The Lone Mulberry

Imagine my excitement earlier this week when I found this lone mulberry on my back porch...

Well maybe you don't understand my excitement so let me explain.  My grandparents have mulberry trees on their farm in Kansas and during the summer we would go visit them for wheat harvest.  It's one of my favorite childhood memories.  We would pick mulberries all week then when we had enough, we would make mulberry pies.  They were so good!

Do you know how awesome it would be if I HAD A MULBERRY TREE?!?!?!?  WOW, I just can't explain, it would be awesome and I could bake mulberry pies all summer.  If there was just one out there... :)

So how did this mulberry get into my back porch? Where did it come from? And are there more? Is it even time to have mulberries yet? Lilly and I set out on a mission to find out! I walked all around our yard inspecting the trees around our fence.  I don't really remember what a mulberry tree looks like and I didn't find any mulberries, but I am really hopeful that there is one out there! I will keep looking and keep you posted on if I find one!

For now, it's just the lone mulberry.

Note: This picture is not what I found in my back yard but I think I have a tree with leaves that look a bit like this one... we will see!

Vegetable & Herb Garden

Since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, it has always been my dream to have a beautiful vegetable garden.  It would be a small area in the back yard and I would plant tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, herbs and anything else.  Then I could go out and pick wonderful fresh vegetables whenever I wanted... Sadly, I started physical therapy school and we brought Lilly home.  The two main reasons that it has never happened.  The past couple years I've planted a few herbs in pots though and this year I decided to expand my container vegetable garden.  I am quite excited about it and not absolutely sure if any vegetables will grow but I am very hopeful!

So today, instead of studying for a final, I decided to plant some vegetables and herbs :)

 Zucchini

 Dill

 

Cherry Tomatoes

 Eggplant

 

 Jalapenos

 

Bell Peppers

 Basil

 Mint... not sure what to use this for but it smells so good.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

 Lemon Basil

 Here they are :) hope they do well this summer!

Lemon Rosemary Bread

photo by Stephen Carlile :)

This is one of the simplest bread recipes I have ever made :) I found this recipe a while back from Williams Sonoma and it's been on my list of things to bake.  The only thing stopping me was time.  This bread does take a couple days to make but I only spent actually 20-30 minutes with it.  And you don't have to knead it at all, so easy!  So today was the day, I'm home studying for finals and a special friend's birthday is tomorrow... perfect.

Note: You need a dutch oven to bake the bread but you could probably use a regular bread pan too. 

Lemon Rosemary Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lemon zest
2 teaspoons rosemary (fresh or dried)
1 1/2 cups water

 Combine flour, salt, yeast, rosemary, and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Add water and stir until the ingredients are blended.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough sit overnight (12-16 hours)

 The next morning, the dough will have risen and there will be bubbles on top.

 Place the dough on a floured surface and fold dough over on itself two times. 

 Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After dough has rested, add enough flour to form the dough into a ball.  Generously cover a towel with cornmeal and place the dough on the towel, seam side down.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with more cornmeal and cover with another towel. 

 Let dough rise for about 2 hours until it has doubled in size.

 When dough is about 30 minutes from finishing rising, preheat a dutch oven at 450 degrees in the oven.  Gently place the dough into the dutch oven, seam side up.  It may look messy but no worries. 

 Cover with the lid and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes until crust is golden. (Enjoy the wonderful smell while the bread is baking!)

Remove from dutch oven to cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Tasty Kitchen

I cannot explain the sense of excitement I felt when I saw this on Friday...

One of my very own recipes, featured on Tasty Kitchen... my favorite recipe website!!! WOW!  It was truly a dream come true.  I only hoped this would happen when I posted the recipe on the website, but I never thought it would really happen!  Let's just say, it made my whole weekend and I'm still pretty excited that it happened! Thanks to everyone who reads my blog!

Lemon Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini is another food that I love.  We love to grill it, saute it with other vegetables, or bread it with Panko crumbs.  I really love zucchini bread too because it is so moist and has such a great flavor and isn't to sweet.  The lemon adds a wonderful flavor too.  Hope you enjoy, I'm taking these to church tonight for a special meal we're having.  I'm counting down the days until the semester is over... only 2 weeks left! Have a happy Friday!

Lemon Zucchini Muffins

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (small to medium size)
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cups canola oil
1 whole egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lemon zested
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cups chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients until just combined.
• Pour batter into 12 muffin tins or a 9x5 loaf pan (either grease the pan or use muffin cups).
• Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until muffins become golden and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Enjoy!