My Garden!

This is May 30th, when we planted the garden. Look at those tiny plants.







And this is today! I'm so proud of my first vegetable garden. I've planted zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, crookneck squash and tomatillos. Not everything turned out as nicely as I had hoped. The peppers and cucumbers haven't been great. The tomatoes are being very slow. And the zucchini aren't going as crazy as I would like. But, for my first veggie garden I would say I'm hot shit!! It's been so much fun watching everything grow and produce fruit. Of all the plants I put in the ground only one died. I will definitely do one next year. Next time, no peppers (what was I thinking?? I don't buy them in the grocery store...why would I plant so many plants??? Duh).

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread!

The veggie garden is going wild and it's zucchini time! And one of my very favorite things has always been zucchini bread. My grandma would make it every summer. I couldn't find grandma's recipe, but Erch's mom has a great one. I've taken her lovely recipe and adapted it to work for me.

Super Yummy Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups raw, grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups + 3 tablespoons* gluten-free flour mix (I used Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Possible Add Ins: nuts, blueberries, cranberries, chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together eggs, oil and sugar. Add zucchini and vanilla and mix thoroughly. In a seperate bowl combine dry ingredients, use a whisk to mix well. Add dry ingredients to sugar and egg mixture. Divide batter between two greased and floured 5"x9" loaf pans. Bake for about 1 hour at 350 (test at 40 minutes!) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes, turn loaf pans out on wire rack and cool completely.
This recipe freezes nicely. I usually wrap the cooled loaf in plastic wrap and then a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil.

*The extra flour is due to the high altitude. If you don't have that problem then stick with the 3 cups of flour.

"Date Night"

Abbey and I went to Tres Hombres for dinner and margaritas. Dinner was good, but the crab enchiladas we ordered were TOO spicey. After dinner we did some shopping then back to my house for beers and laughs on the patio with the boys. Abbey's such a good date.