Cranberry Walnut Zucchini Bread

OMG I found the greatest zucchini bread recipe. Even my kitty Shinobi was interested :) I modified it a little from Deb's recipe at Smitten Kitchen (I love her site!!). Here it is:

Cranberry Walnut Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease two 8×4 inch loaf pans, 24 muffin cups or one 8x4 inch loaf pan and 4 mini loaf pans. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts and cranberries. Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans. Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins and mini loaves will bake faster, about 20 to 25 minutes.

This makes your home smell heavenly ^_^ This is definitely a keeper.

Here are some other changes that I want to try:

* use 2 egg whites and 2 mashed bananas
* use an 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple and some cut up maraschino cherries

Thanks Deb!!

Cheers ^_^

Apple Chips

Apple chips are super easy to make and make your home smell yummy.

Peel (optional), core and slice apples into thin wedges. Soak in lemon water for about 10 minutes. Then sprinkle with cinnamon/nutmeg/brown sugar (or not) and bake at the lowest setting for about 6 to 8 hours (rotate periodically) with the oven cracked open. Don't bake over 200 degrees otherwise the slices won't dehydrate properly. I ended up putting mine in the toaster oven for another hour to make sure they got nice and dry. If you have a dehydrator.... lucky you. Using a dehydrator is easier than oven drying :) Here's the final product....

Put them in an airtight container and they keep for about a year. You can also rehydrate them to use in baking if needed.... They are also yummy snacks to throw in lunch boxes.

Cheers ^_^

Mini Chicken Pot Pie!!

My BF liked the chicken pot pie I made a while ago (that I made a double batch of and stuck one in the freezer) so much that he asked me to make one for his dad. Well after I made the full sized pot pie for his dad, I had leftover dough bits and pot pit filling. I remembered that my BFs mom gave a free mini pie maker like the one below.....

... so I naturally had to make a mini chicken pot pie. IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER!!

Here is the tiny pot pit on top of the full sized one ^_^ It's so adorable. I ended up throwing it in the freezer and taking it to work for part of lunch the next day. It reheated wonderfully and the crust was still flaky and AWESOME!!! I will totally be making more of these to throw in the freezer.

This has been your daily dose of cute food ^_^

UGH..........

Sorry I've been MIA... School and work and life took over.

I'll soon be posting pics of:

• a mini chicken pot pie I made with my (free!) mini-pie maker
• apple chips
• homemade Halloween cookies - sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies
  
• mini zucchini loaves

I'll be making another trip or two to the farmer's markets in the area to stock up on some stuff so I'll have yummy produce pics as well :) My dear brother is even coming with me to the market under I-83 with me!! I'll take pics while I'm there because it's so awesome.

Also my BFF Erin's birthday was on Tuesday so I'm going to try to drive up to PA to visit her and bring her some baked goodies ^_^

Check out Kristen's dry soup mixes! They sound delicious :) I'll be putting some of them together.

Oh and I have homework to do LOL!

Soooo much to do!!

Found a NEW Farmer's Market

My BF's study partner showed me this wonderful market under I-83 in downtown Baltimore. Granted, I was a little skeptical about it since downtown is a little sketchy and funny smelling sometimes... but this place was fabulous. So many people were out supporting local businesses and farms! Not only was there fresh produce but also vendors cooking food in front of you. Everything smelled sooooo wonderful! Here is what I got:

peaches - $6

tomatoes - $5

sweet potatoes - $3

zucchini (6 yellow & 5 green) - $4

a french baguette (we already ate it with chicken soup) - $3

If anyone in the area wants to go, here's where it is (the middle section there under 83):

It's a little confusing to get there so if you're interested, message me and I'll try to explain where it is.

Farmer's Market

Inspired by Val, I started going to the farmer's market. It's a bit of a drive so I made it worth my while. Heres what I got.....

potatoes - $2

half pint of blueberries and half pint of raspberries - $3

a little over 7 pounds of tomatoes - $8

celery - $2

6 ears of corn - $2

I heart fresh produce :)

Apple Pie Filling for Canning

By popular demand.... here is the recipe I used for the apple pie filling I canned.

I used this recipe as a shell and added the spices to taste. Below are the ratios for the spices from the original recipe. Feel free to scale it for more quarts.... that's what I did :)

For 1 quart of apple pie filling:

• 3-1/2 cups apples (cored, peeled and sliced)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Cut apples and blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes. This will stop the enzymes from turning the apples. Strain them into a colander but keep them warm
2. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a large pot with the apple juice and water. Stir constantly while cooking on medium heat until it begins to bubble.
3. Mix the corn starch and lemon juice into the pot. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.
4. When filling the jars, layer liquid, apples, liquid, apples. Since the liquid is thick layering is the best way to get it nicely distributed.
5. Pack the jars tightly with apples otherwise the bottom will be nothing but syrup. Leave at least 1/2 inch headspace.
6. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 25 minutes.

Enjoy ^_^

Apple Pie Jelly!!

I knew I was going to have a lot of apple peels and cores left over from making applesauce. Since I live in an apartment, it's a bit of a hassle to compost. I heard somewhere that the peels are very high in pectin so I :swagbucked: around and found Bethany's post about the same dilemma. Easy solution - APPLE JELLY! Since everyone seems curious about the process - here it is! Her post linked to this recipe which I followed loosely. Here's how I did it (you'll laugh once you see how easy this is ^_^):

1. Save all your peels, cores and random bits of apples into a large stockpot.
2. I used a 5 quart stainless steel stock pot and practically filled it.
3. To the peels cores and bits, I added about 6-7 cups of water/apple juice (I approximated...)
4. Simmer until everything is soft and mushy, stirring/mushing every so often so nothing scorches. I think I simmered it on a low/medium heat for an hour or so.
5. After it cools a little, strain out all the large mushy chunks of apple bits.
6. Pass the remaining liquid mixture through cheesecloth folded 4 times.
7. I ended up with a little over 7 cups of liquid. Bring this to a simmering boil. Slowly dissolve 2 boxes of pectin as it's heating up.
8. Using the 5/7 ratio of liquid to sugar from the original instructions, I added about 9 cups of sugar (all at once) to the liquid/pectin mix I had boiling. * I read somewhere that sometimes the jelly will taste flat because it's just peels and cores so I added cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.... BTW - IT TASTES LIKE APPLE PIE!! *
9. Dissolve sugar well and test the viscosity of the jelly by dipping a cold spoon into the hot mixture and let it chill in the freezer. Keep the heat on until it reaches your desired level of jellyness on the chilled spoon.
10. Then ladle into jars and process in a boiling water bath for 15-20 minutes.

I ended up with 14 half-pints.

Breakfast the morning after it was cooled - cream cheese and apple pie jelly on toast ^_^

It was around 5am when I took this pic and the lighting in my kitchen is sucky.....

....so here's the real color of the jelly with the bright flash LOL!

The jelly isn't as clear as I'd like it to be but since I added the cinnamon and nutmeg it's a little cloudy. BUT it is the BEST freakin' apple jelly I've ever had!!

If you have a ton of apples, you definitely need to make this stuff. It's the yumminess of an apple pie in jelly form ^_^

Coconut Shrimp

I LOVE coconut shrimp from Outback. I saw Lucy's version so I needed to try it out. I made some modifications and, even though they don't look like much, they tasted wonderful. The BF even gave them a 9 out of 10! The picture below is of the ones that were left on his plate. I snapped a pic as he was devouring them :)

Coconut Shrimp

24-30 raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and butterflied

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 eggs beaten

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1. Pat the shrimp dry with a paper towel.
2. In a small bowl combine cornstarch, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and lemon juice.
4. In another bowl, place the coconut.
5. Coat the shrimp with the cornstarch and shake off any excess. Dip into the egg mixture and then press into the coconut to get full coverage.

6. Place shrimp in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 6 minutes. Turn shrimp and continue baking for another 6 minutes, until the coconut is crispy and the shrimp is done.

Enjoy ^_^

Toasted Egg

I saw this cute breakfast idea here and had to try it. Here's how it turned out:

Instructions (as if you need them....)

• butter both sides of bread
• cut hole in center slightly larger than an egg yolk
• place toast on pan on medium heat and wait for it to past a little
• crack egg into the hole
• wait till it firms up a bit and then turn carefully
• cook until you think it's done

I like my eggs runny so I LOVED this!!

Too bad the BF doesn't like eggs.