Zucchini Skins recipe

I've made these a couple times and they're fantastic. You can obviously use anything you like as toppings...we've used hot Italian sausage and pancetta as alternate meat toppings and all sorts of different cheeses. The recipe calls for melted butter, but next time I make these I'm omitting it. I think the olive oil and fat from the cheese is more than enough to give the zucchini moisture.

PREP TIME: 15 Min
COOK TIME: 17 Min
READY IN: 32 Min

Ingredients
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pinch garlic powder
4 small zucchini
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch fresh-ground black pepper
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup bacon bits
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
1.Stir together the melted butter, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder in a small bowl; set aside. Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, remove the seeds with a spoon and rinse under cold water.
2.Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the zucchini halves in the boiling water until slightly tender but still mostly firm, about 5 minutes; drain and pat dry with paper towels.
3.Preheat your oven's broiler. Place the zucchini on a broiler pan, hollowed-side facing up. Season each zucchini with the olive oil and pepper
4.Roast the zucchini under the broiler until sizzling, about 5 minutes; remove from oven. Layer the sour cream, bacon bits, mozzarella cheese, and the breadcrumb mixture in the center of the zucchini halves in equal amounts. Return the zucchini to the oven until the breadcrumbs are brown and the cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes.
5.Can also finish on grill (after boiling on stove).

Blueberry Lemon bread recipe

This stuff is A-mazing!

PREP TIME: 15 Min
COOK TIME: 1 Hr
READY IN: 1 Hr 15 Min

Ingredients
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and drained
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup milk

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2.Dredge the blueberries in 2 teaspoons flour; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Mix in the lemon zest. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3.Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture alternately with the milk. Fold in the blueberries. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
4.Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow bread to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
5.Top loaf with a glaze made by mixing 1 tb lemon juice and 2 tb sugar. Brush it on the hot loaf and return it to the oven for 5 minutes.

Blueberry Boy Bait recipe

Adapted from Cook’s Country, which adapted it from the original

Like any recipe with a great name, this also has a great story, which was that in 1954, a 15-year-old girl stole the show (but only won second prize) in the junior division of an early Pillbury Bake-Off with a variation of this recipe, named, she said, after the effect it had on boys.

Cook’s Country magazine dusted this recipe off from the Pillsbury Bake-Off Dessert Cookbook and made a few tweaks to bring it more deliciously into the modern age: butter was swapped for shortening, the quantity of blueberries was doubled and some plain sugar was replaced with brown sugar. The result? Let’s just say you don’t need to be a boy to be lured in.

Serves 12, generously

2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (buttermilk or 2%milk work as well)
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost first as it tends to muddle in the batter)
Topping
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cake:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.

For the topping:
Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter (topping side up). Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

Per Sarah's request - Granola Bar Recipe!

So Matt and I eat 1-2 boxes of granola bars/fiber bars every week, which can get expensive. So I figured I'd try my hand at making my own! This recipe is a basic one to which you can add anything you want. I used dried cherries, pineapple, chocolate chips and almonds. Next time I'm leaving out the pineapple and subbing in cranberries. Matt loves tart stuff, so I figure cherries and cranberries should suit well! Also, I used a 17x11" jelly roll pan which gave me 24 "Nature Valley" texture bars. If you want a chewier bar, try adding another cup of oats. I'm trying it next time. Regardless, these turned out to be really delicious!!

Basic Granola Bar recipe, adapted from allrecipes.com

PREP TIME: 5 Min
COOK TIME: 20 Min
READY IN: 35 Min

Ingredients
3 cups quick-cooking oats (or 4 if you're using a larger pan)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan or large cookie sheet (jelly roll pan).
2.Put unopened can of condensed milk in bowl of hot water while you mix dry ingredients. Add butter to milk before adding both to dry ingredients.
3.In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan. Use wax paper to push mixture into corners.
4.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (I used 23) in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Immediately cut into granola bar-sized pieces with a pizza cutter. Let cool completely before serving.

New direction!

Well, since we're obviously not updating this with Dom-related stuff (as this was going to be for the families, but we talk to them and see them so often they don't need a running commentary here)I've decided to copy miss Sarah and start putting recipes I've tried up here. Because apparently I bake. And enjoy it. It's very strange.

Dominic has arrived!!!

Our little boy arrived Saturday 7:18am :) He weighs 7.2 oz and is 20.5 in long. And he's super stinkin cute!!

For pictures: dominic.cocuzzi.net

....

Sooo...as much fun as pregnancy has been, umm, I'd really like for the little man to just make his appearance. I keep telling him he'll have a lot more room to move around if he would just come out, but he doesn't seem to be listening. Stubborn little bugger. I have no idea where he gets that!

It's Kim!

And you all thought I'd never get on one of these things again. Ha! Well this is different. This one will be for baby Dom, and I'm all for talking about him!!

Well, let's see...it's been quite a while since Matt updated this darn thing :P Right now I'm 36+ weeks along and going strong. While my doctors still tell me he's coming along sometime in the last week of April/beginning of May, I struggle to believe it. I think he's coming early. Last week my belly measured at 36 weeks, when I was only 35. This week I measured at 38 1/2 weeks, when I'm supposed to be at 36. Yeah...

(To explain the measuring...they basically take a tape measure and measure my belly top to bottom in centimeters. It should roughly equal how many weeks along I am. Hence my struggle to buy the whole on-time thing...)

In other baby-related news, the nursery is done! The crib's finally all together, nearly everything has a home, and it's stinkin adorable! Matt and my dad built shelving that spans two walls...it's top-of-the-window high, sort of a ledge/border. Right now it has a bunch of stuffed animals sitting on it, but we can use it for books/picture frames/etc. as well. At this point all I need to do is finish some of his laundry, clean up some stuff, and then wait for him to make his appearance. I can't wait!!

Oh yeah, I'm done with Reynolds & Reynolds! Last Friday was my last day. I'm excited, but I gotta say it's weird. I've had a job since I was 13...I'm so happy to be able to be home with Dom, but it will most definitely be an adjustment. But one I'm happy to make!

Ok, that's enough for today. Signing off!

tuesday

blah, i was wrong. the NEXT appointment is the last monthly appointment.

on the 10th, we have an initial meeting with our presumed pediatrician.

our next baby appointment is on the 17th.

for what it's worth, all of these mini-appointments are painfully boring. lots of waiting in the waiting room, then they measure kim's weight, the baby's heart rate, and kim's blood pressure, and have us sit in a room for a while. eventually, the doctor walks in, says everything looks great and do you have any questions, which we ask, get shockingly fast answers, and are done until next time.

hours of waiting, minutes of doctor. my engineer-sense is tingling! something here is INEFFICIENT!!!!

tuesday tuesday tuesday!

tuesday, next week, marks our final monthly baby-doc appointment. it goes to every two weeks after that (i think). i don't know when we pack The Suitcase, but i'd imagine it would be in the next month or so, just in case.

everything with the hospital is sorted out, and we have the baby's room mostly done, though apparently we need to call the crib company so our baby doesn't get injured.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/13/news/companies/crib_recall/index.htm

to quote kim from a day or two ago, "i know you're not supposed to sleep on your right side, but i had to, to get comfortable, because i won't lay on my back. and today, little dom kicked more than he ever has before, so he must have slept well last night, too."

also, kim has her appetite back. this means she eats as much as me, if not more. it's back with a vengeance after three or so months of minimal appetite and only being able to eat weird things (not like "peanut butter + pickles" weird, but like "my lunch was bacon and ball-reich's" weird).

i think we're on week 25. in any event, kim said that we're officially at the point where the baby can survive if it's born way early (given a decent NICU). i haven't taken a baby-belly photo in a few weeks. it's big!

birthday parties

this idea would great, but requires at least three co-birthday-families. watch the commercial below and i'll continue with the idea.



okay, so... you do that intentionally, but for boys only. or at least mostly boys. so, right when they start running around, the dads get the kids to follow them to a big table covered in fully-loaded nerf guns. then, fight the dinosaur until he has to run away (and end it with one dad chasing the dinosaur into the hallway when all the kids are out of ammo and hiding).

...file that one away until about 6 years from now

baby

our baby has a penis!

and there was much rejoicing!

baby update

last night the baby kicked my hand.

today we bought a mattress and are building the crib.

monday we do the full ultrasound -- dozens of measurements await us, and perhaps some candid, NSFW pictures? but they certainly don't check for gender, because if they did that, then the insurance companies would make the patient pay for the whole procedure.

let me repeat that: we will not be looking for the baby's gender.

...

now, if something happens to show up on-screen when the doctor/nurse aren't paying attention, and they accidentally hit PrintScreen at precisely the same instant, and by some strange twist of fate find some interesting bits (or lack thereof), you never know, we might learn something new.

...

was that facetious enough?