Mixed Reviews

I was tired of my same old zucchini bread recipe. I was in the mood for one with a little bit of chocolate and some nuts, and so I thought I would browse the web and find a new one. Usually when I make quick bread, I do at least six loaves because I typically give several to my married children, and my husband can eat almost an entire loaf in one sitting. Now I understand they are called quick breads because there is no rising involved, but there is nothing quick when you have to grate zucchini, chop nuts, grind wheat, and zest an orange, to say nothing about the clean-up. Any how, I didn’t want to do six loaves and nobody like them. Since I was grating zucchini and grinding wheat any way, I did six loaves of my tried and true recipe, and two loaves of the experimental bread.

* One daughter said there was too much going on, and if I left out the nuts, it would be good.

* Another daughter liked the new bread just how it was. Well, maybe less chocolate chips.
* My husband and another daughter said they definitely liked the old recipe better.

* One son won’t try anything new, and my other son will eat anything but bananas and peanut butter.

* I like them both, and my mood will determine which one I will choose to make next time.

Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini Bread

3 eggs                                                         2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable                                 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups hard white wheat flour           1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda                                     1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon                     1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups zucchini                                     1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup chocolate chips                         1 tablespoon orange zest

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and spices.

2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, vanilla, and zucchini. Blend in sifted ingredients. Stir in nuts, chips, and orange rind. Turn batter into two greased loaf pans.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until bread tests done. Remove loaves from pans, and cool.

For the technologically challenged

Do you ever learn something and immediately wonder why no one explained this to you sooner? Now some of you pro texters out there probably learned this as a baby, but maybe there is just one other person out there who doesn’t know this little bit of info and will be delighted that I shared my new found knowledge. I have liked using texting as a way to keep in touch with my teenagers but that was as far as my texting went because it seemed it would take longer to text one simple sentence than it would take to make a phone call. One of my frustrations has been numbers. I couldn’t ever figure out how to just get a simple “1” in my text, and so instead I would type “one”. Well, that doesn’t seem too difficult unless one of your children ask you to text them a phone number. Nine, six, nine, two, seven . . . you get the point. Once in exasperation, I gave my phone to one of my children to text a number, and they said, “Mom, you just hold down the number!” Well, what do you know, I simply pushed and held down the 8 and instead of a T, an 8 appeared. And now any one who needs a number, address, bank account balance, forgotten library card, or anything but my visa number, I am happy to oblige.

Grilling is not just for meat lovers

For many years, I have wanted to buy a barbeque, but my husband has been against the idea. I have many fond memories of my dad cooking ribs, hamburgers, chicken, and even a Thanksgiving Day turkey on his grill. The problem with my husband and barbeques is that most of what is cooked on the grill is meat, and my husband is not a big fan of meat. One of my arguments in favor of a grill is that I promised that we wouldn’t eat more meat just because we had a grill. My sweet children pulled their resources last year and surprised me with a barbeque for Christmas. In keeping with my “no more meat commitment”, I purchased The New Vegetarian Grill cookbook, and we have tried some fun recipes from it on the grill. Last Sunday, we had Maple-Grilled Pound Cake with Peaches.


Maple-Grilled Pound Cake with Peaches

8 firm, ripe peaches, skins removed, and halved
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
One 8-inch loaf pound cake

1. Prepare a medium fire in the grill.
2. Combine the orange juice, butter, and maple syrup and mix well. Brush onto the peaches and both sides of the cake slices. Grill the peaches and cake slices until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side for the peaches and about 3 minutes per side for the cake.
3. Place a slice of cake and 2 peach halves on each plate. Drizzle additional maple syrup over the cake and peaches, if desired.

Vanilla Pound Cake

2 1/2 cups soft white wheat flour
1 cup barley flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans.

Whisk together the flours and salt in a medium bowl. Cream together the butter, sugars and baking powder in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low, add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream. Stir in the vanilla and almond extract. Place batter in prepared pans and bake for 55 minutes.

Cooking, but not with Al Gore!

My life has been crazy busy the past few months, but I haven’t been experiencing the wackiness dominating Mr. Gore’s life. We share a passion for the environment that’s for sure, but I have never received a Noble Peace Prize for it. Although, if you had been to my house lately and witnessed some of the negotiations I have with my teenagers, I believe that I would be a strong candidate. My marriage is still intact, and I was sad to hear that his is ending. And well, I haven’t had a massage lately.

Cooking has taken a back burner to a cute grandbaby, summer fun, and unfortunately the dreaded need to work. One meal that I cook on a Sunday that makes up for all the skipped meals during the week is Café Rio’s sweet rice, black beans, and sweet pork. (I am not a big pork fan, so we do the other white meat at our house.) If you haven’t seen these recipes on line before, here they are, and your family will love you for them.


Café Rio Pork

1 cup medium Pace salsa
1 cup brown sugar
3-4 lb sirloin roast (I use 4-5 boneless chicken breasts)
Place meat in a crock pot. Mix salsa and brown sugar together, and pour over meat. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Cilantro-Lime Rice

1 cup uncooked rice
1 tsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp lime zest
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 1/4 cup water
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp sugar
3 T fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, lime peel, chicken broth, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar, and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice.

Black Beans

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup tomato juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 T fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, gook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stirring until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.

Hey Al, these recipes are so good that they could almost bring about world peace or at least save a marriage.

A reason to care about Earth Day :)

This past week my first grandbaby was born, and he is just the cutest thing ever! Just as when my own children were born, I loved this baby immediately and wanted the best for him. I have heard it said that my generation is the first to pass on a bleaker future to our children. Wow! My parents worked hard and sacrificed all of their lives so that I could have it better than they did. I can’t erase the national debt on my own or fix the health care crisis, but I can make small changes in my life to give our children a better future. As I have listened to talk radio, I don’t understand why being green has become such a political issue. Shouldn’t taking care of the things we are given just be the right thing to do? In most things I would consider myself a conservative, but when I hear Sean Hannity say he doesn’t have time to smash a cardboard box and throw it in a recycling can, I become confused. Really how hard is that? Now, I am not suggesting we all sell our cars and ride a bike everywhere we go or give up modern conveniences and live like the Amish, but just doing simple things can make a difference. Most green activities are just a matter of a change of habits. For my office this year, I bought a calendar with 101 ideas of ways to save the planet. It was printed with soy ink on recycled paper of course. Here are 10 easy things we can do:

1. Always recycle food and beverage cans. Recycling aluminum uses only 5 percent of the energy it takes to process aluminum from raw materials.
2. Remember to turn off the faucet while you’re brushing your teeth, applying makeup, or shaving. The water saved during one instance of brushing your teeth is about 2 gallons.
3. Birds are much more efficient than people at killing insects, so encourage birds to visit your yard with a bird feeder that is suitable for the wild birds in your area.
4. Be honest- how much junk mail do you actually read? You can control the amount of unsolicited mail you receive and reduce paper waste. Learn how to opt out of junk mail at www.dmachoice.org
5. Every mile you walk is estimated to add 20 minutes to your life.
6. When the charger for a cell phone is left plugged in, about 95 percent of the energy goes to waste – so unplug all chargers when not in use.
7. Plastic bags are a major environmental no-no. Keep a stash of reusable fabric bags in your car so you won’t forget to take them along when you go shopping.
8. Dust your lights! Keeping bulbs clean makes them work more efficiently.
9. Here’s a natural way to freshen the air in your home: simmer citrus slices and a few cloves in a pan of water for about an hour.
10. Don’t try to change your lifestyle dramatically all at once. Be realistic about making green changes and incorporate them gradually in your daily life.

One of October’s hints is placing a wool blanket under the bottom sheet of your bed to make it feel warmer. I must confess that I have a mattress heater, and I love it. So I will save energy in another area and indulge myself with my mattress heater. I’m hoping Al Gore has a mattress heater of his own because it is heavenly on a cold winter night.

Take some notes Jesse and Tiger

Well, I hear that Jesse James has decided if sex addiction therapy could possibly salvage Tiger’s marriage and reputation, he might as well give it a shot. I guess they think that a doctor’s “diagnosis” should excuse their bad behavior. I can’t decide who the bigger cad is, but I am definitely leaning towards the Cheetah or quite possibly Johnny Edwards. I was starting to believe that all famous men are incapable of any kind of fidelity, and then my heart was warmed by a report about Jeff Bridges. He recently won several awards including an Academy Award for his role in Crazy Heart. He attended all ceremonies with his wife of 33 years and apparently they seemed very, very affectionate. In fact, Piers Morgan of Britain’s Got Talent fame was recapping events of the Oscars, and said of Bridges, “It is amazing to see a Hollywood husband keeping his hands like that on his own wife.” So Tiger and Jesse, if you want your marriage to last, just keep your hands from wandering.

Guilt-free French Fries for the Food Revolution

If you happened to watch any of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show last Friday, you were probably alarmed by many things you saw. The disgusting presentation on how chicken nuggets are made and the fact that the elementary school classroom he visited was still willing to eat nuggets anyway, or the fact that these children didn’t even know what a potato was but could immediately identify French fries was troubling.


After watching the Oprah episode on Food Inc., I was interested in reading a book she highlighted on her show. Food Rules by Michael Pollan gives some pretty basic eating guidelines, but after watching Food Revolution, I realized that many people don’t have a basic understanding of the importance of eating real food.

There are 64 Food Rules listed. These are some of my favorites:

#13 Eat only foods that will eventually rot. Does a Twinkie ever rot?
#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
#20 It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
#21 It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac.)
#57 Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.

And in honor of rule #39 - Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself, I thought I would blog my favorite home-made fry recipe.


Oven Baked French Fries

3 large russet potatoes and one medium sized yam, scrubbed, unpeeled & cut into ¼ inch strips.
4 cups cold water
2 Tbls apple cider vinegar
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp paprika
2 Tbls canola oil

As potatoes are sliced, immediately drop them into a large bowl containing the water, vinegar, and ½ tsp salt. Let soak for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Drain potatoes very well. Lay potatoes on dish cloth and place another on top. In a clean, dry bowl toss potatoes with remaining salt, chili powder, and paprika, and then stir in oil. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turn and bake 5 minutes more.

Now if only I could find great tasting guilt-free fry sauce!