Stop Ducking the Zukes

This morning, I came across a wonderful sounding recipe from DDaisy, someone I follow on Twitter. The recipe is for Chocolate Zucchini Bread and is on her blog: Compost Happens. This prompted a small exchange with cityslipper about zucchini being the butt of many gardeners jokes. Btw if you are a Twit, or should that be Twitterer (?), you really need to follow cityslipper, too and check out his blog.

At any rate, I felt sorrow for the oft neglected and much aligned garden outcast, aka zucchini. So, I am here to stand up for "zuke" and shout it's merits to the world! Below is a recipe using this diehard (and yes, it isn't easy to make this plant die, it is quite prolific!) squash. If you do not tell the person eating it that it contains "zuke", they will not know.

The next time you see someone headed your way with this treasure, don't run, don't duck! Hold your hands!

So, go bake this up, let it cool, then sit down with a large piece and a glass of ice-cold milk. Chocolately and moist and cake-like, it is utterly delicious! Before you finish the last bite, you too will be a fan of this step-child of the garden! Stay-tuned for more recipes using zuke! You won't be sooooorry!

Brownies

2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini (important! grate it into very fine shreds, i.e. NOT like a carrot)

Combine dry ingredients. Mix oil and egg. Stir into dry ingredients. Add vanilla and zucchini. Mix well. Spread into greased jellyroll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until done (the old toothpick test).

Icing

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup margarine

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together except chocolate chips in a sauce pan. Cook for 1 minute or until sugar is dissolved. Add chocolate chips. Beat well until chips are melted and then spread quickly on brownies.

I was going to recommend you cover the leftovers after you eat some but at my house they don't last that long! :-)

A Direct Sower of Seeds, I Am Not

Yes, it is waaaaaaaaaay overdue for the report on my seed experiment from the spring: direct sowing after chance of frost instead of starting my seeds in my greenhouse in the early spring.

Normally, I do not cut to the chase but today I will allow myself. So you are spared :-)

It was a dismal failure. For instance, the above photo. Now, in my defense, after I sowed these sunflower seeds we had mucho rain. Noah kind of rain. Maybe not 40 days but pretty darn close. As you can witness, I've moved onto other endeavors with the weeding of this plot being last on my to-do list. The viable beds being more important. I apologize for it's untidiness.

Seeds that were sown in the long border did nothing. Seeds I intentionally planted in my containers did not germinate (Maybe it was the seed vendors fault! Maybe I was shipped faulty SEEDS!). BUT the seeds that fell from the plants that grew in those containers LAST YEAR, germinated and did fine!

Seeds planted in the raised bed garden germinated half-heartedly so I threw some zinnia seeds that were hanging out in the garage into the beds there and they have done fine. I did discover that nasturtiums do not like the heat and humidty prevelant in my raised bed garden. This area has a microclimate of it's very own. However, I think I am on to something with herbs in that space and if I am here next spring, I will explore doing more with those. The birds love that garden and I would welcome opinion as to whether the seeds might have fallen prey to my feathered friends.

It's a mess, both from the storm the other night and my neglecting to pull out the bolted plants, but as you can see, some things have grown.

All in all, I have learned that direct sow doesn't work for me. More success was had when I started seeds in my greenhouse in early spring. Sure, it took more baby-sitting, or seed-sitting if you will, but the results were worth it.

Hey, you'll never know unless you try! Now, let's go get dirty! Happy gardening!

Confessions Of An Insatiable Chocoholic (or What I Do With MY Hershey!)

Green/Natural. Chocolate. Fragrance. Chocolate. Healthy. Chocolate. Tasty! Chocolate!

Need I verbalize how often chocolate has been on my mind of late? Anyone who knows me is well acquainted with my incredible love affair with the decadent sweet and also is aware of the fact that I am no longer a spring chicken!

How can I enjoy chocolate satisfaction without it either ending up padding my jeans or stuffing my arteries? Yes, I am aware of the health benefits of a little bit of dark chocolate once in awhile but forgive me, I am decadent in my use of chocolate. I want to eat vats full of milk chocolate, preferably German or Swiss. I want to bathe in hot chocolate. I want to load my shopping cart down with Hershey bars as I enter the checkout at WalMart. I want to feel the richness of it's taste as I devour a pan of chewy brownies or drown myself in a gallon of melted rocky road or cookie dough ice cream luxuriousness.

Okay, so you now get my point. If I were to indulge my fantasies, I truly would resemble Jabba the Hutt already (as a dear, sweet, annoying friend of mine implies quite often, I might add). But nay, I do not. Not yet as of this writing anyway.

Back TO the point, sorry I digress. Not only do I have to be considerate of the caloric consequences of my corpulent consumption of the confection but I must also be thrifty or the sheer amount of my purchases would break my emaciated piggy bank. Hmmm. How to enjoy this treat without having to constantly purchase a new "fat" wardrobe (girls, you know what I talkin' about here) and how to do it economically?

I will confine myself to using a readily available, low-cost, tasty brand. Godiva, Ghiradelli and many others are indeed delicious but more expensive to indulge in. To satisfy my constant cravings, I will use Hershey. I have found Hershey to be robust, silky smooth and deeply satisfying on all levels and compatible with my pocketbook. While I appreciate the finer points of more exotic chocolate, I found Hershey to be perfect for me.

Next, how to enjoy Hershey without sending myself to Weight Watchers or an early grave? Other than the obvious avenue of consuming the Hershey candy bar (btw, I discovered if I exercise with a Hershey I actually lose weight!), could I discover another way in which to luxuriate in it? Yes, I use it in my body scrub. Have you ever showered with anything Hershey? Personally, I have found it to be a divine experience!

Bath and Body used to make a bodywash and lotion called "Wickedly Hot Chocolate" which I used but it was available for a limited time only. Since then I have had to become creative in how to replicate a body product which was both good for my skin, green, inexpensive, AND smelled and tasted like chocolate (in the event I was starving to death in the shower and needed something to eat to sustain my very life! Not that I would eat it, mind you except in an emergency but I might lick my fingers before scrubbing!).

I came up with a body scrub recipe using natural/green ingredients from around the house to which I could add some Hershey's syrup for that luscious and decadent aroma of chocolate. It contained ingredients that are good for my skin, that exfoliate and moisturize while feeding my senses and not my fat cells! When using the scrub, I first wash with soap/bodywash and follow it up with the scrub, rinsing VERY well. Following is the recipe:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup Hershey syrup

1/2 cup white sugar (more if you prefer a drier scrub but that makes it harder to use)

Mix and store in a container in the refrigerator, taking some out ahead of time unless you like a COLD scrub. Mark the container "Do Not Eat" or invariably a teen will come along and think it is brownie batter and eat it.

Please, mix up a batch and go enjoy yourself while treating your senses and your skin to a decadent experience. And if you are up for a little romance . . . invite your significant other :-)

(And yes, I did eat the Hershey bar :-) Just can't be around a Hershey and not eat it!)

A Boy, Then a Man, Always My Son

He's 17. A man. A boy. Some days a boy in a man's body but more often than not, he's fully a man. Well on his way to adulthood.

I love both of my boys, my eldest is 22 but this is about my youngest.

Because of the late spring timing of his birthday, he enters his junior year of high school chronologically ahead of his peers, often more advanced/mature than his classmates. Yet not in all ways, he remains foolish at times, as we moms well know.

Lately, although he will tell you forever, I have struggled with his growing up. Struggled with letting him go. How can he be ready to face the world on his own soon, when he cannot even remember to pick up the wet towels off of the wood floor? Or remove the dishes with leftover food in them from his room before they become moldy? Weighty issues certainly. Is he ready for more independence? Is it time for his dad to step up more? Is that what a young man needs? Does he still need his mom in the same way he did ten, or even five, years ago?

A couple of months ago, I asked him if he needed me around anymore. He hemmed and hawed, trying to find a politically correct answer, a fragile balance between the truth and his mom's feelings. In the end, what he came up with was: I'd trained him well how to take care of himself i.e. doing laundry, taking care of pets, cleaning his room, studying for class and going to work. How, he asked, would he grow up if I don't now let him be more independent and put those skills to work? But, I asked, did he need me here in order for him to be able to do those things? No, he said, but he would like to have me around sometimes. I think specifically to make tomato-potato soup and mashed potatoes for him and maybe to schedule his haircuts and buy his deodorant.

His reponse has caused me to do much thinking since then, especially in the last couple of weeks. We had another conversation just this week at which time he read this missive. How tightly do I continue to hang on? Is it for him or for me? He's made some pretty stupid judgment calls but then so have I. Does he need help navigating the shoals in his life that threaten to wreck him? Does he need me day to day, literally onsite? Or is it more being available in his life when he needs me?

These last few weeks I've been faced with decisions about my own life as I close one chapter and begin another anew. I am dealing with the dissolution of my marriage and somewhat, my family. Wondering, do I stay in this toxic environment that threatens to destroy ME? Would my son be okay with his dad? Would he suffer if I moved to another place but was able to be local frequently?

Much more discussion needs to take place, but I've realized he will be fine no matter where I am, as long as we can be together frequently in person and always available by some kind of electronic media.

So, if knowing he will be not only fine but successful, I now begin to explore where I want to be: New England, Michigan, Colorado, even Ohio. Where? There are a myriad of factors to be weighed as I contemplate my own future. Each place having significant reasons to relocate there i.e. family, work possibilities, friends, quality of life, cost of living, etc. Some places calling to me more than others. Sooner rather than later, it looks like I can plan a change, which I am currently doing so. The next part of my life awaits. And with his blessing.

What I do know for certain is this: I raised a fine young man, independent and capable of being more so, as he nears graduation. Independent . . . but still loves his mom. I must relate a recent discussion we had. I had told him some truthful, yet disturbing news about me. He put his arms around me, told me he loves me and understands. And could I please fix some of my great mashed potatoes for his girlfriend for her birthday?

Told you he needs me for some important things :-)

I am proud of him. He can be launched into young adulthood no matter where I am physically, in relation to him. I can be available for him whenever and wherever he needs me, whether I am here or there for he is in my heart, and I in his.

He was a boy. Now he is a man. But he will always be my son.

Au Naturale

Natural.

Merriam-Webster defines it many ways but I suppose the definitions that speak to me are:

1. Closely resembling an original; true to nature; marked by easy simplicity and freedom from artificiality, affectation, or constraint; having a form or appearance found in the ordinary course of nature.

2. Growing without human care; not cultivated or artificial; existing in or produced by nature.

3. Having an essential relation with someone or something.

Natural, to me, denotes a freshness, a simplicity, uncontrived whether it is in relation to my food, my clothing, my environment, or my relationships.

Natural is the sweet, juicy taste of a sun-ripened melon or tomato as I bite into it. It's very essence dribbling down my chin. The heartiness of a whole-grain homemade bread with a savory soup on a cold winter evening giving sustenance to not only my body, but my soul, with it's warmth.

The cool caress of a linen dress on a summer day. The whisper of silk against my skin on a romantic evening. A thick, white cotton towel blotting away the droplets of water after a refreshing and leisurely swim in the pool.

The simplicity of the plants in the forest, the meadow, the mountain or the beach. Nature knows just how to wear her adornments for the best effect. Unfortunately, we have learned how to mess with her world and upset the balance, so that what was once beautiful is now destroyed by our excess and desire for control. I think of the pine beetle catastrophe in the Rockies and how if our natural world weren't so blighted by our chemicals, I can't help but think we wouldn't be suffering from so many of these disasters. This upset of what is natural, resulting in a landscape that will be forever changed. And that my friends is no exaggeration.

(Now, as I speak from my own personal soapbox, I must admit I struggle with being satisfied with the natural i.e. I cannot abide the natural color of my hair :-) But maybe if it weren't for the chemicals in the air, I wouldn't have to put them on my hair to rid myself of the gray! COULD pollution be the cause of my follicles ceasing to produce color?!) I digress . . .

Naturalness in relationships. A relationship marked by being natural is simple, freeing, joyful and fulfilling in the most beautiful of ways. It is almost "effortless" and when a relationship hits a snag and does require more effort, that effort is a natural extension of love for balance. To enjoy a relationship in which I can be myself, who I am naturally, and be not only accepted for it but embraced for it is pure heaven and a veritable utopia.

Live just as YOU ARE. No artificiality or constraint, throwing abandon to the wind and just reveling in the freedom of being.

Enjoy the natural. You will feel balance. You will create balance in your world for future generations.

But most of all, BE natural.

You will be loved for it with a depth that penetrates to your very core and overflows into your life with an abundance that is fullfilling beyond all measure or comprehension. This I know, because I am experiencing it this very moment.

So, today? Be you. It's a natural thing to do.

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo aka I'm Confused!

Vacation. Yep. That is the second most consuming thought currently in my mind. The first being "I wish I was well!" I'm abysmally sick. So, what with the broken and sprained ankle, the unrelenting rain, and now suffering with the mother of all kinds of respiratory flu, the day is leaving me with much time to think (probably waaay too much). And I am thinking about where in the world I'd like to go. To keep my travel agenda better organized i.e. so I don't forget, I've made a list of where I wish to go and why:

Germany - My mother immigrated from Germany at the nubile age of 19. My father valiantly fought there in World War II. Both would like to share their history and the history of the country with me. It is a beautiful place.

Turks and Caicos - The beaches are to die for, life is luxuriously laid back and there are areas in which to relax in virtual, if not total, seclusion. You know what that means ; ) Photography! Yep! ; ) Of the natural kind . . .

Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia/New Brunswick - The Bay of Fundy is known for its high tidal range and the bay is contested as having the highest vertical tidal range in the world with Ungava Bay in northern Quebec and The Severn Estuary in the UK. Facinating! It must be striking to watch the tide come in and depart.

Prince Edward Island - Being a voracious reader of the Ann of Green Gables series of books, it is a no brainer. I still reread the books. Faeries and wood nymphs anyone?

New England - This is an area I frequent and NEVER tire of, especially Boston, the Cape, the White Mountains, and the Bar Harbor area. I am in love with Mount Washington (I would marry it, if it could manage to say 'I do'!) and it's extreme conditions but because of my cold-induced urticaria, I can only visit in the summer. Super bummer.

The coast of Florida - I love beaches. Nuf said! One of the Florida areas I like the best is Destin/Ft. Walton. I love the feel of the sun on my skin! Basking in the heat. A cool, fruity drink. Mmmmm. My daddy says it will kill me but I think I'd rather go that way than "baconating" myself to death like he is.

Williamsburg/Yorktown, Virginia - Colonial history is one of my hot buttons (touch it and see what happens!) and I must see life as it was (or as close as I can get to it) and where the Revolutionary War essentially was won. I simply must! Autumn with it's crisp air or Christmas with it's colors of joy would be an awesome time to revel in history past!

Alaska - The cruises are out for me, bummer, but I could do Denali and the southeast rainforest in the summer. I would LOVE to do this: http://www.alaskacanopy.com/ !!!! Photography on this trip would be amazing! Wanna join me?! We could zip right on out there!

Hawaii - Loved the first time! But who says the first time is always the best? I yearn to go back to see another island such as Lanai. The less commercialized, the better. The Kona coast of the Big Island is fabulous! Arid, no rain!

Negril, Jamaica - It has an out-of-this-world beach! Cliff diving at Rick's Cafe is exciting to either do or watch. And no, I won't go back to the Hedonism II with you this time either.

Australia/New Zealand - A land of contrasts! The lushness of NZ and the starkness of parts of Austrailia make for a thrilling time spent in two very different places and cultures. Plus, my favorite physical therapist is from there and he made me curious. Again, great photography!

Europe - There are areas of this old continent that appeal to me more than others. I mentioned Germany already. Other areas of interest include the gardens of England and France, the Italian countryside, the coast of Greece and the city of Prague. Spain and Portugal are maybe's but my grandmother used to go there and she often touted the fact that their beaches are topless. Let's remember now, she got me a nose job, not a boob job. And I am now 46 : ) Blech! Somehow topless and my grandma don't go together that well in my mind.

Every other year Susie, one of my very best friends, and I take a "chick trip" together. 2010 is our next trip and we are thinking someplace in Europe. We need to figure it out yet. Send suggestions!

I have been to every U.S. state but Alaska and enjoy revisiting most of them. Would love to head back to the Rocky Mountains (anyplace along the range), Black Hills, Salt Lake or my home state of Nebraska (the panhandle portion).

Decisions, decisions, decisions. I am not sure yet where I am vacating to in the near future, but I will let you know when I get back! If you'd like to travel with me, drop me a line! I love to pal around!

I would love to hear where YOU would like to visit and why! Pick a place and let's dream together : )

A Goldilocks Morning

Yes, it is a Goldilocks morning. The variety of which is usually only found in movies, art, or music. This day, it was apparently my good fortune to be in the middle of such a beautiful and moving composition.

It is early with getting Brawny Boy up and at 'em which is no simple feat in and of itself! While he begins his a.m. ministrations to get his cute carcass presentable for the girls at school, I lay on the sofa in the living room wishing I could be back between the sheets for it was a late night and will be a hectic day.

The windows of the living room are oriented to the rising sun which is quickly on it's way to it's daily zenith. The rays of sunshine stream into the room and over the sofa on which I relax. Liebchen is on her perch at the window, napping in the sun's warmth, waiting for a squirrel to make it's usual early appearance in the front garden looking for leftover acorns. Keira, not be be left out jumps up to join me in my morning appreciation, stretching her long puppy body on mine. At six months, her feet reach my ankles and her muzzle meets my chin. She lays here softly breathing. She likes the feel of her breathing, snuffling, underneath my chin, has done this ever since she was tiny. Her heart beats out it's strong, rhythmic beat against my heart. Since when did she get so heavy?

The windows are open, drawing the air from the front of the house to the back. There is a breeze, it is pleasantly cool and purely refreshing. Sounds of an assortment of birds play the music of nature and they sing of the newness of the day. Joining them in four-part harmony is my cockatiel, Oleo, making sure the world knows "Oleo is a pretty, pretty, pretty bird". Every once in awhile throwing even more "prettys" in there, when he is feeling especially "cocky" : ) He wolf whistles at my 83 year old father like a testosterone befuddled construction worker might whistle at a hot babe on the street. My dad says it's good for his ego and whistles back at Oleo to return the favor.

My eyes are closed in relaxation and wonderment "How is it that I am so lucky to be blessed with such a day as this?". What did I do to deserve this gift? Nothing. I woke up breathing.

For whatever the reason the world continues to spin on it's axis, I will accept it's bestowal of this time. Enjoying it, reveling in it, appreciating it. How I can take such life for granted is a gross act of selfishness. I will immerse myself in it, use it for good and LIVE it. Trying to spread it's joy to those I meet who see not the gem they have been given.

How do you feel about your day? How will you think of it as you move through it's portals? How will you use and enjoy it?

I am blessed you took the time to enjoy my morning with the the sun, the breeze, the birds, Keira, Liebchen, Oleo, my daddy and me.

Namaste. I wish you this day and I wish you well.