Mindless Chatter Weekend

stardog85

My mom has a fabulous chocolate zucchini cake recipe - it's super moist because of the zucchini but other than that you can't tell there's any veggies in it. :)

This must be the season for zucchini.  I only planted two zucchini plants this season because it's just me and DH and goodness knows that's enough!  But as luck would have it, one of them died right of the bat and the other is TAKING OVER THE GARDEN.  Like, HUGE.  It's insane.   I'm excited though, hopefully it'll produce serious zucchini!

I'll see if my mom can email the recipe to me and I'll share it when I get it. :)

Here's a recipe I used from Cooking Light. It was really yummy:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1809024

Here's my mom's recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake! :)

1/2 c. margarine
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. sour milk
2 1/2 c. flour
4 T. cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
2 c. grated zuchinni
1/4 c. chocolate chips
1/4 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Cream shortening, oil, and sugar.

Add eggs, vanilla, and sour milk, blending thoroughly.

Sift dry ingredients together and add egg mixture.

Stir in squash, chips, and nuts.

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13" pan.  Bake 40-45 minutes at 325 degrees.

Serve plain or with whipped cream dollop on top of each piece.
 

I have completely forgotten how much I LOVE IT up here. I mean - FL is great and all - but I just LOVE it here. I'm sitting at the lake right now, perfect weather - NO humidity. Ahhh.

I spent the day ON the lake yesterday... and got a bit burnt. Figures - come all the way from FL to get burnt *shrugs*

THANKS!

 Tootsie is blowing coat also. Her rear looks like a wolf, gray tufts of hair sticking out everywhere. We had thunder this morning, a sprinkle and now 70 and  very humid.

we spent the entire weekend re-doing the floor in our entry way.

DH was installing a storm door since the new house never had one, and took the main door off to repaint.  as he was bringing it back in, he stepped into the house and fell through the floor.  Needless to say, not having a storm door, on a 6-yr old house, is enough to rot the entire floor out.

$250, three days and boatloads of gross mold later.... we have a nicely re-tiled entry way.  That still needs grout. 

Boy I'm loving owning a home.  We bought a newish house for this very reason -- idealy, it shouldn't have enough wrong with it that stupid stuff happens like this, but apparently it's new enough where not all the problems have come out.

Yikes, that really stinks.  And here my 60 + year old house with hardwood floors and no storm door is fine!

Dawn, if you use a grater you can freeze that zuchinni for zuchinni bread year round.  You can also slice and freeze.

I've been doing veggie packets to go on the grill with the meat, and wedges of zuchinni are great in those.  I use either one or two baby redskins or sweet tater, and then whatever veggies I feel like tossing in, the zukes being a favorite, maybe some wedges of tomato, mushrooms sliced onion, a little salt and pepper, a bit of butter and foil wrap and toss on the grill.

Another family fav is to sautee zukes and the yellow squash and when the are almost done, toss in a diced tomato.

Will try to think up more ways to use zukes for you....

 Glenda, it took me a while to realize that the "zukes" you were referring to were zucchinis, not the dog treat by that name lol!  (Guess I'm a certifiable dog nerd!)

stardog85

Here's my mom's recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake! :)

Glenda, all of those ideas sound great!  I'm definitely going to need to compile a compendium of zucchini recipes. 

Thanks for the recipes, I have a few too. I also freeze alot. The cobbler was a new one I want to try.

I did kabobs for dinner last night and added thick chunks of zuchinni to the other stuff.  Yummmy!

I've found that if I actually GRATE the zuke, instead of running it thro the food processor that it's tons less watery.  Just an FYI.