Zucchini Nut Cupcakes

I am an avid vegetable gardener. Few things make me feel as productive as tending my garden; and nothing makes me feel as proud as harvesting the fruits of my labor! However, some vegetables like zucchini can hijack your garden. Before you know what happened, you can have more zucchini than you can eat or give away to your friends and neighbors. And if your neighbors are like mine, after a few weeks of having zucchini left on their doorsteps daily, every time you approach their houses the sprinklers come on. Funny how that happens!

Here is a recipe that will help you “manage" your zucchini production and at the same time put smiles on some of your favorite faces. I tested this theory today on some of my neighbors and not one sprinkler system malfunctioned. I think I am on to something.

Zucchini Nut Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups zucchini, grated
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin pans.
In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and mix. In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and baking soda. Add to sugar/ butter/egg mixture. Fold in zucchini and walnuts.
Scoop batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 25 – 30 minutes. Makes 17, 2-inch cupcakes.

Icing
Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon rum (optional),

Preparation:
In a mixer or food processor mix the cream cheese and butter together. Add the vanilla and mix. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until the desired sweetness. Fold in the rum, if used. Makes 2 cups.
Decorate cupcakes using a spatula or piping bag.

Note: This same batter can be used to make zucchini bread. Pour into two 9X5 inch loaf pans and bake for 60 minutes.

Sangria - It's "Bloody Good"

This past weekend ushered in the summer season. With the warmer weather comes an increase in our beverage intake. For some of us that also means an increase in our wine and beer consumption. For a refreshing change, try this citrusy alternative.

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 lemon

1 lime

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brandy or cognac

1 bottle dry red wine

1 cup orange juice

4 ounces club soda

Preparation:

Thinly slice orange, lemon and lime. Place in a container and sprinkle with sugar and brandy. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Put ice in a large pitcher and add citrus mixture. Pour in red wine and add orange juice and club soda. Pour into glasses filled with ice and garnish with orange slices.

Salmon Asparagus Quiche

There is nothing more relaxing than Sunday brunch with your family and friends. It is a leisurely way to connect with those who mean the most to you. Want to show those you care about how special they really are? Say it with quiche. And oh, don't forget the champagne!


Ingredients:
1 - 9 inch pie crust
3 large eggs
1 cup half & half
1 teaspoon fresh dill weed, chopped
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated (optional)
salt & white pepper - to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
8 asparagus spears, trimmed
1-1/2 cups gruyere cheese, grated
2 ounces smoked salmon, sliced

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust into a 9 inch quiche pan or pie plate. Cover crust with parchment paper and weight with beans. Prebake crust in oven for 1o minutes. Remove from oven and discard beans. Set prebaked crust aside until ready to assemble.
Whisk eggs, milk, salt, white pepper, dill and nutmeg together. Melt butter in a small skillet or pan and saute onions until soft. Bring water to a boil in a sauce pan. Blanche asparagus for 2 - 3 minutes; remove and immediately shock in a water bath. Drain and set aside.

Assembly:
Sprinkle half the cheese in the bottom of prepared quiche pan and cover with sauteed onion. Next, layer on salmon slices, then arrange asparagus like the spokes of a wheel. Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese and cover with the egg mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cafe Femenino: Female Produced Coffee

If you are a serious coffee drinker, there is no better moment than the one when you deeply inhale the aroma of the first cup of the day. But have you ever thought about where your coffee comes from or how it is produced and who's making it?

Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, and women coffee producers account for 30 percent of the 25 million coffee growers. In Peru, female coffee producers have united and are producing their own coffee brand, Café Femenino. Imported by Organic Products Trading Company, Café Femenino is sold only to companies who are either women-owned or have women in upper management positions.

The Femenino project began with 464 women in Northern Peru. At the first gathering of Women Coffee Producers in 2004 sprang this new idea of "separating their coffee from the rest of the production." Cafe Femenino's concept: women produce the coffee, then the consumer plays a key role in giving right back to the earth in which the beans were grown. With the help of organic and Fair Trade premiums, much progress has been made in recent years to improve life in the expanding number of rural coffee growing communities. Improvements range from better diets, improved sanitation, new wet-processing mills and many, many miles of new roads. Cafe Femenino's goal includes improving general standards of living for rural communities, but especially focuses on women's rights.

Out of the Café Femenino coffee initiative was born the Café Femenino Foundation, a social program whose purpose is to support these women in their efforts to achieve equality, build social and support networks and earn incomes through the production and sale of their coffee. Café Femenino is distributed to more than 80 roasters who pay a premium above the fair trade price. Through the fair price/fair trade certification program the coffee producers are guaranteed a minimum and reasonable price for their certified organic products and are able to establish themselves as not only working women but stable individuals. Today, more than 1500 women in Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru are active in the project.

RL Grill - The "It" Place to Lunch in Chicago

When I think of Ralph Lauren, images of Polo shirts and navy blue come to mind. But if you live in Chicago, the famed name means lunch at the hottest spot on North Michigan Avenue. The RL Grill opened 10 years ago and is more popular than ever. If you don't think so, try making a lunch reservation. All I can say is be patient and flexible.
A friend and I ate lunch there last week. We were impressed with the entire experience - including the ambience, wait staff, menu and especially the food. We left with happy faces and sated stomachs. Put this on your "must do" list for your next visit to the Windy City!

Mediterranean Tuna Salad - At Last Tuna Salad I Can Eat!

Saturday, while shopping up and down Chicago's Magnificent Mile - upper Michigan Avenue - I decided to dart into a nearby deli, L'Appetito, to grab a quick salad. I was in Chicago to attend my brothers wedding, but could not resist getting in as much shopping time as I could. Where I live in South Carolina, I have to drive at least two and a half hours in either direction - Charlotte or Atlanta - to even come close to what is available in the Windy City.
So there I was looking at the take-out menu board trying to decide what would be the most healthy, yet fulfilling thing to eat. Afterall, I had a very well defined little dress I needed to fit into that night. When I initially glimpsed the tuna salad my eyes went right past it. As I am allergic to eggs, thus mayonnaise - and what self-respecting tuna salad does not have mayo in it - I immediately skipped right over it. But my eyes kept coming back to it because it looked so scrumptious. It had all the things I like - olives, artichoke hearts and capers. So I asked the question that I have become accustomed to asking all my life. "Does the tuna salad have egg in it?"
Already anticipating what the answer would be, I had decided on the corned beef sandwich. Now there goes that cute little dress I was planning on wearing up in flames (I thought) !! There was no way after eating that three inch corned beef sandwich I was going to fit into that dress! When I heard the words from behind the counter come back at me with "there is no egg in this tuna salad" I thought I would start to cry.
So, long story short, I have found the tuna salad of my dreams and I want to share it with you.

Recipe:
2 cans Tuna (6 ounces each)
2 tablespoons Red Onions, finely minced
5 ounces Artichoke Hearts, quartered
10 Kalamata Olives, halved
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon Fresh Parsley, minced
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
Salt and Pepper
Boston Lettuce
Tomatoes, sliced

Toss all ingredients, except lettuce and tomatoes, together. Arrange lettuce and tomatoes on a platter and top with tuna mixture.

Death By Chocolate - Is That a Bad Thing?

Just mention the word chocolate and watch the expression on the faces around you. Nothing can stir up the emotion or bring such instant pleasure as eating a piece of chocolate. And most would agree that everything tastes better dipped in chocolate. Chocolate has been synonymous with love, passion and romance since it was discovered by the Mayans and Aztecs, of Mexico and Central America, hundreds of years ago.
Two years ago my husband and I vacationed in Brussels Belgium, where we discovered the famous brand Neuhaus chocolate. We would sit for hours in a very well-known and frequented beer house, La Mort Subite (meaning sudden death) and drink Trappist beer and eat a pound of this wonderful chocolate everyday!! I even brought a shopping bag full of it back home with me when I returned. But soon that ran out and I have not eaten chocolate since then. That is until this week, when I discovered a little chocolate shop tucked away in an obscure shopping center in Augusta, Georgia.
La Bonbonnière is owned and operated by Bébette Smith, who makes these fine Belgian chocolates in house. Not only does she offer thirty different chocolate selections, she specializes in making the most exquisite chocolate boxes which are then filled with her chocolate treats. And the bonus is that the chocolate boxes are also edible. All of her chocolates are made in the traditional Belgian method, which means without preservatives. Bébette, a former teacher who is originally from Belgium, fell in love with chocolate-making during a trip back to her home town. She decided to attend the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Institute to get formal chocolate-making training, and three months later she opened her own shop. “Nothing chocolate, nothing gained.”
La Bonbonnière, 706.868.8120