Zucchini

Even though I really had a late start with this years garden, it is starting to pay off. And all the questions in my head concerning planting a garden at all this year are erased, as we look at some of the first "fruits of our labor". Our first zucchini of the season. I love zucchini, such a versatile veggie. Last night I made Chocolate Zucchini Cake and tonight I am going to make stuffed zucchini. YUM.

The cake is so delicious. With two cups of zucchini in it, you would never know, and the zucchini makes the cake oh so moist. My family loves it.

I thought I had posted the recipe before on my blog but I don't see it so I will post it now:

2-1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup butter (I use earth balance)

2-1/2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/2 cup milk (I use silk)

1 Tbsp vanilla

greased and floured bundt pan 350 degree oven for 1 hour

Rhubarb Crisp

OK I have had several people ask me for my crisp recipe, I made some for a friend's birthday yesterday and I tried to be really conscious of what I put in there. So hopefully I can give some guidance. There really is no "recipe" that I use, but here it goes:

Yesterday I made a big dish of it so I think I used:

About 6 to 8 cups of chopped rhubarb, I added a couple of sliced, peeled apples to the mix for a little different flavor, but it is equally delicious with just rhubarb.

I then added, to the rhubarb, probably 3/4 to 1 cup of granulated sugar, 2 to 3 Tbsp flour, 1-1/2 tsp vanilla, a pinch of nutmeg (you can leave out the nutmeg, I just happen to love nutmeg...or you could add whatever spices you like) 1 tsp cinnamon. Mix it all up and put into a large casserole dish.

Topping: About 1/2 to 3/4 cup earth balance (you can also use butter if you like), 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar. Cut the earth balance (butter) into the sugar and flour until you have a crumbly texture, then add about 1 cup oatmeal and just mix it up and sprinkle if over the top of the rhubarb.

Cook for about 45 min to 1 hour at 350 degrees, until it is bubbly.

Of course adjust to your taste. ;-) YUM!!

rhubarb

You gotta love rhubarb. There is nothing that grows better in my garden. This rhubarb belonged to my grandmother, I think I have posted about that before. It just grows and grows all summer long. Providing us with such delicious desserts. Last night I was trying to think of what to have for supper. So I made some fresh bread for sandwiches, picked some cucumbers from our garden to go with them, and made a rhubarb crisp for dessert. I took a picture of the rhubarb because I usually forget to take a picture of the crisp, and then have no pictures for my blog. This time I have lots of pictures. Enjoy, wish you were here!

Plums

We have, over the last few years, planted more and more fruit trees. The property had a few, apple and pear trees. But they are in really bad shape, just not taken care of over their lives. We are working on pruning those and getting them back into share, but have planted more of our own. And this year we have plums. They are so cute. This particular plum tree is three years old. Last year we had a late frost and it killed the little buds, so we had no plums last year. We are all so excited to see the "fruits" of our labor, and they just taste so much more delicious because we grew them ourselves. The boys loved them, and ate all but two, one for me and one for dh, Jackson. We still have probably a dozen more on the tree, but this batch is gone. I think next year we will plant a few more plum trees.

What's Growin'

As I mentioned earlier, I don't have a large garden this year. Just a dozen or so tomatoes, equal number of peppers, cucumber, zucchini, egg plant and some herbs. I may get a little planting done this weekend, if the weather holds, maybe green beans, beets and okra. But there sure are things growing and blooming all over the place, so I dug out my camera and decided to check out just what was going on, while the boys were still sleeping soundly.

Here is our patch of sun chokes (Jerusalem Artichokes), planted last year, they are just spreading and growing beautifully. I can't wait until they flower, that will look spectacular.

This was labeled a "butterfly plant" when we bought it, that was the only label. It has taken up a nice spot behind the blueberries and just growing and growing. I loved seeing a butterfly enjoying this flower.

These grapes are still small, but getting larger and juicier every day. Maybe one day Jackson will save some for us to eat, for right now all his grapes are going into making wine, which, of course, is delicious, and a wonderful use of the grapes.

Last but not least were a few blueberries, we have a great patch of blueberries but this is something I would like to plant more of in the future. Not as sweet as the blueberries I remember raking as a child in Maine, but still well worth the effort.

What a glorious day it is today, makes me so grateful for the rain. The bounty that flows from this piece of property we own, some days, amazes me, I am blessed.

Rain...Rain Go AWAY

At least long enough for me to plant. Darn I think I have blogged about this already.....YES it is still raining. It stopped long enough on Saturday afternoon for me to plant a few things, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, and zucchini. But my row crops did not make it in. It started RAINING!! All I need is a couple of nice days, I would take just one. We will see. My garden may be a wash this year. ;-) Sorry no pics, IT'S RAINING. LOL

Kombucha

A friend has started making her own kombucha, as hers progressed she had an extra SCOBY to share, so since then I have been making my own kombucha. It has only been a couple of weeks but already I have completed two batches. In another week I will have a SCOBY to share as well so if you live near me and would like to start making your own kombucha let me know.

It is really tasty, and here in the picture you can see my completed batch, ready to go into the refrigerator. And the SCOBY in the jar. What you can't see is the hot tea sitting on my stove. I am going to let that cool for about 12 hours then add it to the glass jar with the SCOBY and let it take off.

The hard part to making Kombucha seems to be acquiring the SCOBY. It was hard for me because you need to trust the source. I was afraid of growing something "other" than Kombucha in my jar. But otherwise you just make up a batch of tea (I use organic green tea), let it cool, set the SCOBY on top, cover it with a clean cloth and let it go. Also make sure everything you use is clean. It does need a dark warm place to sit, mine is on the top of my refrigerator, but in about a week you will have nice Kombucha.

YUMMMM!!!!