house of fifty

I ran across the premier issue of House of Fifty on another blog over the weekend and spent some time last night checking it out.  Actually, I read it cover-to-cover, which I rarely do.  Usually, I just look at the pictures unless something really catches my eye.  I must say that I am quite impressed.

I am so pleased that there is finally a magazine that offers ideas that the average person can accomplish and fit into their budget.  While I love the higher-end magazines and often find a lot of inspiration in the features; most times the average person can not afford to put together a room of that caliber.  Trust me, I love to bargain hunt, estate sale hunting, and scouring Craigslist but there are just some things you can't replicate.

It seems House of Fifty targets the everyday home and the everyday lady.  I am looking forward to the next issue already!

I ran across this recipe and will be including it in my Mother's Day dinner menu.  Looks so simple, yet so fancy.

zucchini galore

So zucchini is like the no fail vegetable.  They grow like a weed and will always produce something.  Our zucchini is on crack.  It is producing gianormous honkers and at a rapid pace.  Like they could have been entered and won a ribbon in the county fair largest vegetable contest!  Not knowing what to do with all of it my mom and I made zucchini bread...lots of it and we still have zucchini coming out our ears.

One of 3 that are around 15-20 inches long!

We used this very simple recipe as my base and we added chocolate chips and walnuts to some of them.  We also used honey instead of sugar.  You will want to substitute in a 1:1 ratio for the first cup and 3/4 cup honey per 1 cup honey thereafter.  Worked perfectly.

We decided to freeze most of the loaves (2 large zucchini's yielded almost 2 dozen loaves!)--We made a variety of sizes, both mini loaves and big loaves and will hand them out with the plum jam to neighbors and co-workers during the holidays.

plums

When we bought our house they told us we had several fruit trees in our backyard.  Until the trees started blooming we had no idea what kind of fruit trees there were.  Turns out we have two plum trees and an apple tree.  This weekend we harvested plums from one of the trees.  There were several hundred ripe plums, like more than we could ever eat or giveaway before they spoil.  We ended up having to pick them all (or at least all those we could reach from the ladder) because they were getting so ripe they were falling off the tree and the dogs were stepping on them and dragging the purple juice into the house.

I really didn't want the fruit to spoil so I decided to become domesticated for a day and make plum jam.  It was much easier than I thought and is nearly impossible to screw up.  My kind of cooking!  I poured the jam into quart jars that I purchased at the grocery store and will give them out to neighbors during the holidays.  I also used sugar-free pectin which is supposed to give the jam a shelf-life of at least 12 months.

 

It was a lot of fun.  Maybe with the thousands of apples that are growing on my tree I will try my hand at apple butter or maybe even a few apple pies!

TIP: if you frequent estate sales or garage sales you can find old canning jars for pennies which would add a bit of spunk to your gift.  I planned this at the last minute so I had to stick to grocery store glass jars.  Sadly, I was at an estate sale on Friday and there were probably 25 unique, old Kerr jars (both blue and clear) for something like $5!!  Now I am going to stock up for next years crop.

cowboy cookies

Yummiest cookies you will ever eat.  I should also mention that they are super easy and the dough can be frozen for future use or for those days when you crave a warm, gooey sweet treat!

Here is what you need:

1 cup butter
1 cup of packed light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups rolled oats
16 oz chocolate chips
*you could also add nuts, like walnuts or pecans*

Here is what you do:

In large bowl beat together butter and sugars until combined. 

In medium bowl lightly beat together eggs and vanilla.

Add egg mixture to sugar and butter mixture and beat thourghly to combine.

In medium bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda, stirring to combime.

Add flour mixture to the egg-sugar mixture and stir until combined.  Once combined add oats and chocolate chips until combined.

Divide dough into fourths.  Place each quarter on a sheet of wax paper and roll into a log.  Wrap wax paper tightly around log.

Chill the logs until ready to use up to 1 week.  The rolls may be forzen for up to 3 months.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, heat oven to 350 degrees and slice into rounds approximately one-half inch thick.  If the dough is frozen no need to thaw, just increase the cooking time by 1-2 minutes.

Place rounds on a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Grab a glass of milk and enjoy!