My Friend Vicki gave us a HUGE zucchini from her community garden plot last week and I decided to go {sweet} with it rather than the usual savory.
: Coconut Almond Zucchini Bread :
3 cups AP flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 tsp. almond extract
2 cups grated zucchini {3-4 small zukes}
1/4 cup grated coconut {unsweetened}
Grease your bundt pan {I used a little butter}. Preheat oven 10 325*. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a bowl. Beat eggs, oil, almond extract and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and coconut until well combined. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 20 minutes. Place a plate over the top of the bundt pan and flip over…bread will fall from the pan on it’s own.
This recipe was a happy accident…I had run out of vanilla and cinnamon and substituted with almond extract and the coconut instead. It turned out very moist and the almond & coconut were a little something out of the ordinary. Next time I will make these into muffins. You could certainly get 2 smaller loaves {or even 3 mini loaves} out of this recipe to give as gifts at the holidays. Bake in a disposable loaf pan and adjust oven times accordingly.
Today is my friend and neighbor, Hollie’s, birthday. I baked up a special loaf of peanut buttery banana bread for us to nibble on with our coffee this morning to celebrate.
{banana bread recipe from my best girlfriend, Denise, a million years ago}
Peanut Butter Studded Banana Bread
I decided instead of the normal walnuts or chocolate chips, it needed a little something different…
2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted in with the flour
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt, sifted with dry ingredients
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup Reese’s peanut butter chips
Preheat oven to 350*.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add in all other ingredients and mix.
Stir in peanut butter chips.
Pour into a greased and floured pan.
Bake for 60-70 minutes.
*****
Warm banana bread with unexpected little pockets of peanut buttery goodness?
My Mom/Gramma celebrated her 70th birthday over Labor Day weekend.
We knew all along, obviously, that we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate and toyed with the idea of a surprise party, a gathering at a fun Mexican restaurant overlooking Lake Hodges, a formal dinner party or appetizers at sunset. We decided {just 2 weeks before the party} that it would be a beachy brunch.
I sprung into action and set out to find all things turquoise, blue and green! I picked up these simple seashell notecards at Michael’s for just 75¢ a pack, quickly drafted up the inside, printed them and popped them in the mail.
The same day I found the invites, I also picked up four colored glass bottles at Ross on clearance for $2.49 each…
You can see a couple of them in the pic above ~ the other two were perched on the mantel and in the entry way. I also found a cute, beachy sign that said “Sands Of Time” that I leaned up again the bottle that greeted the guests at the front door {unfortunately no pic, but that was also just $2.49}. The turquoise branches were recycled from Elliott’s party in May.
The tablecloth was just a huge piece of burlap that I bought at Home Depot thanks to the idea from my good friend and fellow party planner, Lisa! It was less than $4 and fit the table perfectly. I liked the fact that it was rustic and wrinkled and gave the impression of sand on the beach.
I tried to keep the menu easy and delicious, of course. I chose to do a couple of the breakfast casseroles that can be prepared the night before and taken from the fridge to the oven the next morning for stress-free entertaining. I did one with sourdough, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and feta adapted from here. Then I did one with the hash browns, sausage, onions, red peppers and cheddar. {see how it comes together in the link above} They were both a huge hit. I named the menu items after San Diego beaches ~ Coronado Breakfast Casserole, Wind N Sea Breakfast Casserole, Fiesta Island Fruit Salad and Mission Beach Monkey Bread.
We sipped on champagne drinks ~ mimosas {OJ} and hibiscus {cranberry juice}
For desserts I made the cake batter blondies, picked up some mini cupcakes and a mini new york cheesecake…
I used some coordinating ribbon {75¢/roll} and made some little picks for the desserts.
It was great to see so many friends from throughout the years…
{Playing “Happy Birthday” on the maracas!}
Singing, making a wish and blowing out the candles…
*****
I really did enjoy throwing this together at the {last minute}. I did what I could here at home like make the paint chip buntings, plan the menu, make the blondies and shop for a few decorations. I made my grocery list, shopped in San Diego and knocked that out the afternoon before the party via Trader Joe’s and Albertson’s. What I love about brunch is that it is extremely affordable ~ all the groceries for about 40 people were approximately $75. I decorated and prepped the casseroles the night before so all I had to do before the party {started at 11am} was put together the fruit salad {bought pre-chopped melon and added grapes} in the glass jar, make the monkey bread and plate the desserts.
Invites, paper plates, napkins, utensils, cups and decor were about $30…everything else I already had or utilized from my mom’s already beachy house!
It was the easiest, breeziest {to-go} party and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Mom/Gramma, we hope you enjoyed visiting with all your precious friends and neighbors. Here’s to a wonderful, fresh new year ahead for you! We love you very much and are fortunate to have you in our lives.
*****
I could never stay long enough on the shore, the tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought. ~ Hellen Keller
The sea, once it casts it’s spell, holds one in it’s net of wonder forever. ~ Jacques Cousteau
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
When we lived in San Diego {and before kiddos!} we’d go wine tasting in Temecula quite a bit.
There was always one stop we had to make, but it wasn’t for the wine…it was for the sourdough baked brie at Maurice Car’rie Winery.
Oh. My. Word.
Amazing!
Their wines are nothing to write home about, but we’d go in and taste while we waited for our garlicky brie goodness {it takes like 20-30 minutes after you place your order to get your bread!}
So, naturally I think of this deliciousness from time to time and did a little Google search to find a recipe that sounded just like what I remembered:
I think I’m going to have to divorce The Pioneer Woman.
She’s just a bad influence on me. She made me make this cheesy garlic bread to go alongside my spaghetti. Doesn’t she know that I’m trying to lose weight? I think I just undid all the elliptical & Zumba I did last week…
….all because of several “P”ioneer “W”oman recipes that I tried.
We took a little drive and played in some “P”owdery “W”hite!
There were a couple “P”igskin “W”ins to determine this year’s Superbowlers.
So I guess you could say that it was a “P”erfectly “W”onderful weekend!
On Saturday night I made Pioneer Woman’s “most favorite burger ever (for now)”. You can find the recipe here.
They were delish and a nice departure from the turkey burgers with cheddar and horseradish that I’ve been making for the past few years now! Jay was pleased that I finally made some HAMburgers with real ground BEEF!
Here is a “before” pic:
Um, let me just say that what you see above is 2 pounds of meat…PW uses 2 pounds of meat for TWO burgers! What? I mean I know cowboys work hard and all and can put some food away, but WOW! Those’d be some GRANDE burgers! Half pounders are MORE than enough for us!
Here is the “in process” pic:
And, my friends, here is the “after” pic when these babies are all dressed up and ready to go:
Please don’t tell PW that I served her fave burgers with Ore Ida Seasoned Crinkle Fries! Shhhhh!
I tell you, I have a whole new appreciation for the Kaiser Roll! I usually use toasted english muffins for my burgers, but kaisers are a tad crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside! I followed PW’s orders and buttered and toasted them and OMG! Sorry, little english muffins, but these were fantastic and the tabasco mayo, caramelized onions and bleu cheese put them over the top. I used fresh baby spinach as my “green” just so I could feel like there was some sort of healthy component to this meal!
After this scrumptous dinner, I ran to Target to get Holden some boots for the snow since we had a little mini road trip planned for Sunday morning. This is what I found:
Lovin’ all the Paul Frank stuff at one of my favorite stores these days!
I got up early Sunday morning and made some Monkey Bread. Another evil concoction that PW has on her blog!
Now this stuff is like a drug so be careful!
After we ate the sinful Monkey Bread, we headed to Frazier Park for some fun in the snow!
The quesadillas were good…Jay said the shrimp was “not evident”…hmmm, I think the camarones should be evident in a quesadilla named after them so next time I’ll add more of the little critters. He also wasn’t a big fan of the green salsa, so next time maybe some homemade red salsa to go alongside. After indulging in the monkey bread earlier in the day, I felt guilty about adding butter to the pan to brown and crisp up the tortillas…but I had to follow PW’s orders. Next time I may try to make them a little more figure friendly….I tried to go a little lighter on the queso, too. But overall, they were good!
I also made some quacamole….I can’t blame PW for that. That was all MY doing, unfortunately.
Guac:
2 ripe avocados
1/4 onion (red or white), minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small tomato, seeded & chopped
bunch cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime or 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper to taste
dash cumin
That’s it! Mix it all up and dig in with your favorite tortilla chips.
I think I’ll have to incorporate more “P”lentiful “W”orkouts into this week’s agenda because there are a couple other visions of yumminess I’d like to try on PW’s blog…it’s a vicious cycle!
