Apri 25 Zucchini Bread Day

Celebrate Zucchini Bread day on April 25th.  To tell you the truth I am not a Zucchini Bread lover but my family is. My mother, who does not follow recipes, uses Pineapple instead of yogurt. And of course she has no measurements for me either. So I found this recipe to the most popular on different sites.

Zucchini Bread

2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c canola oil
1/2 c plain yogurt
1 t vanilla
3 t cinnamon
2 c AP flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t table salt

Mix the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and yogurt together in a work bowl until thoroughly combined. Add the zucchini and mix well.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda & powder, salt & cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients into the liquid in 3 installments, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition.

Divide batter into 2 loaf pans that have been sprayed with non stick spray. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean.

Allow to cool and remove from loaf pans. If freezing, wrap cooled loaf in plastic wrap then wrap again in aluminum foil. Will keep up to 6 months in the freezer.

http://www.food.com/food-holidays/zucchini-bread-day-0425

At food.com they have a group of different types of Zucchini breads. I hope you enjoy them. I am only putting 2 here but check them out and see all the different kinds of Zucchini breads.

Chelle's Zucchini Bread
By Mommy Diva on November 15, 2006

Yield: 2-3 loaves
Ingredients
2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
3 cups shredded zucchini ( about 2 medium)
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease the bottom only of loaf pans (two pans if using 9 inch, three if using 8 or 8.5 inch).
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and shortening.
4. Stir in eggs, water and zucchini.
5. Mix in remaining ingredients thoroughly, except nuts.
6. Stir in nuts, if desired, and pour into pans.
7.Bake for 60 to 70 minutes; until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.
8.Cool for 5 minutes.
9.Loosen the sides of loaves from pans, remove from pans to finish cooling.
10.Cool completely prior to cutting.
11.Great served toasted with butter, with cream cheese frosting, whipping cream with rum as dessert, or just plain!
12.Enjoy! ;).

Zoobana (Zucchini Banana) Bread

By Wendy0 on November 20, 2008

Ingredients
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup canola oil
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts (optional) 

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 325.
2.Combine the first 7 ingredients, then sift in the remaining dry ingredients.
3.Stir until just combined, and add the walnuts if you want them.
4.Pour into 2 greased loaf pans (8x4).
5.Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

© 2014 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. http://www.food.com/338794

Indoor garden

Earth Day is approaching and there is still a lot to do. It is time to clean the yard so Spring flowers can bloom. Time is approaching to start the garden and ideas are flutter in your head. With all the plans for outside, what about inside? With the weather getting warmer, the kids are getting restless. You have good weather one day and then we are back to the cold. Spring is still in it infancy and it can be temperamental. How about a nice craft for indoor plants. Yes you can buy store bought plain looking planters or you can recycle some items and make some cute planters that will bring color to the house. This will help teach our kids about Earth Day and why recycling is a good thing. I have found lots of planter crafts by using the plastic soda pop bottles. Here are some great ideas for you to start with.

Remember that you can decorate any way you want and the kids will enjoy themselves. So be creative.

The top one is a vase for all the Spring flowers that are starting to bloom. My mother really likes to have flowers in the house all year round. As we are poor and I can't afford flowers once a week, I bought lots of fake one and I also got the incense candles that will give her fake Spring smell. Yes, my mother can tell the difference but sometimes you have just improvise and accept life as it is. My neighbors have lots of rose bushes so in time, I will be bring in fresh flowers.

The next one, it is a bigger version of the sprouts in the eggs. They are simple and cute and will go well with the kids other projects. Starting with seeds will help them understand how plants grow. So in reality you have a craft and a learning experience all wrapped up in one. And of course don't forget that you are teaching them to recycle.

Now the bottom one is cute if you don't want a face staring back at you. My niece had two pet tarantulas and they were always watching me. I had a hard time playing my video games with all those eyes staring at me. And I know that they were salivating when I was eating too. I was so glad when she came and got them as I could not take the eyes staring at me.

So on this project they are just cute little planters that can be designed in various styles. Paint them up to you favorite colors and enjoy them.

My mother love the color green and she loves frogs. On hers, she can draw little frogs. Shanti is multicolored and she is a hippy at heart. She loves the bright and vibrant colors mixed together.

As for me, my favorite color is purple but I have a gothic streak so I would do mine in red and black. Instead of flowers I may do jewels or draw a bat, maybe.

Now remember your flowers and ask you local flower shop about the correct flowers and plants. In these planters you do not have proper irrigation so you need to plant the correct plants.

I am not an expert, you can get your Ouija board out and ask my past plants. That is how I discovered that all plants need different amount of water. Overwatering and not proper drainage is the highest rate of murder on plants.

We have not done these yet but I have Shanti on Saturday and soon it will be Summer vacation and I will have to make plans on the crafts that she can do with mom while I am at work.

So enjoy and I hope this helps you out and gives you an idea or two.

April 16th, Eggs Benedict Day

Eggs Benedict is poached eggs over ham and buttered toasted English muffin, topped with Hollandaise sauce. You can substitute the ham with Canadian bacon or regular bacon.

Yield: Makes 4 one-egg one-muffin servings of eggs Benedict.

Ingredients
 8 pieces of bacon or 4 pieces of Canadian bacon or ham
 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish
 4 eggs
 2 teaspoons white or rice vinegar
 2 English muffins
 Butter

Blender Hollandaise
 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
 3 egg yolks
 1 Tbsp lemon juice
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 Dash of cayenne or Tabasco

Method

1 Start with the bacon. Heat a large skillet on medium low heat. Add the strips of bacon or the slices of Canadian bacon. Slowly fry, turning occasionally, until the bacon is browned on both sides, and if using strip bacon, much of the fat is rendered out (about 10 minutes). Use tongs or a fork to remove the bacon from the pan, set on a paper towel to absorb the excess fat. Don't pour the bacon fat left in the pan down the drain! Either sop it up with paper towels when it has cooled a bit, or pour it into a jar to be used later.

2 While the bacon is cooking, bring a large saucepan two-thirds-filled with water to a boil, and then add the vinegar. Bring the water to a boil again, and then lower the heat to a bare simmer.

3 Make the blender hollandaise. To make blender hollandaise, melt 10 Tbsp unsalted butter. Put 3 egg yolks, a tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender, and blend on medium to medium high speed for 20-30 seconds, until eggs lighten in color. Turn blender down to lowest setting, slowly dribble in the hot melted butter, while continuing to blend. Taste for salt and acidity and add more salt or lemon juice to taste. Transfer it to a container you can use for pouring and set it on a warm – but not hot – place on or near the stovetop.

4 Poach the eggs. Essentially, working one egg at a time you crack an egg into a small bowl and slip it into the barely simmering water. Once it begins to solidify, you can slip in another egg, until you have all four cooking. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let sit for 4 minutes. (Remember which egg went in first, you'll want to take it out first.) When it comes time to remove the eggs, gently lift out with a slotted spoon. Note that the timing is a little variable on the eggs, depending on the size of your pan, how much water, how many eggs, and how runny you like them. You might have to experiment a little with your set-up to figure out what you need to do to get the eggs exactly the way you like them.

5 As soon as all the eggs are in the poaching water, begin toasting your English muffins. If you can’t get all the muffins toasted by the time the eggs are ready, gently remove the eggs from the poaching water and set in a bowl.

6 To assemble the Eggs Benedict, butter one side of an English muffin. Top with two slices of bacon or 1 slice of Canadian bacon. You can trim the bacon to fit the muffin if you’d like. Put a poached egg on top of the bacon, and then pour some hollandaise over. Sprinkle some parsley over it all and serve at once.

April 10 National Cinnamon Crescent Day

Here is a recipes that was sent to me for this day.

http://www.food.com/food-holidays/cinnamon-crescent-day-0410
Mini Cinnamon Twists (Oamc)
By Sam #3 on March 17, 2007

Ingredients 
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 (8 count) cans crescent rolls
5 tablespoons butter, melted
64 mini marshmallows
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk


Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Spray a baking sheet with no-fat cooking spray.
Mix sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl.
Separate dough into triangles.
Cut each triangle in half, lengthwise.
Brush each triangle with melted butter.
Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
Place a marshmallow and the wide end of each triangle.
Roll up each triangle starting from the wide end to enclose marshmallow, pinch edges of dough to seal.
Place twists on prepared baking sheet, seam side down about 2in apart.
Bake for 10 minutes or until
Blend icing sugar with milk in a small bowel.
Drizzle over warm twists.
Please also try this without the marshmallows, just a yummy with a little less sweetness.
© 2014 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. http://www.food.com/217267

April 8, Draw a Bird Day

http://www.dabday.com/

I cried when I found out the meaning behind this day. Here is the story from the website.


In 1943, Dorie Cooper was a 7 year old living in England. Her mother took her to a hospital in to visit her uncle who was wounded in the war. While they were there, Dorie's uncle was very distraught, having lost his right leg to a land mine. In an attempt to cheer him up, she asked him "Draw a bird for me, please" Even though he was unwell, he decided to do as Dorie asked. He looked out his window and drew a picture of a robin.
 After seeing her uncle's bird picture, Dorie laughed out loud and proclaimed that he was not a very good artist, but that she would hang the picture in her room nonetheless. Her uncle's spirits were lifted by his niece's complete honesty and acceptance. Several other wounded soldiers also had their day brightened by the event and every time Dorie came to visit thereafter, they held drawing contests to see who could produce the best bird pictures. Within several months, the entire ward's walls were decorated by bird drawings.
 3 years later, Dorie was killed after being struck by a car. At her funeral, her coffin was filled with bird images that had been made by soldiers, nurses and doctors from the ward where her uncle had been. Ever since then, those men and women remembered the little girl that brought hope to the ward by drawing birds on her birthday, April 8th.
Draw a Bird Day was never declared an official holiday, but it grew through those soldiers and medical personnel and their families. Today, it is celebrated world wide as a way to express joy in the very simplest of things in life and as a way to help soldiers everywhere forget war and suffering even if only for a short time.

April 8 or 9, Name Yourself Day

I did my look up on this holiday and we have some sites that say it is April 8th and some say April 9th. Well I guess it is up to you to decide yourself because I could not find out who created this holiday either. So here are some neat ways to help you change your name.