Zucchini Bread and another trip to the Farmer's Market

Well, I talked my parents into taking another trip to the Farmer's Market. It wasn't that hard :)

I think we bought even more this time than we did last time! And I plan to use ALL of it! Seriously, on the way home I had recipes flashing through my brain. I've already gone through a couple cookbooks and flagged some recipes I can use all my new fresh produce in!

Oranges, sweet onions, strawberries, mangoes, and homemade salsa

 

 

Zucchini and squash, anjou pears, green beans, okra, lemons and new potatoes

 Spinach, blueberries, corn, cantaloupe, watermelon and the zucchini, squash and new potatoes again

I was giddy laying it all out on the counter to put away. It's safe to say Mom, Daddy and I will get our fruit and veggie servings this week!

 

Here's our big bowl of fruit...filled with lemons, oranges, pears and mangoes. Yum! Oh, and just a few pictures of the fam :)

 

Here's what I'll be making this week:

Paula Deen's Green Beans & New Potatoes (Made these last night and they were awesome!)

Southern Plate's Sweet & Sour Green Beans (Made these last time we got green beans...SO good and so easy.)

Southern Plate's Squash Casserole 

Blueberry Pancakes (Stay tuned for the recipe!)

Fresh Spinach Salad

and I'll probably just eat the watermelon, cantaloupe, and oranges just how they are :)

I almost forgot to mention that I got a mint plant!! It's planted in a pot in my backyard and I'm looking forward to using it all spring and summer. I'm going to make a mint simple syrup for my tea and I'll be sippin' on mojitos all summer. Meet me at the pool!

 

I HIGHLY recommend you make a trip to the Farmer's Market. It is such a fun experience and you will come home with some yummy goodies. If you go and find something that looks good, just get it! You can go home and just google what you got and a million recipes will come up. The internet is incredibly resourceful.

 

On to the Zucchini Bread! I used my fresh zucchini from the farmer's market and I used my girl Christy Jordan's Zucchini Bread recipe from her amazing cookbook. (Her cookbook was the first one I looked in when I got home with all my fresh produce!)

 

This bread is DE-LICIOUS. If you've never had zucchini bread before then you're probably turning your nose up. Vegetables? In a bread? Well have you ever had carrot cake? That has carrots in it, yet it's sweet and delicious. That's exactly how this is. It's sweet and spicy from the cinnamon and nutmeg, so moist, and so yummy. You'll love it. I promise. You'll never look at zucchini bread the same way again.

 

P.S. I am strugglin' with the pictures. I don't know what is wrong with me but I failed to take as many pictures as I usually do. This recipe is a no-brainer though. You can't mess it up!

Zucchini Bread

Recipe adapted from Southern Plate 

3 eggs

3/4 c. vegetable oil

2 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. shredded zucchini

one 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained

3 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg, optional

1 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts, but pecans would be good too!)

1 c. raisins, optional (I left these out.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour two loaf pans. You can use two 4"x8" loaf pans or two 3"x9". Christy says you can also use four to six mini loaf pans. Whatever strikes your fancy!

 

Y'all remember how to do this, right? Get our your tub of butter or margarine and swipe a paper towel in it. Grease both pans with it, then sprinkle some flour in both pans. Shake it around until it coats everything and shake out the excess.

Go ahead and grate your zucchini. You can use a box grater, the grating attachment thing on a food processor, or a hand grater. My mom actually just got this vegetable hand grater at TJ Maxx this past weekend. Good timing!

 I used two zucchinis to get 2 cups!

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, zucchini, and pineapple (drained). Mix that all together (I used a hand mixer, but you could probably just used a whisk or spoon.) and set it aside. You want everything to be totally incorporated.

All incorporated!

In a even bigger bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg (if using).

 Just sift it into that big bowl.

Now dump the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until everything is well incorporated. Add the nuts and raisins, if using, and stir those bad boys in. Now your batter is ready!

Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans and smooth the top.  Bake for 1 hour, but start checking it at 50 minutes. If you stick a knife in and it comes out clean then go ahead and take it out. Everyone's ovens are different! If you used the mini loaf pans, they only bake for about 30 minutes.

Now take the bread out and try your very hardest to let it cool before you cut a slice for yourself. It's harder than you think!

I already cut a piece out :)

 I love that you can see the bits of zucchini, pineapple and the nuts! How can you resist?!

Enjoy, y'all! If you make it, let me know what you think!

Exploring Dallas... and a trip to the Farmer's Market!

I've lived in Dallas for a little over 23 years now, yet I tend to stay in my little Richardson bubble. I mean, do you realize how many things there are to do in Dallas? A WHOLE LOT, I'll tell you that much! I've decided to take more advantage of all these cool things Dallas has to offer.

My wonderful boss (Hey Lisa!) took me to lunch last week to celebrate my birthday and we went to a place called Hattie's in the Bishop Arts District.  It was so good, y'all. It's my new favorite restaurant! It's right up my alley, too. They have good, southern, home cookin', but it's perfected versions of the classics and everything is wonderful. The menu isn't that big, so I knew that meant that everything on it had to be so outstanding that they don't need to offer a lot of options. Let me tell, everything I had was incredible. Even the iced tea was perfect....that's how good it was!

Hattie's!

Since I was at a place serving southern food, I of course had to try some fried chicken. So I had a fried chicken sandwich and it had spicy mustard and homemade pickles on it. Lisa got a crab cake salad and said it was great. The Four-Cheese Macaroni was calling our names from them menu so we ordered a small side of that so we could try it. They also serve you homemade bread with the softest butter that was to die for. We couldn't resist dessert, so we ordered the Pecan, Chocolate, Coconut Pie with vanilla ice cream. I know what you're thinking... "Is that all one pie?" YES IT IS! I had to ask the waiter. I couldn't believe it. It was incredibly delicious. I've decided to keep going back until I've tried everything on the menu because it was so incredible and everything sounded good. (We're talkin' Pecan-Crusted Catfish, Shrimp & Grits, Grilled Cheese..... okay stop salivating!)

The actual space is darling. It's so bright when you walk in and it looks like the inside of a southern plantation. It's really vintage looking, but it still feels updated and modern. Just go, y'all. You won't regret it....unless you forget to invite me to go with you :)

 I love how bright it is! 

 
I also made a trip to the Dallas Farmer's Market this weekend. I haven't been since probably elementary school. I can remember going with some family friends of ours and I remember us buying a huge crate of oranges. Too bad I wasn't interested in cooking and baking when I was 7 years old, or else I would have been putting oranges in everything!

The Farmer's Market is so cool! Each stand was full of fresh fruit and vegetables, and the vendors were eager to give you samples of pineapple, oranges, mangoes and more. I was in heaven. It was kind of hard to keep track of where I saw the best prices of things, but I got some good stuff! With everything I bought, recipes were flying through my brain! I got...

• green beans
• spinach
• okra
• green onions
• oranges
• canteloupe
• corn 
• Peach flavored white balsalmic vinegar (I'm thinkin' salad dressings...)

I've already made some green beans and I fried up some okra last night. You should know this about me... I love fried okra. I've loved it since I was little. I could eat loads and loads of it. However, my first attempt at making it did not go well, but it won't scare me away from trying again! Here's another thing you should know about me... I LOVE PEACHES AND ANYTHING PEACH FLAVORED. Did I make that clear enough for you? Peaches are, by far, my favorite fruit. I love all other fruits too; I'd say watermelon is a close second, but peaches are, without a doubt, my favorite. I love peach cobbler, peach tea, fresh peaches... you get it? When I see recipes with peaches in them, I always write them down. I'm patiently waiting for peach season to roll around so I can go buy a case of them at the Farmer's Market!

 These were the biggest onions I had ever seen! The picture doesn't do them justice!


The Farmer's Market also has an indoor area with specialty foods. That's where I got the balsalmic vinegar. I also bought some candles that smell amazing. One is lit right now as I type this :) It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, but I think with the weather being nicer these days and more produce is coming in season, it will get more crowded.

These people spelled "pickles" wrong on every jar. Poor things!

I encourage you Dallas people to check out the Dallas Farmer's Market one Saturday. You will have so much fun and you'll end up taking home some yummy, fresh produce! The website is really helpful. I looked at it the night before I went and they had a list of everything that was in season for the month of February. It will also give you directions and tell you where to park. 

Sorry, no recipes today. I'm making a pork tenderloin tonight, so I'll post that tomorrow!