Egg Frying--Part Three

Okay, I admit it. I'm a little obsessed with trying to fry an egg in the sun. When my previous two attempts  resulted in only a raw egg and a lot of sweat, I thought I was done with this experiment. Really I did. But ideas kept popping into my head for other tries--maybe a solar oven. This idea was sealed when I talked with my sister-in-law about solar ovens. She had several ideas, but what I heard was that your car can be a good oven. Bingo! I didn't have to worry about construction, and I had heard of people cooking things on their dashboard. This was the new thing I had to try.

On the next hot day, I started by putting an iron skillet on my dashboard for a while to heat up. After it was really hot, I cracked an egg into it and closed the car. Then I waited. And waited. But that was okay because my sister-in-law said that solar ovens cook very slowly--even slower than a slow cooker sometimes. When the sun started to go down, I retrieved the egg.  Guess what I found? A raw egg.

If I were really serious about these experiments, I would be carefully studying my techniques and researching the properties of the materials I am using--doing a complete scientific analysis. However, I'm not serious in that way. I'm serious in an impulsive sort of way. Meaning when it's hot outside, it's time to crack an egg and see what happens. This method reminds me of one of the ways they taught my kids how to do math problems. It was call the "guess and check"--meaning you guess at the answer and then plug it back into the problem to see if it is right. I thought that was a crazy method at the time. However, I kind of like that model for my egg experiments.

The solar oven for my experiment.

The egg on the dashboard not cooking

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.