Zikes...the Zukes of the Garden!

If I was a zucchini, I'd be happily flourishing in my garden!  Yee-Ha!  I'd be basking in the afternoon sun and enjoying the cool of the early morning and night with my neighbors squash, cucumber, pumpkin and onions. Most of all I would eagerly anticipate four excited children lifting my oversized leaves to find the hidden treasure of my green growth. How fun it would be to be a zucchini?!  Something to ponder...

I don't have a natural green-thumb, but I'm slowly learning how to grow and produce some bountiful crops.  My zucchini's are the first to really sprout and grow!  There's so much you can do with zucchini: grate it for breads, can it for cold winter days, make soups and freeze, or slice and bake it with a little butter, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese on top.  My family loves to do this.  We toss them on the grill as well...so good!

I wanted to share one of my favorite Zucchini Bread recipe's:
3 eggs
2 C. sugar
1 C. vegetable oil/substitute with 1/2 applesauce if you'd like
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C. grated zucchini
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 C. flour
Chocolate chips; semi-sweet or milk chocolate to taste.  I usually toss in a heaping handful or so.

Beat eggs, add sugar and oil; mix well. Blend in the remaining ingredients.  Grease two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  I like to start checking my breads at around 35 minutes in the oven.  I also like to make mini-loafs.  Those only take about 30-35 minutes.

You could add craisins, walnuts, white chocolate chips, or drizzle chocolate across the top as well for a 'little flair for the gourmet' and to make it look pretty. If you want to drizzle the chocolate over the top simply melt the chocolate in the microwave with a little oil. Then drizzle it on top.

I find zucchini can be a little 'extra' wet, so I pat it down with paper towels after I grate it, and let it air dry a bit before I add it to my bread. (My unscientific method for not making bread as heavy as a brick that my husband could use on one of his houses.)

Also, here's a couple other Zucchini sites hosting lots of different and useful ideas.

All sorts of Zucchini Recipes-Yum!

Zucchini Brownies

Zucchini Canning Recipes
 

Ziploc Omelets

So this is an awesome way to make omelets for those of us who make 'egg-stra' special disasters when attempting to make omelets in their traditional form.

1.Just grab a Ziploc bag. Write your name on if you're making multiple. 
I like to put it in a mixing bowl, just makes it easier to work with.

2.Start your pot of water boiling.

3.Toss 2 eggs into your Ziploc
4. Add a splash of milk
5. Plop in your favorite meat or veggies
6. Throw in a handful of cheese-any kind you like
7. Dash a little Salt & Pepper on top
8. Extra spices like red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper for a zzzest
9. Seal up the Ziploc
10. Squish up all the ingredients in the bag. Great for kids to mush!
11. Grab your tongs
12. Drop Ziploc bag 'carefully' in pot of boiling water with tongs
13. Let your concoction boil for about 12 minutes until the eggs don't look runny
14. Once cooked, pull out your gourmet omelet, carefully with tongs
15. Cut off the top of the Ziploc and roll the omelet onto your plate

 16. Garnish with green onions, peppers or whatever you're taste buds crave

ENJOY!

M & M's to the rescue

We had a world-wind trip to Yakima, Washington this weekend for a very meaningful Family Reunion.  It was lots of fun to see, meet and put faces and names together on my husband's paternal side of the family.  It was, however, a creative trip with four children in the car for a full 24 hours (round trip).  On the way there we borrowed a friends Mi-Fi jet pack.  Thanks to the GOOD Lord!  So it allowed the boys to watch Net Flix on their I-Pads and play games.  Our littlest one was done with our trip on about hour 6.5.  So a little screaming occurred, but we got through it.  We just had to turn up the 80's hair band rock and roll I downloaded on my I-pod, and put the pedal down.  I actually had to hold on to the little handles by the window and duck behind my sunglasses to survive my husband's road rage and speedy driving...but that's a whole other story.

Our trip home was a tad different.  I realized my error in  re-charging some of our techo gadgets-about 2.5 seconds into my husband accelerating onto the highway.  Even though I had spent a small fortune on all the various 12 volt adapters, converters, and plug-in galore, there's always something missing.  I have yet to figure out what that 'missing' thing was to make everything function properly, but most importantly it's what I did find-a packet of M & M's.  The boys had a great opportunity to count trees-my idea (they finally rounded up to several million), semi's and look at nature when their 2% charged techno gadgets failed them, but it wasn't as easy for our one year old.  Hence out comes the M & M's.

It's amazing how two small bags of chocolate filled bliss can instanteously stop screaming, creates great entertainment even fills the gaps in a hungry tummy.  What more could you ask for?  Therefore I made those two bags last 12 hours.  Needless to say she was amped up on sugar until about midnight the night we arrived home, but eh-it worked for the car.  M & M's to the rescue!

I have to be honest.  It's not the first time M & M's have come to my rescue.  One blustery winter day in December of 2006 I had a two and a half and one year old.  While desperately trying to wrap Christmas gifts and get them in the mail, my little guys were just simply bored and into everything.  I was finally to my whits end.  I was getting nothing accomplished and had been rolling like that for days.  And then I saw it...the brown bag illuminated itself on our rough-sawn log table my husband made.  It glistened as an answer to prayer....M & M's!

In slow motion I ripped a small opening in the bag's corner.  Walked over to the center of our cozy living room and pulled the bag's corner with vigor! Plop..plop..plop...sploosh! All the  M & M's, of a three pound bag, cascaded to the floor.  Perfect!  "Here you go boys," I called.  "Have fun!"  They dove on them like ants on a picnic.  Their cheeks looked like squirrels packing acorns in for the winter. Their eyes were large and round watching my every move-wondering when I might change my mind on the whole thing.  But I had no intention to, it was 20 minutes of solid entertainment for them and I got Christmas 'to do's' 'to done'!  When I've mentioned this story to some folks their eyes get big and ask if the boys got sick.  Unfortunately at the time, I never even thought of them becoming ill.  I was totally in my momentary trance of complete self gratification in actually getting something accomplished
.  Horrible I know, but honest.  They didn't get sick, just for the record.  M & M's to the rescue!

Blogging Deliquent

As my words want to burst through my fingertips, I have to admit...I am a TRUE blogging delinquent.  Cardinal rule for blogging..."if you can't keep up on it, don't do it".  Well apparently that's been the fact since April.  Now-to my thought processes' credit, I didn't think I was 'that' far off, because I have so many things I 'mean' to post on my blog.  So moving forward from tax season, six weeks of traveling for little league, end of school CrAzInEsS, four summer birthday's, summer camps, 4-H fair, 22 animals, four kids, a construction company, a weekly column, camping in our Awesome mountains, a garden-which is actually producing edible products, tonsils out for one kido, a rapidly approaching family reunion, school closing in-deep breath, oh and throw in about 100 loads laundry, meals, four children and a husband...but moving forward it's all good 'cause that's the beauty of the summer and writing for your own blog! Yee-Haa!

One a side note besides being a blogging delinquent...here's a picture of one of our lucky hens.  She flitted, fluttered, and fluffed herself farther from the coop than usual.  And why is it she's lucky?  Well, she's 'lucky' our Corgi didn't ring her scrawny, crooked chicken neck.  See...he's gotten a hankerin' for chicken, and because of his taste buds we're down to two hens.  Now to remedy his eating disorder we've been told to tie a dead chicken around his neck and let it hang there until there's nothing left.  I for one couldn't see how that would be beneficial; a. he'd probably continue gnawing on the dead chicken, b. it would probably make him mad-der and he'd want to kill more, c. it's just a plain ol' disgustingly nasty idea. 

So in my illustrious wisdom, I decided to borrow a remote shock collar.  My friend said if you're going to shock 'em, may as well make it count.  So I turned it on high, and waited.  I snuck around our farm with the remote tucked in my pocket like an FBI agent searching out a thief.  I was anticipating just the right moment to ZAP him without his knowledge of me being the Zapper, but I waited. And then I waited, and waited...oh did I say I waited for DAYS.  Did he ever come close the our last remaining chickens?  Never. 

Well it came time for me to give up on using the collar.  It had been on about a week.  When I reached for him, and unhooked the collar's latch a vile stench came from his neck. I peeled the collar away from his skin.  Fur, pus, and infected liquid from his neck overwhelmed my senses.  After a moment of pure disgust, I felt his neck, pulled fur back for a serious look and was immediately nervous.  It looked a dog vampire had attacked him.  The two shock prongs were longer than our perimeter collar we used on him as a pup.  I didn't give it a second thought when I put the remote collar on him.  I wish I had.  The prongs had dug deep into his neck, and it was badly infected.  I felt horrible!  He had shown no signs of discomfort.  He is always in tow of myself and our children, and it's not like he's isolated.  He's with us all the time! I immediately called my vet, and got him in within the hour. 

Thankfully it looked worse than it was.  His infection was serious, and once she shaved around the area I could actually see the damage.  But he didn't require tubes inserted in his neck to drain the fluid. It was extremely swollen, red, and pus still oozed from the vampire marks.  Our vet told us she's had to euthanize dogs because the remote collars spin around and get lodged at the base of the neck and spine because they're on too long, some infections have been so bad-it killed dogs, and one dog had gone missing for several days wearing a remote collar and was hung up on a fence.  When the owners found it, the dog was alive, but barely.

So my chicken eating dog.  Oh my chicken eating dog.  What to do about a chicken eating dog?  NOTHING!  Buy more chickens!  And build a better fence!  I could have bought 50 more chickens at $2.99 each for the price of the vet visit.  Which I'm not complaining about the vet bill.  I'm so glad she was able to help our little corgi and that's just what it costs.  I totally understand!  And would gladly pay it two-fold again if need be.  But I would've saved him the pain and suffering of the whole darn thing!  Let alone the guilt on my part!

So moral of my story...
1. Think twice about free range chickens if you have dogs,
and tying a dead chicken around your dogs neck.
2. ALWAYS remove a remote shock collar after using it with your dogs
3. Can't fault a dog for having a hankerin' for chicken!

Until next time,
The Delinquent Blogger

Crock-pot fajitas

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to feed lambs, pigs, chickens, horses, cats, dogs & 'camp robbers', take me out into spring...can you hear the tune?  Well, it sort of goes along to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, except it's my rendition of adding everything in. 

 

Green grass is poking through the frosty dirt, or soggy spring snow, which means a change of season is upon us, and with a change of seasons comes a slew of fun outdoor activities.  For me it also means a time to try and menu plan.  I enjoy baking, but cooking is challenging for me, because it usually requires for-thought and time-which I seem to lack mostly by my own procrastination though.  So when a friend and I started talking about fitting in healthy meals and snacks for the next couple months, this recipe came up.  I'm sure it's in some recipe book somewhere, but we just hodge-podged it.  I recently did the same with round steak, but that'll be another  post.

 

The flavor was great!  The chicken really absorbed all the ingredients. I have to say-I thought it was one of the best fajita dinner's we've had, and my family gobbled it down so it seemed to jell well with them too.  And it's something you can throw in the crock pot after school, have it ready for dinner, and it's low maintenance-no oil, extra skillets, stove tops and dishes to wash.

 

So here it is:

Chicken breasts-boil.  I used four frozen breasts.

Line crock pot with a slow cooker liner-hence the low maintenance part above

Once the chicken's done, place them in the crock pot

Add 2 cups water

Add 2 cups chicken broth

1 package of fajita seasoning

1 onion sliced like you'd like for fajitas

1 red pepper sliced like you'd like for fajitas

1 yellow pepper sliced like you'd like for fajitas

Put on low for 2 hours

Pull out with a slatted spoon

Place all ingredients in a bowl

Serve with warm tortillas, cheese, tomatoes, pico-de-gallo, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and a side of rice and beans.  Super easy!

 

I like extra cumin, and garlic, so I added a little more at the end.

You could also add 1 can of Rotel tomatoes in it for spice, and it would be good in the tortilla once you're ready to serve. Cayenne would work too, just depending on your taste buds.

 

You don't have to boil the chicken, but for food safety-I did, after all it's chicken.  If you have a longer amount of time you could add frozen breasts and slow cook them all day, then toss in the onions and peppers a couple hours before you're ready to serve.

 

While I'm at it, I'd like to share a couple more web-sites with meal planning tips, recipes, and ideas.

http://www.momswhothink.com/  This site has great plans to print out, plus a ton more ideas.

http://www.once-a-monthcooking.com/ I have these cookbooks, and they are extremely helpful.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Birthday Time Capsule

In our immediate family we get to celebrate birthday's every month from April through August, then the papa's in December.  But we also have many family and friends through out the year, as everyone does, when we get to share the special day they became a gift to us all. Recently, I found a birthday time capsule web-site.  Just type in the birth date and viola...a page of all the great things that happened on the day compile as well as the price of groceries, fuel, who you share the day with, etc.  It could make a fun gift, scrapbooking addition, or give you a little trivia about the day.  Here's the link: http://dmarie.com/timecap/step1.asp

Have fun!

Redneck Easter

While most families hunt Easter eggs, at our house we started a new tradition.  "Let's shoot 'em," said my husband.  "YAH!" hooped and hollared our boys.  They couldn't wait! 
We started stashing extra eggs from our hens a few days before Easter so we would have plenty to plink.

On Easter morning the first thing out of their mouths was, "how much longer 'til we can shoot the eggs."  Now this was about 5:30 am, and I know the rest of the morning must have seemed like an eternity for them.  The chocolate for breakfast helped the enthusiasm, the jelly beans for their pre-church snack sent them bounding a little further on their sugar rush, and the peeps and miscellaneous candy snuck here and there had them soaring into a sweet abyss, or as I saw it walking sugar sticks of dynamite.  Especially after church as we witnessed our middle son, put on his ski helmet and goggles in the back seat then proceed to play the 'air' drums on his head all the way home-yep...there was a little of a LOT too much sugar running through his veins.  With so much 'fuel' inside these boys, the outlet had to be dynamic...our redneck Easter began!

Carefully placing the eggs across our dirt hill, my husband readied the scene.  Safely armed with three rifles the egg splatting began.  They each took turns.  "KAPLOW!" went the rifles echos.  Their smiles beamed with excitement with every shot they took!  "All be darned if each of them hit every egg, dead on," said my husband.  I smiled.  "That's my boys," I thought to myself.

Then it was my turn.  Still in my church skirt, I knelt down in the dirt, set the cross-hairs on my egg target and pulled the 410's trigger.  The egg yoke blasted into the air, the shell burst into a zillion bits and splattered all over the dirt hill. "Ha-ha! That was awesome!" I said.  What a great feeling to 'plink' an egg.   Our boys shot for over an hour with their dad, learning from him, shooting a few eggs, and spending some quality 'boy time' as well as burning off some of the sugar rush pulsing through their little bodies...and so our redneck Easter tradition began. 

Maybe next year you'll share in our Redneck Easter tradition at your home, or maybe you have a Redneck idea to share with me.  I'm game, how 'bout you?