My most wonderful husband just heard this motto and said I should make it my own:
“When I’m good, I’m good. When I’m bad, I’m better.”
Got Zucchini?
Do you have a surplus of zucchini? Are your neighbors desperately trying to give you giant zucchini from their garden? Looking for something new to do with this tender green that can grow to be the size of a baseball bat?
Zucchini, (also known as courgette in New Zealand, Britain and France) is actually an immature fruit and not a vegetable at all. Zucchini with the flower still attached tend to be the freshest and therefor, the most desirous. Immature fruit of less than 8″ is best for cooking as mature fruit can grow up to 3 feet and are fiberous and tough to chew.
They can be cooked in a variety of ways. Steamed, boiled, grilled, sauted, stuffed and baked and barbequed. In Mexico, the flower is is preferred over the vegetable and is often used in soups or quesadillas. In Italy, the zucchini are often breaded and pan fried. In Rome, the flowers are often deep fried. In France, zucchini is an integral part of ratatouille. Zucchini is popular all over the world and very, very versatile.
I’m not a huge fan of zucchini and have ate probably more than my fair share of it growing up. After all, one single plant will produce enough vegetable to feed a family of four. Unfortunately, my family never seemed to understand that and always planted enough to feed a large army. So, I tend to like to disguise it. Here’s one of my favorite recipes for doing so. It’s a great way to hide zucchini if you don’t care for it and use up any excess you may have.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat over to 350 degrees F, lightly grease two loaf pans.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and oil until well blended. Stir in the zucchini and vanilla.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, soda, cinnamon and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture; mix just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean.
Yield: 2 loaves
Harvest
The grapes below the pasture were harvested today. I discovered this while changing in front of the big sliding glass window that overlooks the vineyard. Oops! I hope I didn’t give too much of a show!
The grapes grown in that small vineyard patch are chardonnay grapes. Last year, they had the good fortune of having a botched filtration process which let them double ferment; once in the barrel and once in the bottle. This made a lovely sparkling wine with a bit of a potent kick! I must say that I’ve never been a chardonnay fan until that bottle of wine. Luckily, I can find more where that comes from!
The field hands that do the harvesting all start at dawn. Harvesting is all done by hand, row by row, cut with a special knife and lovingly placed into 5 gallon buckets until they’re full and then transferred to big crates for transport back to the winery. I don’t know much about the harvesting process. Well, because, with all due respect, I don’t speak a lick of Spanish so I can’t really ask my neighbor, the foreman of the vineyard.
From obsevation I can tell you that harvesting happens in the early morning hours and seems to quit about the time the dew is drying off the plants. Harvesting seems to be a slow process for the big pinot vineyard next door. They’ve been harvesting over there in the early morning hours now for about a week.
Soon, it will all be done. And all too soon the winter will be upon us. For now, I’m taking advantage of our scorching hot days to get more things done outside, before the rains arrive, heralding the onset of winter.
Perhaps I’ll have a moment soon to soak up some fall color, a moment to sip my coffee outside in the crisp air and time to just be.
Safety First!
With the sudden influx of coyotes and the corresponding rifle shots we hear around us, I realized something needed to be done to make Freya stand out from the varmit. You see, here the coyotes are BIG. They’re averaging about 65 lbs or so, not much smaller than Freya in height and roughly the same coloring.
Freya in her safety vest, please pardon the mess as I'm still sick.
So, I decided to take my old safety vest from back in my dispatcher days in Alaska and I put it on her. It still needs some modification, which I haven’t quite puzzled out yet. However, I feel better that she’s more visible just in case she strays off the property chasing a squirrel.
Bits and Blatherings
I’m sick. CP has officially sentenced me to bed, without parole. I’ve got Dude’s cold, but I thought I’d give you all some updates.
My netbook is downstairs and I simply haven’t asked anyone to bring it up for me. Well, and I think they all tend to forget about me up here or have agreed to ignore my texts in an effort to make me nap. This is also the one scenario in which I wish we had a tv in the bedroom. But, I’m sure if we did, someone would come upstairs and find that my brains have dribbled out my ears from the boring stuff that as my luck would have it, be on during my convalesence.
If I am mis-spelling anything here, I apologize. WordPress doesn’t seem to have a spell-checking feature on the blackberry. And did I mention I have one of the worst colds I’ve had in years?
Spelling, which leads to my thoughts on writing here. I write how I talk. Apparently, I talk in semi-colons and write over-using commas. However, I don’t remember the semi-colon rule. Apparently neither does Kitty’s Freshman Honors English Teacher. Can someone enlighten me as to the rule and proper usage?
Dude and CP are taking care of the farm while I’m banished to my room. I am so very glad that Dude is responsible enough to feed Maddie corrrectly (with reminders) while I’m sick. He’s really doing astonishingly well! I asked Dude to take care of tossing Maddie’s hay so that CP wouldn’t be exposed to it with his serious allergy to hay.
Speaking of Dude doing well, we’ve had 2 very successfull weeks at school! And we even missed a day of medication in there! I *think* we have finally found the right school with the right people for him. Did I mention that he’s been main-streamed and doesn’t have a current IEP? This school is so positive and everyone’s willing to work with us to make this as successful as possible for Dude. So far, things have been so encouraging this year!
Copper is simply NOT adjusting to having a horse around. I’ve had to reduce him down to leash only outside time as he seems to have some territorial and fear aggression towards Maddie. I was taking him for walks to the mail and the bus stop with me until some aggressive labs running loose up there changed my mind. I can’t protect both Copper and Dude, so Copper doesn’t go on the hill walks with me, which is making him stir crazy and his issues towards Maddie worse. Arrgh!
Coyotes are a problem here. We had a juvenile bedded down in some brush not 50′ from the house the other day. Yesterday, two LARGE adults were in the vineyard below the pasture disturbing Maddie. It took them quite some time to figure out how to get out of there. CP decided that we need a varmit rifle to protect the critters (and I agree). He even met one of our neighbors while in search of an appropriate rifle. The local gun shop owner is a sweet, little ol’ granny who lives a few driveways up the mountain. She says the coyots really are a huge problem this year too.
I also met my direct next door neighbors. He is the foreman for one of the vineyards next door, the big one bordering the driveway. She seems to be a stay-at-home mom as well. Unfortunately, neither speak much English and I don’t know Spanish, but I will endeavor to learn so we can communicate better. Very jovial, nice people! Oh, and he gave me his boss’s number so I can see about riding in the vineyard!
I had more to say, but I’m tired now. Think I’ll take that nap CP was encouraging a little while ago. When I wake up, the homemade chicken soup he’s making should be ready!
I really love my family! The world doesn’t stop here at home because I’m sick and not taking care of everybody! They take care of me instead! How awesome!
Barb
Well, Barb made it through surgery. I don’t know any more than that but thought I’d share. Thanks for all the prayers and positive energy for her! If things continue to go well, she’ll have a long recovery and rounds of both chemo and radiation to go through.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Waiting…
First, Barb is in surgery right now as far as I know. Thank you all for the positive energy and prayers for her. Please keep them coming!
Next, there was a continuance for court today until October 7th. Hopefully, then, everything will be decided once and for all.
I won’t go into details here as Kitty or The Marine’s family may find this and there’s a “no talking to Kitty about court stuff ” order in place. I will keep you posted about how it goes.
Serious Battle Begins
Are there really happy endings in this world for decent people?
The Battle Royale for custody of Kitty begins at 11 am tomorrow morning. I have stood my ground against adversity. I have preserved my integrity by not partaking in mud-slinging. Tomorrow could decide everything. I will stand tall, hold my head high and not back down.
Conversely, my friend of many years fights this night for her life. She over-came breast cancer only to discover yesterday that wasn’t quite so. Unfortunately, it has metastasized to her brain. However, Barb is a fighter. She chooses to stand tall against adversity. She chooses life! Tomorrow at 3pm she will go into surgery to remove her brain tumor. Please send well wishes, jingles and prayers so that she may overcome her cancer.
My friends, tomorrow is going to be a difficult day. If there is any justice in this world, may it prevail tomorrow!
w00t!
I’m back online with real internet! As apposed to that super slow, mimicking internet stuff of before.
And, my view on the way to the bus with Dude this morning:
Not the greatest as I took it with my camera on the phone, but I am zoomed in as far as it would let me go. There were several hot air balloons and they stuck around about an hour before moving off to the south.
WOW!!!
I just heard on the news that the storm down here that knocked my power out for an hour and made a mess with branches everywhere became an F2 tornado in Melanie’s area! Very, very unusual! Hope the tornado didn’t actually make it anywhere near you, Mellie!
