Pasta with Grilled Zucchini

I had to use up the other half of my giant zucchini. I originally planned on making a smaller side dish of pasta to serve with grilled zucchini and shrimp...however, I wasn't too thrilled with how the shrimp turned out (though Paul liked them), so I made more pasta and kinda tossed some ingredients together and came up with this little dish...quite tasty if I do say so myself!Ingredients:
Sliced & grilled zucchini, cut into bite sized pieces
Angel hair pasta
3 tbs. butter
2 tbs. olive oil
4 cloves garlic - thinly sliced
1 shallot - finely diced
Lemon - zested and 1/2 juiced
Salt & Pepper to taste
Parmesan Cheese to finish

Directions:
Cook pasta according to directions.

While pasta cooks, melt butter with olive oil in a pan. Add shallot and garlic, season with salt, pepper, lemon zest and the juice of 1/2 of one lemon. Cook over medium low heat until soft and just barely browning.

Remove the pasta when finished cooking and add to pan with the butter/garlic mixture. Add zucchini and toss all together so it's all coated equally.

Plate up and sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.

Bon Appetit!!!

Zucchini Muffins!

After realizing that I had better learn to make some kind of zucchini-based item after receiving the world's largest zucchini (not true, but it seems pretty darn huge!), I found this recipe for zucchini muffins from the Simply Recipes blog....easy to mix together, they came out beautifully and smelled heavenly. This is one you want to try for sure!! I am also submitting this recipe to Joelen's Marvelous Muffin's Blog Challenge!

Recipe courtesy of Elise at Simply Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 cups grated fresh zucchini
• 2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

Method

You don't need a mixer for this recipe.

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add these dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the walnuts and dried raisins or cranberries if using. (I did not add any of these last ingredients)

2 Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.

Note, if you are including walnuts and dried fruit, you will likely have more batter than is needed for 12 muffins. I got about 14 muffins from this batch, and that included filling the muffin cups up as far as they could possibly go (above the surface of the muffin tin). (I used a large silicone muffin pan and got 10 large muffins out of this recipe - filling them to the top)

Fresh Pico de Gallo

This accompanied my nachos...so simple and a cinch to make!! I like mine chopped fine, though you can definitely rough chop it if you like a chunkier Pico salsa. I got this recipe from the wonderful blog, Gaga in the Kitchen.

Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes - seeded & chopped fine
Handful of cilantro - chopped
1/2 one red onion - chopped fine
Salt & Pepper to taste
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lime

Directions:
Mix all together and let sit and chill in the fridge to mingle flavors together. Serve with tortilla chips or on nachos or tacos...whatever you want!!

Macho Nachos

After seeing the Cowboy Nachos on Pioneer Woman's beautiful blog, I knew I had to make some good nachos one evening for dinner. After seeing that some of the jalapenos were ready to be picked and needing to go grocery shopping, I had the ingredients on hand to make nachos without needing too much from the store. I did, however, need to make a run for some tomatoes, cilantro and onion for the Pico de Gallo, which I decided to make from scratch...man, that was a HUGE hit with Paul! Overall, these nachos were a nice *unhealthy* treat after a long day working outside in the sun.

Ingredients:
Tortilla Chips
Ground Beef with Taco Seasoning
Monterey Jack and store-brand "Quesadilla" Cheeses
Fat-Free Refried Beans
Fresh Pico de Gallo
Light Sour Cream and/or Guacamole for finishing
Chopped fresh jalapenos - if you dare

Directions:
On a baking sheet, I layered some tortilla chips, piped the refried beans over them all evenly (I found this to be the easiest way to spread them evenly vs. spooning - I just put the whole can into a gallon freezer bag and snipped the tip off a corner and squeezed), top them all with taco meat and cheese, finally with a layer of the pico. I repeated with another scattered layer on top.

After assembling, I moved my oven rack to the lowest height and popped them in the oven to broil on low, just enough to melt the cheese and get everything warm and a little gooey.

I served this with more pico scattered on top and with light sour cream on the side. Of course, Paul added the jalapenos to his along with some Chula hot sauce. I omitted those items because I'm a wuss.

First harvest!

Look at these beauts...dark green, medium sized, and DEFINITELY packing the heat, according to my fiancee...after chugging milk because he popped a slice in his mouth not thinking that Jalapenos would be hot...I knew better, stayed clear and made extra sure I wore gloves when handling those babies! I chopped them finely for some kick-butt nachos I made for dinner.

Invasion of the Giant Zucchini

Paul's boss sent him home with a zucchini from his father's garden...not just a normal zucchini, but the biggest zucchini I have ever seen... I feel guilty because I don't even know how to make zucchini bread or anything, so this week, expect me to post on my first attempt! Here is a pic for you to see (in comparison to my coffee pot) exactly how I can probably make 2 loaves out of this thing as well as some fried or grilled!

Cookie Time!

YUM...what's better than fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies? Not much! My mom makes the Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Recipe and though I tried to duplicate her results, these fell flat...hers are much fluffier...must be a mom secret. However, I still got rave reviews on these from Paul because they were thin and crispy on the edges and still slightly chewy in the middle. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and to these cookies, I added white chocolate chips and Heath bits.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Very Best Baking

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels (I used 1 cup of milk chocolate AND 1 cup of white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup Heath Toffee Bits) and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.