A Second Look--August 1, 2012

The things I found this week during a Second Look were especially interesting. (at least I thought so) First, the surprise lilies emerged. They are called surprise lilies because the flowers come out after the foliage has died. They seem to spring up over night and are always a nice surprise. Also, I have been carefully watching the peach tree for peaches and haven't seen any. This has been puzzling me because it bloomed beautifully in the spring. Well, today I found one, and only one peach, but it is a beauty. I am going to leave it on the tree to ripen a little longer and hope that I can get back to it before the squirrels discover it.

In addition, the hibiscus is in full bloom. This is a plant that I have had for several years that bloomed for the first time last year. After the first bloom, the deer promptly ate every bud and that one bloom was all that we got. I am enjoying the multiple blooms.

Last week, the big excitement was a stranded baby bunny. This week the excitement was watching chipping sparrow fledglings leave the nest. There were three babies and two of them could fly pretty well, but one of them could only hop-fly on the ground. The parents would fly above it trying to direct. It was all very interesting to watch.

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

Surprise lily buds

Our lone peach

Triple day lilies

Hibiscus

Chipping sparrow baby trying to fly.

A Week of Zucchini Dishes

or The Vegetable That Keeps Giving and Giving 

or Today's Equivalent of the Loaves and Fishes--Zucchini

Our zucchini with tomato for comparison

Recently, Aunt Martha gave us a zucchini from her garden. It was one of those that somehow got hidden and grew to almost the size of a baseball bat before it was found and harvested. Our goal last week was to eat it until it was gone. We knew it was big, but didn't think that we would be able to cook it in five different dishes before we saw the last of it. But we did. Below are our results with links to the recipes we used.

 
Day One: Zucchini Patties
We were having salmon cakes this day so it seemed like a natural accompaniment.  The cakes were basically pan fried shredded zucchini and bread crumbs. Everyone liked the taste, but Theo and I weren't crazy about the texture. I thought they were a little gooey from too many bread crumbs, and Theo didn't like the stringiness of the shredded zucchini. I got a tip for this recipe from the Frugal Girl.  



Day Two: Zucchini and Cheese Casserole
This has been a favorite recipe in our family for many years and is a favorite of guests.  It is a baked casserole containing zucchini chunks, eggs, cottage and shredded cheese topped with bread crumbs. I usually add another vegetable like broccoli or asparagus to give it more flavor. This recipe comes from Jane Brody's Good Food Book.


Day Three: Hearty Tuna Casserole
This recipe was given to us a few years ago from a friend when were trying to find new ways to cook zucchini. We make other tuna casseroles, but this is my favorite. The dish contains the standards for a tuna casserole including noodles, tuna, sour cream, and shredded cheese. However, there are layers of zucchini slices in it as well as diced tomatoes on the top. We leave out the mustard and green onions as a favor to Ward and still find it very tasty. A word of warning: the zucchini and celery take far longer to cook than the 30 minutes allotted for the casserole. We cook them a little before we add them to the dish so it doesn't take forever to bake.



Day Four: Oatmeal Zucchini Bread
For years, I have been carrying around this recipe for zucchini bread that included cooked oatmeal. Last week, I finally made it. The bread was very good but was dense and gooey. This may have been because the recipe called for three eggs and I only had two. I read somewhere on the internet that you can substitute milk for an egg and you will never know the difference. Well, I think we knew the difference. However, the four loaves disappeared in less than 24 hours.


Day Five: Continental Zucchini
 As we were brain storming about what we were going to do with the last of the zucchini, Ward remembered a dish he had as a child-- continental zucchini. This dish is stir fried zucchini and garlic with corn and pimentos added. The whole thing is topped with melted mozzarella cheese. When we made it, we also added some yellow squash that we had. Everyone liked this dish. However, Ward thought it could use black pepper. Also, this dish would lend itself well to the addition of sweet or hot peppers We may try that next time.

Zucchini dishes from last week.

I Spy Green

Can You Find:

1. Wally's Pog Container

2. The watering can that we recovered from someone's trash.

3. A great book by a humorous British author

4. The fire extinguisher that is by our wood stove

5. My new garden gloves

6. One of our grocery bags

7. Ward's new drill

8. Socks that were knit for me as a Christmas present

9. Ward's lunch box that has yogurt in it most days

10. The calculator that no longer works

11. My go-to book on perennials 

Thankful Sunday--July 29, 2012

I am thankful that we have a working air conditioner during these very hot days.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--July 27, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money.

Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning.

This Week's Food Waste

Apparently, this sour cream wasn't done souring or growing mold for that matter. There was only a little left, but I had plans for it--big plans. But it had plans of its own--growing mold, so away it went.

This Week's True Food Confessions

Look, we cooked!

Despite the fact that this week contained National Drive Thru Day, we had a pretty good week. We only ate out one time as a family and that was for a special occasion. Wally and Theodore just visited their favorite drive thru three times--a big improvement.

Since we didn't eat out much, that means that we did eat at home. Zucchini was the ingredient of the week, and we had it in four different dishes. (A post is coming about our zucchini cooking when we finally finish it all.) Also, we had a family meeting to establish a better schedule for meals at home. We're hoping that will help.

Next week, we still need our menu plan which will probably come from the freezer because it's getting a little messy in there. That's my favorite kind of planning-creating with what is on hand. I'll let you know how it goes.