Zucchini Heaven

We went to Las Vegas a week ago and left our garden with a lot of beautiful zucchini and yellow squash flowers, lots of green tomatoes and a zillion bees pollinating everything.

We arrived home 4 days later and discovered a lot of zucchini and squash almost too large! We also were surprised with a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes!
After taking 22 lbs. to the Klamath-Lake County Foodbank, I decided to get creative with zucchini. Now, Kevin and I both adore zucchini and yellow squash- boiled quickly, tossed in a little butter...we have a delicious veggie that I can eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Yes, I had squash for breakfast 3 times last week-by choice.

Don't you LOVE my vintage shopping basket/garden produce basket?
I made up one great recipe (zucchini fries) and found another that was a big hit (zucchini salad). So, here are two great recipes for you when you have a lot of zucchini or squash on your hands!

Zucchini Fries
3 zucchini
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of homemade breadcrumbs (you can use breadcrumbs from the store if needed)
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. of salt

Cut the ends off of the zucchini. Cut the zucchini in half, and then, lengthwise, cut each half into 4 pieces.
Crack the egg into a small dish and add the milk and salt. Whisk together and set aside.
I don't buy breadcrumbs- I save up the ends of loaves of bread, or leftover biscuits or hamburger or hotdog buns and freeze them. When I get a gallon bag full in the freezer, I dump them into the food processor and grind the heck out of them! Sometimes I add some fresh basil, oregano and peeled garlic cloves, a little salt and pepper- or not.
So, take 1/2 cup of your homemade breadcrumbs (or store bought) and add the 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan on a plate. Mix them together well and add the salt if your breadcrumbs don't have salt added. 
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a pan with vegetable oil spray and put on the counter. Put the breadcrumbs plate next to the tray, and then place the egg dish next to the breadcrumbs.
Dip the zucchini into the egg mix, toss in the breadcrumbs mix, and place on the tray.
When the oven comes up to 400, place the tray into the oven for about 35-45 minutes until golden brown and delicious, as Alton Brown would say. Serve with fry sauce.  (Fry sauce is 1/4 cup of mayo, 1/4 cup of ketchup, 1/4 cup hot sauce mixed together.)
Now, you can fry these in oil, but they are not as good as baked!! Really!!

Marinated Zucchini Salad
3 zucchini
3 yellow summer squash
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 cup of cider vinegar
4 tsps. of sugar (or Splenda)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup of packed basil leaves
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp. salt
4 ounces of soft fresh tiny mozzarella cheese balls (or 4 ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese cut into cubes)

Cut the tops and bottoms off of the zucchini and squash. Using your peeler, slice the squashes into long thing strips. Mix the vinegar and sugar together. Toss the squash (and onion if you want to) in the vinegar mixture for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
a couple of hours before serving, bring a small pot of water to boil and add the garlic cloves. Remove the garlic after a couple of minutes with a slotted spoon and drain. Immediately add the basil leaves and remove with a slotted spoon in 30 seconds. Plunge into a bowl of ice water and drain.
Put the garlic, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (fresh is best) and 2 tablespoons of EVOO (see above) and 2 tablespoons of the cooking water into a food processor. Blend together. Pour the Basil oil mix into a small bowl and add the cheese balls or cubes. let them marinate until the squash is ready.
Just before serving, drain the squash well. Toss the squash with the cheese/basil mixture and serve either cold or at room temperature. YUM!

This was a big hit at the potluck I attended on Sunday! Hope you enjoy this recipe! We certainly did!

Best.Sandwich.EVER

It's been a busy and stressful weekend, but today is Monday and it's been a GREAT day! I met a wonderful friend for lunch...I washed my car and made it look pretty and we made an incredibly good sauce/smoked chicken sandwich that I would like to share with you today!
We got a Bradley Smoker for Christmas from our son, Patrick, and his wife, Melissa, and we have been experimenting with smoking all different kinds of meats. Kevin is NOT a fan of a whole chicken, but he relented and we decided to smoke a whole chicken just to see what happened.
So, although I didn't take any photos, you can use your imagination.
Take one whole 3-4 lb. chicken and brine it overnight. Don't know how to brine a chicken? Take 1/2 gallon of water, 1/4 cup of salt, 10 peppercorns, 1/4 cup of candied ginger, 1 cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Cool. Take the 'guts' out of the chicken, rinse it with cool water, pat it dry and place it in a bowl big enough to submerge in liquid. When the brine is cool, cover the chicken, and add enough ice to completely submerge the chicken. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse thoroughly. Pat it dry and place it on a tray. Sprinkle Santa Maria Seasoning in the cavity. Don't have Santa Maria Seasoning? Take equal amounts of garlic powder, kosher salt and black pepper and mix together. Presto! You have Santa Maria Seasoning!
Stuff the chicken with 1 small apple quartered, 1 small onion, quartered, 2 whole garlic cloves and 1 stalk of celery chopped. You can also add 1 small lemon, chopped if you want. (I didn't have any lemons so I didn't use it this time)  Make sure you close the openings- I just used skewers to keep the stuffing inside.
Rub the exterior of the chicken with oil (I used grapeseed oil) and sprinkle a generous amount of Santa Maria Seasoning all over, rubbing it into the skin.
Smoke until the breast is at 165 degrees and thighs are at 175 degrees. (about 4 /12 hours for us for a 5lb. chicken) Make sure to flip the chicken over at about 2 hours into the smoke.
In the meantime, make the sauce. Well, the smoked chicken does not actually NEED sauce, but this is pretty darn good!
I adapted this Big Daddy's Carolina Sauce since I didn't have liquid smoke and I actually cut the amounts in half. It was sweet, spicy, and tangy- just what we love in a BBQ sauce!
I also substituted the mustard with half Dijon mustard and half Apostolic Apricot Ginger Mustard from Mt. St. Angel Benedictine Sisters which is probably one of the best sweet mustards I've ever tried! Check them out!
Make the cole slaw. Kevin and I prefer a cole slaw made without mayo- take 1/4 cup of your favorite oil, 1/4 cup of your favorite vinegar, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and blend well. Toss with 6 cups of thinly cut cabbage (mixed with bell peppers, celery, onion, carrot or whatever else you like in your cole slaw) and drain.
Remove the chicken and let it cool slightly. Chop the chicken into quarters, and then, remove the skin (well, eat it, it's pretty darn tasty!) Shred the meat. (Save the bones for a smoky stock!)
Pile the chicken high on your favorite roll, and top with cole slaw. Add the warm sauce.
Enjoy!!!

We used freshly baked french rolls from Safeway....fresh from the oven. Still steaming in the bag.....These were DELICIOUS! And- we have enough chicken and sauce and slaw to eat this for...at least two days :)
Of course, we had corn on the cob, zucchini and a salad with homemade ranch dressing along with the sammies! Enjoy!

The Garden

I know I've been pretty quiet lately. I'm working through my feelings of grief over the loss of Gretchen. While I still have my moments of tears, I'm feeling better. Part of the reason is that since the weather has been fabulous, my garden is taking up more time.

This was the 'tomato' garden a couple of weeks ago. You can see the 'walls of water' protecting the plants from a couple of nights of frost. Oh, and the little red wagon is loaded with swiss chard. Bridget is making her rounds to help keep the chickens out of the tomato garden!

Here's part of that garden today...the tomato plants are all loaded with flowers, and the peppers are doing quite well. I got a terrific deal on some cages for the determinate Roma style tomatoes- they were $14 last year and bright red- this year, they were $3 and faded pink...but still sturdy and tall enough for the Romas.
You can also see that we finally got the drip system in on this side of the garden. It's working quite well!

The plumeria 'stick' that I bought in Hawai'i is sprouting beautiful huge leaves. The one downside of being able to leave it outside all day is that the chickens decided they wanted to sample the leaves. Fortunately, only one leaf was eaten and they have left it alone since. It's not poisonous for chickens, so it must taste horrible....as bad as the lemon leaves. They learned to not eat those leaves the hard way last year!

The other bad news is that the beet protection plan has been defeated by hungry chickens. Nearly all the tops of the beets in the raised bed planter are nibbled down to the roots. The girls learned that if they sat on the net, it lowered enough so they could get their greedy little beaks in and pluck all those tender green and red leaves. Argh.

I guess it's a small price to pay for the joy that these funny girls bring to both of us...as well as eggs and LOTS of poop. This is Squirt, the Light Brahma, eyeing the numerous Meyer's Lemons on my dwarf tree.

All About Gretchy

This past weekend has been very difficult for me and for Kevin. We unexpectedly experienced the death of our Yorkie, Tochter Panzer Gretchen, (which is her AKC name) Gretchen...or Gretchy, or Gretchita, or Gretch the Wretch, as Chris used to call her, teasingly, in the past.

Gretchen was a very unique dog. She tried SO hard to talk to me- she would look at me, bark, cock her head, as if to say, "Are you stupid? Don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you?" She was very intuitive, extremely driven, high energy, very talkative, and impatient-sounds like me, right? She was a wonderful combination of  a black and reddish gold dominant bitch (inherited from her father) and sweet, cuddly happy girl (inherited from her mother).
Kevin and I owned her father, Panzer General, who died in 2007. He was a gorgeous, tiny, 3 lb. blue and gold handful of titanium balls dog with a hoarse little bark who ruled the house. Her mother was an absolutely sweetheart of a black and reddish brown friendly Yorkie named Dinky who had a heart of gold and a constantly wagging tail who died in 2011.  Between the two of them, they gave their daughter brains, beauty and....a flaccid trachea (common in Yorkies).
She's the only Yorkie I've ever known that had a stronger ball drive than any of our German Shepherds. She consistently beat our GSD to the ball while playing catch in the back yard or at the dog park!
She would protect the couch like it was made out of gold- if Ceili, our German Shepherd (90 lbs) tried to get up on the couch, she would fly at her, barking like a nut and snapping as if she would bite her! It was HER couch, and by God, she would defend it!
She had a love-hate relationship with our other Yorkie, Bridget. Bridget is very quiet, shy and sweet. It just pissed Gretchen off that Bridget was calm! Sometimes she would attack Bridget and rip her ear open...other times, she would flirt and play with her. Often, they would cuddle together with the GSD. Wierd. 
Gretchen's most endearing habit was that she loved to cuddle with me...to a point. Usually, about 3AM, she would snuggle up next to me, usually under my chin, and fall asleep. Since she snored like a freight train, it always woke me up- but it was so sweet that I learned to sleep through it. However, if I didn't get up by 7:45AM she would start licking my nose and barking to make me wake up. Now, all of you probably know that I am a night owl and like to sleep in a little later...not with Gretchy around. Kevin would have to take her out of the room so I could sleep- but she would inevitably end up at the door, scratching to be let in...oh Gretchy.
Gretchy also LOVED the chickens. We called her the 6th chicken. They liked her, too. She could walk in their coop, hang out with them and even eat bread crumbs or lettuce leaves we tossed out for the chickens and they never flinched.
Gretchy had one, big, fat, giant sized puppy when she was 3 years old. She had him by C-section, and since she was asleep when she delivered him, she totally abandoned the poor baby as soon as she got home. Puppy? What puppy? I'm back to sleeping on the bed- not with this annoying little thing that needed to nurse! I think that Zephyr was the fastest-weaned puppy on the planet. She just barely tolerated the poor little guy! Fortunately, he went to a lovely family! 
The other thing we've been very surprised at is that she adored the snow! She would bound around, collecting as much snow as possible in her fur and disdaining the little jacket we bought for her. She would jump so deep in the snow that we lost her in it a couple of times! It didn't matter how cold outside, she loved running around and playing in the snow!  When she came in the house, she would hop up onto the fireplace hearth to melt the snow and warm up, but 5 minutes later, she was ready to go back outside! Fearless!
Gretchen had pneumonia a couple of times in the last 2 years here in Klamath Falls. Usually, Yorkies live quite long lives for dogs- usually 15-18 years. The doctors told us that she had an enlarged heart, because she had to struggle with the flaccid trachea and it made her heart work harder. We knew she wouldn't live as long as a normal Yorkie without the flaccid trachea-we just never expected that it would be the cause of the end of her life in such a sudden fashion at age 12.
Here are some pictures of our sweet girl- she loved her place on the back of the couch, and loved living life to the fullest. She is at peace now after a full 24 hours in an oxygen cage.
In honor of her, and all the parishioners at Sacred Heart, and all my friends who took the time to offer some comfort to us in our time of loss- I am reprinting a wonderful prayer. It's also in the parish bulletin this weekend...because, in reality, our beloved companion pets do give us a glimpse of the unconditional love that God has for us...Gretchen was always happy to see us, loved us no matter what or how grumpy we were, and only asked for clean water, food, and a ball to chase. Rest in peace, Gretchy. We miss you so much and are struggling with your loss. We know we will see you at the end of time- because God knows how much we love our pets.

In the name of God the Father,
who created you and all the animals,
in the name of Jesus the Son,
who spoke of you in parables and stories,
in the name of the Holy Spirit,
in whom every creature lives, moves, and has their being,
go now in peace, dear friend.
May you find rest near refreshing waters,
may you lie in cool, green pastures,
and may you warm yourself under the sun that never sets.
You have been my constant companion,
my shadow and confidante,
my comfort and playmate.
You filled my days with life and brought me endless joy.
For this I give thanks to God who gave you to me.
Now return to your Maker who eagerly waits for you
as you waited for me at the end of each day.
In the Father’s arms, let there be no more pain.
Let there be no more suffering.
Let there be only light as it was on the day God created you.
For our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, now and forever. Amen.

Projects and Pizza...

Kevin was gone this past weekend at the Knights of Columbus State Convention in Pendleton, Oregon. Yes, it's where Pendleton blankets and Pendleton shirts come from...it's about a 7 hour drive from our house.
While he was gone, I took advantage of the time to do several projects.
First, I wanted to make a chalkboard menu for quite a while, but I wasn't sure if I wanted a canvas one, or a chalkboard frame. I decided this weekend while garage sale-ing, that the frame was the thing!
I found this chalkboard frame at a garage sale for pretty cheap but I didn't like the blue color. I don't have very much light blue in my house (well, turquoise in the 'spring' bathroom colors but no where else) so I decided to paint the frame and glaze it to make it fit in my kitchen decor.

I made my own 'chalk' paint using 1/3 plaster of Paris slurry and 2/3 latex 'antique white' paint (Behr) It was an 'oops' can from Home Depot for....ta da! $2 a quart!! Score!
Then, I used a dry brush to add an antique copper glaze (Martha Stewart- yah it was like $6 for a 1 cup jar but I'll use it over and over) and after letting it dry, I used clear Minwax paste to buff it to a light finish. Pretty nice! Yes, that was dinner when Kevin got home- a couple of petit steaks on the BBQ with Santa Maria BBQ seasoning, roasted Yukon Gold baby potatoes, roasted Asparagus spears and some delicious homemade coleslaw with a vinaigrette dressing!
I also used the carpet cleaner to clean every square inch of carpet in our house (oh how I hate carpet) and I also cleaned every window and pretty much every surface in the house. I also took down all the 'spring' decor and put up the Americana decor in honor of Memorial Day! OK, I know, I'm early, but I do love the red,white and blue...
New copper metal lights on the beautiful antique windows...

Can you say, "I love Restoration Hardware" online ordering? Two day shipping? Just sayin'.....
Today, we planted the tomatoes- I am SO proud of how full the 'seed starts' turned out- only problem is that we mis-labeled them so we are hoping after matching leaves we end up with 7 Roma style tomatoes for canning at least! We are pretty sure we have one Sungold cherry and one Sweet million Cherry, and the rest are delicious, enormous slicing tomatoes!

We buried them deep and put all the Romas on the right side by the rainbarrels since they are determinate and won't grow as huge as the others. The ones on the right will get a lot of full sun (as will the Romas) to help them grow well! We decided against the 'Walls of Water' so far since it's gonna be in the high 70s and mid 80s over the next 10 days- and the nighttime temps will be in the mid 40s. They should be OK- they have been hardened off gradually so we will see. You can see the drip system we will get started later in the week- for now, we will water by hand. Oh and the little red Radio Flyer Wagon- that's the Chicken 'sin wagon'. That's been planted with a bunch of swiss chard (and you notice it's behind the fence) so we can let the Chickens feast later in the season.
I also tried a new recipe today for pizza. As you probably know, I LOVE Sunset Magazine and get a lot of inspiration on food, fun and places to visit there! I saw that Michael Chiarello (SERIOUSLY one of my favorite celebrity chefs EVah!!) had a series in the May edition of Sunset on fire roasted pizza with an asparagus pesto salad pizza.
So tonight, I made the 'asparagus pesto'. All I can say, is this is incredibly delicious! It would also be delicious tossed with Spaghetti squash!
Here's my edition- I didn't have pignolias (pinenuts) and I don't like cheese in my pesto- and it's still fantastic! 
1/2 lb of asparagus, washed, and the hard ends snapped off
1/2 cup of freshly washed and DRIED basil
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of almond flour 
1/4 cup of EVOO
1 tsp kosher salt (or grey sea salt or Hawaii'an sea salt which is what I used)
Toss all of this in the food processor for 3 minutes. Scrape into a bowl and use within 2 days. HA! As if it will last that long...
Make pizza dough. You know my fav recipe if you read this blog. If not, go to this site - the pizza dough is easy and FANTASTIC if you have a food processor William Sonoma Fantastic Pizza Dough
Cut pizza dough into 4 pieces. Roll out two of them and poke with a fork. (Very important) Bake at 450 degrees on a pizza stone for 5 minutes until a little browned. Add toppings and cheese and bake at 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Eat and enjoy!!

Kevin wanted red sauce, diced steak (leftover from last night) sauteed mushrooms and cheddar cheese with a little parmesano-romano; I had the asparagus pesto, artichoke hearts, diced fresh tomatoes and mostly paremesano-romano with a little cheddar. Yah, no pics of the finished pizza because...well, we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture. Sorry. You have to make this! It was GREAT!
 
So, today was a good day. A fun coffee talk with a friend, a little thunder and lightning, a little hail, a little super hard sideways pouring rain, some fun in the garden, a wonderful lunch of tacos and enchiladas at Jalepeno's, a delicious pizza dinner and it's time to watch some playoff hockey. GO KINGS!!! GO DUCKS....until you have the play the Kings, and then, GO KINGS!!!!

Our Big News!

This weekend I announced to the Sacred Heart Church community that I will be retiring this summer!
Kevin and I have decided that we need to spend more time together- traveling to see our family and seeing the United States! And SKIING  a LOT more!!!
I will miss working for the Church, but I will love even more the time on the road! I've always loved to drive and to see the country....I'll be heading to So Cal on Mother's Day weekend to visit MY MOTHER;  I was looking forward to a long 12 hour drive each way to sing out loud all the 70's music and country songs I know and not drive Kevin crazy...but my Mom worries so much when I'm on the road that she decided to buy me a ticket from Medford to the OC so she wouldn't worry!
I've always loved driving and traveling and especially, camping! I know, I grew up thinking that 'camping' was when we stayed at the Holiday Inn on our trips across country to Rhode Island from So Cal...but I always loved tent camping in the San Bernardino Mountains in So Cal  as a Girl Scout and when I found out Kevin's family were campers, I was all in!
My first trip with Kevin's family in their travel trailer was to Shaver Lake. It was an awesome trip- I knew this was the man I would marry after this trip! We ate lake-caught trout, took 25 cent showers for about an hour, walked a bunch of beautiful trails and slept out under the stars...well, remember, I was 18 at the time. In love- with the outdoors and a man who could start a fire anywhere. (figuratively and literally)
We kept tent camping after that...and a couple of years later, when Patrick was 6 weeks old, we took him tent camping in the Sequoias. I think his love of the outdoors started then....
After many tent camping trips to many memorable places such as Rock Creek, Zion, Santa Barbara and June Lake...we have finally graduated to a travel trailer. OK, I'm in my mid-50's. I've slept on the ground, on a pad, on an air mattress, and seriously, I'm tired of freezing my ass off in the snow and sleeping on rocks. And, I want to be able to drive to see stuff like Farmer's Markets and wine tasting and then, go back to my own little house on wheels so I can pee in the middle of the night without putting my coat on or encountering a freaking GIANT deer at the door of the women's bathroom at 2AM....hello, Zion! I think Pat, Chris and Kevin still remember that scream- like I was being murdered....but that's another story.
Here's our new baby...

It's an 18' Aljo with a walk around Queen bed, a 2 burner stove, a fridge (bigger than a dorm fridge!) a separate bathroom with a toilet and a real shower with a tiny tub (a door to keep the stink contained- ha ha) and LOTS of storage! We are in love...the past week since we've owned it, we've been out in the trailer almost every night, having a drink, eating dinner, dreaming about where we will travel...it has an air conditioner and a heater so the possibilities are endless...although, my friend Patty Kay said, " we don't have anywhere to heat up the Safeway Turkey Dinner for Thanksgiving Weekend in Mammoth"...God, I love Patty! So sure we will be doing the Mammoth Turkey Day Ski/Dinner/James Bond Fest in November 2012!!!
So, wish us well and you will be seeing more....tales from the road...along with recipes perfect for camping or a two burner dinner....and a tour of the Catholic Churches we encounter! By the way, Happy Orthodox Easter!!!

You will love these "Aloha" baby back ribs!

OK, please forgive me, I forgot to take pictures. I know, hard to believe since I usually have my trusty iPhone in hand....but I was so excited by using our new Bradley Electric Smoker that I just got into the recipe and food and failed to take pictures. You will love this recipe if you have a smoker, though!
Brian and Patty came over for dinner tonight. We haven't hung out with them for a while so we wanted to do something special and the first thing we though of was...ribs. And, cole slaw. And, Hawai'i.
Albertsons had a pretty good price for babyback ribs so we bought two full racks. Go Big, or Go Home is our motto!
We marinated them overnight with this mix that I made up since it sounded good and Hawai'ian-ish:
1/2 cup of tamari (dark soy sauce)
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
2 tbsp. of dried ginger ( I could not find fresh for the life of me although I would strongly suggest fresh!)
1/4 cup of pineapple juice ( or whatever you can drain from a small can of chopped pineapple)
1/4 cup of orange juice (or Sunny Delight, hey, use what you got!)
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. Hawai'ian salt (oh! just happened to have some around from our trip in Feb-Mar)
1 Tbsp. of freshly ground Szechwan peppercorns ( or red pepper flakes if you can't find them)

 Then today, I drained the marinade (SAVE THE MARINADE) , patted the ribs dry and deeply seasoned and patted in the following dry rub that was mixed together well:
2 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. Hawai'ian salt
2 tbsp. smoked sweet paprika
2 tbsp. light brown sugar

Then, we put them in the smoker at 225 degrees on a couple of racks for 1.5 hours.
Boil the marinade for at least 5 minutes. Add some water if needed, so it doesn't turn into a sludge. Cool.

After the bark has developed on the ribs, remove from the smoker and place each set of ribs in an aluminum foil pack with a little of the boiled marinade brushed on either side. Seal tightly and place all the rib packs on a tray in a 300 degree oven. Bake for 2 hours.

Unwrap, and serve. This does not need sauce. We served a vinaigrette cole slaw, brown jasmine rice and a mix of zucchini and yellow squash.
YUM.
Sorry for no pics, but I was otherwise engaged!
Oh, and serve with a wonderful old vine zin....like Twisted Old Vine Zin. We drank several bottles...and didn't need any desert!