Asian Chicken Stir-Fry

I'm sure you could add garden zucchinis to this one. It is a "throw-in-any-veggies-you'-ve-got" with an easy sauce. And, with it all done in one frying pan (and a rice cooker), it doesn't heat the kitchen too much on a hot summer night.

1 Tbls Vegetable Oil

1 Lb. Chicken Strips

1 can (10 3/4 oz) "Golden Mushroom Soup"

3 Tbls Soy Sauce

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 bag frozen veggies

(or whatever: i.e. 1 cup broccoli, 1 fresh green pepper,

1 sliced/diced zucchini, 1 white onion)

4 Cups hot cooked Rice

Heat: Oil in Skillet

Brown: Chicken

Add: Soup, Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder

Heat to a Boil

Add: Veggies

Cook: until tender-crisp

Serve over Rice

Grilled Zucchini

So you asked for zucchini recipes, Hailey, and here's mine. We just recently got a new grill and have been trying to grill all kinds of things. Our favorite, by far, has been grilled zucchini. You can really put any seasoning on it, but here's how we like it.

Cut zucchini in spears about 4-6" long and 1/2-1" thick.
Place in shallow baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Use a basting brush to spread the oil evenly.
Sprinkle with salt (or sea salt, if you have it).
Sprinkle with garlic salt or garlic powder--depending on how much salt is initially added (we use garlic salt).
Sprinkle with plenty of oregano.

Then you simply grill on the barbie for 4-6 minutes per side at 300-325 (fairly low temp).

Fruit Pizza

I have to provide a treat for my next book club meeting (being held at my home next week). So, was thinking about doing a fruit pizza - but am not sure which recipe I should use (or perhaps a merging of the two? chocolate is a good thing - marshmallows with fruit not so much).

There are many such recipe options on the internet - these were the two that came out on the top of my list of potential recipes (not listed in any particular order).

Please provide advice and feedback if you have it - I have never made a fruit pizza before!! But it does sound really good!!

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Fruit Pizza - by Paula Deen

pizza dough:

• 1 package store bought sugar cookie dough

toppings:

• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 large peach, sliced
• 1 large green apple, sliced
• 1 large orange, sectioned
• 1/2 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
• 6 ounces fresh blueberries
• 6 ounces fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted
• 1/2 cup chocolate syrup

directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Flatten cookie dough onto a 6-inch pizza pan
• Bake until firm to touch, about 11 to 15 minutes - then cool
  
• In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and sugar
• Spread the baked cookie with the cream cheese mixture and decorate with sliced fruit
• In a small bowl, combine melted white chocolate with chocolate syrup
• Top the pizza with remaining berries and chocolate mixture
• Slice and serve immediately

Patriotic Fruit Pizza - by Kraft Foods

ingredients:

• 1 pkg (20 oz) refrigerated sliceable sugar cookie dough
• 1-1/4 cups cold milk
• 1 pkg (4-serving size) Jell-o vanilla flavor instant pudding
• 3 cups minature marshmallows, divided
• 1 cup thawed Cool Whip whipped topping
• 2 cups cut-up fresh fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, banana slices, or kiwi slices
  

directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Line 12-inch pizza pan with foil; grease foil lightly
• Press cookie dough into prepared pan to form crust
• Bake 14-16minutes, or until golden brown - cool completely
• Remove cookie from pan and foil - place on serving plate
• Pour milk into large bowl - add dry pudding mix
• Beat with wire whisk 2-minutes - let stand 5 minutes
• Gently stir in 2 cups of the marshmallows and the whipped topping
• Spread cookie crust with pudding mixture
• Top with fruit and the remaining 1 cup marshmallows
  

Zucchini

It's that time of the summer- anybody have any good Zucchini Recipes?

Here's mine.

The Very BEST Zucchini bread. 

Or as Harriet called it when she was three, "bikini bread". (Except you wouldn't want too eat much of this if you had any plans for a bikini, it's loaded with butter and sugar. Fortunately, I have no such plans!)

Blend:

3 eggs

1 C. Butter

1 3/4 c. sugar.

(yeah, I told you it was loaded. That's why it's good.)

Mix your dry ingredients:

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

nuts optional

Add:

2 cups shredded, drained zucchini or yellow squash

(the key to a bread that is not soggy is to wring some of the moisture out. place your shredded squash or zucchini in a clean dish cloth, or cheese cloth. Wrap it up in a ball and squeeze a lot of the water out. Don't wring the daylights out of it, you also don't want it too dry.)

Mix all together till combined, don't over mix.

Grease and flour two bread pans. Bake 1 hr. @ 350º.

Let it cool 10 min. before turning out of pans. Smells heavenly...

*This recipe is from our lovely Aunt Janet.

**Sorry for the cheesy drawing!

Princess Birthday Cake

So I thought I'd post the latest Birthday cake I made- (I always wanted one of  these as a kid!) It's the cake-as-a-dress with the doll poked in the top. It was lots of fun to do! I didn't have the official doll pan, so I baked the dress in a bowl. (Mary Jane loaned me the doll.) It came out about half the size it needed to be, so I just set it on a pie tin and frosted over the whole thing. Worked out pretty good i think. Good thing I had my daughter there who reminded me of the importance of accessories- " She needs earrings and a necklace!" 

Come to think of it, I think I will post the Buttercream frosting recipe. A couple of people have asked for it, it's the Wilton one you use for cake decorating, or just icing cakes. Lots of butter, hence the name, and very tasty.

1 Lb. powdered sugar

2 sticks real butter, room temp.

2 Tbs. milk

1 tsp. clear vanilla. (get it with the cake decorating supplies).

Beat ingredients on low speed till mixed, then whip with a whisk-type beater. Beat on high till light and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as you go. Nice consistency for frosting/ decorating. 

How to Peel Peaches

Here is a link showing how to peel peaches quickly. Today I am making my peach sauce with all the peaches Mark picked from our tree. Basically you just stew the peaches with some sugar and corn starch to thicken, (like the Blueberry Sauce,)and then freeze in tubs. It tastes divine, we love it over crepes, pancakes and ice cream.

Homemade Maple Syrup

I made pancakes today and realized we were out of maple syrup. Emergency! So, I looked up a recipe and it turned out delicious.

Makes 1 bottle

4 C white sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
2 C water
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp maple flavoring

1. Place all but maple flavoring in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Turn the temperature down when it starts to boil.
2. Simmer 10 miinutes and remove from heat.
3. Cool slightly and add maple flavoring.
4. Once cool enough, place in an old syrup bottle or secure-top tupperware.