Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This is one of our favorite chocolate cake recipes.  I like to double  most of my recipes, and put one in the freezer. Then I have an extra for another occasion with hardly any extra effort.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients

2 cups sugar or sucanat
1 cup vegetable oil (I like to substitute coconut oil for oil whenever I can)
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour whole wheat
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups shredded zucchini

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375*. In a large bowl mix sugar, oil and eggs until well blended.  Add and mix vanilla and milk.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together, and then add them to wet ingredients.  Stir in shredded Zucchini, and mix until well blended.  Pour into a 15 X 10 inch  greased baking sheet or cake pan.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Frosting

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter softened
1 pound or 4 cups powdered sugar (I use organic, unbleached)
1/3 cup cocoa
6 Tablespoons evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix and spread on warm cake.  This is like a sheet cake.  It is very moist, and is even better after it sits for a few hours.

Enjoy

Zucchini, Potato Fritters

These are really yummy, and even if your kids are a little picky and don't care for zucchini, they will love these if they enjoy potatoes; It is very like potato pancake... but better I think... If they are picky eaters, my philosophy has become "what they don't know won't hurt them", and so I don't give them the list of ingredients... just dish it up with a smile (it works some of the time).

Ingredients
3 cups hashbrowns  (from the freezer section works fine.. or make your own by cooking potatoes whole and then grating them)
3 cups grated raw zucchini
1/2 cup finely chopped or grated onion
2-3 cloves garlic crushed and minced
3/4 cup flour (either whole wheat or white unbleached flour works well).
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons dill weed, parsley or a handful of fresh chopped basil or all of the above.
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
Oil for frying
Optional additions: 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn

Directions

In a large bowl, toss together hash browns, zucchini, onions and garlic.  Add eggs and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Add flour and fresh herbs and mix well using hands. Add optional ingredients and mix thoroughly.

In a large frying pan, heat a few tablespoons natural shortening or oil; scrub surface with a spatula, once it is hot, to create a non-stick surface.  Once oil is hot, turn heat to low/medium.  Place a dollop of your mixture onto pan, one by one until pan is full.  Fry until brown, and then flip and brown the other side.  I don't like to fry it  too hot, because I want it to cook in the middle, and not just brown.... this accomplishes both.  Serve as a dinner side dish, or for breakfast with eggs.  Extra's can be frozen and re-warmed in oven.  Enjoy.

James and Giant Zucchini... or something like that.

When I looked at  my garden today, I was reminded of a book I had read as a little girl, and realized where its inspiration must have come from.  Well, the book was really called "James and the Giant Peach" but I think the author must have first been inspired by the Zucchini  that was about to take over his garden, and was filled with a marvelous and magical imaginative story... and then at the last changed the produce to a peach, because peaches are so much more appreciated by children.

So you work all summer through drought and grasshopper to get your garden to produce something... then at last you are beginning to see some fruit of your labor.... you have zucchini taking over the garden.  It happens every year... in fact I have posted about Zucchini abundance before.  But I love zucchini, it is a wonderful veggie, and it is always faithful to show up to your garden party even when everything else doesn't.  You could feed a third world country with zucchini don't you think?  Well, I think every year zucchini deserves a little post, so that those who are experiencing its abundance can find some ideas to use all that zucchini.  I am going to share some of my favorite zucchini recipes all week... I am hoping you ladies will link up your zucchini recipes with me and share... or at least come by and help your self to my garden surplus.

Skunked

"I don't know what all the uproar is about,  I was just trying to make friends with a  stranger...  who happened to look a little like me.....now no one will let me in the house, or pick me up or touch me.... and I heard them saying they were going to give me a bath in Vinegar... ewwww"  

As an up-date,  I have a new de-skunking formula that works far better than vinegar.  Click the link

Surprised by the Peepers

While I was in town the other day,  I got a call that Luke had a surprise for me when I got home.  My standard guess of "Puppy, Kitty, Horse," were all  met with "No, you will have to wait until you get home and let Luke show you".    Here was the surprise:

Luke brought home two precious little Chickie Chicks.  So the homestead is being resurrected.  Smile.  

We realized that we will need to build a new chicken coup.  If we are going to build a new chicken coup, it would be a lot of work for only two little chicks.  What to do...... I went to town and bought 12 more.  Problem solved.  In the mean time the chickies are cozy in Steve's shop housed in the old Ferret cage (yes, we used to have ferrets... fun pets.... another story for another time).  

I will up-date you as they grow, and as the chicken coup gets built

Raspberry Pretzel Dessert

Another recipe card design by Smilebox I was searching the internet for some recipe card templates, and when I clicked one to check it out, my Smilebox uploaded.   I have used Smilebox quite a few times for greeting cards, but evidently they have recipe cards and scrapbooking too.  Any how, it was too cute to pass up the fun.  So the recipe I was going to share with you  anyway, is now jazzed up for your entertainment. This probably isn't  a template I would use for the blog all the time, but it sure is a fun way to pass a recipe along to someone special via e-mail.   Hope you enjoy... you may want to try out smilebox yourself, its free.  P.S Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause my music playlist  to limit the clash of music.

Enjoying My Boys

Picture linked from Nathan's Facebook  Click here for an update about this Photo

Been having a lovely batch of boys through the house for the past several weeks.  As I mentioned before, Nathan and his film crew were here.  Most of them stayed up at our little mobile home, we call it "The Cottage".  We had  worked to get everything in order for them before they got here.  Steve had to re-do almost all of the plumbing, which was a long and drawn out frustration, but needed to be done, and this gave incentive to put it into overdrive.  It was up and running by the time they got here.  We had a great time, and I had a feeling of the "old days" when all the other kids were home and all their friends were in and out of the house.  I loved having them around. Eddie thinks its the "cat's meow" when the big guys are all home... particularly with all their friends in tow, and all of them taking him target practicing and off on one of their exploratory trips, really makes life bearable for him.  He was in rare form. We all watched a movie together on Thursday night (a film makers assignment).  It was a movie about Ghengis Khan... so you can imagine there was a little blood.  Eddie informed me that it probably wasn't a movie I should watch.  I got a great chuckle out of that.

They all left last Friday morning, after which I drove up to Denver to pick up Russell at the airport.  We are now enjoying his company until Friday.  I am getting chubby again because of all the cooking Luke and I are doing. 

I have come to realize, when my children left home, I went  through quite a mourning.  I know this is a common occurrence it even has an official title: "Empty Nest Syndrome".  It probably wouldn't have been so hard on me if they had all moved down the street or across town, but across the USA, is difficult.  Thank goodness for telephones, and internet.  People used to talk about "the empty nest", and I didn't really pay attention to it.  I didn't think twice about it... until my nest was empty.  I never knew how hard it would hit me.  But it did.

You can tell the difference between my pictures and the ones I got from Nathan in this post; His are great quality, from good cameras that he and the guys took; mine are from my phone, because I didn't have my camera. Half of them are blurry, but at least I was able to take them and down load them. by the way, the photo above is one of the photos taken on the scouting and filming trip; Steve and I just chuckle and chuckle when we look at it.  I am not going to tell you the story about it quite yet, I''ll save it for another post, but it is entitled "Photo Shoot Gone Wrong", and its gotta make you laugh.

Russell, Eddie and Luke... along with half of Toby Mack (Luke just got up off the floor... his hair is going every which direction... smile).

 I got these from Nathan, and they are some of his crew, at some of the various places they camped and worked.

Here's Nathan at the Great Sand Dunes.... Looks like the Sahara doesn't it?

That's Colorado for you... deserts and mountains all with in a short distance of each other.

Blessings to all, Pam