My New Toy!

This is my new toy! I will be doing a real post later, I just wanted to show everyone how much fun I am having, instead of sewing or cleaning or laundry or anything else I should be doing...LOL!

Have a great weekend!

Zucchini Orange Bread

This comes from my well-worn, duct-taped 1989 Pillsbury Cook Book.  I use this book almost as much as my 1965 Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book and my 1956 Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book.


Ingredients:

4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup oil, 2/3 cup orange juice, 2 cups lightly packed shredded zucchini, 3 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, grated peel of 1 orange, 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves.


Utensils:

Grease and flour bottoms only of 2 loaf pans.

Heat oven to 350.


In small bowl, sift dry ingredients, except sugar.

In large bowl, beat eggs until thick and lemon colored; gradually beat in sugar.

Mix in oil, orange juice, orange peel and zucchini.

Stir in contents of small bowl and mix well.

It should be smooth like cake batter with shredded veggies clinging to your spoon.


Divide evenly between pans.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out of center clean. 


Cool on rack 10 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool slightly. Wrap tightly and store in fridge.

The Big Party Is Back

Kelly at Blue Bird Sews has started her month long Eat, Sew, Grow linky party back up! Let's send her some love and get some project links up and moving for her. This is a great party because it lasts all month long and let's us show off our variety of creativity in one place.  Grab a button and get creative in August!

Quick Apron

I found this Chili Pepper fabric in a bag behind the sofa and whipped up an apron for DD.  I just folded the selvage edges together and held it up to her. Cut and sew and here she is:

Have a great Friday!

Summer Relish

These are about to become a relish I love to eat on or with just about everything!  It goes with all meats from beef to fish or by itself as a picnic relish-type of salad. The zucchini, bell pepper and jalapeno are from my garden last night.  The rest are a gift my neighbor passed across our fence yesterday.

Ingredients: zucchini, summer squash, cucumber, 3 or 4 tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeno, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil, cracked pepper, coarse sea salt, and Mrs.Dash. You could add a small onion, if you like.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes.

Drain the tomatoes in a colander while you fix everything else.

Reduce 1 cup of balsamic vinegar by half over medium heat. (About 20 minutes)

Coarsely chop zucchini, peel and chop cucumber and summer squash, dice bell pepper and jalapeno, finely chop fresh basil to have about a tablespoon.

Sprinkle cracked pepper, salt and Mrs. Dash, to taste. Drizzle 1/2 cup olive oil and the 1/2 cup (or so) vinegar reduction.

Fold together, cover with plastic wrap and chill over night.

This makes enough to share with your neighbors.

Enjoy!

Street Tacos

We had Street Tacos for dinner last night.

I was able to use the first harvest from the garden!

Put a couple nice looking chuck roasts in the crock pot. Add a can of tomatoes, a diced small white onion, a diced green bell pepper, a diced seeded jalapeno, fresh garlic, basil, oregano, chili powder, and cracked black pepper to taste.

After six hours on high, pull the roast out to shred and slotted spoon the veggies into a separate dish. Return meat to crock pot and keep warm while preparing the table.

Serve with warm tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream and what ever else you can think of as filling.

Enjoy!

July Projects and More Garden

The weather has been so beautiful, I have had to force myself to stay indoors and sew.  I cleaned out the back corner of a closet and found around 30 of DH's T-shirts in multiple shades of gray and navy, some were old paint splattered ones, some looked new but the wrong size.  I could not bring myself to just toss them, and there are more than enough rags in the garage.  What to do, what to do?  BAGS!!!  I am a bag addict and what better way to get my fix...LOL!


I made some into laundry bags for the kids next door to take to camp, and some are in the trunk of the car as shopping bags. 

DD liked them so much, she wanted one out of a top that she loves but was too small for her to squeeze into anymore.

I love the pockets and key loop I put on this one.  It is now my favorite bag, this week...LOL!

This old pair of cargo pants will be a purse for DD.  The side pockets will be great inside.  She picked the fabric for the lining out of the remnant bin.  She loves finding good scraps!

I found these tablecloths on clearance for 3 bucks each. They will become table and bench covers for our picnic table. You can kind of see it is a bit weathered in the lower picture.  This is faster and less painful than sanding the whole thing.

Now, the garden update!  We tilled another 12 feet to the blueberry bushes because I found some more seeds. 

Lettuce, baby carrots, more beans, brussels sprouts, purple cauliflower, and broccoli went in the ground because I have no place to indoor sow them.

The table I had seedling trays on during the spring is full of guitars being restrung. This is one wall in the dining room, I have 3 more walls that look like this throughout the house. Between DH, DD, her friends, some of the neighborhood kids and a couple of neighbors, they all get played along with a few keyboards and a ukulele.  If I let them, these people would have a drum set in the living room...LOL! 

Well, this was a quick look at how my summer is shaping up.

How is your summer coming along?

How Does the Garden Grow?

Here are a few pics of what's been keeping me busy.


What was in this hole?

It's pretty deep and right in the middle of the garden.

Oh, there it is, a GIANT rock!

New bean seedlings!

Pumpkin, zucchini and bean flowers!

There are also cucumbers, watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe, beet seedlings and potatoes coming up. I put in 6 more sweet potatoes for a total of 18. It will be filling in fast.  I am also indoor sowing Brussels Sprouts, Purple Cauliflower, Broccoli and Baby Bok Choi.

I think I am addicted to this gardening thing!!!

The Table Runner That Wasn't

Many of you may remember my design wall with the table runner just sitting there staring at me...

No matter what I tried, it would not become the runner I wanted.  So, it stared at me every time I walked by the door, every time I fed the fish, every time I vacuumed in there.  Skip ahead of it driving me insane for a few weeks, DD is putting plastic bags in the bag holder and the elastic snaps.  It's only 12 or so years old, hmm, now what am I going to do?  DING! 

It never wanted to be a table runner, it's destiny was as a bag holder.

It is now happy and useful in the kitchen and not staring at me any more!