Zucchini Bread Madness!

Over the years I've mixed up some recipes due to allergies, mainly eggs. The dreaded egg allergy!!

Today's mixed up recipe... 

Zucchini Bread 

So here goes!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2/3 cup oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 large banana (instead of sugar), mashed
1/4 cup apple sauce (instead of eggs)
1/2 cup maple syrup (for extra sweetener)
1 cup carrots (grated)
2 cup zucchini (grated)
1 cut chopped nuts (optional)


Mix together banana, apple sauce, buttermilk, oil, baking soda and baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla; mix until all ingredients are well blended. Add zucchini, carrots and nuts to mixture, blend together. Slowly add flour to the mix until well blended.

Pour into greased bread pans (2) or muffin tins. I used one mini muffin tin and a small bread pan.

Bake 325 degrees for 1 hour, but check at 45 minutes.

May you find comfort in your own zucchini madness!

Postings of the past III

Tea time!

Who among us has not gone to a tea shop or steeped your own at home? In fact with all the thingy-bobs to make your tea in or with, its a miracle that anyone even uses the stove still to brew their own leaves. Of course I still use a stove, call me old-fashioned, I know I am!

Back in the 1800s there were no thingy-bobs to plug in, no plastic drainey-bobs, and in fact there were no bobs at all, take my word for it. 

"Afternoon Tea is a tea-related ritual, introduced in Britain in the early 1840s. It evolved as a mini meal to stem the hunger and anticipation of an evening meal at 8pm.Afternoon Tea is a meal composed of sandwiches (usually cut delicately into 'fingers'), scones with clotted cream and jam, sweet pastries and cakes. Interestingly, scones were not a common feature of early Afternoon Tea and were only introduced in the twentieth century."

 Gasp! Okay, I am gasping at two things, 1) Eating at 8pm! Nobody in our household does that! (Correction: nobody in our household does that often enough for me to confess it). 2) How could you not have scones! For me afternoon tea started in my grandmother's kitchen, with lots of cousins and, of course, grandma. She would be baking cookies and such (scones) and we cousins would be salivating like little starving puppies, we weren't starving, but we were pretty adorable, like puppies.
Grandma always let us help when she was in the kitchen, and for me I always anticipated licking the spoon and then, finally, enjoying what we had spent the morning making.

Grandma had wonderful collections of tea dishes and linens, some that she crafted but most were made by my great-grandmother. The best part, some of them I've gotten through the years.

As a child, the tea and crumpets, as we grew up calling them, were the best. But today, I have a hard time picking favorites. Peach Iced Tea served with Cranberry & Turkey sandwich, Cucumber and Dill sandwiches, Cream Tuna over biscuits, Lemon Bar Cookies, scones, scones, and any other sweets that accompanied the meal (scones).

Looking back at the memories and keepsakes, of which there are many, the best keepsakes are the linens. Though they are well used and showing some age, it is remarkable how well crafted they are. The women who owned them before I wanted fine things for the home, but with the cost of life and living it was most often more economical to use leftover cotton and linen to make and embroider decorative linen for the home. 

As a child I did not realize the time, love, and effort that went into these items, but now that I'm grown I can see the treasures that they are. Feeling the tatted edges I can recall watching my grandmother rocking in her chair by the fireplace, her fingers working away at some beautiful creation. And how happy that I have both the creations she and my great-grandmother made and the rocking chair they made them in. 

May you find comfort in your tea cup (and scones)!

Canning Pasta Sauce

Recipe: Canned Spaghetti Sauce

8 pounds *tomatoes 
4 tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic diced
3/4 cup red wine
1/3 cup wine Vinegar
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice (this thickens your sauce)
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tsp Italian seasonings
1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
1/4 cup sage chopped
1/8 cup thyme chopped
1/4 cup oregano
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1 tbs maple syrup
1 tbs salt (after cooking salt to taste)
pepper to taste


Add-ins: green pepper, mushrooms, shallots

*you can blanch and skin tomatoes before adding (place tomatoes in sink, pour boiling water over them, soak until you can safely handle, the skins should pull right off when sliced open). 
This time I chose not to, for more pep and a thicker sauce!






Heat oil and add garlic. Sauté lightly, add vinegars, wine, and spices

Add the tomatoes. Bring to boil. Simmer for 60 minutes or until desired consistency. Cool and blend using blender to smooth sauce. For a chunky sauce add chopped vegetables (add-ins) into sauce after blending.

Can while sauce is hot (temperature-wise)
Jars need to be hot also. This is accomplished by setting a cake pan with hot water in it on the stove top. Place your jars in the water and turn on low heat.

Once jars are hot (and sauce), ladle sauce into the jars. Fill leaving an 1" head space. Wipe off tops, place lid and ring on top, tighten, and place in hot water bath for 40 minutes. Start your timer once the water is boiling. 

Remove jars from water, place upside down on a towel and cover with another towel, until cool.


Tada! Sounds easy doesn't it! Well that's because it is!


Shout out to my niece Katrina who recently jarred her own peaches!

May you find some saucy comfort in your life!
P.S. Have you checked out my Etsy store yet? Find saucy items made just for you here!

Gardens and Gardening

Gardening and the memories of...

I remember the huge garden that my parents planted every year growing up. All the wonderful fresh vegetables and fruits we had, right from our own yard. Not to mention the apple tree - something I am happy to find here in Minnesota.

Some of my fondest memories growing up were gleaning in the farmer's fields, that is, collecting the imperfect fruits and vegetables left over in the fields after harvest.

Taking the harvest home and canning it up, or drying out the fruit and vegetables for when winter came. Now more than ever I am feeling the need to get back to those roots. Though it is still beautiful here in the midwest, now is definitely the time to plan ahead for when the grass turns from green to white. This year with moving into a new home I opted to do container gardening and just planted a few items zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.

Gleaning and gardening have evolved over time and farmers who used to sell their produce at the end of the road now gather in their communities to sell, which is a constant reminder for me to tend to my own back yard greens. Don't have your own space to grow stuff? Check out Gardening Matters: "Community gardens allow families and individuals without land of their own the opportunity to produce food, and provide a place for gardeners to share knowledge and skills." Find a community garden day location near you OR host your own!

Did the word gleaning peak your interest? Minnesotans check out the following:

 The Minnesota Project     Fruits of the City – We will be expanding the program this year and harvesting more surplus fruit from fruit trees in the Twin Cities. 

 Facebook Garden Gleaning Project.  The Garden Gleaning Project facilitates the harvesting and distribution of fresh produce from private and community gardens for use at local food shelves in Hennepin County Minnesota.

Refrigerator Pickles
From the Kitchen of Rosemary Walser (Grandma)

2 to 3 cucumbers (or other vegetables)
1 onion, sweet
1 stalk of celery
2 clove of garlic
        Slice vegetable to your preferred size
2T salt
2 cup sugar (I use 1 cup brown and 1/4 cup maple syrup)
2 cup vinegar
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp ground ginger
         In sauce pan bring water, sugar, and salt to boil let simmer for 5 min.

For this recipe  I've improvised the vegetable list to include the following from our Local Farmers Market and from my backyard. I used: 

Carrots | Cauliflower | Banana Peppers | Green Peppers | Red Onion

In glass container, I use two large quart canning jars, (you may need more), add vegetables, then place full jar on folded towel and tap. This is to settle the vegetables into jar; then you can add more vegetables until the jar is packed full (it's okay to over fill).

Add hot liquid to the jars and tap jar to remove air pockets.

Let cool then tighten lid down and refrigerate.

You can start eating as soon as they are cold!

These will keep for 2 to 3 months in refrigerator.

Enough of that, I've got to go eat some refrigerator pickles!

Wishing you comfort in your carrot picklin' life!