Sunday, August 4, 2013

A tale of 2 Zucchinis: Sweet(cake) & Savoury(soup)

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Zucchini cake with chocolate and walnuts 
Zucchini Cake with Chocolate and Walnuts 

My niece and her family came to visit a week or so ago. She knows I like to cook, and she has a garden. She arrived with a huge bag of mixed lettuce, some tiny pickling cukes(be still my Ukrainian heart), some fresh fruit, and a HUGE zucchini.

She is a VERY GOOD niece!



This cake used 1/2 the zucchini...the soup used the rest.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cups 'Sugar in the Raw'
1 egg
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup white flour/1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
handful of chopped semisweet chocolate&walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease 8X8 inch cake pan.
In a bowl mix wet ingredients together-zucchini, sugar, egg, and oil. In separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients-flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, chocolate, and walnuts. Stir dry into wet, just until blended. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool about 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely. (adapted from all recipes.com 'Lemon Zucchini Bread')




Shredded Zucchini Soup

I have started taking the liquid left from any braised meat I cook and freezing it for soup. It can be a roast chicken, or pork, or even braised mixed sausages. If it's at the bottom of the pan, along with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes...whatever. It's now soup base. I wish I could remember what started this soup, but I can't. All I can tell you is that I un-thawed about 1.5 cups, added it to my blender, with about 2 cups of water, and blended it until smooth. I put that mixture into a pot, added water to thin it, added some leftover cooked pearl barley, a handful of fresh Oregano leaves, lemon pepper, anise seeds, and a combination of salt and reduced sodium soy sauce, and last but not least about 3 cups of grated zucchini...and had a soup so delicious the P-Man made a 'delicious-yum yum' comment, as he ate the second bowl.

Too much zucchini in your garden? Call me! Or make these recipes and enjoy...

Leave me a comment, or a joke. Go ahead, tell me a story. Make me laugh!

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