Thursday, July 21, 2011

Nature's Bounty

We are very fortunate to live so close to our family members and they have been so generous to us since we moved back. My mom and her boyfriend planted a huge garden this past spring and we are reaping the rewards from it. My mom gave me tons of cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes and I've been trying to find ways to use them up.

First I made Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Oh.my.word. It is amazing! I left out the allspice the recipe calls for because I'm not a fan but the cinnamon alone makes it taste wonderful. I do recommend tossing your chocolate chips in some flour before adding them in, because mine all sunk to the bottom of the loaf pan. You'll need one medium zucchini or half of a large one for this recipe.

1-½ cup Zucchini, Shredded
1 cup All-purpose Flour (or Substitute 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour And 1/2 C. All-purpose Flour)
½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ground Allspice
½ cups Canola Oil
½ cups Granulated Sugar
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ cups Mini Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (or Regular Sized)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Grease, or spray with nonstick vegetable spray, a 9×5×3″ loaf pan. Set aside.
Grate the zucchini using a medium sized grater. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended – about 2 minutes. Fold in the grated zucchini.
Add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-65 minutes.
Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely. Recipe courtesy of oneordinaryday.wordpress.com.

Then I made Homemade refrigerator pickles. Lawd, those are good! They don't keep as long as pressure-canned pickles, but you don't have to mess with a that boiling water and such. I omitted the peppers and only added onion and garlic. I used pint containers and I think this recipe made enough for 3 or 4 pints. Yum!

FOR 1 QUART PICKLING BRINE
3 cups Cold Water
1 cup White Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Canning Or Picking Salt, Up To 3 Tbsp (You May Use Table Or Kosher Salt)
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For Pickles:
Small Whole Cucumbers Or Peeled And Sliced Cucumbers
1 Large Onion, Sliced Into Rings
2 Tablespoons Whole Black Peppercorns Or Coarse Ground Pepper
4 Large Cloves Garlic, Sliced
Fresh Hot Peppers Or Crushed Red Pepper As Desired, Optional
Green Bell Pepper Sliced Into Rings, Optional

Stir brine ingredients to dissolve salt as much as possible.
In quart jars or any airtight container that can be used in the fridge, pack fresh whole cucumbers or peeled and sliced cucumbers, adding sliced onion, peppercorns, garlic and hot peppers if used, equally among the jars/containers. Stir brine again and pour over cucumbers to cover, then cover tightly and place in the fridge.
You may also use small zucchini squash in this recipe or in almost any pickling recipe that calls for cucumbers, including relishes, chow chow, piccalilli and my favorite, bread and butter pickles.
For the refrigerator pickles, I’d use equal parts cucumbers and small zucchini if using the squash in this recipe.
According to how many cucumbers you have, you may need more onion and garlic and more brine to cover your cucumbers. These have to stay refrigerated because they’re not processed in a canner for long storage. Recipe courtesy of dianesrecipeblog.blogspot.com.
Then, if you can believe it, I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins and boy, they are good! I left out the lemon juice (didn't have any) and added an extra tablespoon of milk. Instead of walnuts I used about a 1/2 cup of oatmeal. These came out so moist and not too sweet. Thanks to allrecipes.com for the recipe.
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup shredded zucchini
  • 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  • In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

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