Zucchini Bread

Now that fall weather has arrived, I've been in the mood to bake.  A few weeks ago I made a caramel apple blondie pie featured in my Southern Living.  Yesterday, I made a couple loaves of zucchini bread.  The zucchini bread came out really well, so I wanted to make sure I memorialized the recipe.  It's a modified version of this recipe.

I also realized the trick for getting Jason to eat my baked goods - cut the sugar at least by half if not more.  :)

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-4 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Sift the first 5 ingredients together.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the next 7 ingredients together.

3. Add the dry ingredients from the first bowl to the wet ingredients in the second bowl.  Mix well.

4. Stir in the zucchini and walnuts.

5. Bake 65 minutes on 325 degrees.

6. Voila!  Let cool and then enjoy! 

Blueberry-Banana Muffins

Since our kitchen is up and running (not completely finished - still waiting on a few finishing items), we've been enjoying cooking again.  Last week, Jason made us taco salads and fish tacos.  This morning I made Swiss chard quiche, and this afternoon I tried a muffin recipe I found in this month's Southern Living.  This recipe was submitted by Naomi Cordill of Winnsboro, LA.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 light brown sugar
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt

First, toss the blueberries with 2 tbsp. flour.

 Then, stir together the rest of the flour, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Next, mash the banana and whisk together with the eggs, light brown sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract.

 Add the mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.  Fold in the blueberries.

 Spoon into a lightly greased 12-cup muffin pan, filling until about two-thirds full.

 Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

 Let cool and enjoy.

 

These aren't very sweet or moist, but they are still very good.  Jason isn't a huge fan of muffins, cakes, cupcakes, etc., but he actually enjoyed these less-sweet fruit filled muffins.  They'd be great with hot tea!

5th Anniversary Celebrations

What do you do to celebrate your 5th marriage anniversary?  Go to a beer festival of course.  It only makes sense.  Well, maybe for us.

The second annual Houston Beer Fest went over much more smoothly than last year.  More entrances meant no lines to get in.  Longer hours meant less crowds at once.  It was still hot as Hades, but at least they had free water available.  I only wish the booths were manned by the brewers instead of just temp workers hired by the festival.  I think that's why we still like the Brewmasters International Beer Fest in Galveston better.  It's always neat to be able to learn about the different beers (what type of beer it is, how it was brewed, how long the brewery has been around, etc.)  You can't really get that when the booths aren't manned by the brewers. 

Dorks...

After the festival, we headed over to The Melting Pot with Sal and Nicole to enjoy some fondue.  None of us had been there before, and it was actually pretty good.  Plus, it was fun to cook your own food.

It was a four course meal - cheese appetizer with bread and veggies, salad, the main course (seen below), and chocolate with fruit and sweets.  Yum!

Pretty fun 5th anniversary celebrations, huh?  Up next on the blog, fun 5th anniversary presents...

Lobsterlicious

How do you make a gorgeous lobster feast like the one below?

First, order some live lobsters from Maine.  Invite your friends over to take pictures of them.

Then, introduce them to your dog.  It's only the polite thing to do.

Next, set up a lobster cooking device large enough to accomodate them all.  

Finally, try not to look like a savage beast while eating them.

The end.

Happy May

Can you believe it's already May?  Boy does time just fly by.  It feels like Spring Break was just yesterday, and yet we're already heading into summer.  The weather has been beautiful lately, and we've been trying to take advantage of it before it becomes typical Houston-hot-and-humid-as-Hades summer weather.  That means, breaking out the grill and cleaning off the patio furniture.  This weekend we grilled hamburgers and last night we made steaks, sausage, veggies, and potatoes.

For the potatoes, we used red potatoes, cut up some onions, and added rosemary from the garden.  We topped it with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper and put the foil packs on the grill.  Yum!

For the veggies, we made squash, bell pepper, and mushroom kabobs.

For the meat, we bought some bacon wrapped beef and pork fillets from H-E-B and grilled a link of jalapeno sausage.  If you ever happen to come across those bacon wrapped fillets at H-E-B, I definitely recommend them.  They're so easy to make and quite good.  We've even just cooked them in the oven, and they turned out fine.

By the way, can you believe our $25 grill is still kicking nearly two years later?  I thought it was a goner when we switched from charcoal briquettes to lump charcoal since lump charcoal burns so much hotter, but so far it's survived. 

Mmm... looking forward to more evenings on the patio before it gets too hot.

Mojitos

After working in the yard all day yesterday, we wanted to make some refreshing drinks to take to Paloma's housewarming party.  Mint is taking over our backyard, so we figured mojitos were the way to go.  Since I don't drink liquor, Jason took the lead on making them. 

Ingredients for a Pitcher of Mojitos

• 10 limes
• 30 mint leaves
• 10 strawberries - optional
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of white rum
• club soda



First, juice your limes.

Muddle the lime juice, mint leaves, strawberries (if you so choose) and sugar together.

Add to pitcher.

Fill with ice.

Add rum, club soda, and stir.  Garnish with some fresh
mint leaves and sliced limes.

It's that easy!  Anyone need some mint?  We have plenty around here!

Grilled Flounder

Jason and I don't cook at home enough.  We really enjoy cooking together, but most nights we rather just be lazy bums and order in or go out for a quick bite.  Last weekend, however, before we headed back to work from our nice long break, we decided to make a nice meal. 

Jason grilled some flounder (topped with fresh thyme from the garden.)  We also had a head of broccoli ready to be harvested from the garden, so I steamed it with some Whole Foods cauliflower.  Lastly, we made some skin-on mashed red potatoes.  I had never made mashed potatoes from scratch, but it was surprisingly simple and very good!

Doesn't the meal look nice on our new table settings?

Mmmm... looks good up close.

If only we cooked like this every night.

Eggplant Parmesan

We had eggplants galore growing in our garden, so we decided to try out this recipe. 

Ingredients

• eggplants, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 6 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
• 1 (16 ounce) package mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Pretty eggplants.

Peel and slice eggplants.

Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes on each side.               

In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses. Sprinkle basil on top.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

All done.  It was delish!

LobsterPalooza!

Last night we celebrated Lobster Fest 2011!  Jason's mom sent us a Lobster Gram gift certificate for our anniversary in June, and we just got around to using it.  She did the same thing 3 years ago and it was sooo good.  Last night didn't let us down. 

We didn't name them this time.  It's easier that way.

 Radar does not trust the cockroaches of the sea.

Getting ready to cook.

Here goes nothing!

The dinner came with lobster bisque, lobster ravioli, lobster crab cakes, and of course the lobsters themselves.

Being dorks.

Oh, and it came with delicious chocolate cake for dessert.

It was a wonderful Lobster Fest indeed!

Picnic in the Park

Last night Jason & I headed to the Houston Shakespeare Festival and caught a rendition of The Taming of the Shrew.  If you remember, last year we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream.  We packed a nice picnic and enjoyed the relatively tolerable evening temperatures (despite daytime temps north of 100 degrees lately.) 


On the menu: cheese, salami, salmon dip, chicken caesar wraps, strawberries, cantaloupe, banana nut bread, & wine.

 

Before the show.



The Taming of the Shrew - set in the 1980's. 


It was a cute show.  After growing up in a small town, it still amazes me that there are so many things to do here in Houston.  Free Shakespeare in the park?  Yes, please.  Tonight we're headed to a baseball game and then to White Linen Night in the Heights if we have time.  It's just nice to have so many options, even if sometimes we just end up being lazy and watch movies on the couch in our living room.  I still dream of having my own country cottage one day, but for now, I think it would be hard to get Jason & I away from this city.

Bread Pudding

After being couped up in the house all weekend and craving something sweet, I decided to make bread pudding Sunday evening.  I had never made it before, so I looked for a recipe on the Internet.  Apparently bread pudding is one of the easiest desserts to make, and you can usually just use things you probably already have: bread (any variety), sugar, milk/ cream/ half & half, eggs, butter, and anything else you want to add.  I was craving chocolate and we had some extra bananas, so that's what ours had.

I basically followed this recipe: 

• 1 loaf white bread
• 2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 stick butter
• cinnamon & sugar (to sprinkle on top)

For the glaze:

• 6 ounces chocolate chips
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup sweetened, condensed milk
• 1/4 cup cinnamon & sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Cube the bread & add to a 9×13 baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Make the custard by combining milk, vanilla, sugar, eggs, and butter with an electric mixer. Mix until combined. Pour over the bread and let soak for at least 10 minutes.



Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar and bake for 40 minutes.



For the glaze, melt the chocolate chips with 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat. Once combined and melted, add the water, powdered sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. Return to medium/low heat for a few more minutes. Then add remaining cinnamon sugar.  Eat & enjoy.


 We had our dessert after this wonderful meal:

Our spin on a wedge salad.

Buitoni raviolies.

Yums!