My garden – the successes and failures

Success – I said I wasn’t going to plant a garden this year, until we built planter boxes. My husband did a fantastic job and had them completed by mid May!

Failure – Even though we laid down weed control carpet and brought in special dirt, the morning glory still found its way into my garden.

Success – This was the first year my cucumber plant survived. I love dipping cucumbers in dill dip.

Failure – and the first year my zucchini plant died. I am probably the first person on the planet who actually killed a zucchini plant. All of my wonderful plans for zucchini recipes died along with my plant.

Success – My cherry tomato plant was out of control.

Failure – My cherry tomato plant was out of control.

Success – I had fantastic luck with basil, eggplant, green peppers, and cilantro.

Failures – I love spaghetti squash and decided to give it a try in my garden. I planted one plant, and it looked like it wasn’t going to make it, and so I bought another plant. The first one began to thrive as my second one died along with my zucchini plant. The first plant lived, but it turned out to be cantaloupe. My husband is allergic to cantaloupe and I am not very good at knowing when they are ripe. Big Failure!

Success – Baked Eggplant Parmesan

I tried a new recipe, and it was fantastic! Well, it is from Martha Stewart, and so you know it has to be good.


Olive oil
2 large eggs
¾ cup plain bread crumbs
¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, for topping
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
Salt
Pepper
2 large eggplants, peeled and sliced into ½ inch rounds
6 cups favorite tomato sauce
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Brush 2 baking sheets with oil; set aside. In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk together eggs and 2 tablespoons water. In another bowl, combine breadcrumbs, 3/4 cup Parmesan, oregano, and basil; season with salt and pepper.

2. Dip eggplant slices in egg mixture, letting excess drip off, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture, coating well; place on baking sheets. Bake until golden brown on bottom, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn slices; continue baking until browned on other side, 20 to 25 minutes more. Remove from oven; raise oven heat to 400°.

3. Spread 2 cups sauce in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange half the eggplant in dish; cover with 2 cups sauce, then 1/2 cup mozzarella. Repeat with remaining eggplant, sauce, and mozzarella; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted, 15 to 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Whenever we go to Zupa’s my husband usually orders the Tomato Basil Soup, and when he doesn’t, he is usually disappointed in his selection. I have tried making a homemade creamy tomato soup in the past without much success. This year I tried a new recipe, and my husband gave me a thumbs up! Not only did I use homegrown tomatoes, but the basil was also from my garden.

This recipe is not for those on a fat free diet, but I think it is worth every fat gram!

Rich and Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

4 tomatoes - peeled and diced
4 cups tomato juice
14 fresh basil leaves
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

Place tomatoes and juice in a stock pot over medium heat. Simmer 30 minutes. Puree the tomato mixture along with the basil leaves, and return the puree to the pot. Place the pot over medium heat, and stir in the cream and butter. Heat, stirring until the butter is melted. Do not boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Salsa!

On Monday, I decided that I really needed to pick tomatoes. I didn’t realize how many were ripe until I got into the plants. I probably picked over 70 tomatoes from my four plants. I couldn’t believe it. That would mean I would be busy making at least 2 batches of salsa. I love homemade salsa. I love it even more when it is all done and every one of the jars sealed.
SALSA
24 large tomatoes
4 large green peppers
4 large onions
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tsp salt
1/4 cup taco seasoning
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 4 ounce cans green chilies
Dash garlic powder

Prepare tomatoes, remove skins and cores. Chop onions and green peppers. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Place in pint jars and process for 25 minutes. Makes about 14 pints.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Antioxidants

This past week I was in the mood for something chocolaty. I decided to use up some of the zucchini that was collecting on my kitchen counter and try a chocolate zucchini cake. I don’t have a favorite recipe for chocolate zucchini cake, and so I tried a new recipe that I found on the internet. There were literally hundreds of recipes that combined zucchini and chocolate. My favorite zucchini bread recipe was easily adapted to whole wheat flour, and so I figured whatever recipe I used would turn out well with whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour. I liked the flavor of the cake, but the texture was more like a quick bread recipe than a fluffy cake. My husband ate the majority of this cake. He loved the flavor and thought it was incredibly moist, but I think the middle section must have been a little too moist because he cut all around it.

ZUCCHINI CHOCOLATE CAKE
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups hard white wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups zucchini, grated
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter then add oil and sugar; mix.
Add next 8 ingredients; mix well.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Put in greased and floured 9X13 pan.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until done.


ANTIOXIDANTS? REALLY?
Have you ever noticed that Hershey’s Cocoa claims to be a natural flavorful source of antioxidants? Antioxidants are compounds that help neutralize free radicals and protect your body against their destructive effects. According to Hershey’s website, cocoa has more oxygen radical absorbance capacity than cranberries, grapes, or prunes. Prunes or cocoa – now that is a no brainer! Antioxidants, vegetables, and whole grains, and I thought I was simply making a dessert.

Just a little food for thought!

So today we went to Sundance Resort to do some hiking. My daughter went into the store to purchase a magnet and saw this cute green bag for $3 and bought it for me. Some people collect spoons, thimbles, or charms, but a green bag is my kind of souvenir.

This bag comes from Robert Redford’s place so you know it’s not just an item to carry around your things but a product to help you be a well informed environmentally-friendly consumer. The following information was listed on the bag:

Use this bag twice a week for 2 years and each bag will SAVE:
- 11 pounds of garbage
- 832 plastic bags
- Enough petroleum to drive a car 60 miles

From 1BagataTime.com
- 14 plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car a mile
- 380 billion plastic bags or wraps are thrown away in America each year
- 0 paper bags biodegrade in landfills due to lack of oxygen
- Cities spend up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs, wasting millions of tax dollars

Zucchini Season

If you have a zucchini plant in your garden, and you have neighbors with a zucchini plant, you probably have a kitchen counter filled with oversized zucchinis just waiting to be shredded. I have a family tried and tested whole wheat zucchini bread recipe that I make each summer, but it is only the end of July, and I am already inundated with the squash. If I intend to not waste any zucchini, I will need to get creative and try more recipes. At recipeezaar.com, there are 2,890 recipes listed when the ingredient zucchini is typed in the search engine. Numerous recipes are available for pie, casseroles, salads, muffins, quiche, and even one for pancakes. Stay tuned for more recipes.


Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, beaten
¾ cup oil
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups hard white wheat flour (red wheat also works fine in this recipe)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
½ tsp baking powder
4 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg

Mix eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients and then add alternately with zucchini to wet ingredients. Bake in two greased loaf pans for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

New York - a once in a lifetime experience for me!

On my recent one and only trip to New York, I thought about many things:

- Filmmakers do a mighty nice job of making New York look cleaner and grander than it really is.

The fountain from the movie Enchanted!

- I like the sun way too much to ever live there.

When it isn't overcast, there are tall buildings everywhere preventing the sunlight on the streets.

- People in New York are not rude. I believe they are just in a hurry. In fact we had several kind gentlemen help us when we were lost and another nice looking business man bought us ice cream simply because he had never met anyone from Utah before.

If you go to New York, know where you are going, do not stand still in the middle of the sidewalk, and when you go to a deli, do not stand in front of the menu board to decide what you want. Just know before you go!

- New York is not a place for a family vacation.

- It made me a little uneasy that department stores felt it was necessary to post security guards at every door.

- Where does all the garbage go?

At the end of each day, there are piles and piles of garbage on the street.

- How many times does the average driver honk his horn in a day?

I came to believe that this sign was never enforced because there was a constant sound of car, truck, bus, bike, and scooter horns honking.

- It really is not necessary to wait for the flashing green sign to cross the street.

No one waits, and if you do, you definitely look like a tourist or Girl Scout.

- 99% of cars are either yellow or black.


And when you get into one it will cost you big bucks for the ride of your life! it was definitely more fun than Lagoon!