Zucchini Brownies

Even though I've had my fair share of bad luck growing zucchini in my garden, I'll never stop trying. Because no matter what, I always get at least a handful of good, delicious zucchini before my crop dies (I'm shaking my fist at you squash vine borer!). In fact, "handful" may, at times, be a little bit of a misnomer; on more than one occasion we've had multiple handfuls of zucchini (and squash) out of our garden. But no matter how many of them pile up on my kitchen counter, I will never complain. Because they are soooo delicious. And soooo versatile. Five years ago if you had told me that my absolute favorite brownie recipe had zucchini in it, I probably would have called you crazy (and refused to eat one). But seriously--these are the best brownies ever. They are incredibly moist (and probably stay that way for awhile; they never last long enough in our house for me to find out!) and taste so rich that you feel like they must just be terrible for you, but surprise! There's good healthy zucchini in them! (Which is how I justify all my extra helpings.) Even if you don't have an abundance of zucchini from your garden that you need to get rid of, go out and buy some just so you can make this recipe. (Go ahead and go now. I'll wait. And don't tell me you don't have time. I've made these at least three times in the past month--with a four month old. They're super easy. Shredding the zucchini is probably the most time consuming part, and as long as you don't slice a finger open--not that I've ever done that or anything--they shred pretty quickly.)

Zucchini Brownies
(I have no idea where I originally found this recipe, so my deepest apologies for not being able to properly thank the genius behind introducing them to me)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl mix together the oil, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Stir flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes; if desired, top with a chocolate frosting once cooled.

A few notes. I find that one of the quite large zucchini from my garden will yield about two cups when shredded. If I'm buying zucchini from the store (which--for whatever reason--are always significantly smaller), I usually get two or three. I also never put nuts into my brownies. Never. If you do, I probably won't eat them. Just saying. And frosting--definitely a go on these. I'm not typically fond of frosting on brownies that are like the ones that come out of the box (you know--the ones that get that crack-y little crust on top), but frosting is delish on these because they are a little more like a cake (but still dense like a brownie. If that makes sense. You know what? Just go make these. You'll understand).

A New Leaf?

So this is way later than I usually post (in fact, usually if it's gotten this late I just count the day as a "loss" and don't worry about getting a post up), but I couldn't refrain from getting on tonight because it is eight o'clock and William is In.Bed. Fed, changed, asleep, in bed. This may not seem very remarkable to many of you, but I'm super happy with it. Bedtime can sometimes be a struggle around here, especially since Darrell and I don't exactly have lives that lend themselves to routine. We've also never really tried to "force" a schedule on William; partially because of our active lifestyles and partially because we don't feel there is as much of a need for him to be truly "scheduled" since I'm home with him during the day. So for him to--on his own--get tired and want to go to bed by eight is pretty exciting (and he's actually been asleep for longer; I may or may not have enjoyed some extra baby cuddles after he fell asleep. Which always reminds me of this poem: "The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow/For babies grow up I've learned to my sorrow/So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep/I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep). Granted, I have no idea how long he'll stay asleep (although--knock on wood--he did sleep for nine hours straight last night!!), but at least it's a step in the right direction. My most ultimate goal would be for him to get in the habit of sleeping from eight to eight. Right now he gets up pretty consistently around six, regardless of his bedtime. I know the "early bird gets the worm", but Mom sure would like a little extra time in the morning (obviously because I want to get up and get a workout in before he wakes up, not because I want to sleep in or anything...)

Wedding Fun

Look at me go! These photos are from a wedding that happened LAST weekend (as in, TWO days ago), and I'm already getting them up on the blog! Woot!

Of course, it helped that we had pretty much no plans on Sunday (thanks, in part, to my parents being otherwise busy with stuff), so one of us was always available to watch/hang out with William while the other could get stuff done (and, in moments of great productivity, William was able to entertain himself so we could both get stuff done). So now I don't have as many house "chores" to worry about this week and can actually take some time to get "me" stuff done. Or just play more with William and not feel guilty about it :)

Anyway, enough rambling, here are some of the pictures from the wedding of one of my good friends; we went to school together kindergarten through senior year, and for a good number of years she lived down the street from me. She and her now-husband are currently living in/going to school in Minneapolis (which, ironically, is where five of my nine closest friends from high school have relocated to--and I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that wished we lived up there too), so we don't always see them as often as we'd like, but the great thing about good, old friends is that we can always pick right up with where we left off no matter how long it's been!



There's a group of ten of us from high school that have all stayed pretty close, as evidenced by the fact that all but two made it to town for the wedding. And the two who were absent had pretty good excuses; one just had a baby on July 25th (although, to be fair, the matron of honor--back center behind the bride--had a baby on July 19th. But she lives in Minneapolis; the other friend lives in NC), and the other (who lives in St. Louis) is due with her second baby in two weeks. You've seen a lot of these faces on the blog before; Katie (far left) got married April 2012, Linda (the Asian) is the one Darrell and I visited in London, Whitney (super cute chevron print dress) hosted my baby shower in the cities (complete with adorable elephant cake), Amy (behind the bride) got married February 2012, Ashley (long silver necklace) is mama to the super adorable Kinley (and has baby number two on the way!) and Hannah (to the bride's right) will show up in almost all of the posts for the other girls (and hopefully will have a wedding post of her own soon--we're all anxious for her boyfriend to pop the question!). I know I've said this before, but I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends who have (quite literally) been there my whole life (Hannah, Katie, Kristen, and I have known each other since kindergarten--somewhere I have a picture of all of us on the first day of school all those years ago!). There's no doubt that we still cherish and enjoy each other's company all these years later!

I was also determined not to make the same mistake I made at my sister's wedding and not get a family picture, but unfortunately William was not in the mood to cooperate.

William being too cool for the camera

Pause during the photo shoot to clean up a little spit up

William even less interested in the camera

Finally got William looking at least somewhat at the camera only to have the image be out of focus (and have half of William's cute face obscured by his pacifier). Oh well.

And I just have to share this last picture. Not-so-little Kinley (she'll be three in September!) has taken this crazy obsession with Darrell. No joke--she almost had a meltdown during the reception because she came to our table one time looking for him and he wasn't there (he was just in the bathroom, but she thought he had left). So I just had to snap this picture of them hanging out--so precious!

Tim was also trying to get in on the baby loving--although we suspect he was doing that mostly to impress the girl he was
with (and I mean that in the nicest way possible--Tim is like a brother to me so I'm allowed to give him sh*t)

Birthday Checklist

Lots of snuggles:

Lots of smiles:

Lots of snacking on toes:

I'll admit, I did give them a nibble myself just to see what all the fuss was about. I couldn't quite figure out the infatuation with them though

And a personalized greeting from Google!

For the record, I was signed into my gmail account, which is how Google "knew" it was my birthday

Oh, and I plan to spend some time with Darrell tonight too. But he's old news  :)

Peach Margaritas

Despite a few less-than-pleasant nights (or perhaps, early mornings) with tequila, the two of us have remained close friends. So when I found a margarita recipe that would help us blend through the surplus of peaches we had a few weeks (months?) ago, I was sold. While the recipe is quite delicious, I'm not sure that I would go out and buy peaches for the sole purpose of making these margaritas; that's way more forethought than I usually put into my margarita-drinking experiences. But when we already had the peaches on hand? You can bet we were all over these. My dad even went so far to call these the "nectar of the gods", but let's just say this wasn't his first drink of the evening, so you might want to take his opinion with a grain of salt (which, for the record, I would not recommend salting the rims of the glasses for these margaritas. Maybe sugar. Just an FYI. And you know, maybe serve them in actual margarita glasses instead of rocks glasses. That is, if you're picky about that sort of thing. Which clearly we are not).

We're apparently also not picky about the quality of our photos. I blame the glare and fuzziness on Darrell's iPhone.



Peach Margaritas

(I seem to have misplaced the original link for this recipe. I swear that is because of the amount of time that has passed since making these, not because of the amount of alcohol that was consumed in sampling them. But I'm pretty sure this is the recipe we followed/modified.)

(Makes 3-4 margaritas)

 

3 peaches, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 cup tequila

1/2 cup triple sec or peach schnapps (we preferred the schnapps)

3 tablespoons honey

3 cups ice

 

Blend all ingredients in a blender on high speed until desired consistency is reached. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

 

PS It is only fitting that I post a recipe for an alcoholic drink today, as it is the birthday of one of my dearest friends Tim. While he doesn't quite share my love of tequila, he certainly knows his way around a good bottle of scotch. Cheers to you Tim! 



Okoboji

One of these days I'll actually post stuff sooner than a month after it happens, but that day just isn't here yet (and between my lack of free time and Darrell's ability to find time to edit photos, that day may be a ways into the future). But oh well; there are worse things that could happen I suppose.

Back toward the end of July the three of us headed down to Okoboji with Darrell's Shrine unit, the Fife and Drum. This is an annual trip for them, as a few of the members of the unit have cabins down there and like to host the group for a fun day of drinking and socializing. And because they seem to think that drinking and playing musical instruments is a good combination, they always do a little bit of bally-hooing: riding around on a large boat and playing patriotic songs for other people out on the lake and at the restaurants on the shore. A little something like this:

Bally-hooingo on the boat

Playing for the crowd at The Barefoot Bar

William, of course, was the star of the show and got all sorts of attention throughout the day.

AJ wanted to use William to help him pick up chicks, but William wasn't too keen on the idea

Family photo!

One of the big highlights of the trip was that it was William's first bus ride; he handled the trip like a pro, and I don't think the other people minded having an infant on board (or, at least by the time he started fussing on the way home they were too drunk to care).

Unsure about this bus thing...

Okay, I think I can handle this

William: Four Months!

Not that I'm biased or anything, but how cute is he? If only Mom had put him in a sleeveless shirt so you could see the guns he's flexing  :-)

Seriously, though, kid is starting to pack on some strength. We definitely have to be careful when we are holding him near a table because he will reach and pull at whatever he can. I learned this lesson the hard way while out to lunch with a friend; William pulled over my (practically full) water glass and made a lovely mess of both of us (and while I had a change of clothes for him, I wasn't quite so lucky). He can also completely extend his arms and push his head/chest off the floor while doing tummy time. And you'd better believe he's working on getting those legs tucked under so he can start crawling--and I know I'll regret saying this a month or two from now, but I'm looking forward to when he gets the hang of the crawling thing. Right now he rolls to his stomach almost instantly when you put him on his back, and he'll only play contentedly like that for a handful of minutes before he starts to get frustrated that he isn't going anywhere (and he hasn't quite mastered rolling from his stomach to his back, although he has done it a handful of times). He will also fully support himself on his legs, and usually prefers standing to sitting if you are holding him.

All this moving and rolling and standing has caused him to slim down a little bit; at his four month appointment he was a lean fifteen pounds, seven ounces (putting him in the 63rd percentile, down from the 80th at his two-month appointment). He also put on two inches during that time period, shooting up to just over twenty-five inches. He's still managing to fit into size two diapers, and even a few three-month onesies, although he's mostly wearing 3-6 month clothing.

And the drooling. Oh the drooling. It's so out of control. He will soak through the front of his shirt in an hour without issue, and many of his plush toys are so drool-laden it takes them hours to dry. Drool has, on more than one occasion, been running down my arm as I hold him, and he's managed to have strands of it that run from his mouth to the floor (when he is standing, no less). And you had better believe that if he can lift it, he's going to be pulling it to his mouth. His idea of sucking/chewing on things usually just means that he drools all over them. Thankfully, the spitting up has started to decrease, so I suppose I'm happy with the trade-off. At least the drool doesn't stink.

Sleep took a major hit in the weeks before he turned four months old; that four-month sleep regression is no joke. We also learned about Wonder Weeks, the characteristics of which fit him to a tee. We're definitely going to keep our eye on this development trend to help us predict when other issues/sleep regressions are about to hit. Because man, that first night where he was up every two hours again was rough; for awhile it felt like we were back to having a newborn and I was not ready for that.

In addition to being able to occupy himself with toys and by looking around, William's also started to take more of an interest in what we are doing. He's figured out what the phone in Mommy's hand means (and usually stops smiling as soon as I pull it out), he's started to get into stories when we read them (although the whole two-dimensional thing is still a little tricky; he hasn't quite figured out that he can't grab Clifford off the page), and he's definitely working more on imitating our sounds. Most of the time his noises are super fun and cute, but we're still working on the concept of an indoor voice. Kid definitely has a set of lungs on him.

Just a few last things before my incessant blabbing about my (perfect) son totally bores you. If you haven't been able to tell from the monthly pictures, he's lost most of his dark newborn hair and it is definitely being replaced with some blonde locks (I'll be in heaven if they start to curl!). His eyes are still holding strong at blue; fingers crossed they stay that way. And stubbornness? Don't even get me started. I'd curse his father for that trait, but, well, he is half me. And apparently he got the stubborn gene from both of us because man oh man there are times where it is his way or the highway--and he is definitely quick to let you know that. But the snuggles and smiles make it all totally worth it!

Minor Panic

Want to know a good way to send a new mother into a slight panic? Sell clothing that is labeled as the same size (from the same brand!), but not actually have it be the same size.

Just a slight difference, right? So imagine my panic when on a Monday I dress William in the (super cute) chevron onesie, notice that it is a little snug and make a mental note to "retire" all the onesies of that size after they get worn and washed one last time, only to put him in the green onesie on Thursday and have it be a little loose. He hasn't been sleeping the greatest lately, which we were chalking it up to the oft-discussed four-month sleep regression. But when his onesie was loose on Thursday, I was convinced that he was sleeping poorly because he was sick--after all, something needed to account for the onesie all of the sudden being too loose, and weight loss due to being sick was the obvious answer. Thankfully, I was able to rationalize that he was still producing (plenty!) of wet and poopy diapers so I knew he was at least getting some nutrients, and with his four-month appointment coming up (an update on that coming soon!) I decided not to rush him in. Then lo and behold, while doing laundry on Friday I happened to line these two up and viola--major size difference. Not a nice trick whatsoever. I knew that sizes varied from brand to brand, but I assumed that within the same brand things would be consistent. Apparently not. Lesson learned.

The Night Circus

I'll be totally honest, when this book was picked for our book club to read back in July, I was a little skeptical. Sure, I have nothing against a good love story, but fantasy and some sort of magicians' battle? Meh. Not really up my alley. In fact, fantasy has never really been my thing (except for Harry Potter. I definitely got sucked into those). However, I ended up loving this book. It was so fascinating and captivating and most of the time I actually forgot I was reading a "fantasy" novel. The characters (even the ones with "magical" powers) are all humans (as opposed to centaurs or something), the story takes place in real locations (primarily London and the American Northeast), and even the whole premise of the "night circus" is something that could realistically exist without any magical enchantment.

Unfortunately, aside from saying that there is a love story, a night circus, and a "battle" between two magicians, it's really hard to say much else about the plot without giving anything away. However, I can say that the book is beautifully written; although I'm always wary of books being made into movies, I think this book would make a spectacular movie. The word choice was so vibrant and descriptive that at times I found I was actually playing the book in my head like a movie while I was reading (although I know the images I was creating in my head were certainly not doing justice to what the author was describing). Of course, we all agreed that it could not be a low-budget production, because then it definitely would be disappointing.

I think the only complaint people really had about this book was that a few of the girls missed that different chapters (within the same section) of the book were set in different years. The author did include this information in small text under the title of the chapter, but unless you knew to read it carefully, it was really easy to miss that the years were jumping around (especially because in one section of the book they jump back and forth between the same day, but different years). And since some of the girls were reading the book on their Kindles/iPads, it wasn't exactly easy to flip back a handful of pages to check the year given under the chapter title. Perhaps a nuisance, yes, but in the grand scheme of things, it's definitely not a reason to refrain from picking up the book (in fact, it was inspiring many of the girls to want to read the book again and pay closer attention to those--and other--details. A sentiment I definitely agree with).

Even if you think this book is a little "outside of the box" of what you usually read, I seriously recommend picking it up anyway. Give it a chance--you won't regret it!

Amanda and Nick's Wedding

Well, it's only a month after the wedding, but I finally got my hands on some pictures (and some free time!) So here's a little bit more about the day I gained my only favorite brother-in-law. I should note that my sister hasn't gotten her pictures from her photographer yet, so once she gets those I'll probably end up posting more pictures (because I'm pretty sure she got some cute ones of William), but for now these will have to do.

What, are you surprised I started with a picture of William? Wouldn't you? Look how cute he is!!

Our "limousine" for the day

Husband and Wife!

My dad and sister busting out some swing dance moves. And we didn't have to call an ambulance for my dad after the dance--major win! (Although the local firemen were tending bar, so he would have been in good hands)

William and I getting our swing on during the father-daughter dance

Love this shot with my favorite little cousins! (They're probably more like second cousins once removed or something... But really, who's keeping track?) 

William getting loved on (there was plenty of this going on all day--spoiled little boy!)

William learning how to do knuckles

Happy little boy (and girl!)

Dance party!

I still have no idea where Darrell found that cowboy (ish) hat, but it came in handy during "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

No family photo though... It's looking like the shot from the photo booth might be the only one of all three of us (and--really--one of the only ones of Darrell and I together)--whoops!!

Gender Reveal!

Don't worry, you haven't missed anything, Darrell and I aren't expecting (in fact, even if I were pregnant, I don't think it would be humanly possible for me to be far enough along to find out the sex). But some dear friends of mine are due with their first child in December, and I was honored to be a part of their gender reveal celebration. In fact, they even let me make the cake (and I didn't even have to beg!)

Here it is in all of its pre-cut glory:

 



And now the moment of truth... It's a...

BOY!! I was secretly hoping for a girl; I've got a son and three nephews to shop for (plus the majority of my other friends have boys as well) so I was really looking forward for a chance to shop for some cute girl stuff... But no such luck (my pocketbook just breathed a huge sigh of relief). And I'm sure William will be more excited about another guy friend to rough house with instead of a girly friend (Mom, on the other hand, was already envisioning the possibility of a budding romance between the two). Of course, boy or girl I'm just glad everyone is happy and healthy and I hope things continue to go well for the remainder of her pregnancy. Congrats to the happy couple!

Garden 2013 Edition

By this point you've probably assumed that I gave up gardening for parenting this summer, but have no fear--my garden is growing in its full glory; I just haven't had the time to post regular updates on it. In fact, part of the reason for my delay in posting about it is that I got a late start this year (on top of the whole parenting thing). We had snow/freezing temperatures into the beginning of May, and then with William's baptism and my sister's bridal shower Memorial Day weekend, I didn't get around to getting anything planted until right before we left for the beach mid-June. Apparently that hasn't caused too many issues with the success of my garden, though--we have produce coming out our ears.

Here is a current photo of my garden in all its green and seemingly over-grown glory:

I stuck with pretty much all the same vegetables I've done in the past: zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, green beans, peas, green onion, bell peppers, carrots, and sweet corn. I think this might be my last year for bell peppers though because for whatever reason they just don't grow (my plants started at about six inches when I transplanted them in June and they are now about eight inches. And certainly not "thick" enough to support a pepper). And I don't think we'll get corn this fall; only one of the stalks is really growing, so it won't have another plant to cross-pollinate with (plus it isn't exactly shooting up itself). My tomatoes got an even later start than everything else because the plants I transplanted before we left for the beach mysteriously disappeared while we were gone (for reals--it's not like they were bitten off or died or anything--they were just gone), but thanks to my neighbor I got some new plants in shortly after getting back. And my zucchini. Oh my zucchini. In addition to heat and dryness and everything else, I've battled with a mysterious bug infestation on them for the past two years (check here and here for details). I vowed to be more diligent about monitoring for bugs this year (probably seems a little counter-intuitive since I actually have less time to garden this year thanks to the baby, but whatever), and so far, I think it's actually worked. On more than one occasion, I've caught branches when they were first beginning to droop/show frassing, and upon removing them from the plant actually found larvae inside of them. That may not sound like a good thing, but actually finding the larvae means I'm closer to figuring out what exactly the bugs are (most of the signs are pointing to squash vine borers), plus the fact that I've caught the infected branches before the larvae have a chance to move into the stalk hopefully means the plant will persevere (actually, on one plant, the larvae had grown and moved into the stalk, but I was able to pull it out with a teasers after removing the infected branch. Not going to lie, it was insanely gross and I almost puked).

And now for the proof that we have produce coming out of our ears, here's (most of) what I've harvested already this year.

First pickings on July 20th

Round two on July 31st

Most recent haul on August 4th

And for the record, I'm really not complaining about how much stuff we have; we love the fresh produce. We're just going to be eating lots the next few weeks!

July Randoms

So apparently I took lots of photos of William this month.... But thankfully he's super cute so I don't have to be apologetic about it :)

 



 

Sitting in his high chair at the table like a big boy!

Photographic evidence that you can't walk away from this kid while he is on the changing table. He managed to get himself turned sideways and was pushing off the wall with his feet

Wearing stars and lying on stripes--close enough for the 4th of July, right?

Silly boy with his feet on the table (which led to dangerous discovery number two for the month--little stinker can use his feet to push off the table and rock his chair back on two legs)

Enjoying his new mobile, hand-made by his buddy Cole (who also "taught" him knuckles at my sister's wedding. It was too cute)

Practicing for his GQ photo shoot

Somebody found his toes this month! He loves to play with them, and is really close to getting them to his mouth (unassisted), but usually his rolls get in the way

Matching Daddy!

Cute little puppy we dog-sat for a weekend--thankfully he was fully house-trained and has been around babies before so taking care of him was easy-peasy

Hanging out at Jazz Fest

Tuckered out after Jazz Fest

Enjoying his play mat

Making faces before bed

Story time with Daddy

Thankfully he can't really get himself into any danger inside his crib (knock on wood), but he's definitely mastered the ability of kicking and turning his body. We rarely find him in the position in which we put him into the crib

Cute little baby from the front...

Goofy looking old man from the back!!

Big smiles!

More GQ poses