Zucchini Bread!!

I adore zucchini bread... a lot. As soon as I saw all the zucchini at the farmers market I knew that I had to make a loaf. I searched around on the internet and looked through cookbooks for the perfect recipe, but in the end I settled on good old reliable Betty Crocker. I did however make a couple changes in the recipe to make it healthier and I think in the end it made it much more moist and delicious.

If you looove zucchini bread, or even if you just like it, here is a great recipe. Also as a side note, zucchini bread is one of those breads that freezes well. I think I may make a few more loaves while zucchinis are still in season so I can continue to enjoy my bread throughout the year.

Adapted Betty Crocker Zucchini Bread:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups shredded zucchini
  
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup non-sweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose OR whole wheat flour ( I used all purpose because I needed my whole wheat for another recipe. I am gonna try using whole wheat flour next time I make this)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350

Shred your zucchini.




















Mix together zucchini, sugar, applesauce, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl.







































Add the rest of ingredients and mix together.


























































Pour into a loaf pan. I used a 9x5x3. This will make one loaf. If you use 8in loaf pans you will get 2 loaves. Make sure you grease the bottom only of the pan.




















Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes if using a 9in pan. 60 minutes for 8in pans.

Remove and cool on rack. Enjoy!




















:)

Burger Town

Our meals have been getting simpler lately but not any less tasty. Last night Steve whipped up some delicious onioney burgers with some corn on the cob on the side.

















































































































































:)

Recipes from Farm Share # 2

So, 2 tuesdays ago we got our second farmshare from Mike and Rachel. Again we got a great bundle of veggies. This time it included:

• Summer Squash
• Asparagus
• Dillweed
• Parsley
• Lettuce (Red and Green Leaf)
  
• Swiss Chard
• Brocoli
• Onions
• Chinese Cabbage

Again it was a challenge to come up with different meals using these ingredients. A second challenge we gave ourselves was to use up ingredients we've had sitting around for a while.
Here are three different meals we came up with for that week.

#1: Feta and Dill Stuffed Pork Chops with Sauteed Swiss Chard and Corn on the Cob

This one doesn't require much of an explanation. It was very delicious. Steve cooked the chops for a few minutes in a pan then stuffed them with the feta and dill and baked them. The chard was sauteed in oil and the corn on the cob was boiled. A very yummy meal.








































#2 Pork Stir Fry with Salad

o0OO0oThis meal was assembled out of a wh0le bunch of random things I had left on hand toward the end of the week. We had had some Japanese noodles in our cupboard leftover from a different meal from a long while ago, so I threw them in this to use them up. From the farmshare, I used up the Chinese cabbage that we had gotten. I poured some sauce over top made up of soy sauce and red wine vinegar and brown sugar and stuff. It was good. Some of it burned to the bottom of the wok because it was too big for the pan! Uh-0h.o0OO0o




















#3 Some sort of Orzo-Feta Salad

This was very tasty,and the only time Caly has enjoyed 0rz0 so far. This used up a lot of the parsley and dill from the farmshare, which was good because I don't know many recipes with dill. Making it is pretty easy: Cook the orzo and then stir everything up into it. It had a bunch of olive oil too, which was yummy. ALSO, I just remembered, it had green olives in it. "Yumm-o!"--Rachel Ray




















:)

Whole Wheat Bread

Steve and I are always saying we ( ahem, I) should make homemade bread more often, so today I tried my hand at a whole wheat bread from our newest cook book, The Cook's Book. I really like this book because not only does it have great recipes it really takes the time to explain techniques and such. I've actually been reading it like a regular book :). I'm hoping to learn more about food, cooking, and techniques in general so that hopefully I'll be able to cook more creatively and come up with my own recipes.

Anyways back to the bread. This is just your basic whole wheat bread and I'm pretty happy with it. One thing that I think is holding this bread back is the yeast. The recipe calls for compressed fresh yeast, which I can't find so I have to use dry active yeast instead. However, I'm still happy with the way it turned out.

Whole Wheat Bread






















































Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp (10g) compressed fresh yeast
• 1 1/2 cups (350g) water at 72 degrees
• 4 cups (500g) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp (10g) fine sea salt
• olive or sunflower oil for kneading

Now, two things to note: 1) you see that it also has grams as a measurements, this is a more precise way to measure the ingredients and is recomended for baking in general.

2) if you have to use active dry yeast things are a little different... here is what i did:

Part 1

• 5g active dry yeast
• 58g water at 92 degrees
  
• 7g flour

Part 2

• 292g water at 72 degrees
• 493g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp (10g) fine sea salt
• olive or sunflower oil for kneading

To make up for having the active yeast, put it in a bowl with your water and flour from part 1. Mix and let rest for 10 minutes. Then pour this into the other water and continue on with the recipe as follows.

In a seperate bowl mix the flour and salt with your hands. Add in the water and yeast and mix quickly with your hands making sure everything gets moist and mixed together.

Cover it with a dish towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Once the 10 mintues are up pour some olive oil onto your kneading station and set the bread there. Wash out your bowl and coat it in oil. Now you have to knead your dough.

Fold and knead the dough 10-12 times ( if you don't know how to knead I would recommend looking at a book that has pictures), then put back in the bowl and let rest for 10 minutes. Do this three times. After the third round of kneading let the dough sit for 30 minutes, knead one last time then place in your oiled/floured bread pan.

Cover with a towel and let rise for 90 minutes.

Once risen to double it's size, preheat the oven to 425. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 for 30 minutes. It will be done when you tap it on the bottom and it sounds hollow.


enjoy!

Farm Share

So for 10 days we are cat sitting for some friends. In return they are letting us have their farm share for 2 weeks! WOOT! This is really exciting, we've been on the fence about getting one of these and actually seeing what you get out of it is making me think we will be signing up for one next year.

The first week, this past Tuesday, we received the following:
-2 bunches of radishes
-daikon radishes
-arugula
-cilantro
-mizuna
-salad greens
-spinach
-kale
-asparagus
-garlic scapes (which our friends used to make us a yummy pesto dish!)

Since it's still early in the summer you can see we got lots of leafy greens. It's been interesting trying to come up with things to make with these ingredients because we don't really ever make Salad.

To use up the Kale we made a rice and white bean soup thing that turned out more like a porridge but still very tasty. We also made pizzas last night that we used the arugula on.

The other things that we've done so far are as follow:

First we decided we finally wanted to use our little grill that we bought last summer. We grilled up some chicken rubbed in spices and the asparagus. It was a yummy fresh meal. I made a home made vinaigrette to go with the asparagus and it came out very nicely.

The Vinaigrette recipe is from Cooks Illustrated

Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette

• 1 tablespoon juice plus 1 teaspoon grated zest from 1 lemon ( I did not use zest as I used bottled lemon juice)
• 1 large shallot, minced (no shallots around so I used an onion)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves ( we used dried)
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• table salt and ground black pepper

Mix everything together and pour over asparagus




















We also made a yummy salad with the salad greens, mizuna and other veggies we had around. I poured the left over vinaigrette on it and it turned out very well.




















And finally, to use up those radishes we made some little open faced radish sandwiches. I cut 2 pieces of bread into fourths, grilled them for a few minutes til nice and crispy and brown then topped each piece with a little bit of butter and a slice of radish. Finish it off with some ground sea salt over it all and yum.




















:)

Spanish Tortilla Take 2

So a while back we posted a Spanish Tortilla. Steve and I both really enjoyed it, but it was somewhat disappointing in the healthiness arena. It had so much oil in it that we really could only eat one slice and that didn't really cut it in terms of dinner. I searched around and again found a recipe on Cooks Illustrated. This one used MUCH less oil (although still a good amount) and in general we were much more pleased with the way this one held together and turned out. We also just got a new fancy cookbook and after reading the section on sauces I decided to make a garlic mayonnaise which is a traditional accompianment to the Spanish Tortilla.

Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Red Peppers and Peas from Cooks Illustrated




















Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/8th thick slices
• 1 small onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 8 large eggs
• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red peppers ( we did not use this we just used a red bell pepper)
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

Much like the last tortilla first you toss the potatoes and onions in oil and throw them in a skillet. Cook covered for about 30 minutes til potatoes are done.

In another bowl mix eggs and salt. When potatoes are done cooking, fold them into this egg bowl with the peppers and peas.

Throw this egg/potato mixture back into the same skillet and cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Shake the pan every 30 seconds or so.

Then the tricky part. Slide the tortilla onto a plate then flip it over back into the pan. At this point lots of problems will arise and you'll want to throw the tortilla on the floor because this is really hard to do. You will persevere and it will taste good. I promise.

Cook it for another minute or two, let it cool and serve with your garlic mayonnaise.

Garlic Mayonnaise from The Cook's Book

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 4 crushed garlic cloves
  

In a bowl place egg yolks, crushed cloves, mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper, and vinegar. We didn't have vinegar so I replaced this with extra lemon juice. This worked, but I would like to use the vinegar sometime because I think it would give it a slightly nicer flavor.

Now here is the tough part. Measure out your oil in a liquid measuring cup. Begin whisking your egg concoction while SLOWLY (drip by drip) adding the oil. After adding a bit of the oil you can begin to slowly drizzle it in. Make sure you are whisk constantly. Once all oil is in add the remaining lemon juice.


Enjoy

Cheesecake

We haven't posted for a bit but that doesn't mean we haven't been cookin' up a storm. So here is a back log of some recipes. First off is a delicious Cheesecake I made for a BBQ a few weeks ago. I don't have any final plated pictures because I took it to the party and it got gobbled up. People seemed to be pleased with it and it's definetly a keeper recipe. I also made a nice strawberry topping to go with it. However, it's about as far from healthy is a food can get so be warned.

Cheesecake from Cooks Illustrated

It seems that I've misplaced the recipe for this one and my membership with Cooks Illustrated expired. I'll still give you the picture montage, but I don't think I can trust myself to remember the correct measurements and times. If I do come across the recipe I'll repost it because it's a very good one.







































































































































































































































:)