The crux of the matter...

I didn't blog yesterday, and I was about to let today pass me by without blogging as well. The weather is a good indicator of my mood today, a bit gray and a lot gloomy.
I've just been thinking about people, friends really, who were friends but now are not. I'm not talking about the friends that you gradually lose touch with over time, but more of the friends you purposefully lose touch with. I have a handful of ex-friends that I am not friends with any longer and not ending on good terms either. Some are boyfriends that have decided either they couldn't remain friends with me, or vise versa. I have had girlfriends where the friendship has been so wounded, no bandage could heal the wound. Looking back there are no fingers to point, I have no ill will towards any of them. And if I could get all these lost friends in a room I would tell them how special they were to me, and if I could have my way all would be made well. I am a firm believer in forgiveness, I love the thought of reconciliation. However, sometimes people come into your life, but for a brief moment. And sometimes there is just the memory that is left, even if it is a painful memory. I've hurt people, people have hurt me. Life moves forward and hearts do heal with time... much time. Grace.

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past!"

Blueberry Waffles & Chocolate Zucchini

My wonderful cousin Kelly has hooked me up with my all time favorite candle: Blueberry Waffles! For the longest time I have gone to her house and literally drooled over the smell of this candle. Now I have my own! Actually this has been a good "find" week. Blueberry Waffle Candles, Hebrew National Hot Dogs, and my favorite Ruffies garbage bags! (Thanks Shannon & Sarah!) Does life get any better?!

Tonight I made yet again one more Zucchini dish:

Recipe from Auntie Lori:

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

zest of 1 lime (that is my addition)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

For dinner I made myself steamed corn on the cob and a Hebrew National Dog. I ate my dog with ketchup & dijon mustard but I also added some Habenaro lime Salsa! Fanfrickentastic!

Here is my corn recipe:

Corn on the Cob with cheese & lime

Serves 4
INGREDIENTS

4 ears corn

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp. salt

6 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup finely grated queso blanco ( I used grated parm.)

1 lime, cut into quarters

In a large saucepan filled with salted boiling water, cook corn for 10 minutes in a basket steamer until corn is tender. (you can also grill the corn with husks on, use whatever method you prefer)

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine chili powder, paprika and salt.

Rub corn with butter and sprinkle with cheese and paprika mixture. Serve with lime wedges.

Saints

Tonight, Kyle, Kelly and I went to a St. Paul, Saint's game. I have not been to a Saint's game since 2 years ago, and funnily enough it was with Kyle & Kelly. We had a fun time eating dogs, cheese curds and smuggled in treats. Fun time had for all!

Oh and I am happy to report that i have finally found my Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Hot Dogs! I have been looking long and hard, and of all placed they were at a Super Target. Go figure! Dos gefelt mir!

Get your grub on...

Today I took a personal day off of work. I needed to start using up all that zucchini I have. I decided to make 2 pans of Zucchini & Basil Lasagna and Zucchini-Lemon Muffins. Tomorrow after work I am making Zucchini Bacon Quiche and Zucchini Chocolate Bread. And for the grand finale a Zucchini Moroccan-Spice Bread. Which will be interesting because i haven't made a yeast based bread in 10 years!! Yikes! However, I have always had extremely good luck with yeast and having it rise. (Rach, remember "pulling bread" when we had bad yeast!, good times!) I have to mention the 1 ingrediant I can not live without. Penzey's Very Hot Red Pepper Flakes, I put them on everything! And i mean everything! http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyscrushedredpepper.html



Zucchini and Basil Lasagna

Ingredients
2 cups fat-free cottage cheese
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 large egg
Cooking spray
4 cups chopped zucchini
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups bottled spicy tomato pasta sauce
9 oven-ready lasagna noodles (such as Barilla)
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 3 ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth.
Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onion; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in sauce; remove from heat.
Spread 1/4 cup zucchini mixture in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over zucchini mixture; top with one-third cottage cheese mixture, one-third zucchini mixture, and one-third mozzarella. Repeat procedure with the remaining noodles, cottage cheese mixture, zucchini mixture, and mozzarella.
Cover and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until lasagna is thoroughly heated.
Yield 8 servings
Nutritional Information
CALORIES 227(24% from fat); FAT 6g (sat 3.1g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 17.8g; CHOLESTEROL 40mg; CALCIUM 251mg; SODIUM 537mg; FIBER 2.9g; IRON 1.4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 26.4g

Cooking Light, APRIL 2003

Zucchini-Lemon Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup coarsely shredded zucchini
3/4 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
Cooking spray
Preparation
Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl, and make a well in center of mixture. Combine zucchini, milk, oil, and egg; stir well. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately, and let cool on a wire rack.
Yield: 1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)
Nutritional Information
CALORIES 147(26% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 0.8g,mono 1.2g,poly 1.9g); PROTEIN 3.1g; CHOLESTEROL 18mg; CALCIUM 69mg; SODIUM 62mg; FIBER 0.6g; IRON 1.1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 24.3g
Cooking Light, JUNE 1995

Kitchen Krazy!

Yesterday afternoon, Tabitha, Bonnie, Paula and I went to volunteer at a Family Center. I had found a place in Maplewood through Catholic Charities that serves as temporary housing for about 50 families. We went to help in the kitchen serving the dinner meal. Well we all arrived on time at 4:30 and went to the kitchen to wait for the regular volunteer cooks to show. Dinner was supposed to be served at 5:30 so we had an hour to get ready. So we sat and waited, and yet no cooks. At 5:00 I thought I had better go check at the front desk to see what was up. The lady at the front desk thought that we were the cooks for the night, and told me to just put together a meal! Wow! We immediately went to work figuring out what we were going to make. We decided on Spaghetti with meat, salad, watermelon, corn, dinner rolls and cookies. The four of us really pulled it off! Everything was ready to be served at 6:00pm. The families began to come in and we enjoyed meeting them and at the same time they were very helpful to us, especially if we forgot to put something out. Afterwards we cleaned up and were on our way. It was really a fun adventure for us all, and we agreed that we would definitely go back again! I especially loved it because it was very reminiscent of working in the kitchen in New Hampshire at His Mansion. I love the fast pace of thinking on your toes and having the challenge of making sure a large number of people get fed. I think this just really solidifies the fact that i love cooking for people and I really want to get back to working in a kitchen. In the Christian world, there is always talk of feeding people's souls, and I would agree, but at the same time, I believe wholeheartedly in feeding people's bodies.

Like our hair nets?!

Er dir oys es harts

I am on the hunt! I just ran out of my favorite garbage bags! I don't know if they make them anymore! Oh the horror! or as I like to say, Oh the Hora! (Even though it has nothing to do with a traditional Jewish wedding dance) Anyway, I had these garbage bags since around 2000. They come 100 to a bag and they are perfect for bathroom waste baskets. They are Ruffies Color Scents 8 gallon med. garbage bags. I had the Tranquil Vanilla scent, even though I thought they smelled like a Dreamsicle... very pleasant. So why am I writing about garbage bags? Who knows, it's a Saturday morning and I am lamenting over the fact that I can't find these bags anywhere!

I could go on and on, but if anyone finds a bag of Ruffies, I will be your new best friend!

Yesterday, I worked a half day and brought home my 4 beautifully bodacious zucchini's... I'm so excited to start cooking\baking with them! Yesterday I also got together with someone I hadn't seen in almost 5 months. It was great to get her caught up to speed with what has been happening in my life... and it was freeing to say, 5 months ago I was someone else, and now, I'm not who I was.

There is healing and growth with time... God is good.

So world, Er dir oys es harts! (Eat your heart out).

After that I made my way over to the east side of St. Paul to hang with my favorite home slices, Kyle & Kelly. Kelly out did herself once again with a fabulous dinner of Jalapeno Cheddar Brats, Stuffed Piquillo Peppers, and Fresh Corn Salad. See her blog about the details: http://vlachmytastebudsoff.blogspot.com/ It was all soooo good! For dessert Kyle got me my all time favorite cookie from Turtle Bread Bakery; a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookie! Yum Yum Yum! Very thoughtful of Kyle, I must say! After dinner we watched Harold & Kumar go to White Castle. Oh so very funny! As if that movie wasn't exciting enough, we decided to go out on the town... First we went to Candyland to get some sweets... and then we decided to go see the 35w bridge. WE ended up walking around the Stone Arch Bridge, and laughing and annoying Kyle with our MN history ignorance.

I couldn't see much of the bridge, so it was hard to say what I was feeling, although I just kept thinking about how often I used to use that bridge and now this. My heart still goes out to all those families dealing with their losses... Peace & Blessings.

Zowie Zucchini!!!

One of the nice ladies in the office gave some of her HUMONGOUS Zucchini!! I plan on making a whole plethora of Zucchini based foods! MEOWCCHINI!
(fyi, the cucumber in the pic is full size!)