins and I might add that the salt is important. I got in a hurry and was worried that I wouldn't have enough cinnamon so with my mind on the cinnamon, I forgot to add the salt. They are not bad, but I can tell. Shhhh...don't tell.



















Zucchini Muffins
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
3 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. SALT
3 t. cinnamon
2 1/2 c. flour
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. chopped pecans (I didn't use these.)
Beat eggs, add sugar, oil and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Combine soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; mix well and add to creamed mixture. Fold in flour, zucchini, and pecans. Stir just until combined. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

We also have added blueberries to our freezer of produce. The freezer is getting full and there is still lots to come in the garden! Yeah for summer!

Now off to see the relatives. My hubby's family is visiting this week. All the cousins are here. Peanut will be in Heaven!

Patience?

I'm still here. This is the life of a woman whose family owns a laptop and whose hubby needs it all the time to record, mix and build new websites. I made him promise that I could have it all to myself one day this weekend while he is away at work. So now Peanut is asleep and I am blogging! Oh, the therapy that I need from blogging. It really is in a way therapy to me. I have always been an avid journaler. There is just something about getting all the stuff inside out. Those of you who know me well, will know that I am not a great verbal communicator. I am much more apt to sit with my journal and write my thoughts than to tell them to someone. It's in my blood on BOTH sides! Eeeks!

Back to therapy...let's just say that if they were passing out Mommy of the Day awards, I would not be getting one today. I hate it when my patience is running thin and I feel cranky. It seems to always happen when Daddy is gone at work or doing music. Go figure. I tried to be patient, I really did but it is HARD to try when it's just not there. I even took her outside!!!! That always works...but she must have felt my vibe because it didn't. I tried to weed the jungle that is growing in our flowerbeds and all she wanted was for me to hold her. So, I gave up and we came in. I don't know why I am so impatient today.

Speaking of my flowerbeds...why is that the weeds can grow enormous with just a few drops of rain but the flowers need torrents of rain to look nice. I hate weeding....I hate it so much that I often wonder why I bother with flowerbeds. That's easy...because I love flowers. It is definitely a love/hate relationship. Here are some of the beauties that are blooming right now out back

I adore DAISIESSSSSS! Did you know that? One of my favorite movies is You've Got Mail and I love the line that Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) says about them, "Don't you think Daisies are the friendliest flower?" They are! They're so happy. How can you look at a daisy and not smile. I wish they were easy to grow. I seem to have problems growing them. They are doing better this year. But the stupid bugs gravitate to them and eat the pretty petals right off! GRRRR.

I also love Lily of the Valley. What a beautiful scent! Let's see...tulips are my FAVORITE spring flower! I have them in a row along the ugly chain link fence by our driveway. In the spring the chainlink fence is even pretty. Ha!

Keepin'on Keepin' on!

I got my strawberry jam made. I ended up using the packets of pectin made by Ball because their recipe called for ALOT less sugar and you didn't have to cook anything! I made one batch using sugar and one batch using Splenda. Yumm-o! I have found using a pastry blender to crush the strawberries works great.


Today during Peanut's nap I also made a new bag. I used a Martha Stewart pattern to make it. Hers called for using a vintage pillowcase which I didn't have, so I cut my fabric to the size of a pillowcase and added a seam down the side. I made two of these so I could line the bag also. I am really happy with how it turned out. I think I will be making more of these.

Nature's Bounty

My daughter and I headed out to my dad's house today. We spent most of our day outside picking strawberries and working in the garden. My dad and I put out a pretty nice size garden this year. He usually oversees all of the gardening aspects but has passed the baton on to me. He does do the rototilling (is that a word?). His rototiller is huge and a bit scary so that is fine with me. We put out some more green beans and potatoes today so we can have them all season long. We also had to weed in between all of the plants. Thankfully it wasn't a hot day so it wasn't too bad. In our garden you will find LOTS of tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, hot peppers, onions, potatoes, green beans, acorn squash, butternut squash, cucumbers, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, pumpkins, cauliflower, carrots, and some flowers. I think that is it. Ha! I hope to figure out how to can some of it and freeze some.

We also picked strawberries and my gracious dad let me bring home the bounty. Yummmm! I could just wash them and my family could eat them all, but I think I will make some strawberry goodies. Here is a picture of all our red treats. There was one more small box of them too.

I wanted to share some of my favorite strawberry recipes with you as it is the season of the strawberry! Get out and pick some if you get a chance.

Freezer Strawberry Jam

1 qt. fully ripe strawberries, crushed

4 c. sugar

3/4 c. water

1 box pectin (like Sure Jell)

Measure exactly 2 c. strawberries and pour into bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix water and pectin in small sauce pan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring for 1 minute. Pour into strawberry mixture and stir constantly for 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy. Fill into prepared containers to within 1/2 inch of top. Wipe off top edges and immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. The jam is then ready to use. It can be stored in fridge for up to 3 weeks and in freezer for up to one year. Thaw frozen jam in fridge before using.

Makes 5 cups.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

3/4 c. sugar

2 1/2 - 3 T. cornstarch

2 c. water

Mix and boil until clear. Remove from heat and add 3 oz. box of strawberry Jell-o. Cool and add 3 1/2 c. fresh strawberries. Pour into already baked pie shell. Cover with Cool-Whip.

(You can also substitute fresh peaches and peach Jell-o for Peach Pie.)

Strawberry Bread

10 oz. strawberries, crushed

4 eggs, beaten

1 c. oil

3 t. cinnamon

2 c. sugar

3 c. flour

1 t. soda

1 t. salt

1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 bread pans. Mix together undrained strawberries, beaten eggs, oil, sugar. Add all dry ingredients. Mix in nuts. Pour into pans. Bake 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes and take out of pans.

Hope you are all enjoying something fresh this summer!