A delightful way to use up zucchini

We only planted two zucchini plants this summer, but we still had far more than we needed. This cookie recipe has been a big hit in our home. When made with whole grain flour and dehydrated cane juice crystals, its a fairly healthy snack. I wanted to try making it with honey or at least half the amount of sugar, but that experiment will have to wait.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• dash salt
• 2 cups zucchini, grated
• chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in eggs. Mix in dry ingredients, then zucchini, and finally the chocolate chips. (I used about a cup of chips)

Place on greased cookie sheet, and bake about 10 to 12 minutes at 350.

They are a cake-like cookie, perfect for a filling afternoon snack!

Bites of summer

For those of us in the Midwest, summer has faded into autumn. My basil is still green and beautiful despite the cooler temperatures, and the piles of tomatoes gathered from the gardens still beckon to be savored.


This calls for just 3 simple ingredients:

• Mozzarella cheese
• Tomato
  
• Basil leaves
  

For added flavor, you may want olive or balsamic oil and a touch of sea salt and pepper.

The smaller, gourmet mozzarella balls are preferred. I also like to use grape or cherry tomatoes.

Layer the ingredients however you prefer. I like to make them into bite size portions, place them on a large platter, then drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt.


A simple and absolutely scrumptious burst of pure summer in your mouth!

When cooler temperatures hit, you can adapt a cozier version of this recipe by placing tomato and mozzarella on a slice of french bread, toasting briefly in the oven, then adding a fresh basil leaf before serving.

Favorite Recipe Links

I have a lot of favorite recipes that I didn't write that are staples in my kitchen. I thought I'd start a link page here so you can find them too.

Hot Dog or Burger Buns I have not purchased store made hot dog buns since I found this recipe. It is so fast and easy, and tasty, not to mention inexpensive that I can't go back. To make it even less expensive put 1/3 powdered milk in the dry ingredients and change the water amount to 1 1/2 cups in place of the milk. Also, one tbsp of yeast is the same as one package, and the kind of yeast doesn't matter, my regular yeast works just fine.

Spent Grain Bread Since my husband has taken up home brewing as a hobby I've been wondering what to do with the spent grains. Could they be used? Then I came upon Leila's post and tried it. The bread is nice and moist, a little bit dense, and the spent grains give it a pleasant sour flavor, not unlike beer. I love it best in tuna sandwiches or with soup.

No Knead Bread This may be the best bread ever. Though it could be a little more sour in my opinion to make it perfect. The only thing it requires is time. It is simplicity itself. Always use cornmeal to coat it. It gives the bread a delightful crisp crust. The inside is moist and bubbly, and wonderful. Don't expect the bread to rise too much, it doesn't need to. Also, don't worry if it seems too sticky. It's not.

I will continue to add to this list as I find or remember more recipes. Be sure to check the link in the sidebar from time to time to see if it's updated.

Volcanoes

I didn't invent this dish, my husband did. He did most of the cooking in his family as a teenager. Did I mention that he has 7 younger siblings? How to get kids to eat their beans and rice night after night.

Here it is. I've changed it up a lot, and I don't apologize for it because in his version the only flavor came from the cumin butter, which meant that everyone needed a lot of it to enjoy their meal. I wanted less fat, etc, so I insist that the beans have flavor cooked into them. Also, olive oil. MMM.

Start with rice, white brown, sticky, leftover, it doesn't matter really. Heap it in a pile in the center of the plate. Smooch a hole in the center. This is your volcano.

Now, take some dark green stuff; parsley, cilantro, kale, broccoli, raw green beans, avocado, etc. Stick them in your rice mountain on the slopes. These are your trees.

You will also need some cooked black beans. These can come from a can, or you can cook them from dry in a crockpot or stockpot. Add cumin, lots of it, salt, pepper, oregano/thyme, I like a bit of creole seasoning as well. and some onion or garlic powder if you wish, but not too much, The main player here is the cumin. These are your lava rocks. Pile them on top of your volcano.

Now a little tomato or spaghetti sauce. Or hot sauce for the grown ups. Pour it over the beans. This is your lava.

Now the finisher. Take melted butter mixed with cumin, or olive oil, or a bit of both, and pour it over the whole pile. You don't need much. This is your volcano erupting. This part is what makes all the other flavors mix together into melt in your mouth goodness.

Let your kids build it, and demolish it. You'll be surprised how much they will eat. To this day I have a boy who insists that he doesn't like black beans, but he always eats his volcanoes. Go figure.

Summer Pizza

The first time I had a "pizza" like this, I was attending one of those in-home parties for gourmet kitchen gadgets. It's a tasty appetizer or light meal, that can either be slightly sweet by topping with fruit, or a fun alternative to salad by topping with raw vegetables. I fell in love with the concept, and sought to adjust the ingredient list into something wholesome and nourishing.

Start with a plain baked crust, using my basic dough recipe. When the crust has cooled, spread "pizza sauce" over top. There are two different variations, depending on whether you are using fruit or vegetables.

For a vegetable pizza, use about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of sour cream with plain yogurt to taste. You can stir in salt and pepper, dill or other herbs if desired.

For a fruit pizza, mix a softened 8 oz block of cream cheese with vanilla yogurt. If using plain yogurt, also stir in a little sweetener, like honey, maple syrup, raw cane crystals, or xylitol.

Now comes the fun of garnishing with your fresh fixin's! Children especially enjoy decorating the pizza with sliced or minced fruit or vegetables.

Fruit ideas: kiwi, strawberry, banana, raspberry, blueberry, pineapple, mandarin oranges, etc.

Vegetable ideas: cucumber, sweet green or red peppers, broccoli, peas, carrot, spinach, etc.

~TamraGirl

Rainbow Bean Soup

What do you do when your MIL asks you to bring dinner that evening, specifically soup, and you have very few grocery items in the house? Well, I invented Rainbow Bean Soup. That's what I did.

A quick look through my cupboards yielded beans, beans, and some more beans. I had no soup broth ready, very few vegetables, no meat, etc.

Here were my ingredients.

1/2 pound black beans

1/2 pound red beans

1 pound pinto beans

5 tbsp butter

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 onion-diced small

4 cloves garlic-crushed

Chicken bouillon

large handful of fresh sage leaves

salt

pepper

cumin


With so little advance warning I resorted to the quick soak method to prepare the beans.

I placed the beans into a stock pot. Then I brought it all to a boil and removed the pot from the heat. A few hours later they had swelled to full size. I drained the water, replaced it with fresh water, added some salt and simmered them for about half an hour until they were soft. Then I drained the water again and set the beans aside.

I had a big bag of fresh sage that the kids and I picked on one of our walks. [Aside: Sage grows wild around here, and rosemary is used in landscaping in many places, also we have wild pepper trees. For fun, and extra value, check foraging sites for the kinds of herbs that grow in your area and then keep your eyes out for opportunities to take advantage of this by harvesting them. It makes your food more interesting, as well as your walks.]

I wanted to keep the other flavors light to maximize the effect of the fresh sage, but we did need other flavors, beans are kind of boring on their own.

In the bottom of the stock pot I melted a bit of butter for flavor, added some olive oil as well, and sauteed a bunch of crushed garlic and the onion. Once the onion had begun to caramelize I added in the beans, enough water to cover, a few spoonfuls of bouillon, and brought it to a boil. I chopped the fresh sage leaves into small pieces and added them to the broth.

I turned the heat off and added, pepper salt and cumin to taste. Let it sit for a while before serving so that flavor of the sage can permeate the soup. If I had left it to boil there would have been too much heat and it would have killed some of the flavor.

That's it. It was a colorful, tasty soup that went really well with the salad and crusty bread that my MIL made.

image by vavau

My New Favorite Summer Beverage

Have you ever tried sun tea? I hadn't. I didn't understand what difference it would make to brew tea in the hot sun for a few hours versus brewing it in the normal way.

Not coincidentally, I didn't much like iced tea either, unless it was sweetened. Last month on the way to a party my husband picked up a gallon of unsweetened iced tea from Trader Joe's. (Yes, we all know I love that store.) As I drank glass after glass I couldn't help commenting on how good it tasted, and how surprised I was that it didn't need a sweetener to be enjoyable.

This, apparently, is the difference between sun brewed iced tea and regular brewed iced tea, as my husband was quick to point out. Well, it's true. Brewing tea at a lower temperature in the sun releases the flavor of the tea leaves, but doesn't get hot enough to release the bitterness of the tannins as well.

Every few afternoons I put 4 of the large Lipton Iced Tea bags in a gallon glass jar and let it sit in the sun for a few hours on our patio. Once it's chilled it is a truly refreshing drink. And for a lot less than the Trader Joe's version. One $2 box makes approximately 5 gallons of iced tea.

May I also point out that it has no calories and many antioxidants as well?

The perfect everyday summer beverage for me. Aside from water of course.

Image by all things michigan