Lemon Zucchini Bread

Well not too long ago a friend of my moms gave her two massive zucchinis that he had grown, and we were not quite sure what to do with them. The first one we managed to use just by using in out sauteed veggies, but we wanted to get a little creative. After a little searching an a lot of pinterest we came up with the idea of a zucchini bread  with a lemon glaze. This thing went fast! It is great for breakfast or a late nigh snack. I hope you try it an like it as well.

What You Need:
The Bread
1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini (I just used a cheese grater with the raw zucchini)
2 cups  flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tsp baking powder
1 eggs
 2 medium lemons
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup sugar

The Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 lemon

What You Do:

The Bread
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl
3. In a small bowl combine eggs and sugar, beat until combined
4. Add vegetable oil, buttermilk, the juice and zest of one lemon to the egg mixture and mix well.
5  Add the wet mixture to the dry  and mix together and then fold in zucchini.
6.  Pour in  to an 8x4 loaf pan and bake 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife can be inserted in the middle and come out clean.
7. After bread cools pour on glaze.

The Glaze
 1. Combine juice of the lemon and powdered sugar and stir.
  
All that is left is to enjoy!


 

Baked Penne

A few days ago I went to a girl friend's of mine. At first I was only going to show her an idea I had for miniature chocolate cream pies, but then I thought, why not I will make dinner too!  So I did it! I made dinner for her, her husband, and their baby who is the most adorable, expressive baby, in the world!  Now this dish can be as nice or as complicated as you wish. You can make your own sauce or break out the prego, classico, or  your whatever favorite store bought spaghetti sauce is. I myself made my own and I have the concoction of spices I used below.  And just because I can I will dedicate this little recipe to the wonderful Sonya, Charley, and baby Arianna.

Oh and this serves 4 to six depending on how big a serving each person has. 

What You Need:

24 oz. spaghetti sauce (OR make the one I have below))
1 lb ground turkey (OR other meat))
3 cups penne pasta
1 cup cremini mushrooms sliced thin (opt.)
1 cup mozzarella (or more if you are a cheese lover)
2 TBS dried parsley ( 4 TBS fresh)

How to Make it

1. preheat over to 350F
2. Boil water in a large pot. Enough water so when past is added the water will be about an inch over the pasta while waiting for water to boil and pasta to be done add meat.
3. Cook meat in a ten inch pan until browned and then add the sauce to it.
4. combine Pasta and meat sauce.
5. Pour half pasta in a 9x9 dish.
6. layer the top with the mushrooms, and then cover with remaining pasta.
7. Top with Mozzarella and parsley and bake until cheese melts 

The Tomato sauce:

What you need


1 24 oz can crushed tomatoes
3 TBS Italian seasoning
2 TBS dried onions (You can use fresh if you want)
4 TBS Garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 black pepper
1 dash paprika
1 dash oregano
1 sash dried parsley
Oh and add about a TBS or two of water from the water the pasta boils in.

How to make it

1. Combine ingredients in sauce pan over medium heat and stir occasionally.  The longer you cook it the better the flavor of the sauce. I did mine about fifteen minutes because of how time went, but you can do your longer if you want.

Blubbering Blueberry Pie

Now why have I called this blubbering? I do not rightfully know....because you will cry it is so good maybe? I want to say yes, but really is because I just thought the name sounded cute.  Now I know this is two pies in a row, but when I found out my parents were going to my grandparents I decided I wanted to make my grandpa a pie. HE really likes pies, and at first I was going to make him a custard pie. The last time I made it he really liked it, but when I opened my fridge I found I had used the last of my eggs a couple days earlier when I made the banana cream pie.  So, I though a fruity pie, but then we had  only two apples, and no strawberries, but we did have a nice big bag of frozen blueberries! Now I would like to note you can use fresh berries in this pie. I just used frozen because it is what I had.

Here is what you will need:

The pastry for a two crust nine inch pie (NOT PREBAKED!)
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4  teaspoon  ground cinnimon
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon lemon zest
4 1/4 cup of blueberries (if frozen partially thawed )
1 TBS  butter(melted)

What you have to do:

1. Preheat oven to 425F and ling the bottom of your pie pan with half of the pastry.
2.  Combine sugar, flour, blueberries, cinnamon, lemon, and lemon zest.
3. Pour the berries into the prepared pie pan.
4: Lay the half of the pie pastry on top of the pie pan  and crimp the sides to the bottom and top pastries attach. C t slits into the top pastry.
5. Brush top of pie and corners with melted butter, then wrap edges in foil.
6. Bake  thirty minutes, then remove aluminum foil and bake  ten to fifteen minutes longer.

And here is the final product. 

Banana Cream Pie

Well I have been planning on making this pie for a little while. You see my Youth pastor was leaving and so me and another leader decided to put something together to say good bye for him. We made a card for him,  we had a hat and put little inside jokes all over it using little pins....One was a parrot. We wanted one other thing too though.  I was going to make him  the chocolate cake I have on here, but then I found out he didn't like cake,  but his daughter told me he loved banana cream pie, and so I thought, hey I can do that! And so I did, and everyone liked it! Even someone who didn't like bananas all too much. I hope you get similar reviews if you make this.  I adapted the recipe from one I found in a really old betty crocker book.

Here is what you are going to need!

1 baked nine inch pie crust
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/3 cups whole milk
4 egg yokes
3 tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon banana extract
1 large banana, diced into quarter inch slices

Oh and if you want you can reserve  the egg whites and make a meringue to top the pie.

How to do it:

1. combine the dry ingredients in a sauce pan and add milk slowly over medium heat. Stirring constantly. Seriously stir constantly or it will burn.
2. When mixture thickens and boils add  half the mixture slowly to the egg yokes stirring constantly still (You don't want to cook the egg yokes)
3. Add the egg mixture to the sauce pan again and bring back to a boil for one minute.
4. Remove from hear and add butter, banana extract, and vanilla extract.
5. Line bottom  of pie crust with banana so that there is almost not crust visible at bottom of pan, if need be add another.
6. Pour mixture over the bananas and the put plastic wrap on pie, carefully pressing down on the mixture. (This prevents the filling from getting a pudding skin)
7. Refrigerate for two hours and then serve with whipped cream.

Coconut Carrot Cookies

Do not let the name throw you! Seriously just don't.  I know I know the name sounds weird and coconut and carrots seem like a very odd combinations and coming along the recipe I adapted this one from  I was a little thrown off myself, but I thought, "Eh why not? I have carrots that are going to go bad if I don't use them soon, and I love coconut! I will make these cookies and pray they are yummy." Guess what! They were! The original recipe called for the cookies to be  topped with frosting, an I decided not to do so because I thought it may add too much. You can add it if you so choose though. These cookies have a subtle sweetness to them.  I hope you enjoy them.

The way I made the cookies they had 140 calories  calories and there were 26 cookies total.

Now here is what you will need: 

 1 cup mashed carrots (This is about 2 large carrots))
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1 3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shredded coconut

How I mashed my carrots was I just steamed them until they were soft and then put them in a food processor then let them cool.

Now what you will do

1. preheat the over to 400F
2. mix carrots, sugar, shortening, vanilla, and eggs together
3. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder
4. Stir in coconut
5. Drop  cookies  onto sheet about a couple TBS full. ((I use the medium sized pampered chef scooper)) and bake  ten minutes.

And this is your final product!

Baked Potato Salad. Fully loaded!

Well today I had a picnic to go and I knew what everyone else was bringing, sorta, and I realized there was no potato salad, and so I figured, why not?  I knew, however, potato salad is one of those things that some people like and some don't, and I wanted something I thought everyone would like.  I cut out the usual stuff, well other than the potatoes, and made what  I thought everyone would like.  This dish has bacon and cheese in. I just gotta say that little tidbit is what made my friend Tobi smile and exclaim her belief of my beauty. I hope your friends exclaim the same.  You are all beautiful! And I hope you love this dish. Oh and please note this was made for a group of about  six people.

You can add more or less bacon or cheese depending on your preference .

What you will need:

3 large russet potatoes
1/2 cup Mexican style sour cream
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise
3/4 cup bacon bits ( or you can cook your own bacon and crumble it. I would say 6-8 slices would work)
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 green onions  slices cut about a quarter  of an inch, ((Only the green part))
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 dash of Cayenne pepper
1 TBS chopped parley

How to make it:

1:  Peel potatoes, wrap in foil, and bake at 350F for 1.5 hours. After they are done let them cool and cut into half inch pieces.
2: As potatoes are  baking combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and when potatoes are cooled add them,.
3: Refrigerated until ready to serve

Brownies

IT had to happen. Brownies had to be here. Now normally I am not a huge chocolate person. I know. SHOCKER! I mean I am a woman I must love chocolate right? Well, eh I am more spicy than sweet I guess, but I do like brownies. They are a quick and easy dessert. I have made these a few times and people asked for the recipe and so I just put this out here now.  I hope you try this and like them.

What you need

1/2 cup of veggie oil
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup white chocolate (optional)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Here is what you do

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. in a medium bowl mix together everything but the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and walnuts.
3.   fold in the chocolate chips, and then the optional ingredients.
4. Pour the batter into a well greased eight by eight dish and make 20 to 25 minutes