Me: When was the last time we did something crazy, anyway?
Steven: I don't know. We need crazy back.
Enter Justin Timberlake music: I'm bringin' crazy back. bumb bumb, bumb, bumb, bumb, You other families don't know how to act.
Steven: Please don't ever infer that what I say should be referenced to a 'Boy Band' song.
*Note: That above part is all Steven. All I had written was the top line and then left the computer to put Alaska to bed.
Seriously though. We need to do something karazy. More crazy then spelling crazy in a crazy way. And I thought that by now we would have a good story to tell. But we don't. We're still looking.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Zucchini and I: Best Friends
True Story: I hate zucchini. It is the epitome of gardens gone wrong. It will overtake a garden given one summer. Because of its easiness to grow it's hard to refrain from planting just one due to the accomplished feeling that comes from watching it sprout and grow so quickly. A true plant wrecker's dream, it is an unstoppable plant. All it takes is some water and soil and you've got yourself a monster. Unfortunately one plant can suffice a family of twelve. Two and zucchinis start getting left at houses that are frequented for visiting teaching and babysitting. Three plants and you're hopping fences after doorbell ditching someone with a zucchini taking up their doormat.
Another True Story: My mother-in-law gave us a zucchini the size of a small child. I do not exaggerate. It sat on our kitchen counter for a long while before I got over my prejudices. I vowed to make the best zuccchini muffins the world has ever known. And I did. We couldn't stop eating them! And what's more, they had zucchini in them. So they were healthy. Riiiight. To remedy my problem I cut out some sugar, added some wheat flour and felt better about eating so many. They weren't nearly as good, which meant we didn't eat as many, but they were still the best I have ever had. Even with them being less amazing then the first batch.
I got crafty the way that I do and started adding orange zest and later lemon zest and finally concluded with a peach zucchini muffin that really wasn't that good. Peaches don't cook so well. But that orange zest, that was a keeper.
I was making zucchini muffins every day for a week and we've got loads of them storing in the freezer. Handsome Husband likes taking them to work for lunch. Faster then making a tuna sandwich.
And now I LOVE zucchini. We are the best of best friends. I have dreams of planting a whole gardenfull next summer and how much fun it will be to make muffins all the time and to drop those off instead of zucchinis and have people beg me for the recipe and wonder what in the world my secret ingredient is because they sure don't taste like zucchini muffins.
Well, the secret that I will let out is this. Peel and discard all the green. That's the dead give-away. Without the green the muffins are a nice yellow and look much more appetizing to my eyes. Less like, "try this vegetable in your delicious muffin" and more like, "THIS is the secret ingredient!"
Onward Zucchini ditchers! Leave them here!
Another True Story: My mother-in-law gave us a zucchini the size of a small child. I do not exaggerate. It sat on our kitchen counter for a long while before I got over my prejudices. I vowed to make the best zuccchini muffins the world has ever known. And I did. We couldn't stop eating them! And what's more, they had zucchini in them. So they were healthy. Riiiight. To remedy my problem I cut out some sugar, added some wheat flour and felt better about eating so many. They weren't nearly as good, which meant we didn't eat as many, but they were still the best I have ever had. Even with them being less amazing then the first batch.
I got crafty the way that I do and started adding orange zest and later lemon zest and finally concluded with a peach zucchini muffin that really wasn't that good. Peaches don't cook so well. But that orange zest, that was a keeper.
I was making zucchini muffins every day for a week and we've got loads of them storing in the freezer. Handsome Husband likes taking them to work for lunch. Faster then making a tuna sandwich.
And now I LOVE zucchini. We are the best of best friends. I have dreams of planting a whole gardenfull next summer and how much fun it will be to make muffins all the time and to drop those off instead of zucchinis and have people beg me for the recipe and wonder what in the world my secret ingredient is because they sure don't taste like zucchini muffins.
Well, the secret that I will let out is this. Peel and discard all the green. That's the dead give-away. Without the green the muffins are a nice yellow and look much more appetizing to my eyes. Less like, "try this vegetable in your delicious muffin" and more like, "THIS is the secret ingredient!"
Onward Zucchini ditchers! Leave them here!
Where Have You Been All My Life Butternut?
Butternut would be such a cute nickname! But honestly. Where has that squash been all my life?
Popping around pinterest and walking around the neighborhood I have seen butternut recipes and butternut squash all over the place. And I thought to myself, "Self, try a little experiment, would ya?" See, this week is healthy week. Couldn't loose my required weight eating cinnamon rolls, peach cobbler and apple crisp so I am going to have to go about it another way. Eating way too many fruits and vegetables. I was on the hunt for some new recipes.
My mind was a little skeptical when Handsome Husband came home with a squash that would before have found a place on my doorstep as a halloween gord with the pumpkins. But I had my recipes and I was bound and determined to learn what to do with this thing. And with three different recipes calling for 3-4 cups each I was pretty sure I could finish that sucker up. Whether it actually got eaten or not, that would be another party of the story.
I even looked up on line how to cut and prepare it for cooking titled, "Peel and Cut with Confidence". Intriguing name for a book for surgeons. Step 4 was to scoop out the seeds and membranes. Membranes! Good thing I was cooking this up into a stew, otherwise it may come and get me in the night with a handsaw!
Following the directions directly is always my idealistic way of following a recipe but there's always something in the way. Like the fact that I thought I had more paprika left than I actually do or that I had ground coriander at all. So my recipe got varied a little. But it was so yummy! My kitchen smelled like an expensive thai restaurant for the rest of the evening.
The most impressive part though was how the butternut squash tasted. Amazing! Buttery and nutty. No joke. It's like whoever named it had tasted it first.
We've got a winner on our hands! And a winner of a nickname, though we'll have to wait for a girl since Butternut provokes thoughts of soft yellow and toasted almonds. Any boy of mine needs something with a little more oomph. You know, like Orson Porson. To match our Alaska Paska. We're still brainstorming, obviously. Orson Porson is not very threatening. At all. Really.
Popping around pinterest and walking around the neighborhood I have seen butternut recipes and butternut squash all over the place. And I thought to myself, "Self, try a little experiment, would ya?" See, this week is healthy week. Couldn't loose my required weight eating cinnamon rolls, peach cobbler and apple crisp so I am going to have to go about it another way. Eating way too many fruits and vegetables. I was on the hunt for some new recipes.
My mind was a little skeptical when Handsome Husband came home with a squash that would before have found a place on my doorstep as a halloween gord with the pumpkins. But I had my recipes and I was bound and determined to learn what to do with this thing. And with three different recipes calling for 3-4 cups each I was pretty sure I could finish that sucker up. Whether it actually got eaten or not, that would be another party of the story.
I even looked up on line how to cut and prepare it for cooking titled, "Peel and Cut with Confidence". Intriguing name for a book for surgeons. Step 4 was to scoop out the seeds and membranes. Membranes! Good thing I was cooking this up into a stew, otherwise it may come and get me in the night with a handsaw!
Following the directions directly is always my idealistic way of following a recipe but there's always something in the way. Like the fact that I thought I had more paprika left than I actually do or that I had ground coriander at all. So my recipe got varied a little. But it was so yummy! My kitchen smelled like an expensive thai restaurant for the rest of the evening.
The most impressive part though was how the butternut squash tasted. Amazing! Buttery and nutty. No joke. It's like whoever named it had tasted it first.
We've got a winner on our hands! And a winner of a nickname, though we'll have to wait for a girl since Butternut provokes thoughts of soft yellow and toasted almonds. Any boy of mine needs something with a little more oomph. You know, like Orson Porson. To match our Alaska Paska. We're still brainstorming, obviously. Orson Porson is not very threatening. At all. Really.
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