Zucchini Bread - made with zucchini from MY GARDEN OMG

First of all, I picked a big banana pepper today and chopped it up for Dennis to put on his sandwich for lunch tomorrow. Go me.

Before that though, I grabbed that purple pepper and sliced it in half. I wasn't sure when it would be ready so I just picked one to test it out. I stuck my tongue out and barely touched the pepper and YOWZA it was hot. I have heard that the smaller peppers are hotter, but it must've slipped my mind momentarily. I'm not sure what to do with it!! I guess I can make salsa but it would be like... one of those things where people would have to sign a waiver before they eat it.

Anyways, I decided on a whim that I was going to make zucchini bread. Dennis' mom gave us some last year and I had never tried it before. I was apprehensive, but it turned out to be delicious. I found a recipe and whipped up a batch. It is in the oven right now.

Pictured: zucchini & the dissected purple pepper

The recipe I found called for 2 cups of grated zucchini but I didn't think I had enough. Mine was 7.5 inches but it only made 1 cup grated, so I halved the entire recipe.

Then I mixed all the other shiz up.

Ingredients

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 c white sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil

1 c grated zucchini 

So whisk together the first 5 ingredients - all the dry ingredients but the sugar. Preheat the oven to 350.

In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs, then slowly add in the sugar, then the oil. Slowly add the flour and zucchini, alternating between them. PS. This tastes INCREDIBLE. The original recipe calls for walnuts and raisins, but I am allergic to walnuts and I don't like adding raisins to my bakery items, except for oatmeal cookies and that's only for my dad!!

Grease a 4x8 pan and pour the mixture in. Bake for 65 minutes.

Batter at 0 minutes in the oven...

Batter at 65 minutes in the oven!

I just realized that I was supposed to add vanilla extract, but I missed that part of the directions because it was combined with the walnuts & raisins. The batter was so delicious and the amount of vanilla extract was so small (1/4 tsp) that I don't think it is going to matter. If you want to add the vanilla extract, just add it to the batter last, right before you put it in the oven.

Update: I wanted the recipe to look greener this time, so I used a lot more zucchini, probably 1 and 3/4 cups, while leaving the rest of the recipe the same... except the mixture looked a little too runny when it was ready to go in so I added some extra flour and sugar. I probably added about a cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. Next time I make it, which should be soon (my garden is blowin up, I tell you!), I'll try to get some more exact measurements. Also, I baked it for 80 minutes at 350.

Here's the recipe I used from Allrecipes.com.

Holiday Sugar Cookies!! with Icing!!

YAY! I love sugar cookies. I mean really good sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles and nonpareils! Some sprinkles are called nonpareils, btw. So I love sugar cookies, and it's the holiday season and the Christmas season, so naturally I thought I needed to make some. Also, my mom gave me some cute cookie cutters last year so I just had to use them!

Seriously, how precious are these?

Ok back to what's really important... the cookies. I found a recipe for soft sugar cookies because I just hate hard crunchy cookies. Sugar cookies are usually pretty thin so it can be easy for them to be crunchy. This recipe is right on the money. 24 hours later, the cookies are still soft and chewy.

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

+1 cup all-purpose flour for rolling the dough

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine the flour, baking powder, & salt in a bowl. Easy. In a separate large bowl, combine the butter and sugar with a mixer until it is all creamy or something. The recipe said light and fluffy... sorry but my understanding of butter and sugar does not lend itself to being light and fluffy. So make it creamy! Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract, and then add the flour mixture slowly. Mix well. Or else.

Oh and preheat the oven to 400. Unless you want to go by the recipe, in which case you will need to chill the dough for 2 hours. What these lame-os don't realize is that there is this great invention, the freezer, which did the job for me in about 15 minutes. Haha, suckers.

This next part requires some finesse. I hope you have a rolling pin. You'll need a clean flat surface to roll the dough out. Sprinkle a handful of flour on the surface and drop 1/4 of your dough on it. Knead the dough and sprinkle some more flour over your dough until it's no longer sticky. Roll out the dough until it is only 1/4 inch thick. If the dough sticks to your rolling pin, sprinkle some flour on and rub it in like you are waxing a car.

Once you have rolled out your dough, start cookie cutting! Try to utilize as much of your dough as you can by putting the shapes close together. Make sure you press down with your whole palm so they cut all the way through.

My workstation

Ok! So now you need to grease up some cookie sheets. I put a dab of butter in the pan and then rub it around with a paper towel. There should be a thin layer of butter coating the pan. To get the cookies up, I find it is best to get a spatula under each cookie and lift it without disturbing the other cookies. Pull away any dough that sticks to the cookie, then grab the cookie and put it on the cookie sheet. I tried to arrange them extremely closely together to get as many as possible on a single sheet.

Put the cookie sheet into the oven for 6 minutes. It's so fast! Use this time to whip up some icing.

 
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

food color (optional)
sprinkles (optional)

Mix the first 4 ingredients together. I'm sure it can be done by hand, but why would you? Psh. Once you have a big bowl of white icing, you can separate it into smaller bowls and make different colors.

The first batch of icing I made was a little funky looking. It looked like it was trying to separate on me, so my instinct was to throw some more powdered sugar in there. It worked.

The rest is all up to you. Some people have nifty little guns and whatnot to apply the icing, but poor little old me just used the bottom of a spoon. I find it easiest to hold the cookie in one hand and apply with the other, rather than trying to ice the cookie while it is laying on a flat surface. Also, make sure you put any sprinkles on before the icing has time to dry. If you are lucky, your cookies will look like mine because my cookies are da bomb.

This is the spot where the photo of my cookies should appear. This photo is supposed to make you froth at the mouth because it looks so delectable. Well my macbook decided to suck and deny me my pictures. I will figure out this error and put up a picture of the finished product.

Happy baking!

Cookie recipe & icing recipe - both from AllRecipes.com.

Fluffy Pancakes

When I first found this recipe for fluffy pancakes, I was a little turned off by the vinegar in the ingredients list but it got so many rave reviews that I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix the milk & vinegar together. You will be adding the dry ingredients to this mixture, so make sure to use a large bowl. The directions say to let the milk & vinegar mixture "sour" which sounds gross, but stick out the recipe to the end!! It will be worth it.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt together in a separate bowl.

Add the egg & butter to the "soured" milk & whisk. Then add the flour mixture & whisk until it is smooth.

At this point, I like to pour one pancake to get a feeling for the consistency. Sometimes if it is too thick, it will just pour into a blob and it won't spread out into a circle. I use a whisk or a spoon like I'm spreading sauce on a pizza to flatten the pancake into a circle. Then I add a little milk to the mixture to thin it out. Now that I think of it, maybe I should just adjust the milk from the beginning! I will try this and update the recipe if it works out.

Anywho, this recipe usually makes 8-10 medium-sized pancakes.. medium meaning a little smaller than a CD. I usually make a bunch of plain Jane circles, then one or two fun ones.. like so..

This pancake was for me...

And this one was for Dennis!

We have an electric skillet that I can make 3-4 pancakes on at a time, but when I use a pan it definitely takes longer and the pancakes tend to cool off a little by the time I'm done with the batter. I just pop them back on the pan or skillet for around 30 seconds on each side and they're good as new.

We usually don't finish all of the pancakes, so once they have cooled down enough I put the leftovers into a Ziplock bag and toss them in the fridge. They heat up great in the microwave!

I have tried a few different recipes for pancakes, and so far this one is the best. Here's the original link at AllRecipes.com.