Zucchini Pie

Zucchini is one of those things I can't get enough of in the summer. When I found this recipe I knew I had to try it and so I did... and we eat it regularly. It's easy, fast, has a great flavor, and it makes all the mouths in my house (and some other houses) happy. It is easily doubled and makes for easy sharing if you have to bring a meal to someone for whatever reason.

Compliments of Dinners for a Year.

1 pie crust, unbaked
Dijon mustard
1/4 cup butter
4 cups sliced zucchini
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups shredded cheese, I used a combination sharp cheddar and mozzarella
2 extra large eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Line a pie plate with the pie crust and brush with Dijon mustard. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large saute pan and add zucchini and onion. Saute for about 8 minutes. Add the parsley, salt, pepper, oregano and garlic salt. Toss to coat. Should look something like this:


Cool slightly and then add cheese and eggs and mix. Pour into the prepared pie crust and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Now for Kelly's notes:

If you want to keep it a little simpler, just add a couple shakes of season salt, a pinch of dried oregano, and some dried parsley. It's a different taste, for sure, but it's still very yummy.

Also, you can use a frozen pie crust but there are two issues with that. The first is that sometimes a frozen crust isn't going to cook evenly on the bottom. In this way, you kind of chance it if you use frozen. Second, the come in packages of two and I don't think they keep very long so you'll want to either double the recipe or make another pie. Both good solutions!

Utensil Holder

I recently was given a little gadget that I have fallen in love with. My husband found it at World Market. For all I know the rest of the world may have three of these per person but it was new to me so I thought I'd share it.

I have no idea what it's called because I opened it too quickly to care. I call it the spoon holder but really it holds all manner of cooking utensil.

You see, it clips onto the side of you pan like so:

It keeps your utensil from touching the stove top thereby eliminating messes on your stove top and, in my case, getting other stove top messes on the spatula. Pretty ingenious, eh?

Also, there's never a reason not to wash it because it can go essentially anywhere in your dishwasher with no trouble.


I love it. Just a little something else to make life easier and who couldn't use that?

Wodden Letters

I made these wooden letters for my little girls, each when they were in my belly and one still is. It's a lot of fun to decorate with letters and words and it's even more fun if you decorate the actual letters before you put them up.

It's a very simple process to make these letters and doesn't take very much time or talent. Here's a list of things you need:

A wooden letter, any size but preferably larger than 6 in.
Patterned craft paper
Mod Podge
A medium sized craft paint brush
A pencil
Scissors
Embellishments that may include:

• Tag board cut outs
• Ribbon
• Buttons
• Stickers
• Craft pens
• Glitter
• Sequins

Hot glue gun with glue OR heavy duty craft glue

The first step, which isn't hard, just difficult to explain, is the hardest part. Begin by laying the wooden letter face down on the back of the paper. Let me clarify: lay your paper down on the table so the side you want glued to the letter is face up. Now put your wooden letter down so that you see the back part that will be touching the wall. (I may have overdone it but it's important to have this right.) With your pencil, trace, as close as possible, the outline of your letter onto the paper.

Remove your letter. Cut out the backwards letter from your piece of paper.

At this point, if you want two papers on the letter trace the letter again in like fashion and cut it out. The second picture (above, the G) was done like this. I actually even did a cute little torn edge on the left hand side but ended up covering it up because it also happened to be right where I wanted the nametag to go. Go figure!

Turn your letter over so that the front is now facing your. Place your paper on, right side up so that you see the pattern on the letter as you want to in the finished product. Make any cutting adjustments needed. Once you have it just the way you want it, brush a good layer of Mod Podge over the wooden letter. Carefully place the paper on top of the Mod Podge, making sure not to wrinkle it or trap very much air. You have some flexibility once it's on there but not much.

At this point, if you are doing two papers (or more, it's your letter!) paint a full coat of Mod Podge over the letter and get your second layer in place. Once the second layer of Mod Podge is dry, do another coat over the entire front of the letter so that any exposed paper is sealed. If you were doing only one paper, after you have put that in place, seal it in with Mod Podge as well.

Once that last coat of Mod Podge has dried, you're ready to decorate. This is the fun part! Do a dry run with all your embellishments. Try moving things about and putting things where you might not imagine. Clumps of things such as stickers and ribbon can compliment each other very well and even if you'd imagine a crowded look, it might end up looking cute.

Now, I haven't done one of these for a boy yet but I would really like to. I have so many cute idea dealing with little sports memorbelia, littler wooden cutouts, and the like. I would love to see one of these done for a little boy.

I hope you have fun making a wooden letter. I've done this a couple times now so I may have left something out. If you have any questions on the process, please let me know!

Sour Cream Banana Bread

Recently my husband committed to some very early morning meetings at church and I immediately started thinking how sad I was for him that he'd be missing out on our Sunday morning breakfasts. But wait, doesn't that mean I will too? How do you cook a big yummy breakfast on Sunday before 8.30 for 1 person while taking care of a 13 month old baby? So, sadness all around, I suppose.

But I did make the immediate connection that he'd need some nourishment on the go in the morning. That's when I found this recipe for banana bread made with sour cream. It is quite possibly the best banana bread I have ever eaten. I think part of that is due to the tangy sour cream but I am certain another reason is how you prepare the pans. Intrigued? Wish to learn more? Ok, I give. Here's the recipe.

This makes 4 loaves so the measurements in the parentheses are to cut it down to two.

1/4 cup (2 T.) white sugar
1 teaspoon (1/2 t.) ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (6 T.) butter
3 cups (1 1/2 c.) white sugar
3 (1 1/2) eggs
6 (3) very ripe bananas, mashed
1 - 16 ounce container (1 cup) sour cream
2 teaspoons (1 t.) vanilla extract
2 teaspoons (1 t.) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (1/4 t.) salt
3 teaspoons (1 1/2 t.) baking soda
4 1/2 cups (2 1/4 c.) all-purpose flour
1 cup (1/2 c.) chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Grease four 7x3 inch loaf pans. I use Crisco for this but I imagine butter would work well. I wouldn't recommend Pam or another spray because of the next step.

In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Dust pans liberally with this cinnamon and sugar mixture. In a large bowl (seriously, even if you're doing the 2 loaf version, make it a pretty big bowl. I wish my bowl had been larger), cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Stir in nuts. Divide into prepared pans. Bake for about 1 hour, until you are able to press lightly on the top of the loaf with no gushy feeling below and when you shake the pan, there's no wiggle.

Allow your loaves to cool on a cooling wrack for a bit and then turn them out onto the wrack to continue to cool.

Notes: You may have noticed that the halved version calls for 1 and 1 half eggs. This can be done by beating the eggs beforehand and then adding about 75% of the mixture. You'll be wasting half an egg but it's better than adding two whole eggs. At least, I think it is.

Also, I have made this with and without nuts. I think people expect nuts in banana bread but even if you don't like nuts, it's still awesome. I'm actually getting a little rumbly in my stomach just thinking about this exquisite moist bread. If you don't like walnuts, substitute pecans. I LOVE pecans but I still went with walnuts and it turned out great.

Freezer Salsa

picture taken once 2 containers were already opened.
one was given away, one was already thawed and in our refrigerator.

This recipe comes from my friend and former roommate Katie. She taught me to make freezer salsa when I was still afraid to touch jalapenos. I've gotten better but I still don't like to do it when I'm alone with the baby.

A freezer recipe by definition needs to be frozen. I'm not sure just why or how but the flavors change and they deepen. Also, these recipes are designed to increase the life of your chosen food. Also, there are containers designed specifically for this purpose. I like the ones by Ball because they stack well and have great lids.

This tomato salsa recipe has just the right amount of spice for me. I'd compare it to a Pace salsa, medium. If you like it spicier than that, you'll have to play around with the jalapenos and cayenne a bit.

8 c. diced, seeded tomatoes (this is about 8-9 on the vine size tomatoes)
2 med. green bell peppers, chopped
2 lg. yellow onions, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
3/4 c. tomato paste (1, 6 oz. can)
2/3 c. condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1/2 c. white vinegar
2 T. sugar
2 T. salt
1 T. cayenne pepper
4 1/2 t. garlic powder OR 3-4 cloves garlic, minced

To seed your tomatoes, cut each in 8ths and then take out the juicy, seedy part so just the moist meat part of the tomato is left. Discard.

Now, either cut all the veggies to the size you want with a knife or hand chopper OR be awesome and put it in your food processor ( - in batches, it's a lot. I think I did 4 batches.) and pulse it 6-8 times or until it's to your desired chunkiness.

In a large saucepan (at least 5 qts.) combine all ingredients and give it a good stir. Bring to a boil, slowly, making sure nothing on the bottom it burned. Reduce heat (I boil at 6-7 heat and simmer at a 3) and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring often. When done cooking, pour into small freezer containers. Cool at room temp for about an hour. Cover and freeze up to 3 months. Defrost in refrigerator.

Notes: There are a few ingredients you can play with in this, but just the amounts. You can add more or less jalapenos, cayenne, or garlic. It's a nice balance as it is but I add a little more cayenne and a little less garlic, about 3 heaping teaspoons of garlic powder.

If you don't freeze this, it won't be as good. We seriously freeze all our containers and then take 1 out after two days and defrost it on the counter because it has to defrost fast enough for our taste buds not to start a mutiny. We made this salsa last Christmas and gave it to a lot of our family. Two of Ted's brother's polished off a whole container (as in one container each brother) in one sitting. It's very tasty.

This recipe will make 10 cups of salsa (approx. 5 containers) and with a food processor takes about 30 minutes of prep time, without it takes closer to an hour. Cooking time is approximately 1 hour - 15 minutes to bring to a boil, 45 minutes to simmer.

Mango Salsa

This Mango Salsa recipe is from the Salsa Brava cookbook, a yummy place to eat in Flagstaff, Arizona. Some friends of ours made this salsa recipe for us a couple weeks ago and we fell in love. We quickly made it for some other friends and from there it has just exploded. If you like fruit salsa I would highly recommend this sweet favorite. If you are making this for more than 2 people, you should double it. I repeat, you SHOULD double this recipce!

2 mangoes, peeled and diced
1/4 c. diced RED bell pepper
1/4 c. diced red onion
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
Juice of 3 limes
2 jalapenos, cleaned (seeded) and diced
salt or pepper to taste

Combine all. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Notes: If (when!) you double this, I would recommend using no more than 3 jalapenos (even for the bold) because the spice will out do the sweetness of the mangoes. Also, only up the limes to 4. More than that and the lime taste will overpower. Also, we prefer this chilled but it is also god at room tempterature. If you would prefer your salsa chilled, allow the flavors to blend that last 20 minutes in the refrigerator rather than on the counter. Either way, cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap.

This recipe makes approximately 2 cups of salsa, around 4 cups if doubled. It will take you about 20 minutes of prep and 30 horrid minutes of waiting for the flavors to meld.