Zucchini

So what do you do when the mother of all zucchinis shows up on your porch?

This is Lili. She is 5. The zucchini is half her size. To tell the truth, I really wasn't quite sure it was a zucchini. When I cut it open it looked like this:

This, to me, looks like the inside of a pumpkin. The seeds were like pumpkin seeds. Little zucchinis I have cut and sauteed in dishes do not have seeds in them like this. You just slice and go.

I decided to proceed in hopes it really was a zucchini. So, what to make? Bread was the first thought, but my son Carter had been pestering me to bake something. He wanted to bake something. Uhggg. Sorry, but kids in the kitchen leads to amazing messes. I let my daughter bake cookies the other day and discovered she new nothing of measuring devices OR ingredients. So it became a much needed half hour cooking lesson. Carter wanted to make brownies so I googled "best zucchini brownie recipe". Always google for the 'best' and look for 5 stars and great comments. Saves a lot of heartache!

This is the recipe I chose:

Best Zucchini Brownies Ever Recipe: #180695
The zucchini make the brownies very moist and no one ever knows what the secret is to these brownies until you tell them.
by slickchick
40 min 10 min prep
SERVES 16 1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup margarine
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 1/4 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream sugar & margarine. Add eggs and vanilla.
Add remaining ingredients. Stir in shredded zucchini last.
Spread in a 13 x 9 greased pan. Sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips on top along with 1 Tbls sugar.
Bake @ 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com"

We doubled the recipe so there would be enough to share and to use up more zucchini! Here is the finished product.

They were moist and yummy. Not like a true chocolatey brownie as my kids expected. They thought it tasted like a chocolate carrot cake. I suppose it did a little. It did not stop them from eating their share.

Now, what to do with the other 2/3 of this monster zucchini? A couple of cups went in to a chicken pasta zucchini stirfry. Can't say that was a huge hit with the kids as there was a lot of green in there. They all ate it. Their other option was bread and butter :-)

The rest is still waiting to be turned into the 'best' zucchini bread. I already have my recipe waiting. This time I'm looking for the grater to the Kitchen Aid. Its packed up here somewhere in this house. Probably next to the candy thermometer.

I heart espresso

A few years back our family opened a coffee house. It was an after thought. We rented a small kitchen space for me to expand my cake business and before we new it, we had gutted the front and turned it into a coffee house. It was way cool (if I do say so myself).

Unfortunately, running two businesses as a family did not go so well so we sold our shop. But my cake business expanded through this experience as well as my love for espresso. As much as we could on my cake deliveries to Lincoln, my husband and I would frequent different coffee houses and so developed a taste for good espresso.

As life often does, it turned us 360 degrees and we landed in Alma, NE. Upon our first visit to the community, feeling a little forlorn at the quite remote location of this community, I found main street looking for something to do to pass the time. I happened to pull up in front of an interesting looking building with a big awning that said "Joe Camera". I really didn't know what this meant, but I could see people sitting inside. I peeked in the door and directly across the room was an espresso bar. There was life on this planet :-) This little coffee house/camera shop/bicycle repair gave me more peace and hope than anyone could know. Even better than that, Joe and Dusti, the owners became our friends.

Which leads me, finally to today. I got to be a barista again. Joe and Dusti are on a missions trip to Mexico. Sylvia, their sole employee is holding down the fort during their absence. Today, Sylvia wanted to go and see her sister for something special at camp which I know nothing about (should have shown more interest and asked!) So, with about a 30 minute tutorial, I held down the fort for 3 hours. What a 3 hours it was, and I loved every minute of it. I guess all those waitressing years embedded in me a joy of serving or maybe I just think making lattes is way cool.

This is what good espresso looks like:

That delicious creamy looking stuff is called crema. If you see that kind of a pull, your espresso will be rich and yummy.

This is what I like to drink in the summer:

Not such a great photo. A rich iced caramel latte. Oh yea. I had to test the grind, you know, to see if I would get that crema and you can't let good espresso go to waste. The best thing about Joe and Dusti's is that they have awesome espresso.

I hope I get to be a barista again. And pray for Joe, Dusti and Emmett on their missions trip to Mexico.

Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt, but it does not come cheaply. Especially if you have 6 other people vying for it. I tried to buy it a few times just for the "girls". That did not go over so well with my boys. I just thought yogurt was kind of a girl thing and we should be able to have some.

My mother bought a yogurt machine a while back. I thought about it but just never had quite the strong enough desire to lay money on it. Well, a friend of mind made some about a week ago the old fashioned way. There's just something about making something from scratch, so artisanal, back to the roots, all natural...okay, I'll stop, but I really like that!


So I find a yogurt recipe in a 4-H book I am flipping through just before I am about to throw it away. This really spurs me on. All I have to buy is a gallon of milk, a carton of yogurt and a candy thermometer. I decide this is such a savings as to justify buying a candy thermometer. I will be able to make a gallon of yogurt for the price of a gallon of milk! This is exciting. Yogurt for everyone!

I am set to make the yogurt at about 9pm so that it can set all night and be ready in the morning. I pour the gallon of milk in the pot, turn on the stove and get the candy thermometer. Where is the candy thermometer? I questioned six innocent people and no one has seen it since about 6pm lying on the counter next to the sink. Now, I have at least two curious people, one of whom is getting into something every 30 minutes. I know someday he will be gifted at fixing or making anything like his Uncle Mike, which gives me hope. But right now I am about to strangle him (figuratively, of course!). He's seven and would be using all of Dad's dangerous tools if left unchecked. So back to the thermometer. I asked in every way to make sure I was getting an honest answer and no one has seen or can find the candy thermometer. I looked everywhere at least twice. You also have to keep in mind that we just moved into a 5000 square foot house from basement to third floor. The yard is 1/4 of the entire block. The candy thermometer is 8" long at the largest. And I splurged on that $5.00 candy thermometer!

So, I decide to go forth anyway hoping for the best. You have to heat the milk to 180 degrees. Trying to think back to all those lattes at about 160 degrees, I figured that had to be slightly burn your mouth temperature. Heating to 180 degrees, one gallon of milk, took a lonnggg time! I finally turned the temp from low to med, got the skin on top of the milk, the bubbles around the sides. Now you have to cool to 110 degrees. For supper I had made pizza dough and for the sake of getting the yeast right, I took the temp of the water with my handy dandy new thermometer so I knew that 110 felt like about the hottest water coming out of the faucet. Those were my two biggest hurdles. Wrapped up the jars and let it set for the night.

This is what I got, even after chilling:

Now I know homemade yogurt is not as thick as commercial, but this does not quite cut it. Its a little strange to eat too because the texture reminds me of soured milk, but it does taste like yogurt. I think I will try the yogurt pop recipe that came with the instructions. Surely freezing it should turn it into something good!

I'm not going to share my recipe because, one its very long to write out and two, after looking at recipes on the web I found better recipes with clearer instructions. My first problem was probably with my starter... a good yogurt with active cultures is very important for thick yogurt. Second, most of the other recipes called for milk powder in addition to regular milk to help it to be thicker. Just do a search for 'easy homemade yogurt. I will try this again as soon as that darn candy thermometer shows up! I love yogurt too much to give up easily!

I'm baackk! Whew, we are moved. Not exactly put together and settled, but moved. I promised I would post pictures of the interior of our house. Today I took photos of the first floor. It is rather empty and bland right now but I have visions of interior greatness so bear (or is it bare) with me!

I hope the picture set up isn't too crazy. It was difficult getting the side by side shots I wanted.





From the entry way going up stairs. The orginal stair case was beautiful oak and curved down but it had been stolen during a previous renovation. Every thing is not finished being painted or stained. I want to paint this entry area a "pizza' color.





This is the 'parlor'. I hope to have some nifty chairs around this table as well as color on the walls and other decor. Notice the orginal columns. They will stand out more when everything is not the same color.

Before & After: Looking from the entrance, past the parlor into the living room.

The Living Room.... obviously we are up-sizing, the lack of furniture is very apparent! We hope to redo the mantel some day using the columns as a design idea.

Kitchen before and after. I don't have my beautiful SS convection oven yet, but in time. One door leads to a back entrance, one to a large bathroom and one to a pantry.

Before and After of the dining room.

View of the dining room from the entry area. The room on the side of the dining room has pocket doors and will be a fun room for all my Dragonfly Desserts stuff.








Since I'm know I will get many questions about construction. The first floor was finished by the previous owner. Randy and I finished the second and third floors. The bedrooms are on the second floor, with a fourth bedroom on the third floor. I will post pictures of those as we get the rooms more organized.