zucchini cookies

sounds a bit odd, but they're really good. i got the recipe from my everyday food magazine. it's a great mix of lemon zest, cornmeal, and finely grated zucchini. the inside is chewy with a great crunch at the bottom. not bad at all.

zuke boats v2

this time they were stuffed with ground beef, garlic, onion, green pepper (from the garden), diced tomatoes and basil & oregano (both from the garden). topped with mozz cheese and baked for 20 minutes. the zukes were still a little crunchy, so next time i'm going to bake them longer.

zucchini bread

i knew it was going to be good since it's a paula deen recipe. check it out here. i used mini chocolate chips for this one too...and it took a full 15 minutes longer than the recipe suggests to bake them. who knows if it's my easy bake oven or the recipe.

zucchini boats

last night was easily the hottest, most humid night of the summer. so i decided to bake zucchini for dinner.

i cut two zucchinis in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, and filled them with cooked ground turkey, sour cream, oregano, and artichoke hearts. i topped them with breadcrumbs and baked until the zucchini was just starting to get soft.

zucchini cupcakes

since we picked 25+ zucchinis in july, i've got to start finding something to do with them besides grilling. so today i made chocolate chip zucchini cupcakes from this recipe. i used mini chocolate chips, regular vegetable oil instead of coconut oil, and milk instead of buttermilk. i also topped them with a cinnamon glaze. delish.

definitely something i can make in the winter...since i now have 10 cups worth of grated zucchini in my freezer.

what the heck is this?

it's growing in our front yard next to the cherry tree (so it's deliberate and not a weed), but i have no clue what the heck it is.

any clue?

july garden update

the garden is coming along nicely, with a few hiccups:

- only 2 of my entire pack of cucumber seeds came up. what a bummer, since we easily eat a cucumber a day.
- none (that's right, not a single one) of my honeydews came up. lame.
- something (i think it's a rabbit) ate off the tops of two of my roma plants. good news is some of the others have flowers on them now. hopefully those don't get eaten too.

on a good note...
- green beans are going nuts and green peppers have flowers on them
- carrots still look good and now that the holes in the fence are patched, the rabbit shouldn't be eating them anymore
- corn is definitely on track since it's past knee high already
- the honeydew stinks but we have about 12-14 watermelon plants that made it
- we've got some baby zucchinis coming already too

gardening nerd project

so it's been a while. ok, more than a while, but i'm busy. a little more than 4 months til the wedding and two weeks in the house. i've got a great little summer nerd project going.

i planted vegetables and herbs in both gardens and some random pots in the back. i'm curious to see how much $$ i can really save by growing my own produce, so here's how the costs broke down:

$3.25 6pack basil plants
$3.48 oregano plant
$3.48 lemon basil plant
$3.48 lemon balm plant
$8.63 rosemary bush
$3.25 6pack green pepper plants
$3.48 9pack silver queen corn plants
$3.50 6pack zucchini plants
$1.00 organic green bean seeds
$1.50 corn seeds
$1.19 organic watermelon seeds
$1.19 honeydew seeds
$1.49 carrott seeds
$1.50 organic cucumber seeds
$2.00 6pack roma tomato plants
$8.47 potting soil (lemon balm, oregano, and lemon basil are in pots)
$29.94 2 plastic pots
$14.97 rake
$95.37 2 hoses with nozzles
$14.00 4 tomato cages
Total = $205.17
Total plants & seeds only = $50.89

no, i am not adding the cost of labor, water, and fertilizer. i didn't use any fertilizer this year (i'm sure in subsequent years i'll need it and will add the cost into it then) and plan on using most of the water my basement dehumidifier (that would normally get poured down the drain).

i'm keeping track of how much grows and we harvest. we've already got parsley, peppermint, spearmint, and chives growing outside, so i'll keep track of those too. i'll post the summary at the end of the summer. it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.