zucchini bread recipe, as promised

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). grease two 9x5 loaf pans.
2. beat together eggs, sugar and oil. blend in the grated zucchini, and then the sour cream. mix in the flour, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. pour batter into prepared pans.
3. bake for 80 minutes. cool on wire rack.

the original recipe called for 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips as well, but i think that's disgusting, so i'm leaving it out. call me crazy, but i just don't think chocolate and zucchini quite mesh. so, yeah, i'll post my review tomorrow, and let you know how it all turned out. and i'll post some pics of us all cooking and baking, as well as a list of all the things we made.

ps - here's the link to the recipe on allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx

check it out and read the reviews. sounds like a good one to me. i'll let you know.

the first real harvest from my garden... 2 zucchinis! and check out the size of them! seriously, i'm so proud! we're going to use these tomorrow in our cooking and baking. i just printed off a recipe for zucchini bread, which i'll post next, then review tomorrow. i'm also going to use some zucchini in some pasta dish, either lasagna or some other noodle concoction, which i'll likely freeze and have on hand for the coming week. so there you go. i'm going to use food i grew myself. eep! i'm so excited! giddy, almost! anyway, got to type up a recipe, so i'll stop this post now. :)

try this one on for size, part 2

so, i don't know if any of you noticed, but i missed something kinda major on my housekeeping schedule. so, i've had to add something:

Saturday
clean the bathroom
clean the kitchen

oh, gosh, i can't wait for saturday. woohoo. can you feel the excitement oozing out of this post? really? you can? huh, that's funny. because i'm gonna be honest here, folks, i'm totally being sarcastic. ah, well. at least at the end of the task, it's done and it'll be nice and clean. so, um, that'll be good.

anyway, i went grocery shopping today, and tomorrow the kids and i (and mom) are going to be cooking and baking up a storm. so that will be fun, at least! the kids are really looking forward it, too. and...

try this one on for size

ok, before i start on this, i'm inspired by the title here, and a little bit of vanity, and i have to share this with all of you. if you've been reading my blooming blog, you've probably noticed that i've been rather depressed over the last few months. so depressed, in fact, that i've almost entirely lost my appetite. well, i like to look at the positive in situations, and i think i've found something great about crippling depression: weight loss! i've been carrying around a lot of extra "stress weight" for a while now. but.... not anymore!!! it is official, i have lost quite a bit of weight in the last couple months, apparently. i'd guess about 2 sizes! that's right, folks, on monday, i wore my "skinny" jeans (and had some room to spare in the rear), and today, i'm wearing my "goal" skirt, which is a size 14, and 2 months ago, i couldn't get it further than half-way up my thighs. well, i'm wearing it now, and it's quite comfy! yay!!!!! very pleasing, if i do say so myself. and this just goes along so nicely with my newfound self-confidence. i also feel attractive again for the first time in years... in fact, looking back, it's probably been about 7 years since i've felt this good about my appearance. so this is a delightful change for me. :)



but the real subject of this post is this: i'm trying out a new regimen at home. a housekeeping plan/schedule. i was inspired by my grandmother (and her generation) who always managed to have a clean, well-organized home/life, despite the busyness of 5 kids. her schedule was slightly different, since she washed and dried clothes on mondays and ironed on tuesdays. i don't iron. i believe that's why God gave us dryers with fluff cycles. so, i have tasks divided up by day. here's the schedule:

Monday
laundry
appointments for Asher (as often as possible)

Tuesday
outdoor work (gardening, lawn work, etc)
big projects (eg, painting, decorating, etc)
the kids are with ed on tuesdays and wednesdays, so i'm using those days to tackle the bigger jobs that might be more difficult with them around.

Wednesday
finish projects from Tuesday
purging/de-cluttering/organizing
taking items to BFM, storing for future garage sale or off-season
appointments for me (as often as possible)

Thursday
menu planning and grocery shopping
dusting/vacuuming/floors

Friday
cooking (meals to be frozen)
baking

about friday's plan: i kind of like meals made ahead of time, and kept in the fridge or freezer. given how busy our lives are, this is a great way for us to eat healthy, avoid expensive take-out (thereby saving a LOT of money), and enjoy home-cooked meals that we made ourselves (i plan on getting the kids to help with some of it). i can also use it for schooling, since the measuring is math, and the planning and budgeting and shopping can all be used as math, "home economics" and basic life skills.

so there you have it. a little housework schedule that i'm going to try on for a while. i'll likely tweak it as i go, but i'm feeling pretty good about this as it is right now. so today is groceries and floors etc. should be good. i'll try to post in a week and let you know how it's working.

finally... a garden update...

ok, yes, i know it's been a while since i posted an update on my garden. well, there's not really all that much to say. but before i continue, i'll admit, i've been a little neglectful toward it over the last week or so especially. lots going on at home, and since i'm the only adult here, i easily get pulled away from my beloved garden.

what else can i say? well, the non-picture update: my cucumbers are dead. they did well there for a while, but apparently they don't like the lots of rain then lots of wind combo or something like that (i don't know, ask a farmer). so, yeah, no cukes for me. the peas are coming up nicely, albeit surrounded by clover. i've simply got to do some clover-pulling. i've also got a couple carrot plants coming up, which is exciting. um, what else? hot peppers are doing ok, as are the potatoes. but they're not so exciting, so i left them off. but, i've learned what does really well in my soil here:

squash!!!! pictured above, in no particular order (mostly because i can't tell them apart anymore, since they've all mixed together), zucchini - 2 plants, acorn, butternut and pumpkin. ok, i'll do my best here and tell you which is which in the pic: way at the back and in the bottom left corner is the zucchini. in the middle somewhere is the acorn squash. the giant leaves, that's the pumpkin plant. and down in the bottom right, with little leaves and looking very "don't mind me"-ish, is the butternut. you might remember that i moved this one a while back, and since then, she hasn't done much. but when i checked on her tonight, i was thrilled to see that she's now spreading! go butternut go!!!
again, more pics of the pumpkin plant. seriously, those leaves are enormous! but this picture is really of the raspberry plant. doing quite nicely, don't you think? it'll still be a couple seasons before i get any berries from her, but that's ok. this garden is teaching me patience.
here's my giant tomato plant. it started to tip over the other day, so i had to stake it. it's huge! and earlier this evening, it had 17 tomatoes. but, i accidently knocked one off, so now we're down to 16. but it's all doing rather nicely! :)
ok, on to the herbs. oregano, lavender and rosemary are doing doing pretty well. in fact, i have already used the rosemary a couple times. yummy! :) as for the others, well, earwigs got at the dill and cilantro, so they're pooched. and the basil, well, i think that was my fault. i think basil might actually like water or something silly like that. i don't think it likes drying right out repeatedly. oops. :( and i really like basil. maybe i'll see if i can find another plant, or maybe some seeds, and grow it again. and water it. and take care of it. you know, learn from my mistakes and all that.

anyway, there you have it. my garden, such as it is. well, i'm heading into another not-so-simple week, but lots of fun planned. a trip to toronto for a couple days. first we're to the ROM to check out the dinosaurs, then swimming at a hotel, then clinic on wednesday. while we're in TO, i'm hoping to see a friend who's there with her baby after his open heart surgery the other week. well, i'll talk to you later! :)

THOMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yesterday i got the most amazingly heart-warming surprise. someone, i don't know who, bought tickets for us to go see Thomas the Tank Engine here in town. we weren't going to go due to the cost ($20/person! yikes!) but then some wonderful person made a way.

in case you don't know this (and the only you wouldn't is if you've never actually met us), bram is OBSESSED with thomas. honestly, day and night, all he talks about is thomas and all his tank engine friends. so you can imagine how thrilled he was to actually get to see his favourite fussy little engine! here are some pics from the day:

bram watching thomas pulling up.
me & bram, cuddling on the train.
the kids had so much fun on the train ride.

and here they are, posing with thomas. and, before you think bram's ticked off or something, he's not. that's how he smiles lately. isn't is lovely? ugh. ah, well, this is the real bram, folks. and he's all mine! lol

so again, i'd like to say thank-you to whoever it was who paid for us to go. it was extremely generous of you, and we had a great time! thank-you thank-you thank-you! :)