Cranberry Chocolate Zucchini Bread

So we had this big baby that we needed to use up this weekend. We wanted the first portion of it to go to a sweet dish. We made a HUGE batch of cranberry chocolate zucchini bread. We doubled the recipe below and have such a huge amount we have plenty to freeze. If you don't double it, you will get two regular size loaves. We ended up doing one regular size and tons of mini loaves. Hope you enjoy making this as much as we did!

Adapted from a Paula Dean recipe

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add cranberries,chocolate chips and raisins and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Avocado Tomato Salad with Smoked Corn Vinaigrette

So it takes a lot to get me craving a salad. Don't get me wrong I love salad, but I don't often crave them! That is until we moved in Anchorage back in 2002 and ate at my now favorite restaurant Bear's Tooth Grill. They have amazing wonderful food, very fresh and filled with garlic! It took a few visits until I tried  this salad. Once I did try it, the cravings started. Since we lived close to this fantastic restaurant for 6 years  I had many of these salads. Once we moved away I tried to recreate it a few times and it was never right.
After a recent visit to Anchorage and enjoying another one of Bear's Tooth fantastic salads, I knew I needed to search to figure out how to enjoy this at home. From my searching the internet I found a recipe by Mark T. on Food.com. He had said that he had the smoked corn recipe in a restaurant and he lived in Anchorage....DING DING DING...could I have found this dressing recipe!!! I was beyond excited to try this out, but needed my hubby to smoke a batch of corn for me. When he so kindly had the corn smoked perfectly and it smelled heavenly, I dove right in to whip this salad up.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Maybe it will have you crazing a salad!!

TIP* place a small bowl upside down in a large bowl and place corn on small bowl to cut corn mess free
Dressing from Mark T. of Food.com

This is how much I got out of one batch.

8 ears of fresh corn ( I used a mix of yellow and white) (only puree 7 ears and save one to top off the salad)
4 garlic cloves chopped
2 shallots chopped
4 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1 cup corn oil ( I could not find corn oil so I used EVOO....and I don't think I used a full cup, all depends on how thin or thick you want the end product to be)

Smoke corn for 30 mins...(if you have to you can use a grill..but a smoker is best) (thanks hubs for smoking it for me).
Place smoked corn in 350* oven to finish cooking...about 10 mins or so, just watch it.
Puree all ingredients in a food processor or blender and slowly drizzle in oil then season with salt and LOTS of black pepper.

For Salad
1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
3 very ripe avocados,chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
The extra ear or corn cut off the cob
Fresh cracked black pepper

To assemble
Place lettuce in a large pretty bowl. Toss well with a good amount of dressing (you will only use about a half of the batch or less). Then add avocados and toss well. Top salad with tomatoes, corn and black pepper..now DIG IN!!

Salmon Pie

We have a happy home when our freezer is full of Salmon! As much as we love to eat it, you have to mix it up every once in awhile. So several years ago I started using up our salmon supply in this yummy take on pot pie. If you use leftover salmon and mashed potatoes, it is so fast to get this on the table. Each time you make it you can mix it up a little by adding different veggies or cheese, this a staple recipe to add  what you wish.  This is a huge favorite in my house, now I pass it on to you.

Adapted from Emeril

2 cups cooked  salmon ( i mix smoked salmon in also)
1 Tbs EVOO
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup of veggie of choice( peas, mushrooms, or you can do veggie free)
1-2 cloves fresh garlic chopped fine or grated
1 TBS fresh dill chopped
2-3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream,half and half, or even whole milk
store bought top and bottom refrigerated pie crust ( you can make your own if you really want to)

Preheat oven to 350*
Heat a pan over medium heat and add oil to pan. Then cook onions in the oil until tender. Once the onions are cooked remove from heat and stir in garlic and dill along with salt and pepper to taste. At this point you can add your veggie of choice.
Add the onion mixture to a bowl and mix with the salmon. Add in potatoes, egg and cream to the salmon mixture and mix well to combine.
Place the bottom round of pie dough in a pie dish and fill with mixture. Then place the top round of pie dough on top and pinch together the dough around the pie. Bake for 30-35 mins.

Tuna Tarragon Pasta Salad

If you have ever gone to Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation, you know they have this wonderful pasta salad on the salad bar. Since we live about as far as you can get to a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant, I only get to eat this when my sister insists that we visit ST when we are in town visiting our mum in Arizona. Since I don't get to visit monthly I had to search for a copycat recipe to make at home. This is what I found and I think it is spot on! It is fantastic, and great chilled in the summer months for a picnic or BBQ. Make a batch today and find out yourself just what you are missing if you have never eaten at Sweet Tomatoes.

*I only made half the recipe, it is easy to half!

From Food.com

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 5 cups small shell pasta
• 1 1/4 cups penne pasta
• 1 cup spinach fettuccine (3-inch pieces)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tuna in water
• 2 cups sweet pickle juice (small jar contains about 1 cup)
• 1 3/4 cups mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 cups sweet pickles (diced)
• 1 cup celery (diced)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried tarragon leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• For the pasta: In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon salt to a full boil. Add pastas and cook for about 10 minutes until al dente. Immediately strain pasta and cool by running cold water over pasta in strainer. Drain pasta completely and place in a bowl. Coat pasta with canola oil to prevent sticking.
• 
  
  For the dressing: Place tuna in a large bowl and break down into small pieces. Add the remaining dressing ingredients and thoroughly whisk to combine.
• 
  
  Combine the dressing and cooked pasta and mix thoroughly. ALLOW SALAD TO MARINATE FOR 8 HOURS! After 8 hours, top with more pickle juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Sausage and Shrimp

After being on a mini vacation, I come home to find my fridge and pantry needing a little clean out. So when I have a mixed bag of food to use up for dinner I either make a pot of soup or a bowl of mixed goodies. What i came up with last night was very  tasty and something I will be sure to make again very soon!!! A big bowl of love, enjoy!

2-3 TBS. EVOO
2 carrots chopped small
2 ribs celery chopped small
3 shallots sliced
6 mushrooms chopped
1 lb uncooked shrimp
1 pkg El Fresco Chicken Chipotle sausage, browned
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of stock (veggie or chicken)
1 can tomato sauce (15oz)
dried tarragon to taste
dried oregano to taste
garlic powder and onion powder

Heat a large pan over med heat and add EVOO. Add veggies and cook until tender. Add browned chicken, stock, and tomato sauce and heat. Then add shrimp to cook, once shrimp is cooked at spices! I served this over a mound of smashed potatoes, with a side of fried parm zucchini!

Cookies for Q!

The other night as I was tucking my son into bed, he asked "can we bake cookies tomorrow"? Thought it was adorable, so sure enough after breakfast we got to baking. I told him that he could make any kind of cookie he wanted. So he picked chocolate chip, since of course I was out of chocolate chips. So we had some hershey bars in the pantry so we just broke those up and added them to some oatmeal cookies. He was so happy to bake his cookies and his dino, Boris wanted in on the cookie eating fun too!

Q's Choco Chunk Cookies

*1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter
*3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
*2 eggs
*1 teaspoon vanilla
*1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*1 1/2 cups oats
* 1/2 chopped macadamia nuts
* 3 hershey chocolate bars broken

Heat oven to 350*
In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy
Add eggs and vanilla, beat well
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and mix well
Add oats and chocolate and mix well
Bake 8-10 mins on a cookie sheet

Groovy Green Tea Cheesecake

My 9th wedding anniversary to my awesome husband is tomorrow. Since he has kept me in the dark about any plans for the day I wanted to make a little something sweet for us to enjoy this weekend. In doing so I think I have started a new tradition. Anniversary cheesecake=) I love to make and eat cheesecake and when I heard of a green tea cheesecake I was thrilled to try it. I think it taste like green tea ice cream in a way so if you like that you will like this. It turned out to be a light green shade, hard to tell from this photo. The key to it is the green tea powder. I had some in my pantry that I had ordered offline awhile back. You can also get it at asian food stores.
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 1/3 cup  ground shortbread cookies 

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 package mascarpone

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2-3 teaspoons Japanese green tea powder** or 2-3 teaspoons finely ground green tea from about 4 tea bags

Preheat oven to 325°F. Press cookie crumbs firmly onto bottom (not sides) of 10-inch-diameter springform pan. Wrap outside of pan tightly with 3 layers of heavy-duty foil. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. Beat in green tea powder until smooth. Pour batter over prepared crust in pan. Place cake in roasting pan; add enough hot water to roasting pan to come halfway up sides of springform pan.

Bake cake until set but center moves very slightly when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour. Remove cake from roasting pan; cool 1 hour at room temperature. Refrigerate uncovered overnight. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.)