Zucchini Raspberry Bread

We love fresh berries or any fruit for that matter but fresh berries and cream are tops.  Unfortunately we are unable to harvest our own.  Nature has fought the entire way with poor weather and deer.  We've finally got all the berry plants fenced and are now trying to coax the little plants to grow and thrive.  Lucky for us we know people who know people with raspberry plants that over produce and are free for the taking.  Yesterday we went and picked and picked and picked.  Doug laughed when he saw the amount of bowls I was taking, but as it turned out we didn't have enough.  The berries were big and sweet and abundant.  In less than two hours we had our bowls full and I think we got over 7 gallons maybe in the range of 10.  That's a lot of berries for the short amount of time we were picking.

Evan's contributions

Our total bounty of fruit

Now what to do with all these raspberries.  We love them fresh, but there is way too many to eat them all.  I'm freezing some, but I only have so much freezer space.  I could make jelly, but we have enough of that in many varieties to last a very long time.  I've also been blessed with zucchini and had planned on trying a new recipe for blueberry zucchini bread.  Aha!  Instead of frozen blueberries I used fresh raspberries (next time I will use frozen).  The result was delicious and Doug says it may be his favorite.  I tend to agree with him.  I've been looking for a good zucchini bread recipe and I think I've found it.  The original was found at mybakingaddiction.com

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup shredded zucchini

3/4 cup wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup frozen blueberries (or I used raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Lightly grease and flour a loaf pan (for sweet breads I like to use sugar instead of flour).  Beat together the eggs, sugars, oil, and vanilla.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently stir in the berries.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55-60 mins or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool 20 min then turn out on rack to complete cooling.  Or if you're like us you'll eat it warm as soon as you take it out of the pan.

Linked to eatathomecooks.com

Double Peanut Butter Paisley Brownies

Doug made these wonderful brownies for my birthday.  If I hadn't been trying to stick to my diet I probably would have eaten the whole pan.  They may not look it but they are to die for.  At least for me.  There is chocolate and peanut butter one of my favorite flavor combinations.  My dad, not a peanut butter fan weird I know, ate the plain chocolate brownies but this pan was made for me.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup peanut butter, creamy

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

10oz package peanut butter chips

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

Heat oven to 350*.  Grease a 9X13" pan.  Beat butter and peanut butter.  Add sugars and beat well.  Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.  Blend in vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder and salt; blending well.  Stir in peanut butter chips.  Spread half of the batter into prepared pan.  Spoon syrup over the top.  Carefully top with remaining batter, swirl with metal spatual or knife for marbled effect.  Bake for 35-40 min or until lightly browned.  Cool completely in pan.  Cut into 24 squares.

This recipe was on the back of Reese's Peanut Butter chips.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

This is by far my favorite way to eat popcorn.  If the sugar didn't kill me I could eat the whole bowl by myself.  The kids love it too.

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup honey

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

Bring corn syrup, honey and sugar to a boil in saucepan. Boil 2 min.  Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  Pour over 1 batch of popped popcorn ( approx. 12 cups). 

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Frosting

Autumn deliciousness made in summer.  Yummmm!

This cake was soooo good.  I had to force myself to stop at 2 pieces.  :)

Cake:

1 spice cake mix

1 large can of pumpkin puree not pie filling

Mix together in bowl.  Pour in a greased 9X13" pan.  Bake at 350* for 27-30 min.  Cool completely.

Frosting:

1 cup butter softened

2 3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp maple syrup

Mix butter in bowl until whipped.  Add the powdered sugar and beat for 1 min.  Add brown sugar and maple syrup beating for another 2-3 min until fluffy.  Spread on cooled cake.  Top with chopped walnuts.

Fruit Salsa

Doug made this great and refreshing fruit salsa.  You serve them with homemade cinnamon/sugar tortilla chips.  We recently had this at a family gathering and had none leftover and many requests for the recipe.  So here it is.

1-2 pounds strawberries; washed, topped, and diced

4 kiwi; peeled and diced

3 fuji apples; cored and diced

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp jam or jelly (any flavor will do we use apple jelly)

1 package 10" tortilla shells

cinnamon

sugar

Mix the diced fruit, 2Tbsp granulated sugar, brown sugar and jam/jelly together in a bowl.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to eat.

Mix cinnamon and sugar together to make a mix.  Place in a bowl or pie pan ready for dipping in.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Heat oven to 350*F.

To make the tortilla chips cut the tortilla shells into 8 triangles.  Spray one side of chip with cooking spray and dip in the cinnamon/sugar mix.  Place on cookie sheet coated side up.  Bake for 10 min.  Cool.  Eat with salsa.

linked to eatathomecooks.com

Puppy Chow?

Whether you call it Puppy Chow or Muddy Buddies it doesn't really matter it still equals yumminess.  I love these chocolate peanut butter coated cereal gems and the powdered sugar is just icing on the cake.  I added a little maple flavoring which for me just adds to the peanut butter taste.

So grab a bowl and get this mixed up.

12 oz chocolate chips

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/8 tsp maple flavoring

6 cup Crispix cereal

1 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl melt the chocolate chips.  Add the peanut butter and flavoring; stirring till smooth.  Pour in cereal and carefully stir until coated.  Place sugar in a large zip lock bag.  Add cereal mix and shake until all is covered in white.  Eat and Enjoy.