When Life Gives you Zucchini, you make cake!

The single zucchini from our garden. Looks ginormous next to a mini muffin yes?



Wednesday kept calling it a "Keemy" and asking to hold on to it.



This was probably the most moist, the most tasty, the most delicious cake bread I have had in ages. I wish I could take credit for the recipe but alas I cannot. I just baked it to perfection. The recipe came via someone on my friends list on Livejournal. It is here at Virtual Cities. I will paste the text out for you too though.

Lemon/Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

4 teaspoons baking powder

Juice of 1 lemon

Chopped zest of 1 lemon

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup frozen Maine wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 5 x 9-inch loaf pans. Beat eggs; add sugar and beat until well mixed. Add canola oil and beat well. Add lemon juice, zest, and zucchini and mix well with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda, and baking powder together. Add to the zucchini mixture; mix well. Fold in the blueberries. Pour mixture into the loaf pans and bake approximately 55 minutes until done (test with a cake tester). Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes prior to removing from pans.

Totally worth the effort it takes to grow, pick, shave and shred the zucchini!

For the Love of Snow Cones and County Fairs

Yesterday we braved the heat (37 degrees Centigrade with the humidex) to venture to the 151st Stirling Agricultural Fair. The tractor pulls although very cool, were set up so that you had to do too much walking in the sun to get to where you needed to be whether it be to watch the pulls, ride the carousel or get back to your truck. Because of this we did not stay very long, I think maybe an hour and a half tops. We managed to squeeze in a small petting zoo, a look at real cows, a carousel ride (Wednesday's first) and a snow cone shared with Daddy. We did meet a woman with an Alpalca farm who sells the softest wool ever. I am on a mission to learn to knit this month so that I can justify driving out of town for her wool!

Missie Krissie giveaway.

I stumbled upon this giveaway from Missie Krissie jewelry designs through the Flickr group I made it myself. The picture had a link to the blog which was having a giveaway. My favourite kind of post.

I do love the idea though. I am a fan of all things shiny and recycled so this just seems to be a match made in heaven.



The pictures although creative in their garden-esque appearance are kind of busy. But this close up of the spoon caught my eye. Also there is this one which gives you a great idea of the utter practicality and sheer prettiness of the piece.



You can view some of her jewelery pieces here at her online shop but I could not find a listing for the trees. Hopefully I win one *grin* but if not I would love to purchase one. She has a blogger located here and her flickr set for the trees is here.

Indoor Pool!

We went to Tara and Sidney's house for a play date today. Sidney got a bigger kiddie pool and the kids loved it. The last twenty minutes or so Wednesday was outside of the pool just pouring water from one container to another and was really enjoying herself. So, when we got home I thought I would continue the water play with a tub on the floor in the living room. (It is just not the same in the real tub for Wednesday, I am not sure why.) But instead of playing *with* the water she insisted on playing *in* the water.












The aftermath.

I have had some mamas say I was brave to allow water in the living room but it didn't occur to me to do it otherwise. The kitchen is a galley kitchen and not very conducive to fun on the floor and the living room is hardwood (parquet) so I thought it would be hunky dory. It was and I can't wait to do it again. :)

Beer + Cupcakes = All Awesome

The thing I love most about baking before the smells and tastes and satisfaction is the giving and sharing. That is what I love most about baking, sharing my creations. No recipe is small enough to keep to yourself and so your family and friends all get a piece of tasty goodness. Yesterday I baked for my brother-in-law's 38th birthday. I made Stout Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.
Funnily enough, it was my brother-in-law who gave me this book for my birthday last month so it only seems fitting that he receive the first batch of baked awesomeness.



And awesomeness they were. They tasted very much like gingerbread without the ginger due to the molasses and spices. They were incredibly moist and tasty and not to big or too sweet. The glaze is made from beer and icing sugar and adds that perfect bit of 'oomph'. They were so good.

Because these were not iced or piped with anything fancy, I printed up some little flags from marthastewart.com and I also photocopied a couple templates from the cookbook. They were the perfect touch. (It really is a wonderful book. Full of gorgeous photos and delectable recipes.)

A morning at the market means an afternoon of baking.

Yesterday I was actually raring to go at an obscenely early hour and so I decided Wednesday and I would walk downtown to the farmer's market. I bought wax beans (my favourite veggie) rhubarb, peaches and raspberries. Well, because the gentleman at the market packed my peaches and berries wrong without my knowledge the berries were not much good whence Wednesday and I stopped at a park to enjoy some shade. The peaches had crushed most of the berries so I ate myself sick almost so they didn't go to waste. Oi vey.

BUT! The peaches were fine, mostly due to their not-quite-ripe-ness. So when I got home I chopped up the rhubarb and blanched the peaches to peel them and proceeded to make a crisp. My mom makes the most amazing (and amazingly simple) apple crisp and so I compare all similar to it and this one really stacked up well, an instant favourite. This is the recipe (Found @ myrecipes.com) and this is the result:



You ever eat something and with that first bite you feel home? Like true comfort food. Well, maybe because of my mom's apple crisp maybe not but this dish, is comfort food at it's finest.
I should mention that using fresh instead of frozen meant I should have upped the granulated sugar to 2 cups. But thanks to the French vanilla ice cream it was a nice little sweet and sour desert.

Peach-Rhubarb Crisp


Prep: 15 min., Bake: 50 min. Rhubarb adds fresh, tart flavor to compotes, crisps, and pies. Serve this dish warm with low-fat vanilla ice cream, vanilla yogurt, or low-fat whipped topping.

1 (20-oz.) bag frozen peaches, thawed (I used 6 fresh)
2 (16-oz.) packages frozen sliced rhubarb, thawed (I used 5 cups diced fresh)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (If using fresh I would add 1/2 cup more)
3 tablespoons lemon juice (I used juice of one lemon)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
Vegetable cooking spray
1/3 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; add 1/4 cup flour, stirring well. Pour mixture into a 13- x-9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

2. Combine oats, brown sugar, and remaining 1 cup flour in a small bowl; cut in cold butter with a fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture evenly over fruit filling.

3. Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes or until bubbly.

Note: Nutritional analysis does not include ice cream.

Yield: Makes 10 servings

CALORIES 308 (0.0% from fat); FAT 6.4g (sat 3.9g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.4g); IRON 1.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 16mg; CALCIUM 188mg; CARBOHYDRATE 61.4g; SODIUM 48mg; PROTEIN 3g; FIBER 2.7g

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes = Wonderful!

Last week we were invited to a friend's place for BBQ. We were to not to bring anything but who does that? So, I brought desert. Cupcakes! Chocolate cherry ones to be exact. I needed a recipe to test run making cupcakes for my daughter's birthday party. I have never made cupcakes before. I have made a lot of cakes and what seems like thousands of muffins but nary a cupcake to be seen. I had some beautiful fresh local cherries and felt the urge to use them so I did some googling and figured a chocolate cherry cupcake was the way to go. Really, it was brilliant and I am not only happy with the results but I used the same recipe to make 105 cupcakes for the party.

Anyhoo...I bring to you Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting.



I modified the recipe by using chopped fresh cherries instead of maraschino cherries. (I think I chopped about twenty to make 1/2 cup.) And I used vanilla in my frosting instead of maraschino syrup. Also, I left out the chocolate sauce because of time restraints. Oh yes, and I used fresh cherries as garnish instead of maraschino ones. (Eww. You know they bleach those and add colour and flavour right?)



And just for awesomeness sake, here is a picture Wednesday at her first kiddy table at said BBQ. :D She was so well behaved, she ate all her dinner, played with Sidney, not just with her toys. She gave kisses and hugs and only needed one time out for fence climbing lol. It was a wonderful way to spend three hours. :D



Wednesday is on the left in blue.

The Joy of baking mini-muffins.

I had been craving blueberry muffins like mad a couple weeks ago so I finely buckled down and baked some. Ron had been insisting I make bread so I haven't baked anything to avoid the nagging lol. But when I went to finally make bread I discovered we had no yeast. So, blueberry muffins it was!

My best friend gave me the 75th Anniversary Edition of The Joy of Cooking for my birthday and it is quickly becoming my go to book. With 4500 recipes how could it not? But, on a more related note, I made their basic muffin mix, adding the blueberries and a 1/2 cup sour cream + 1/2 cup plain yogurt in lieu of the cream.

Here is a pic....



Mmmm just look at that cinnamon sugar sprinkle!

I could not find a link to the recipe sorry, you'll just have to read the text.

Basic muffin recipe (mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients)

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk in one bowl.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whisk in second bowl.
2 eggs
1 cup milk or cream (I used 1/2 sour cream + 1/2 plain yogurt)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla (which I totally forgot)

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add 1 1/2 cups blueberries and again stir until just combined. Do not over mix. batter should NOT be smooth.

Divide batter among muffin cups. (I used mini muffin cups and got 36)

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes. (I did my first 24 for 14 minutes because I used frozen blueberries which chilled the batter significantly and the second batch of 12 for 12 minutes.)

If you are doing regular muffins bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
If you are baking jumbo muffins bake at 400 22-25 minutes.



WARNING: If you make mini muffins like I did, you may end up eating a dozen before the cool. Just sayin'.

Tu Tu for Two Year Photos

A little over a week ago I made a tutu for Wednesday's upcoming second birthday. I spent about four hours tying the tulle to the elastic. While doing this I watched a couple four episodes of Supernatural (for the plot i swear!) and ate half of a bag of Reeses Pieces. But it went by like a breeze and had I not knotted half the tutu backwards (I had to take it off of my leg to pee.) it would have only taken me between two and three hours. A couple of days later I added some skinny chocolate brown ribbon and self adhesive 'rhinestones'. I sewed fat chocolate brown ribbon to the elastic instead of sewing the elastic into a loop so that I could adjust the tightness/size on Wednesday and remove it easier.

Below is a slideshow of the pictures we took at the park a couple of days ago for her second year mailer cards plus some tutu progress photos. It turned out wonderful, if not a little bit long but this means it will fit her for years and years (and should last as long).

I did not use a single tutorial but I will leave the links fo the most useful ones and why.

This one from Plum Tickled has a great idea about buying the tulle in rolls and cutting your strips two at a time. But I didn't like how she knotted hers so I kept looking.

This one from Grosgrain had the knots I wanted and I liked her idea for staggering the lengths.

I used two lengths (30" & 24") and did it like this....

white 30
pink 30
white 30
pink 24
white 24
pink 24
white 30
pink 30
white 30

"etc. etc. etc. and so forth."

And then I tied the skinny ribbon between every six pieces of tulle and added the shiny bits willy nilly.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, but for serious it does not get any easier than this. that is the beauty of it all. :)

Bundt it's so fun!

A couple of weeks ago my mother in law told me I was baking the cake for her 57th birthday. But she didn't want chocolate (so much for the Ovarian Chocolate cake; more on that in another post) and she is lactose intolerant of which I am constantly lecturing her about her food choices. So I began looking for a mostly dairy free recipe with little to no frosting (Mostly because I don't like icing sugar type frostings.) I found this recipe though and it turned out awesome, the bundt shape added some wow factor so that I did not have to rely on a fancy frosting job. T'was my first bundt cake ever and the candied orange peel went over really well. I found it moist enough and the glaze was just right. Definitely more orange than carrot though.

I found this recipe at Canadianliving.com whose magazine I adore for top notch recipes. It is an Orange Carrot Bundt Cake with an orange sugar glaze and candied orange peel.




And just one more picture of awesome. And yes, in case you are wondering, that is my bed in the photo, this time of day my bedroom has the best light in the house so I took advantage of it. :)