How to Eat a Watermelon
A very elaborate way to eat a watermelon involving tunnels 1 15-16ths in diameter in each corner, Archimedes Principle, and the Fork Cartel. hahaha enjoy!
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Did you know that we’re only a little more than halfway through the summer? I love the sun and being able to do fun outdoor water sports but jiminy cricket I’m tired of the 105 degree days. This is just crazy.
Something I’m not in the least tired of- summer produce!! I think just about all of my favorite things are available in the summer: strawberries, blueberries, zucchini.. yummm. Zucchini Bread comes to mind – yes! Here’s a recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It’s a great way to use up some extra zucchini or sneak a little something healthy into a treat. *Don’t expect to taste a lot of zucchini in this recipe just a super chocolaty moist cake.
First, preheat your oven to 350* and grease a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pan. Then in a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. I just dumped them all in the bowl then mixed away.
Hint: Measure the oil in a liquid measuring cup before the honey. It makes it about 10x easier to pour the honey out.
In a bowl, combine the salt, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder, cocoa, and flour. Whisk together and add to liquid ingredients.
Grate the zucchini and try not to eat too many chocolate chips. I used about 1 1/2 medium sized zucchini to get two cups grated.
Mix zucchini and chocolate chips into batter and pour into prepared pan. The batter isn’t the prettiest but it sure tastes delicious.
Bake for about 50 minutes then check to see if it’s done by inserting in a toothpick and checking to see if it comes out clean. Watch out that you don’t accidently poke a chocolate chip and think the bread isn’t done when it is!
I might have accidently burned mine. noo! Still tasted fantastic though.
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
2 large eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
In a large bowl whisk together the salt, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder, cocoa and flour. Then add to liquid ingredients and mix until combined.
Grate zucchini and add it and the chocolate chips to the batter.
Bake bread about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Enjoy!
Found on Pinterest 8.11.12
I haven’t done a “Found on Pinterest” post in awhile! Let’s do one! I’ve been pinning like crazy this week. Here’s my favorites- mostly baking goodness with one cute bracelet thrown in!
Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough Yogurt from Two Peas and Their Pod – Super easy and no need for an ice cream machine. yum!
Salted Caramel Six-Layer Cake from The Bitten Word – Chocolate and Salted Caramel – my most favorite things in the world. enough said.
Super cute up-cycled bracelet from bohoNickNaks on Etsy – love Etsy!
Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes w/ Sugared Blueberries from With Style & Grace – Delicious and on the healthy side!
Happy Saturday :-)
Avocado & Spinach Salad with Citrus
A couple days ago I got an email that my domain was up for renewal. I thought – no!! and vowed to renew and write more posts. I’ve had pictures hanging around of amazing things to share. Work has been so crazy though that I haven’t had time to sit down and post them.
Here’s one of my favorite salads, an Avocado and Spinach Salad with Citrus, that we made this Spring with homegrown Spinach from our garden.
I have become the biggest fan of spinach some sort of Popeye wacko that eats it like chips. This spring we had a crazy amount of spinach and lettuce to where we had a salad every night. It was amazing! Now it’s too hot to grow in our garden but this salad is still totally doable.
The salad is comprised of avocados, orange and grapefruit slices, spinach, and red onion topped with a dressing made from grapefruit juice, EVOO, and oregano. If grapefruits aren’t in season, look for a good quality grapefruit juice to use and skip the grapefruit segments.
To segment an orange for the salad, first start by cutting off the top and bottom and then the peel. The easiest way is to place a cut side of the orange down on a cutting board and make several knife cuts from top to bottom following the pith. You want to cut enough away that you are left with just the flesh showing. Then hold the orange in one hand making small cuts between each segment to release the fruit. When you’re done cutting the fruit squeeze the remaining skin/pulp into a bowl for delicious fresh orange juice for the dressing. The same process is used to segment any citrus. It’s also a great way to eat an orange for a snack that avoids the whole peeling process.
The remaining ingredients come together for a fresh light delicious salad perfect for the spring and into fall. It’s delicious, filling and was devoured by my family of non-spinach eaters. oh yes! maybe I’ll convert them?
Avocado & Spinach Salad with Citrus
Adapted from Whole Foods.
1 small ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
1 large navel orange, peeled, pith removed, and segmented
5 ounces baby spinach, chopped
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
Segments from 1/2 of grapefruit (segment first and thin squeeze remaining fruit for juice for the dressing)5 tablespoons ruby red grapefruit juice
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Toss avocados, orange & grapefruit segments, spinach, and red onion together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together grapefruit juice, olive oil, juice from segmented orange, oregano, and salt and pepper. drizzle over salad and toss to coat. Eat immediately.
Enjoy!
One Impressive Easy Cake
A couple of weeks ago on Mother’s day I told my mom that as a present I would cook anything she picked out (secretly hoping it wasn’t anything too difficult). Dinner seemed easy enough: Herb Crusted Salmon with Roasted Potatoes. But dessert… well let’s just say she went with Julie Child’s Chocolate Ruffle Cake with an intimidating 5 and a half pages of instructions.
A pound and a half chunk of chocolate later and I was second guessing myself. Did I really want to also go to the hardware store to get the thick piece of plastic required for the layer of chocolate to go around the cake?
I moved forward with the cake, a one layer 8 inch, that wasn’t too tough thanks to the very detailed Julia Child instructions. Then I got to the Ruffles and chocolate experimenting with a piece of 005 Mylar, skipped it, mixed up my own filling and in a smattering of inspiration spread it on top, not in-between, and topped with chocolate curls and sliced strawberries.
The result was a cake that took a mere hour and a half (maybe) as opposed to four and was just as impressive. A light spongy chocolate cake topped with cool crème fraiche, sliced strawberries, and decadent chocolate curls. My kind of easy summer treat.
The Cake:
Adapted from: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
3 tablespoons hot clarified unsalted butter (if it’s unclarified, you’ll be ok)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup + 1 tbs sifted all purpose flour
1/3 cup + 1 tbs sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven or just below and preheat to 350 degrees. Fit the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan, at least two inches high with parchment paper and set aside.
Pour the butter into a 1 quart bowl and stir in vanilla. The butter must be hot when added to the batter, so either keep the bowl in a skillet of hot water or reheat at the last moment.
Sift together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.
Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl or the bowl of a heavy duty mixer. Over a pan of barely simmering water, heat the eggs whisking continuously until they are warm to the touch. Remove the bowl from the heat and attach to a mixer. Beat with a whisk attachment at high speed until the eggs are cool, have tripled in volume, and can hold a ribbon when the whisk is lifted.
Fold dry ingredients carefully, mixing until just combined. Add the batter to the bowl with the hot butter/vanilla mixture. Fold together until well blended. Spoon batter into pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Allow to cool in the pan, then release with a small knife run along the edges, onto a rack to continue to cool. Ice as desired!
Crème Fraiche Filling
3 cups crème fraiche
2-3 tablespoons sugar to sweeten
2 teaspoons vanilla
Beat crème fraiche and vanilla until soft peaks form. Add sugar and mix until stiff. It doesn’t take much, and can easily be done by hand.
To decorate, smooth crème fraiche on top of cake and decorate with raspberries or sliced strawberries and curled chocolate.
Enjoy!
