How Does Your Garden Grow?

A blogging friend recently posed the question, "How Does Your Garden Grow?" in her family blog.  My answer:  greener and greener!

Most of the veggies and fruits are growing and thriving.  The strawberry patch yielded more berries than we knew what to do with.  Our tomato plants have little green tomatoes growing...and I'm craving some fried green tomatoes!

The zucchini plants are doing especially well as you can see from our first harvest of the summer!








We haven't been so fortunate with all of our crops, though.  Despite our fence, some little critters still snuck their way in and devoured our corn, pea and bean plants.  We've replanted all three and need to get some smaller meshed fencing to put around the bottom of our existing fence.  Only one of our watermelons and one of our pumpkins took.  You can see the one surviving corn stalk:

Luckily for me, my favorite recipe only requires zucchinis...and lots of them!  I brought the zucchinis into the house and shredded up the four biggest to get myself 12 cups of shredded zucchini...just enough for six loaves of zucchini bread...my favorite summer recipe.  Making, baking, and freezing zucchini bread has become a sacred summer ritual for me.

The recipe I use is delicious and can be altered in all kinds of fun ways.  For example, a cup of chocolate chips to the mix makes a yummy dessert.  If your sweet tooth craves something besides chocolate, try topping the bread with cream cheese icing.  Also, if you're out of zucchini, you can make substitutions with other shredded veggies from your garden or fridge such as summer squash, carrots, or pumpkin.  Finally, if your not the nutty type, feel free to hold the walnuts...the bread will still be quite delicious. 

Homemade Zucchini Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups shredded zucchini (with some of the liquid drained off)

3 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 beaten eggs

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of chopped walnuts

Preparation:

1.  Grease the bottom of two bread pans.

2.  Blend ingredients, scraping the bowl often.

3.  Pour into pans.  Be careful not to fill the pans to the tops...the bread will expand as it bakes.

4.  Bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 10 minutes. 

5.  Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

So, how does your garden grow?

 

 

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Bon Voyage!

Like so many Northerners, I headed south to Florida for my summer vacation.  Unlike most tourists, when I go to Florida, I stay with my sister out in the Florida countryside...well away from the beach.  I love her new house and the great big yard out back!

 Hanna loves playing in her new yard!

 Even though it was raining and cloudy for the first 5 days I was there, I had a great time babysitting my niece and just hanging out.  We found other fun things to do with our time like blowing bubbles, riding a bike and building a doll house to play with!

 An excellent rainy day project...Hanna even helped with things like gluing and smoothing on the contact paper.





One cloudy and drizzly day, we went to the zoo and took pictures of the animals...I used my camera, and Hanna used her Leap Pad and tried my camera!  We saw lots of neat animals, but Hanna's favorite was the peacock.

I loved the monkeys!

On the first nice day, we went swimming at the PGA National Resort and Spa!  It was finally a great day for swimming!

Later that day, I got to see Hanna perform in her dance recital.  Her adorable antics made the whole crowd chuckle.  The Lion King dance routine with her 2-4 year old age group was precious.

On Sunday we went to visit with our family in Geneva, Florida which is further North.  We enjoyed spending time with my 93 year old grandpap, my aunt and uncle and cousins.

Finally with two days left of my trip, the sun really came out and we hit the beach.  We drove to the coast and met my sisters' sister-in-law and her kids at Juno beach for the day.  Hanna and I both love swimming in the ocean.

 

Finally on my last day, we got some carrots and set off on a bike ride to the end of Hanna's new street.  Her neighbor owns an assortment of goats and sheep that Hanna couldn't wait to go feed.  She was a little hesitant at first but soon called the petit animals her friends.

I can't wait until Hanna and her mommy and daddy come to visit us in Pennsylvania in July so we can have lots more fun together!






 
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