Coffee Love

 

 

 

 

And my very favorite....

 

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Part of Henry and my day together on Friday included some baking.  Henry LOVES banana bread, so that was first on the list.  And then I got to what I'd been waiting to make for almost a week.

I came across a Lemon Zucchini Bread recipe over at Nancy Creative.  It was love at first sight for me.  Between that recipe and coming across this Farmers Market Flatbread from Pinch of Yum, my house was stocked with zucchini.

As you can see...Henry was quite excited to be stirring.  

This bread has a light citrus flavor with zucchini spread throughout.  So delicious!  And the lemon glaze on top makes it a perfect cake to have with coffee.

But who am I kidding...coffee goes with anything!!

Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze

Makes one 9×5″ loaf
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini (you don’t need to peel the zucchini before grating it)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan; set aside.

In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In medium bowl, beat 2 eggs well, then add canola oil and sugar, and blend well. Then add the buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest and blend everything well. Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture.

Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl and blend everything together, but don’t overmix.Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (if your oven tends to run hot, check the loaf after 40 minutes.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely. While loaf is cooling, you can make the glaze…

LEMON GLAZE
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)


In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled loaf. Let glaze set, then serve.

original recipe by NancyCreative

House Update: 8.26.12

Here's what the house is looking like right now.  Doesn't seem like much change, but they have dug out A LOT more dirt and gotten things a little closer to being ready for concrete.

Me & My Buddy

Henry and I finally got to spend a little time together this weekend.

No agenda...no errands...no one else here.

So we baked...and made forts...and watched TV...and laughed...and made faces at the camera...

It was very much what I needed.

Oh yea...we flossed too...in the fort of course.  

He's really working hard to get the flossing right.  :)

Hope your weekend was as refreshing as mine!!  

P.S.  Have you discovered PicMonkey yet?  Its a fun online photo editing software...free too!  I've been having lots of fun with it...be sure to check it out.

Annika @ 7

I love the ideas I saw on Pinterest of doing a birthday Q & A, so Ryan sat down with Annika for a little interview......

   1. What is your favorite color?  Green
   2. What is your favorite toy? My iPod touch
   3. What is your favorite fruit? Oranges
   4. What is your favorite tv show? Big Time Rush
   5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac 'n Cheese
   6. What is your favorite outfit? My PJ's from Gabbi 
   7. What is your favorite game? Old Maid
   8. What is your favorite snack? Banana
   9. What is your favorite animal? Bunny Rabbit
   10. What is your favorite song? Tonight, Tonight
   11. What is your favorite book? Aliens Love Underpants
   12. Who is your best friend? Jorja
   13. What is your favorite cereal? Life
   14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Monkey Bars
   15. What is your favorite drink? Water
   16. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving  "It's nummy.  I LOVE turkey."
   17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Blanket
   18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Life cereal
   19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Waffles & Bacon
   20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  An artist or a gymnist

She's cute, huh??  :)

Up, Up & Away!

The basement is up!!!

It took 2 1/2 days to prep and about 3 hours to get to maximum height.  And now it sits and waits for walls to be set back down on.

Seven and First

Can you believe this little diva turned 7 this week?!?!?!

And she's still a poser....

Seven meant having her first "friends only" birthday party.

Annika decided on a cake decorating party.  So cake decorating we did!!  Well..the girls did.  I supervised and tried my best to keep my advice in check.  (Ladies, you would have been proud!)

They were so proud of their finished products.

It also meant a family outing to our local Happy Joe's for pizza and the infamous birthday siren.  The hot fudge sundae may have been the real reason Annika put up with the singing and horns.

This week also brought the first day of First Grade.  After attending the "Meet the Teacher", with its room packed full of kids and 90 degree room temps, Annika decided she'd skip the first grade.  

"That's not really an option," I informed her.  

"Well, then I'll just go back to Kindergarten with Mrs. Johnson.  I already know that was fun."

Hmmm...I was prepared for an interesting morning.  

But after some reassuring bedtime praying, a good night sleep, and a little brother waking her up reminding her that, "Annika guess what??  You get to ride the bus today!", she was in pretty good spirits.  

Maggie was a little less sure of Annika leaving for the day.  

In fact, after spending a good portion of the night in prayer for her first day of school, she had the guts to run out to the bus without as much as a hug and a kiss.  The kiss she blew me as she was running, does NOT count.  

It's been a busy week in our house.

Let the Renovations Begin

Its finally happening!!  Not to discredit the work that went on last week (including Ryan demolishing the old chimney), but it didn't seem "real" until last night when I saw the work that went on.

The house isn't actually lifted yet, but they dug trenches in so they could get under the house to put in their support system.  I'm sure there are fancier terms, but I'll keep it to words I can remember the meaning of.  This was one day of work.  Resulting in just a small about of dirt...

I went into our basement for only the 2nd time in the 7 years I've lived here.  :)  The first time I didn't actually leave the bottom step, so I'm not sure it really counts.  

The top picture is where Ryan is standing in the bottom picture.  Gives you a big of an idea of what's going on down there.  

The kids could not believe this was their new basement!!  When we jokingly told them we were going to leave the dug out portions in the yard so they could have a walk-out basement, they thought it was a fabulous idea!!  I guess the joke was on us.  

Keep checking back for more updates on the progress!!

Crazy for Crackers

July's Daring Bakers' Challenge theme was...you guessed it...crackers.  And while I'm posting this quite late, I did actually have it finished in time.  But in the midst of weddings, showers, moving to my in laws and getting my computer set up, things got put on the back burner.

Our July 2012 Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers.  Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged us to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

Since it was my first time making crackers, I stuff to the recipes she included.  Maybe I'll get more creative the next time around.

Above are the Cheddar, Rosemary and Walnut Icebox Crackers.  These were delicious!  Buttery, light and packed with amazing cheddar flavor.  The whole family loved these.

The second ones I made were Health Crackers, packed with oatmeal and wheat germ.  I thought these were delicious as well and tasted great with tuna salad!  I love how rustic and imperfect they are too.

I can't say that I'm going to add homemade crackers to my list of things to do on a regular basis, but its fun to know how and I'll definitely keep the idea stowed away for when I need something fun to do with the kids (or need to impress someone).  {giggle}

My apologies for the picture quality.  It was very late and I only had the overhead kitchen lights to work with.