* Zucchini Brownies *

Have I ever mentioned how awesome I think Allrecipes is? If not, I'll say it again. I think Allrecipes is pretty sweet! Anyways, I needed to make some more stuff with zucchini (since we have A LOT of zucchini coming our way) and I decided to make zucchini brownines. I'm sure everyone has their own zucchini brownie recipe but mine is just so-so. So I typed "really good zucchini brownies" into google and this recipe popped up...and, with a 4.5 star rating out of over 1000 people, how can this recipe not rock? We tried it and it was delicious! (It is a little bit more like cake than a brownie just FYI) So if you need to use up some zucchini and want to branch out from your stand-by zucchini brownie recipe, try this one!

* Zucchini Brownies *1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup margarine
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. (batter will be very dry and weird looking...I promise it is normal)
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched.
To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

* Popeye Pancakes *

Some people call these German Pancakes or Hootenanies. We called them Popeye Pancakes because of the "muscles" they grew as they baked (and it was called Popeye Pancakes in the cookbook we used)! Growing up, it was my little brother's favorite meal (I loved them too) and my dad would often make them on weekends for breakfast. He always made them in the cookie sheet pan but you can also make them in the 9x13 pan. They cook in the same amount of time but they are obviously thicker in the smaller pan.

* Popeye Pancakes *

(my Popeye Pancakes obviously didn't eat their spinach...they didn't turn out as bumpy as they usually do. Disclaimer....there is no spinach in this recipe)
6 T. butter/margarine
1 c. flour
6 eggs
1 c. milk
1/4 tsp. salt

Melt 6 T. butter in either cookie sheet or 9x13 pan over low heat. Make sure the entire bottom and lower sides of the pan are coated with butter. Pour the remaining butter into mixture below. (I also spray the sides of the pan with cooking spray, just to be safe) Combine and blend flour, eggs, milk, salt, and butter until bubbly and frothy. Pour mixture into buttered pan and bake at 400* for 20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve with maple syrup --or-- lemon juice and sift with powdered sugar.

* Fresh Apricot Crisp *

We bought some fresh apricots from a guy selling them out of his truck at my husband's work the other day. We made 12 pints of apricot freezer jam (mmm!) and then used the rest to make Apricot Crisp. We love a good 'crisp' here at our house. My husband is always making apple crisp or peach crisp. This was delicious! It was so tart and sweet...a perfect summer night dessert (except for the heating up of the oven...) We found the recipe here. Does anyone else love Allrecipes?

* Fresh Apricot Crisp *
(I had my 'crisp' all ready to take a picture of and then I couldn't find my camera! Meanwhile, the ice cream melted all over and it pretty much turned out to be an ugly picture...but you all know what a 'crisp' looks like, right?)
4 cups apricot halves
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2-1 t. cinnamon (the original recipe didn't call for this but it makes it so good!!)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350*. Arrange the apricots in a 9x12-inch baking dish and sprinkle with white sugar. Mix together brown sugar and flour in a bowl; cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Lightly stir in the rolled oats and spoon the mixture over the apricots. Bake in the preheated oven until the fruit is soft and the topping is browned and crisp, 35-40 minutes.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

* Garlic Cheese Biscuits *

I LOVE these! I seriously could eat the entire batch myself. They are so fast and easy and perfect to go along with any italian dish or soup or with whatever your little heart desires. You can actually find this recipe off the Bisquick box but I originally got it from my sister at a bridal shower...thanks for the 5 1/2 years of yumminess, Tarese :)

* Garlic Cheese Biscuits *
1 1/2 c. Bisquick mix
1 c. cheddar cheese (or whatever you have on hand...I usually use Colby jack)
2 shakes garlic powder
shake or two of parsley
1/2 c. milk
-------------
3 T. butter
garlic salt
Parmesan cheese
parsley

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. When combined, drop by spoon onto cookies sheet. Bake at 450* for 7-9 minutes. While baking, mix melted butter, garlic salt, cheese, and parsley together. After biscuits finish baking, pour or brush butter mixture over the tops. SO YUMMY!

* BBQ Ranch Quesadillas *

This recipe is delicious! We love mexican food around here (and by "we" I mean "me"--although my hubby and kids do eat it well, they just don't LOVE LOVE-LOVE it like I do) and this recipe did not disappoint. I think it's going to be one of my new "go-to" recipes. I found it here at Cooking a la Mode. I didn't use these exact measurements--I pretty much just threw in what looked good. I also forgot to put the rice in (and we love rice so that was kind of a weird thing to do) and it still turned out good! I even used fresh cilantro from our garden...mmmm!

* BBQ Ranch Quesadillas *
1/2 c. white rice, cooked
1/2 c. black beans
1 c. chicken, cooked and shredded
3/4 c. frozen sweet white corn
1 diced tomato
1/4 c. diced green or red onion
1/4 c. minced cilantro
2 c. shredded cheese
1/3 c. - 1/2 c. BBQ sauce
10-12 flour tortillas
butter
salt
1/2 c. bbq sauce
1/2 c. good ranch dressing

In a large bowl, combine rice, beans, chicken, corn, tomato, onion, cilantro, and cheese. Fold in bbq sauce and mix until evenly distributed. Add more bbq sauce if needed. The mixture shouldn't be drenched, but should be fairly well-coated.

Butter one side of tortillas. Place about 1/3 c. of chicken mixture on half of the tortilla and fold over. Place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle tops of quesadillas with salt.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-14 minutes, or until light brown and slightly crispy. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine desired amount of ranch and bbq sauce for dipping.

Cut each quesadilla in half and serve with bbq ranch dipping sauce

* Zucchini Fritters *

Wow...two zucchini recipes in one week. I never thought that would happen. I don't really care for zucchini and neither does my hubby. Don't ask me why he has 5 zucchini plants growing in our garden. I usually have to hide it in something...think bread, brownies, cookies, etc. I saw this recipe and it actually sounded good to me--weird, I know. And guess what! It was actually good! Even my picky almost-three-year-old loved it and ate 1 1/2 of them! I found this recipe here at Real Mom Kitchen. She is having a "Zucchini Week" this week so go check out her recipes!

* Zucchini Fritters *
2 cups grated zucchini squash
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 small onion, finely chopped (I just sprinkled onion powder generously over the top)
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place zucchini inside a tea towel or flour sack towel and squeeze out excess moisture. (I forgot this step and it still turned out yummy!)
In a bowl, add zucchini and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the remaining ingredients. The mixture with be sticky and thick. Continue to stir, it will thin down. You want it to look like a thick cake batter.
On a parchment lined baking sheet, divide batter into 6 mounds on the parchment using a spoon or ice cream scoop. Then flatten each mound with a spoon or your hand to form 4 inch rounds.
Bake for 15 minutes or so, until the fritters are deep golden brown on the bottom. Then turn to broil and place on the second highest rack in your oven. Broil on high for a few minutes, you want to crisp them up but watch carefully so they won’t burn. Serve with ranch dressing or marinara. Makes 6 fritters.

* Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Gravy *

I am not a "made-from-scratch" kind of girl. I am all about shortcuts (think Bisquick, gravy mixes, jarred spaghetti sauce, etc.) and although I generally think that made-from-scratch things taste better, I am too lazy just not confident enough in my cooking abilities to try homemade things out. So the other night I decided to try to make homemade biscuits and gravy...not because I necessarily wanted to but because I was out of Bisquick and gravy packages and this was the dinner the hubby requested. It actually turned out pretty good, if I say so myself! So if you're a "made-from-scratch" kind of person, give it a try :)

I found the biscuit recipe here and I got the sausage gravy recipe out of the "Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook" (yes, the Christmas one...they didn't have the regular "Worldwide Ward Cookbook" at the library so I settled for the holiday version.)

* Homemade Fluffy Biscuits *
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Turn onto a well-floured surface; knead 20 times. Roll to 3/4-in. thickness; cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

* Sausage Gravy *
1 lb. sausage
4 T. grease from sausage (add 2-3 T. butter, if necessary)
4 T. flour
2 c. milk
1 dash hot pepper sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage. Remove from pan and drain grease from sausage. If there is not 4 T. of grease, add 2-3 T. of butter and put back into pan. Mix flour and grease/butter until it forms a ball. Stir in milk. Whisk together until incorporated and let it cook until it thickens. Add sausage, salt and pepper to taste, and a dash of hot sauce. Serve over biscuits.

* Zucchini Bread or Muffins *

We got our first zucchini out of our garden this week so I decided to make muffins for breakfast one day. The kids LOVED it and it was a nice way to get rid of our zucchini...how sad is it that I am already saying "get rid" of our zucchini when it was our first one? :) I got this recipe out of a cookbook we received in Young Womens years ago.

* Zucchini Bread or Muffins *
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. shredded zucchini
3 T. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Beat the eggs and then add the oil and sugars. Add vanilla and zucchini and stir well. Add dry ingredients. Bake at 325* for 35-45 minutes in greased and floured bread pans ---or--- 25-28 minutes in lined or greased muffin tins.

I actually halved this recipe and it made 12 muffins and a small loaf of bread. If you do the whole recipe, I believe it makes two loaves.