Zucchini Cakes Thanks to Ree and Ryan

Zucchini Cakes. Hmm? Is that kinda like a pancake but with Zucchini instead of flour?

The Pioneer Woman has done it again, introducing Delicious foods and now with her guest blogger Ryan. Ryan was kind enough to concoct something so wonderful and share with PW's groupies. Thanks to Ryan and Ree. Check out Ryan's Zucchini Cakes at http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/. Below you will find my version with Ryan's inspiration.

Herbed Garlic Zucchini Cakes

2 cups shredded garden fresh zucchini
1/2 cup garlic and herb bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp basil
1 egg (with white things gone)
salt and pepper
a few shakes Lawry's Garlic Salt

Olive oil
ketchup or marinara sauce or ranch dressing or some kind of yogurt dip

In a mixing bowl, combine zucchini, crumbs and cheese. Add the garlic and spices and stir. Now add the egg and stir until all ingredients are combined well. Pour olive oil into a fry pan, enough oil to fry one side at a time. Heat until zuke will sizzle.

Using a table spoon scoop a heaping blob of the zuke mix, take another table spoon and smash that into a patty. Yes, spoon your zucchini cake. Place zuke patty onto the pool of hot oil. Cook for about 2 minutes until the cake is browned. Flip and do the same to the other side. Serve immediately with whichever dip you chose.

Enjoy! They are crunchy, a little cheesy and just so darn tasty! Rob is not home yet. I will post his opinion once he eats one of these babies.

Zucchini Bread

The garden is still producing! The Zuke plants are supplying dark green juicy gems! Bust out the Cuisinart because it's time to shred zucchini, to make some bread to gift to neighbors or co-workers or just for your family! When the garden gives you zucchini, make bread.

Zucchini Bread

2 cups fresh grated zucchini
4 eggs (white things removed)
1 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
3 1/2 cup unbleached flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup of pecan or walnut pieces (optional)
cinnamon and sugar


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine zucchini, eggs, oil and water. Mix. Sift dry ingredients and add by cupful to wet mix (mixing after each addition) until all dry ingredients are used up. Prepare two loaf pans with oil. Sprinkle bottoms of pans with cinnamon sugar. Pour bread batter into pans and place in the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Cool and enjoy!

Cinnamon Chocolate Fudge for Christmas

I found this recipe while cruising through the supermarket. It is from McCormick! It pretty much rocks and tastes amazing and is so unbelievably easy to make! Check out McCormick.com for other amazing recipes!

Easy No-Cook Cinnamon Fudge

1 box powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. ground McCormick Cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. Pure McCormick Vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Line an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Allow foil to extend over sides and butter foil. In a bowl, mix together sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. In a saucepan, heat butter and milk, until butter melts. Add vanilla. Add liquid mixture to sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Pour into prepared pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Using the foil lift the fudge from the pan and cut into 2 inch pieces.

I line a small muffin tin with Christmas themed muffin cups. I drop spoonfuls of fudge into the cups and allow to set. They gift really well, in these little cups and it makes for the perfect portion of sweet!

Christmas in July Cookies

Christmas in JULY? Christmas will be here before we know it! So get ready. Just kidding! But, if you want to, check out LifeasMom.com, there are loads of great Christmas ideas to get you in the pre-holiday planning Christmas Spirit.

This is a Christmas cookie favorite with a twist. Cinnamon and chocolate together? One of my favorite combos.

Chocolate Snickerdoodles! ! !

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs with the white things removed

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1/4 cup Valhrona Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixed together to roll dough in.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In your mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and other dry ingredients. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Using a tablespoon, scoop and shape dough into balls and roll them into the cinnamon sugar mixture Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are set. Makes 2-3 dozen.

Grandma John's Overnight Casserole and Jamie's Overnight Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Grandma John would come to California every couple of years and spend time with us. What fun times, in the car, in the kitchen, at restaurants, and playing card games. Grandma John had a fun sense of humor, a mean poker face and one heck of culinary background. Was it cooking for 8 kids that made her a wiz in the kitchen, passion, or just really good taste buds? She could cook or bake anything. She didn't use the fanciest of ingredients but she would have given any celebrity chef a run for their chef hat!


Grandma John's Overnight Casserole (previously posted)


1 3/4 cup cooked elbow macaroni
2 cups cooked and diced chicken
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup shredded cheese
2 cups milk
buttered bread crumbs


Put macaroni in a large bowl. Add chicken and cheese. In a separate bowl combine soups and milk. Pour soup over macaroni, chicken and cheese. Mix well and pour into a greased casserole dish. Cover casserole dish and put container in refrigerator overnight. When ready to cook, put in oven for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.




Jamie's Overnight Chicken Broccoli Casserole
Similar to Grandma John's, just a bit Jami-fied.

One pound cooked pasta any kind (I used Trader Joe's Whole wheat flax fusilli)

2 cups cooked chicken tenderloins chopped

1 cup frozen or fresh broccoli

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cups milk

a few shakes Lawry's Garlic Salt

a few shakes black pepper

Put fusilli in a large bowl. Add chicken, broccoli and mozzarella to the bowl. In another combine the two cans of soup and milk. Pour soup mixture over pasta mixture and stir. Pour mixture into a greased casserole, cover and place in the refrigerator over night. When ready to cook, pull casserole from refrigerator and bake for an hour and a half in a 350 degree oven.

This is way good. SO, go the market, buy all this stuff and make it and bake it! Pioneer Woman has a fancy spaghetti pasta with cream of chicken soup. Check hers out at http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/!

Garlic Garden Fresh Zucchini

Do you have leftover zucchini and need to find a way to use it up? Cut it into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and make this tasty side dish.

Garlic Garden Fresh Zucchini serves 2

2 zucchini sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices
Lawry's garlic salt
fresh lemon slices to squeeze

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sorry no exact measurements for this side dish, it is very easy and hard to mess up. Spray the bottom of small casserole dish with olive oil. Place zucchini slices in a layer. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Layer some more zucchini. Sprinkle with a little more garlic salt. Squirt fresh lemon juice on top of that. Cover with foil and pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve alongside whatever!

When the Garden Gives You Tomatoes, Make The Getskow version of Brucshetta

I love bringing things to Sunday dinners. This Sunday I was determined to use ingredients fresh out of my parents garden to make an appetizer. One main thing found in the garden are tomatoes. We have cherry tomatoes and larger round ones, not sure of their official name. Another, vegetable found in the garden are bell peppers and they planted three colors. The final ingredient I yanked from the earth were two red onions.

The Getskow Garden Brucshetta

4-5 large garden fresh tomatoes
2 small garden fresh red onions
2 garden fresh purple bell peppers (YES, purple)
2 garden fresh green bell peppers
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp garlic powder or the equivalent in minced garlic

One store bought baguette

Wash and trim all garden fresh produce. Chop all garden fresh items into small pieces. Combine in a bowl. Add seasonings and Olive oil and vinegar. Cover and place in the refrigerator.

Just before serving time prepare your baguette. Slice up the baguette into thin slices. Spray slices with olive oil and toast them in the oven. 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Serve toasted baguette alongside the bowl of brucshetta. Unless, you are serving your guests from a tray. Spoon a tablespoon on top of the toasted slice and serve immediately.

When the Garden Gives You Zucchini, Make Muffins

My Mom lovingly tends to the garden each summer when my Dad's leaves for the Midwest. Tending to the garden is a time consuming and sometimes difficult job, especially when the temperature has been over 100 degrees many a day, and humid too!

Tomatoes, 3 colors of bell pepper, strawberries, lemons, onions and zucchini grow in this garden. The zucchini grow fast and big. I picked some zucchini yesterday. Gave a couple to a friend and brought a couple home.

I have decided to make MUFFINS! I am not a fan of zucchini bread. It weird, really. Put a zucchini in something sweet? I am used to eating grilled zucchini, not sweet zucchini. I found a basic recipe for Zucchini Muffins on the Internet. This site has just about every muffin you could imagine on it. http://www.muffinrecipes.net/. I modeled my recipe after one I read, but spiced mine up a bit.

Garden Fresh Zucchini Muffins

1 cup sugar
2 eggs (white thingies removed)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup shredded garden fresh zucchini
2 cups unbleached flour
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix the first four ingredients together. Add the zucchini, and dry ingredients and mix well. If you would like some of your muffins to be pecan free, stop here and fill muffins cups 2/3 full. Add the chopped pecans to the remainder of the batter and mix. Fill the remaining cups. You should have enough batter for 12 muffins and one mini loaf or 4 more muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm with butter, or cooled with nothing.

Quick and Easy Appetizers

Robby's Mommer is one amazing lady. She can do anything. Yep, anything. One of her greatest qualities is hospitality. She is the Queen of Hospitality. She always has something for everyone at her house. She can put together just about anything in the kitchen at a moments notice and whatever it is, it is always Fantastic. These appetizers are easy and most items can be stored in your refrigerator. They are Mommer inspired and Just about anyone could look at the appetizer plate and find something they like. Here goes.

Quick and Easy Appetizers

Cheddar Cheese cubed
Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese cubed
Gallo Salami sliced or cubed
Jalapeno Stuffed Olives
Mini Dill Pickles

Using a cute divided relish tray, arrange your snack foods in the little compartments. Make sure to put a little cup with toothpicks beside the plate. Serve and watch the snacks disappear. They will and be ready with more snacks to refill!

Chocolate Crescent Pockets

I had a special guest in my kitchen today. Her name is Katie and she is visiting her Grandpa, our friend Juan for the next couple of weeks. I thought she might like to hang out and do some girlie stuff, so I asked Juan if she could hang out with me. She came to my house at 6 am. I had made her a little bed on the couch, I left her to slumber and I lumbered back upstairs. Beauty sleep was our first girlie thing to do.

Our second girlie thing was to bake up a yummy breakfast. Yes a breakfast that included chocolate. When I told her what we were going to make she didn't even look at me like I was crazy. We washed our hands and then prepared a "very rich" breakfast as Katie put it.

Chocolate Crescent Pockets (will make 8, or 16 small ones if you feel like cutting the 8 triangles in half)

one roll Pillsbury Crescent rolls
1-2 tablespoons butter
Cinnamon sugar
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Unroll Crescents and place on baking pan. Spread a little butter on the larger end of triangle. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of the butter. Place 12-15 chocolate chips on top of that. Fold the the two larger ends of triangle together and press with fingertips to seam the sides. Pull the skinny pointed end up and press the new sides together forming a pocket. Style the remaining dough from pointed end over the top of fold it, as long as pocket is formed. Spread a tiny bit of butter on top of that and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Repeat until all of your rolls have been transformed into chocolate pockets.

Bake for 13 - 15 minutes. Allow to cool just a bit. Serve and enjoy the chocolaty flaky warm goodness.

After we had breakfast we painted her toenails and fingernails in a Patriotic Zebra Pattern. Then swam all day long, had lunch, Swam more, came home and watched Hairspray. She had a great day and said her breakfast was the best one she had ever had and she would like to make them for her Grandpa.