Baking Day Bravery

Last weekend, I didn't do any of the crazy baking that I planned to do. I just crocheted like mad.

Today, I just did all the dishes so that I can make another mess baking some stuff with the giant bowl of grated zucchini I have (and handful of frozen overripe bananas). It took me like a half hour to grate the zucchini I had. It was 2 feet long and probably had a 4 inch diameter.

I know I want to make zucchini bread with some chocolate chips in them. It's one of my childhood favorites. I did like the zucchini cornbread I made last time, but it won't go well with chocholate, and I'm trying to make some healthier snacks to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Then, while I was Googling zucchini bread recipes (because internet reviews always reveal the best-of-the-best) I saw an add for a blueberry muffin recipe, and I thought "those look amazing, too bad I don't have blueberries." My secondary thought was I will go buy blueberries and make those scrumptious looking muffins and then let Chris know because he likes blueberry stuff. I'm cruel like that (he lives too far away to share).

Thinking further, I realized if I text Chris an intentionally tormenting message about amazing blueberry muffins, he will just tell me they should have been scones.  That got me thinking that 1) I should try to make a chocolate zucchini scone, and 2) I wanted to make chocolate banana scones anyway.

So when I head out shopping later, I will stop by the grocery store to pick up cream for making scones. I think I need more sugar for all this baking anyway.

Like all my strange shopping ventures, I will also be looking for a brown cardigan, returning an air filter that wasn't right and getting the right one, and getting more color-changing yarn to make a scarf to go with the sock monkey hat because I forgot that part. I actually have to go to 5 different stores to accomplish this. :(  Best get started.

I will post on the success of the zucchini scones and perhaps provide a recipe or two later.

Day of Yum!

Today I went a bit crazy in the kitchen. Both sinks are full of pots and pans, the stop top is bearing the burden of the ones that won't fit in the sink, but it was successful.

I prepped the base for my coffee heath bar ice cream. I'll pick up ice after work tomorrow and finish it up. I did taste the base, and it's heavenly!

Then I made the zucchini cornbread. Amazing! It does have a very buttery flavor, so you could cut the butter a bit. I did add parsley as some reviewers suggested. Yum, yum, yum.

Last, but not least, I made a Chargrilled Yellow Bell Pepper Soup. It's a chilled soup, so I can't indulge untile tomorrow on this treat either, but the bit I licked off the spatula was very tasty. My taste test was also suggestive that this would be good warm too. It actually tasted a bit like a soup I had at Harry's once.

Since there's no link to the soup, here's what I did.

1. Halved and de-seeded 3 yellow bell peppers.
2. Broiled them until the oustide was blacked.
3. Wrapped the peppers in a damp cool cloth and let them cool.
4. Pelled off their skins.
5. Then I finely chopped the following:
• the 3 bell peppers
• 1 very small potato
• 1 very small onion
• 1 smaller carrot
6. In a medium/large saucepan, I heated 3 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat.
7. Then I tossed in a teaspoon of minced garlic and my chopped onion and cooked for 5 minutes.
8. Threw in the peppers, carrots, and potato, some salt & pepper, and cooked for 5 minutes.
9. Poured in 4 cups of vegetable stock and brought to a boil.
10. Lowered the temp and let it all simmer for 10 minutes.
11. Pureed it in my happy blender.
12. Strained it into a large bowl, and placed in a nice cool space in from fridge to chill.

It needs a mimimum of 2 hours to chill, so I haven't eaten it yet. When I do eat it, I will put Gremolata on top (mix of 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, 1 lemon's worth of zest, and 1 garlic clove diced up).

This soup will go very well with my zucchini bread.

Tomorrow, I will endeavor to conquer red velvet cake. I did buy all the ingredients for it today.