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Homemade Salsa


Delicious.

Ingredients

4 medium size tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 Anaheim peppers, seeds scraped
1 onion… oops, I’m out of onions

I’m making another batch today and will add lime juice (from my lime tree!).

Should I be adding salt? Hmmm….

Zucchini Bread, Cooking Light Magazine

I made use of a couple of slightly overgrown ‘Gold Rush’ yellow zucchini. Yum.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded zucchini (12 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl.

Combine egg substitute and next 4 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; add sugar, stirring until combined. Add zucchini; stir until well combined. Add flour mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly between 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
Yield

2 loaves, 12 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)
Nutritional Information

CALORIES 150(26% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 0.4g,mono 2g,poly 1.6g); PROTEIN 2.7g; CHOLESTEROL 9mg; CALCIUM 21mg; SODIUM 96mg; FIBER 0.6g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.3g
1 slice (1/12 of loaf) = 3 Weight Watchers Points

Lorraine Warren , Cooking Light, JULY 2005

There’s also a great-looking recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake over at Kitchen Gardeners International.

Harvest time


‘Anaheim’ pepper, ‘Lemon Boy’, ‘Heatwave’ and ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes, and ‘Gold Rush’ Zucchini

Ok, I’ve printed a zucchini bread recipe for my next trip to Raley’s and need to check my blog archives for salsa recipes. It’s harvest time…

Oh, and I need to make pesto.

Ok, so I played a fun game on Monrovia’s website where they tell you what kind of garden style you should have based on a brief personality profile. Unfortunately, they got me completely wrong. According to my answers, I would be happiest with a Zen Garden Style. The accompanying photos show a typical Japanese garden and the recommended plants are, not surprisingly, things like Japanese maple, Mugo pine, bamboo (eek!), and Japanese painted fern.

I’ve been to well-known public Japanese gardens in San Jose, San Francisco and Portland and each time thought, “Wow, this is really cool. This is really, um… Zen. It’s pretty, but I would never want a garden like this.” While I can appreciate the beauty and discipline and peacefulness of a Japanese garden, it’s just too damned perfect. I’d be happy if I had enough discipline to comb my hair every day, let alone my

Monrovia: What’s Your Style?

Ok, so I played a fun game on Monrovia’s website called What’s Your Style, where they tell you what kind of garden style you should have based on a brief personality profile. Unfortunately, they got me completely wrong. According to my answers, I would be happiest with a Zen Garden Style. The accompanying photos show a typical Japanese garden and the recommended plants are, not surprisingly, things like Japanese maple, Mugo pine, bamboo (eek!), and Japanese painted fern.

I’ve been to well-known public Japanese gardens in San Jose, San Francisco and Portland and each time thought, “Wow, this is really beautiful. This is really, um… Zen. This looks like a lot of work.” While I can appreciate the beauty and discipline and peacefulness of a Japanese garden, it’s just too damned coiffed. I’d be happy if I had enough discipline to rake a comb through my hair every day, let alone rake my rock garden. Also, I’m not Asian. Why should I feel an affinity with Japanese cultural and religious symbols when I’m a pasty, mostly-Irish girl?

And my Monrovia-recommended plant palette? Well, it’s mostly a bunch of Japanese plants! I could never, ever, ever restrict myself to such a narrow palette. Boring. I’m a typical haphazard plant collector who brings home plants in ones and threes and fives that I fall in love with first and worry about where the hell I’m going to put them later. If you had to put a label on my garden style, I suppose you’d call it “California Eclectic”. Or “California Eccentric”. Or “California Artistic”. Or “California Mediterranean Artistic”. How about “Artistic Califoranean”? “Eclectifornia Style”? “Artistic Subtropifornia Style”? My horticulturally conservative neighbors probably call it “Dirty, Lazy Hippie”. Whatev… They’re just lucky I haven’t splurged on one of those spectacular kinetic sculptures by Andrew Carson I see every year at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show. Man, I want one. For my front yard.

When it comes to plants, I’m like Donny and Marie… a little bit country… a little bit rock-n-roll… with a little bit o’ Motown in my soul. Actually, my musical tastes lean toward a typical AAA format, but the Donny and Marie thing just popped into my head… which it will probably do from time to time for the rest of my life thanks to television. My point is… I like a lot of plants and a lot of garden styles but can’t really be assigned to a particular garden style. It might have helped if Monrovia asked me where I live. Knowing that I live in northern California, USDA Zone 9b, Sunset Zone 14… might have hinted at phormiums and lavender and cannas and roses and natives and edibles and…

So, what’s your Garden Style? Will Monrovia get you right or wrong?