Zucchini Garlic Herb Bread

We picked our first zucchinis from the garden yesterday, so for dinner we made my favorite bread.



Zucchini Garlic Herb Bread

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2-3 T honey
2 1/4 tsp yeast
4-5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup (or 1 small/medium) zucchini- grated
3-4 T chopped herbs
2-4 cloves minced garlic (I use more than this since I like garlic)

Combine the milk, honey and butter and warm until the butter is almost melted. In your mixer bowl, combine salt, yeast and 1 cup flour. Add in the milk mixture and mix well.

Add 2 more cups of flour, zucchini, garlic and herbs. I use whatever I have on hand- sage, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, though this time it was just oregano and thyme.

Knead using the dough hook, adding additional flour as needed. Knead for 5-10 min. Allow the dough to rest covered for 15 minutes.


Grease a large pizza pan and using oiled hands press the dough on to the pan. Cover and allow to rest another 15 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until slightly golden. You can brush with butter before or after baking if you wish. This also makes a great pizza dough.

Another Cupcake Bouquet Creation

This one was for a 6 yr old's birthday party


I absolutely love how the colors turned out!

Waterfall Birthday Cake

My youngest son turned 4 last week. We had a backyard BBQ party for him this weekend. His cake request?

A waterfall

I started with 3 layers and realized it would be way too small for the 30 people coming, so I upped it to 5 layers. A 12in, a 9 in and three 6 in rounds.

It was big hit and the birthday boy loved it!

Whole Wheat Crepes with Strawberries

My family and I went over to the strawberry patch across the street from us yesterday and picked the first early berries of the season. My very favorite thing to eat with strawberries is crepes. So that is what I made for dinner yesterday.

Whole Wheat Crepes

1 cup whole white wheat flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk (+ more if needed to thin the batter)
1 tsp sugar
2 T melted coconut oil (or butter)

Whisk together the milk and eggs. While whisking add in the coconut oil. Add sugar and flour and milk until smooth.

Heat a skillet to medium. Lift the pan from the heat and pour in 1/4 cup batter and tilt in a circular motion to coat the pan. Cook for a couple minutes and carefully flop and cook the other side briefly.


Add your filling- ours was strawberry, maple syrup and coconut. Roll it up and enjoy. I served scrambled eggs along with the crepes- courtesy of the backyard chickens.

Pineapple Cocount Cake

4 layer Pineapple Coconut Cake


I am looking for a fluffy coconut cake to make for Easter this year and today I tried a recipe for a Pineapple-Coconut Cake. The cake itself is okay, a little to dense for what I was after. I wanted a much lighter, fluffier cake.

It is topped with a fluffy, flour based frosting that I have been meaning to try for a long time and never got around to it. Once topped with frosting, coconut and a couple dried pineapple pieces the cake tasted pretty good!

It's a small cake actually, two 6-in rounds cut in half to make 4 layers.


the rest of the batter went to making 24 cupcakes to share at a meeting tonight.

If you want to try the original recipe you can find it here. I think I will make it again, but this time doctor my own fluffy white cake recipe to include the pineapple and juice.

Easter Cookie Parade

Since Easter is almost here

and I wanted to try out a couple new designs

and because my boys begged me to make cookies


and I had a new chocolate sugar cookie recipe I wanted to try

So here are most of them- chicks, bunnies, eggs, flowers.

Enjoyed by the us and shared with some students and faculty at UT.

Peppermint Patties and Lemon Cremes

I saw this recipe on Savory Sweet Life and knew I had to try it out. Peppermint Patties are one of my favorite candies...chocolate and mint are right up there with chocolate and peanut butter. I will admit when I read the recipe I was a little skeptical that they would have that same inner texture but they really do, especially when cold. I made half lemon and half mint since I have some non-mint eaters in my home.

I did change the recipe just a tiny bit.

Here is what you will need:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
5-6 cups of powdered sugar
2 tsp-1 T peppermint extract (or lemon extract)
2 T coconut oil- soft or melted

and for the outside:

1 pkg semi sweet/dark chocolate chips
2 T coconut oil

Mix the condensed milk and coconut oil until well blended. Add the extract and powdered sugar- starting with about 5 cups- and mix until you have a workable dough that is not too sticky. Add more sugar if needed.

Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten in to discs. Place in the freezer until thoroughly chilled.

When you are ready to coat them, melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted. Using a fork, dip each candy disk in the chocolate to completely coat. Allow excess to drip off and place on wax paper. You can chill them again to set the chocolate more quickly. I kept ours in the refrigerator. I can't tell you how long they would keep since they were gone within 2 days here.