back to the land of the living...

After having spent about a month sick with various ailments, I'm back. Back to the land of the living.

Things had been terribly out of wack. I wasn't at church as much as I usually was. I wasn't cooking. I wasn't cleaning. Laundry was only getting done when Brandon needed work clothes, or we ran out of underwear.

Out of wack!

I'm back now. I feel great, and I was itching to get this house back in order. I got it clean. And I even cooked, baked actually! (More the first baking in a later post.) I haven't kept up with my menu boards lately, and it has shown in our quality of eating and in the budget! I plan to return to it next week.

Yesterday, a friend from church sent me a message asking if we'd like some produce from his garden. I said MOST DEFINITELY!!! So, he brought it to us last night.

HUGE, I mean MONSTER sized zucchini! Eggplant! White eggplant! Tomatoes! Cucumbers! Banana peppers! Yellow squash!

Who needs to join a CSA when you've got sweet friends like that?

We've been inundated with gifts of food since we got married. We were well stocked with cheese for over a month, because my wedding caterer forgot to put it into the grits. (That's a problem Southerners have- forgetting to cheese their grits.)

My parents gave us tons of the leftover food from the reception. Our friend Mary recently gave us vegetables and some fresh eggs from her chickens. And, my sweet friend Robert, gave us some tomatoes. (Robert is the kindest most precious cashier at SuperLo, the one off of Spotswood. He gave me some huge tomatoes from his garden a few weeks back. Love him!)

I can't wait to work our menus around this great food. We love eating vegetables. Love them. But, we aren't gardeners. So, we have to buy them. I can't afford to always shop the farmer's market. So, we end up buying them at the grocery. Still expensive, but I do keep up with the discounted produce carts at Easy Way and Superlo.

Anyway, I now have 5 large cucumbers sitting on my dining room table. I started thinking about ways to cook with them. I love roasted vegetables, so that's one way. A rattatouille is definitely in our future. I'm thinking of shredding some up to add to a meatloaf I'm making tomorrow, to stretch it and add some extra veggies.

And zucchini bread! How could I forget about zucchini bread!

My mom always made us the fabulous bread when we were kids. And, I still love it. I feel good about eating my vegetables in a sweet quick bread. Makes me feel much better about eating dessert for breakfast.

Mom gave me the recipe, my Grammy's recipe. I thought you'd like it:

Zucchini Nut Bread: By my Grammy.

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups flour

1 tsp. soda

3 tsp. cinamon

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

2 tsp. vanilla

Beat eggs and add sugar. Beat until fluffy, then add oil. Continue beating. Add zucchini and mix. Add all dry ingredients, vanilla and nuts. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350* for 1 hour or until done. Batter will be thin. Store in refrigerator or freeze.

(I also put mine into some muffin tins (in lightly sprayed papers) and baked them for 30 minutes.)

My Grandaddy and Grammy, this past Thanksgiving. Grammy now lives in a nursing home due to Alzheimer's disease. I love them both so much!