Garlicky Parmesan Asparagus

I am so addicted! It’s asparagus season and my garden in overwhelmingly blooming. I’ve been eating asparagus every night for the past week. In fact after getting home way to last night to cook dinner I made up a batch of asparagus and ate guilt free. The Parmesan is must, don’t skip it.

Ingredients
1 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
2 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Garnish: shredded Parmesan cheese
Directions
In a skillet over medium heat, combine butter, oil, and garlic; cook and stir for one to 2 minutes. Add asparagus. cook to desired tenderness, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Drain; sprinkle asparagus with remaining ingredients. Makes 4 servings.

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread w/Lemon Glaze

My garden is in full bloom and I’m trying to keep up with all the yummy fresh vegetables. This year I downsized to one zucchini plant. Zucchinis grow like weeds for me. My first garden had six zucchini plants. Oh boy! You know you have an overabundance of veggies when people are running away from you as you try to give it away. Last year with just two plants I ended up pulling them out way early because I’d just had enough. You can only bake and freeze so many loaves of zucchini bread. As much as I love my grandmother’s zucchini bread recipe I was looking for something a little different this year. This one will rock your taste buds! It’s lite, lemony and the blueberries gave it a little extra kick. I did notice my first batch was a tad bland but once I added the lemon zest the flavor just popped. It’s just as yummy without the blueberries too.
Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon or 2 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini
1/2 to 1 cup of blueberries
LEMON GLAZE
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon or 2 tbsp lemon juice
Directions
Preheat oven to 35o ⁰F. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan, set aside. In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt.
In the mixer bowl beat 2 eggs well. Then add oil and sugar, and beat on low until well combined. Add the buttermilk, lemon juice and lemon zest and blend everything well. Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl and blend everything together, but don’t over mix. Stir in blueberries.
Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack and cool completely. While loaf is cooling, you can make the glaze.
In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled loaf. Let glaze set. Serve.

It’s So Hot

…the retirement center is having a wet t-shirt contest.
…I saw an Amish guy buying an air conditioner.
…the squirrels are handling their nuts with potholders.
Can you feel the heat? I am a summertime loving fool but this is a tad extreme even for me. I am currently debating watering the garden. I try to conserve water and electricity when the temperature is so high and we've had NO rain. The brown and crunchy grass I can deal with BUT my garden is a different story. I've been looking forward to a tomato sandwich for months now. I went out to inspect my sad, droopy and thirsty plants. Our beautiful sunflowers are wilting, the eggplants blossoms have disappeared and on my cherry tomato plant I spot some orange tomatoes. Signs of hope. Turn on the sprinkler!