Preparing For the Zombie Apocalypse (I Mean Winter)

 Fresh veggies straight from the garden or farm are one of the best things about summer. Many times our snow peas don't even make it into the house (I need a Scare Hubby and Scare Teen, not a scare crow!)! Hubby brought home yesterday's CSA goodies and boy was it a great week! Rainbow carrots, cukes, zucchini, gold beets, green pepper, beans of every colour.....sooooo good.

We munched on a plate of fresh carrots, cukes, and green pepper paired with a homemade ranch style dip. I am proud to say the herbs for this one came from the garden!!

Ranch style dip

¼ cup mayo

2 tbsp sour cream

lemon juice (From one wedge)

2 – 4 tbsp buttermilk (enough to thin it to whatever consistency you want)

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tbsp chives, chopped

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbsp dill, chopped

salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Taste and adjust seasonings or herbs as needed. If using as a salad dressing, add more buttermilk to thin out the dip.

Now onto preparing for the zombie apocalypse winter.  I started pickling today. (no,  I don't mean drinking, but sometimes it is tempting.) I mean pickling some of the fresh veggies for later use. Prairie living does require some prep and saving our summer bounty, especially back in the days of yore when people didn't have grocery stores full of produce. Canning your own garden or farmers' market buys is one way to ensure local food is an option all year round.

My mother in law and I made pickles once or twice. We bought a bunch of jars and went all out.  The we got out of the pickling game and those jars sat in the basement. Eventually I gave the jars to a friend who needed them.

I have bought some new jars and have even cleaned out all my old spices and dried herbs that I bought in mass quantities from a Mom's Pantry fundraiser years ago and placed in mason jars of varying sizes. I knew the herbs and spices were way to old to use but just never got around to tossing them.  I have jars a plenty, for now.

These old herbs are gone!!!

If you read my post from the other day, I have been reading my way through The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker which has inspired me to do some more traditional type of cooking, including pickling. I have quite a few beets in the garden and will soon be overrun with zucchini so why not give the pickling a go?

The on going joke around the Little Kitchen is I am really just learning skills to survive the zombie apocalypse when it occurs...The Boy tells me he never really thought about that side of it, just the killing the zombies part....he's so pretty.
I managed to get 4 jars of beets and 3 jars of zuchinni spears pickled today.  I'm not going to post the recipes today but I will. I want to take more pictures of the process, and this post is rambling on.

Plenty of room in the Little Kitchen for a canning setup!

Until next time, stay warm (avoid zombies) and eat well!

The Zucchini Season Begins: Zucchini Fritters

Our CSA pick up from Almost Urban Farms netted us some extra zucchini along with our other goodies this week. There was a bin filled with extras and a note inviting people to take an extra one. I know some of this extra zucchini will become a fabulous chocolate cake but I can only make (and eat) so much cake.  Last night with dinner, I made some zucchini fritters to go with the sliced roast beef I pulled out of the freezer. The fritters themselves are more like a potato pancake, without the potato. I have made these with grated potato before and they tasted wonderful but last night, I wanted to try these with all zucchini. The Boy has been eating the leftovers all day. (Because 16 year old boys eat pretty much all day)

Zucchini Fritters - printable recipe

4 cups zucchini, grated (I used half yellow, half green)
1 onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated on a micro plane, or crushed
2 green onions, chopped
handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
salt & pepper
Canola oil for frying

Heat up a large skillet over medium high heat with a small amount of canola oil in the bottom. This is a good time to line a baking sheet with foil, place a rack in the pan and plunk it in the oven. Set the oven to warm. This will help you fry all the fritters in batches and keep them warm.

Grate the zucchini, onion, and garlic into a large bowl and mix in the green onions, parsley, flour, salt & pepper and the egg.

Mix well to combine everything. It will look gummy and pasty, but will fry up a nice golden brown.

Once the oil is nice and hot (a drop of water will skip across) drop the batter by large spoonfuls and gently flatten them out.

Fry the fritters until golden brown on the edges and they start to dry out a bit on top then gently flip them over to finish cooking. (Be gentle so you don't splash the oil)

Transfer gold brown fritters to your pan in the oven to keep warm until the entire batch is cooked.

Last night these little gems were served up with hot roast beef sammies. Thank goodness for leftovers in the freezeer!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Our fabulous bounty this week!

Marvel-ous Zucchini Chocolate Cakettes

The season's first zucchini, fresh from the garden!

Bless me fellow bloggers for I have a confession to make....it wasn't a pretty sight......my Tupperware and other assorted containers got completely out of control!  I didn't know where to put them anymore.  It seems no one else knew where to put them either.  Lids and containers stood perilously on counters, fridge tops, and window sills.  The slightest of miscalculations in movements would cause a landslide of plastic container hell to come tumbling down.  It was unsightly, it was bothersome, it was not what the Little Kitchen needed.  Especially since I have been on holidays for a while....how did I let it come to this?

A small portion of the un matched and un used plastic explosion!!

 Too much time in the hammock? Too distracted by Cleo Coyle novels? Too many doctor appointments?  Who knows.  I think I have fixed it.....for now....as long as everyone else co operates...I mean there are only 3 of us in the house.  It must be the cats getting into the plastic containers messing them up and hiding lids....hmmmm.

Neatly stacked, lids stored

Lids!!!

Now that I have cleared away the clutter, it is time to de-stress with some baked goods!  These honestly made me giggle while baking...I am sure the boys assumed I was up to no good: they were right. I turned zucchini into chocolately cakey goodness.....it just so happens the cakes were in the shape of Marvel superheroes! (A special Thank you to my sister for picking these up at the Williams Sonoma when she was in Oklahoma City, OK!!!!!! According to the sales lady, it was the first day they had them and my sister snagged it up!! THANK YOU!)

Best Cake pan ever!!!

I can assure you that chocolate zucchini cake is a delectably moist and chocolately cake, you won't taste the zucchini at all, just chocolatey cakey goodness!



Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Printable version

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk soured with 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups zucchini, grated (or shredded)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)


Pre heat oven to 350F



In a bowl and set aside until ready to use, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a bowl and a hand mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease....) cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time until mixed in.  Mix in the vanilla and butter milk.  Keep the mixer going for a few minutes on medium low until the mixture is a nice pale yellowish colour.

Now find the bowl you set aside with the dry ingredients and add it all to the mixing bowl.  Mix until well combined.

Add in the zucchini and the chocolate chips, and once again mix to combine.

Now scoop the batter into a pan that has been greased and floured or muffin tins with liners.


This pan takes 1/2 cup of batter per form.

Make sure the batter gets into all the nooks (ears) and crannies!

Bake cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
With this pan, I give it a shimmy shake to make sure the cakes are loose.  After a 10 to 15 minute rest, flip them out onto a rack to cool.

Oh Thor, you are so handsome!!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!