Zucchini Bread with No Refined Sugar

August 24, 2015August 22, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

I have been playing around with local honey yet again (as I did in this post), and I am happy to say I have worked out a delicious, ambrosial zucchini bread made with no refined sugar. A while back I shared with you that I discovered my grandpa’s old recipe box and, tucked beneath oh so many recipe cards, I found one card explaining how to replace refined sugar with honey in baking recipes. Ever since this card’s discovery, I enjoy playing around with recipes to try to make them free of any type of refined sugars. Sometimes the recipes work great, other times, not so much. But I am happy to share with you today a recipe in which the sugar-replacement worked, and I think it’s pretty darn tasty! I hope you enjoy.

Zucchini Bread with No Refined Sugar

In a medium bowl, mix together:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Set this dry mixture aside. Then in a large bowl, whisk together:

1 1/4 cups honey (I love using this great measuring cup when baking with honey because it allows me to use honey, but not have the sticky mess that normally results when doing so.)

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 to 1 1/2 cup(s) grated zucchini

Next, mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Pour into a greased loaf pan. (For baked goods like breads and muffins I love using the Pampered Chef Stoneware because the yummies not only bake up great, but it allows for toxin-free baking and the pieces are made in America. For this recipe, I use this Stoneware Loaf Pan.) Bake in a 325 degree oven for about one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

*Honey tends to burn faster than refined sugar. For this reason, your bread may brown on the top before the inside is fully cooked. If you notice this happening, simply cover the top of the bread with foil and then continue to bake. This will help to prevent further browning on the bread’s top.

Enjoy!

*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.

Mom’s Summer Cucumber Salad

August 19, 2015August 17, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

From the time my mom was given her diagnoses, her constant mantra was, “Please make sure you continue to tell our stories.” It was so very important to her that the stories of our family remain alive in our hearts and continue to be told and retold, even after she was no longer with us. During one of my vigils by my mom’s bedside, I assured her that I would indeed continue to tell her stories. I assured her I would not only share them with my girls, but with anyone and everyone who would listen. Because it is in our sharing of stories that I believe we truly get to know one another, and strengthen the bond that brings us all together in this great big world of ours. And to be honest with you, so many of my memories and stories seem to revolve around the sharing of food while sitting at a table with those we hold dear to us. I have loved sharing my family’s food stories in the past in this blog space, and it is my absolute pleasure to continue. Today I am thrilled to share with you the story of my mom’s summer cucumber salad.

While growing up, when the days seemed to stretch on forever, my sister and I felt compelled to stay outside all day long, riding bikes all over our neighborhood. It wasn’t until the sky began to turn rosey in the west that we would finally venture home, red-faced and exhausted. We would walk into the house, greeted by a cool blast from the air-conditioner, and find my mom setting the table in the kitchen. On these types of hot nights, instead of heating up the kitchen with lots of pots and pans on the stove and in the oven, my mom would always have a series of cool, fresh dishes waiting for us. My very favorite of these dishes was my mom’s cucumber salad. It was always so cool and creamy, yet tangy and fresh. It just tastes like summer.

Mom’s Summer Cucumber Salad

4-6 medium cucumbers

1 white onion

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dill weed

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together the sour cream, apple cider vinegar, dill weed, salt and pepper. Thinly slice the cucumbers and onions. (I use a mandoline to accomplish this task because it leaves you with thin, consistently-cut produce.) Pour the sour cream/vinegar mixture over the cucumbers and onions. Mix until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!

In the Garden

August 12, 2015August 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

It’s August! This means we have entered the jungle-phase of the gardening season. In order to move about the garden, one must weave in and out of the labyrinth of branches and vines. And while doing so, one may come across our cat sleeping amongst the beans, or perhaps a groundhog who has found his way into our tomatoes. (Talk about a bit of a fright when not expecting that guy. Oh boy.)

But amongst this tangle of vegetation there is a great deal happening, and our kitchen is finding itself brimming with our garden’s bounty. The tomatoes have now grown taller than me (and standing at 5’11” that is saying something), and for the first time EVER we have been able to grow broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage! We planted ever-bearing strawberries two years ago and we are now reaping the rewards of an amazing second round of these lovelies.

A few weeks back, as I mentioned in this post, I hung some herbs to dry. This week my girls helped to take the leaves off these dried plants, grind them by hand, and then can them for the winter months.

Also in the herb department, our basil and lavender are just beautiful this year. I decided to try out Ashley English’s Lavender Lemonade from her book //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=makofahom-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=1611801281&asins=1611801281&linkId=XB3HIFBW6PW65FC3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true“>Quench (using stevia to replace the sugar) and it was delicious! I have also been making basil-lime water infusions and it puts a whole new face on my family’s hydration needs.

I pulled most of our carrots this week and tried my hand at lacto-fermentation. So far, there is a lot of fermentation goodness in the form of carbon-dioxide bubbles rising to the surface of the jars when I burp them each day. I am very excited to taste these in a few more days.

Coming up next week, I hope to share with you some of the recipes I have been working on, which feature so much of this garden goodness. Until then, enjoy the remainder of your week!

First Garden Post of the Season

July 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

Friends, I do believe this is the my first garden update of the summer. How is this possible? Oh my. There is so much happening out there right now that I struggle with where to begin. Let us begin with the herb garden…

I am trying out some new herbs in our herb garden this year and, although it appears to be quite “junglish” right now, I am happy with what is coming out of it at this time.

We are growing lemon balm for the first time this year, and I have begun drying it for tea and some other medicinal salves I hope to make this winter. Lemon verbena is also new to our herb selection this year, and I have a liqueur in the works right now. I promise to share the details of this venture as the process nears an end in three weeks. We also grew quite a bit of stevia this season, and this week I ran it through our dehydrator and then our spice grinder. We now have a fine stevia powder to use in drinks throughout the remainder of summer and into fall.

Next, along the south side of our house, we have a raspberry bramble that is booming this year in a way I have never seen. The bees flock to the raspberries each day, and at any given time we can count almost 50 of them swarming the forming fruits. I cannot wait to see the bounty we receive from these plants this year.

Our apple trees are actually producing some fruit this year, which is very exciting. However, the Japanese beetles have slowly began taking them over, and each day I find more and more leaves have fallen prisoner to their wrath. I fear we may lose all our apples before fall.

Finally we move into the main garden space where our beans are also finally coming in. This year we are growing Bountiful, Purple Pod, Golden Wax, and Dragon Tongue (our family favorite) with it’s beautiful purple stripes.

The extreme amounts of rain this summer have led to some of the tallest tomato plants we have ever had, but unfortunately they bear very few fruits. My hunch is the cool temperatures this summer have inhibited fruit production on these plants. My hope is as the temperature rise this week, we may see some tomatoes begin to form.

Thank you for joining me on my first garden tour of 2015! I promise it will not be long until we venture into the garden again.

Cherry Crisp

July 20, 2015July 27, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Last week my girls and I, along with my sister, ventured to my in-law’s home and spent the afternoon tangled up in branches and brambles. It was picking’ time! By the time the day was done, we ended up with two giant bowls of tart cherries and black raspberries. Simply marvelous!

The black raspberries quickly became freezer jam, with the help of my six and eight-year old sous chefs. And the cherries, well, the cherries ended up going into an absolutely amazing cherry tart. I don’t often like to toot my own horn, but friends, it was good. Very good. Let me share the recipe…

Cherry Crisp

6 cups pitted tart cherries (This measurement was taken AFTER the cherries were pitted.)

1 cup local honey

2 T Non-GMO corn starch

Mix these ingredients in a large bowl and pour them into a 9×9 baking dish. (I use this baking dish because then I can serve the crisp table-side and it looks as good as it tastes.)

2 cups oats

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 stick cold butter cut into cubes

Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl (such as one of these sustainably harvested bamboo bowls) using a pastry blender. Pour the crumbled mixture onto the cherry mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Allow 20 minutes to cool before serving. Enjoy!

At This Moment

January 23, 2014September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

At this moment I am…

~continuing to stitch away at some new dish wash cloths.

~very thankful I got caught up on all things school yesterday. I feel that I can take a big breath and a sigh of relief.

~even more thrilled I got all of the above mentioned work-type items done yesterday, because we have a day off of school today because of the frigid temperatures. Hooray for snow days (Well, cold days) 🙂

~checking on my curing soap I have stowed away in my basement. More on this adventure in next week’s posts.

~preparing to ferment a new batch of kombucha. The cold weather has really slowed down my kombucha brewing, but I’m hoping I can get a new batch up and running today.

~reading Michael Pollan’s newest book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. As with all of his texts, this one does not disappoint. It is truly captivating, and also so informative and inspiring at the same time.

~organizing craft supplies. My little ones mentioned before their heads hit the pillow last night: “Mommy, if we don’t have school tomorrow, can it be Valentine-making Day?” Well gals, Valentine-making Day it is!

~flipping through Ashley English’s A Year of Pies. I feel as if a day off school warrants a day of eating pie, right?

~wishing you all a warm Thursday, friends.

Baby Love

January 9, 2014September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / 3 Comments

We have a few friends who had babies born near the end of the year, so of course those new little ones needed a little bit of homemade baby love from the Fagan abode. I found a sleep sack pattern I hadn’t used in a while, and using some nice jersey fabric, crafted a little sack for the new baby girl. I then dug out my favorite lotion recipe from The Rhythm of Family and, leaving out the essential oils, made some great lotion perfectly suitable for a baby’s sensitive skin.

There is surely something special about giving a new mama and daddy something unique for their precious little one. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to share a little homemade goodness with these amazing new parents.

Some Garden Bling

January 8, 2014January 2, 2014 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

We, like most in the country right now, are experiencing a major cold snap right now. At times like this, it is so hard to imagine that there was a time when our gardens were in bloom, with produce overflowing from baskets resting in the sunlight. Those days of growth and warmth seem so far away at this moment. My family seemed to need a reminder that our time on this Earth is one of rhythm and cycles, and we will once again be back to those times of basking in the warm embrace of spring and summer days.

My girls were given wonderful stepping stone kits for Christmas, so we decided crafting those stones would be a perfect little reminder of the garden goodness to come in only a few short months.

Once completed, the stones were placed in our three-season room that is now filled with empty pots filled with remnants of frozen soil. But we are already imagining the day when those pots are moved outside and filled with the plants that will add beauty and sustenance to our lives. And our little stepping stones will add just that extra little touch of garden glam that every growing space needs.

Christmas Morning Monkey Bread

January 7, 2014January 2, 2014 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Beginning in December 2006, our first Christmas with children, we started a Christmas morning tradition in our household. Each Christmas morning, after all of the gifts have been unwrapped, we indulge in a gooey and glorious breakfast: monkey bread. I have been making little adjustments to my recipe each year, and I think this year I have finally perfected it. This year’s monkey bread came out with the perfect balance of butter and sugar, wonderfully flakey yet still sticky, and dripping with the perfect amount of sweet glaze. I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine.

Christmas Morning Monkey Bread

(I normally do the following the day before I plan to serve the monkey bread.)

Dissolve 2 tablespoons dry yeast in 1 1/4 cup warm milk.

Beat two eggs in a large bowl, and then add milk/yeast mixture to the beaten eggs. Next add 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

Then cut up 6 ounces of softened butter and add it to the bowl. Using your hands, work the butter into the above mixture of ingredients.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp dish towel and allow it to rest until double in size.

After the dough has risen, melt one stick of butter and place the butter into a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, mix together 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. Roll the dough into 2 tablespoon-sized balls. Dip each ball in the melted butter, then into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Then place the buttered and sugared balls into a greased and floured bunt pan. Once all the dough balls are in the bunt pan, cover with a damp dish towel and allow to rise until double in size.

(On the day you plan to serve the monkey bread.)

Bake your monkey bread in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. (The time will vary slightly depending on whether or not you are using a ceramic or metal bunt pan.)

While the bread is baking, heat 4 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup real maple syrup, 1 tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and allow to boil for one minute. Remove from the heat.

Once you remove the monkey bread from the oven, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes. Then invert the pan onto a serving plate to remove the monkey bread. Pour the glaze over the bread. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Our Holiday

January 6, 2014September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

I hope this past holiday season found you all well, and in a state of food, fun and family bliss. Happily, all our family members remained healthy for the duration of our holiday break, enabling us to truly enjoy each moment of these past two weeks. Here is a bit of those things we enjoyed as 2013 exited, and 2014 began.

Sledding at one of our favorite parks–Rockford Park District’s Aldeen Park.