Month: August 2018

Anybody who has ever planted zucchini in their garden, knows the struggle is real.  As of today, we are losing a battle against the zucchini that seems to appear out of nowhere, hours after harvest.  We plant it every year because it is a reliable vegetable, we know that when all else fails, we will have zucchini for weeks to provide us with vegetables.  However, this reliable plant is not easily preserved, so for several weeks from mid summer to early autumn, I find myself in search of creative and tasty recipes that call for zucchini.  Today, I found something in a cookbook, but changed it a bit so that I could use ingredients I have on hand.  Not sure what to name it, maybe Dammit, I Have More Zucchini.

2 Medium Zucchini, sliced

Several tomatoes, chopped

Handful of Basil

Bread Crumbs (I used the ignored end pieces of bread in my pantry)

Parmesan Cheese (As much as you want to help the zucchini taste better)

salt and pepper

 

Layer the zucchini and tomatoes as you would lasagna.  Top off with bread crumbs, basil and cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I have not baked it yet, I leave for work in a bit so my husband will cook it.  We will be eating this for dinner with a side salad of tomatoes and the other summer over producer, cucumbers.  My 16-year-old will be thrilled to be eating another meal that includes all these ingredients.

This is a great recipe for when you want to make something delicious out of a vegetable. I know that I am not a fan of zucchini, but I really like these brownies.

I got this recipe from crazyforcrust.com

Ingredients

For brownies:

2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 cups of shredded zucchini (This would be one large zucchini or two small smaller zucchinis)

3-5 tablespoons of water

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

For frosting:

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1/4 cup of melted butter

2 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

Direction:

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 baking pan and set it aside.

Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a medium sized bowl and set it aside.

Use an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and mix the oil, sugar, and vanilla together until well combined. Then add the dry ingredients and stir. Fold in the zucchini and let it sit for  a few minutes so the moisture is absorbed by the zucchini. If the mixture is still powdery add up to 5 tablespoons of water, starting with 1. The batter should be thick. Add walnuts and then spread batter into the pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Make the frosting by whisking the butter, cocoa, salt, and powdered sugar. Whisk in the milk and vanilla. Allow the brownies to cool and then spread the frosting over them.

This is the whole recipe and it is very easy to make, and they are so good!

 

We harvested the little bit of Kale that we were able to salvage tonight.  The salad that I make with Kale is delicious!  I actually love it.

Kale Salad

1 bunch Kale

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

 

Shred kale into strips, add all ingredients to bowl.  Mix oil and vinegar and add toss with salad.

What do you do to save money?  To live frugally? To live a life that makes you happy and feel complete?  Simple living and frugal living are buzz words these days, ideals that my husband and I were raised on.  We have tried  (and have failed often) to live our adult lives this way.  But, for the most part, we live very frugally.  We enjoy the simple things in life and try to appreciate what we have.  Here is a partial list of the things we do to live a frugal lifestyle:

1. We rarely eat out.  Maybe twice a month and it’s for lunch.  I cannot remember the last time we ate in a restaurant, as a family, for dinner.  Maybe December and we used a gift card.
2. We reuse and repair as much as possible.  Eric is the best DIY’er I know.  If it needs fixing, he can do it.  If he can’t, it’s not fixable.
3. I make most of our cleaning products.  All you need is vinegar, water, baking soda, vodka and essential oils.
4. We use the library.  I wrote a post about the library.
5. We buy in bulk.  Not just Costco bulk, but the bulk department at the grocery store.
6. We meal plan.  I try to plan our meals a month in advance.  That does not mean we always follow that plan, but it’s a useful guide.
7. We rarely go to the mall or Target.  Enough said.
8. We grow a lot of our vegetables (fully disclosure, this summer has been a dud for that so far).
9. Eric makes his own beer and wine
10. We line dry as much laundry as we can.  This can be difficult when the days are to humid or it’s raining.  But, we try.
11. We use cash, for the most part.  Online purchases require a credit card.

We also do a lot of things that are not frugal:

1. We have 3 dogs, which means a lot of dog food, vet bills and preventative meds.  They bring us joy though and that is what life is.
2. We have 3 kids, which means a lot of food, dr bills and college tuition.  They are the reason I am here and make every single day worth living.
3. We might eat at home, but we buy good food and never regret it.
4. I don’t use manufacturers coupons very much.  I find that they rarely offer what I would buy and if I would buy it, I don’t need it.
5. I have a candle obsession, which I am trying to temper by making my own at home.  But the obsession is real.
6. We have gym memberships that we don’t use enough, but enjoy them when we can.

Life is about balance and I think that for the most part, we live a balanced life that helps us achieve our goals.  What are some of the things you do stay frugal?  I always love new ideas.

 

So far this summer, our garden has not been providing us with as much of a bounty as previous years.  I blame that epic blizzard we had on April 15th!  However, we have been getting a steady amount of cucumbers.  Too many for your typical dinner salad but not enough for a full day of canning.  Instead, I am making refrigerator pickles.

 

The recipe is simple.

Refrigerator Pickles

Last weekend we picked up the half pig that we ordered from a local farmer.  The cost for 122 pounds of locally raised, organic pork came to $3.50 pound.  We have a freezer full of bacon, breakfast links, Italian sausage, ham, pork chops, pork roast, ham hocks and a Wisconsin favorite, bratwurst!  It is safe to say that our freezer is full.

For my local friends, we bought from Melissa’s Farm.  She sells wonderful eggs, her meat is always fresh and the Thanksgiving turkeys are a wonderful, seasonal treat.  In addition to animal products, we often see local honey and maple syrup.  The farm is 4 miles from our house.  We appreciate knowing where our food came from and knowing that the animals were treated humanely.

Purchasing a pig with a daughter who is a vegan and another who is a vegetarian did come with controversy.  I respect their choices and understand their point of view.  I myself was a vegetarian for a while.  As I have gotten older, I have realized that for myself, eating meat is okay.  We make every effort to make sure that our meats come from farms that highlight the buzzwords of the food industry.  Free range, organic, hormone free, antibiotic free, humanely raised and local.  We try.  I appreciate and acknowledge that many reading this may not agree with me and instead agree with my daughters.  My only response would be that I respect everyone’s choice, please respect the choice Eric and I have made.  Okay off the preemptive soap box.

Our box included ham and a ham hock.  Fall is coming and Split Pea Soup season is on the horizon.  Please send me your favorite soup recipes so that I can get the most of that ham hock.

Yesterday Eric decided it was time to harvest some honey from the four bee hives that he keeps.  He picked up a two frame honey extractor and all of the other miscellaneous equipment needed.  It’s a bit of an investment but amortized other the years it will pay off. Eric just started beekeeping last year with only one hive and didn’t get much honey from it.  This year he upped his game and has three.  One hive is from a captured swarm in July so we don’t expect to get any honey from that one this year.  One of the other hives has been to say it mildly, crazy… it already has three honey supers on it while the other two only have one each.  Eric obviously chose to harvest the hive with the three supers.  

Upon inspection of the frames he found that about eighteen frames had capped honey.  He gently bushed the bees off of the frames and swapped them with empty ones.  Since Eric is rather new to this, he readily admits that mistakes were made and lessons to be learned.  

First lesson don’t extract the honey where the bees can find you… He had set up his honey extractor in the garage which is on the other side of our house from the bees.  Everything appeared to  be going well but soon after starting the bees found him.  When I peeked out there to see how things were going he was completely swarmed by bees, thousands of them.  The sad thing about this is all of the bees that drown in the honey while trying to eat it.  Next time he says that he’s going to set up his equipment in the sun room and keep it well shut so that he doesn’t have to deal with the bees.  

All said he got about four and a half gallons of honey from those eighteen frames.  Unfortunately he also has a small bucket of a mixture of wax and dead bees.  He is going to let all of the equipment sit out by the hives so that the bees can clean it all off for him and then try to recover the wax for me to make candles.  So it was a good harvest of honey and probably in the coming weeks he’ll extract honey from the other two hives.  He wants to have everything extracted before September so that he can prepare to get them ready for the winter.  That will be the topic of another blog post.