Summer Squash Casserole

So we are one month into our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) deliveries and I never want to see another yellow summer squash again! Too bad they are one of the few things that are thriving in our backyard garden. We mostly been eating it grilled and sauted and occasionally shredded and hidden in pasta but this week it was time for something new. I found a version of this recipe on a southern food website and modified it a bit with what I had in the house. It was a hit.



* 2 pounds yellow squash, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
* water
* 4 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup cornbread stuffing mix
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
* extra cornbread stuffing mix to sprinkle on top

Preparation:
Place the squash, onion, salt, and pepper in a large saucepan. Add a small amount of water. Cover and cook the squash until tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if necessary. Drain the squash and onions; return to the pan and stir in the butter. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt and pepper to your taste.

Butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish well. Stir the stuffing mix into the squash mixture, and turn into the buttered casserole. Pour the milk over the squash and sprinkle with the cheese and stuffing mix. Bake at 350°, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until the milk is absorbed and the squash casserole is bubbly. Serve hot. Serves 4 to 6.

Sweet Potato Zucchini Bread

Sounds lovely doesn't it! Well it did to me! I had zucchini to use and am forever trying to find ways to get miss picky-poo, Leah to eat more veggies. This recipe is a winner even though I didn't love the task of grating the zucchini and tater.

• 2 cups all purpose flour (I used part whole wheat)
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (I used part brown & part white)
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (or more)
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated peeled sweet potato (or more)
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (I left these out)
  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Sift first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla to blend in large bowl. Mix in zucchini and sweet potato. Add dry ingredients and walnuts and stir well.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread to loosen. Turn out onto rack and cool completely

I bet this would work just as fine with carrots in place of the sweet potato. Oh and stay tuned for more veggie recipes. We joined a CSA group and I have more veggies than I know what to do with!!!

Secret Spices

Every family has them, secrets! Here I am airing out a couple of family secrets on our blog!

The first is my favorite spice blend to put on EVERYTHING! Really, we put it on every thing we put on the grill! The real surprise is that it is awesome on fish. Just rub fish fillets with olive oil & a little lemon juice and give them a generous sprinkle of Texas Jalapeno Seasoning. Thanks to Cindy, my father-in-law's girlfriend, a Texas native, for turning us on to this one. And a funny story, we used to go to one of those "grill your own" steak places a lot and I would bring this along in my purse to put on my steak!

The second one is popular at mom and dad's and has just started to become a regular here. It comes from Curt at spiceguy.com up in Fish Creek, WI. I think mom and dad bought their original bottle while vacationing there. Good stuff, especially on scrambled eggs!

Surprise 30th Birthday Marinade

So this really isn't the name for this marinade. I have no idea what the name is. I gave it this name since it was the marinade used on the mountain of chicken Wendy made for my surprise 30th birthday party. It's good and I like anything that has less than 5 ingredients! (any spicy brown mustard tastes good in this!)

4 chicken breasts (cut in strips if kabobing)

1 packet good seasons dry Italian dressing

¼ c red wine vinegar

½ onion diced

¼ cup grey poupon mustard (add more if needed to thicken)

Mix in bowl and then pour over chicken and marinade.

Tequila Lime Chicken

Applebee's used to have this chicken on their menu and it used to be my favorite! I like it so much that I searched the internet to find the recipe. This is it. It's WAY to complicated for me and my husband swears he is "allergic" to tequila so I've made lots of modifications. Try it though it's good!

Here's my list of modifications
- I leave out the tequila in the marinade
- in the sauce, I skip the tomato, onion, vinegar & jalapeno and add two big spoons of jarred salsa instead.
- if I can't seem to find all the spices for the sauce I skip them. The important ones are the cumin and the dill.
- and I DON'T move these from the grill to the broiler. I just throw a piece of foil on the grill, put the chicken on it and then do the cheese & sauce.
- I rarely have chips around so there is no "bed of chips."
- If you have leftover sauce it's really good on veggies too.

Marinade

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon tequila

Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

Dressing

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (low fat ok)
• 1/4 cup sour cream (low fat ok)
• 1 tablespoon milk (low fat ok)
• 2 teaspoons minced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced canned jalapeno peppers
• 1 teaspoon minced onion
• 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash black pepper
• 1 dash garlic powder

Additional Ingredients

• 1 cup shredded monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend
• 2 cups corn chips, crumbled

Directions

1. Combine marinade ingredients then chicken in a medium bowl and allow to marinade for 2-3 hours.

2. Combinine dressing ingredients in a medium bowl, cover, and chill until needed.

3. Grill the marinated chicken breasts for 3-5 minutes per side, or until cooked through.

4. Arrange the cooked chicken in a baking pan, brush with prepared mexi-ranch dressing, and sprinkle with cheese.

5. Broil the chicken for 2-3 minutes, or just until the cheese has melted.

6. Serve the chicken over a bed of crumbled chips.