Black Bean and Jicama Salad

1 can black beans
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 C diced jicama
2 red peppers, finely chopped
1 can corn
1 jalapeno peppers, chopped (for less heat, remove the seeds)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 avocado

Raspberry Cheese Delight

1 ¼ c graham cracker crumbs ¼ tsp almond extract
⅓ c butter melted ½ c chopped pecans
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese ¼ c powdered sugar
½ c powdered sugar 1 c whipping cream
1 Tbl milk Raspberries


Combine crumbs and butter press into bottom of 9" baking dish. Combine cream cheese (softened) sugar, mile and extract. Spread over crust and sprinkle with nuts
Whip the cream gradually adding sugar til stiff peaks form. Spread over nuts. Sprinkle raspberries over top. Chill several hours or overnight
makes 8-10 servings

Ratatouille

After watching Ratatouille, I decided to look up the recipe on line. We made it (leaving out the eggplant since I didn't have any, and we really liked it. Thought you might want to try it too.

Ratatouille Recipe
1 lb of yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1 lb yellow squash, chopped
Bell peppers chopped into 1/2 inch square pieces:
--1 lb green bell peppers
--1/2 lb red bell peppers
--1/2 lb yellow bell peppers
1 lb eggplant, ½" inch cubes
1 lb fresh ripe tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
3/4 cup vegetable stock (or thin tomato juice)
fresh ground pepper taste
1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2 Using a large oven-proof pan over medium high heat, saute onions in olive oil until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and reduce heat to low.
3 While the onions and garlic are cooking over low heat, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a another frying pan over high heat. As soon as oil starts to smoke, quickly add enough zucchini cubes all at once to cover the bottom of the pan. Keep on cooking over high heat, stirring, until zucchini is lightly browned on all sides. Remove zucchini cubes, and add them to pan with the onions.
4 Repeat process until all of the zucchini cubes have been cooked. Do the same with the yellow squash. Make sure to add a little olive oil between each new batch. Continue with the bell peppers, then the eggplant cubes, adding the browned vegetables to the onion pan as soon as they are cooked.

5 When all the vegetables (except the tomatoes) are browned and in the pan with the onions, increase the heat to high and stir, making sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add salt to taste, thyme, bay leaf, and rosemary, the vegetable stock, and stir well. Place in oven for one hour.

6 Boil water in a saucepan on stove. Remove stems from tomatoes, and crisscross the bottoms with a knife. Plunge into boiling water for a minute or two, until skin starts to fall away. Rinse in cold water and remove skin. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise, remove seeds, chop coarsely, set aside.

7 After the vegetables have been in the oven for an hour, remove from oven, drain vegetables in a colander set over a bowl. Clean browned bits (if any) off bottom of pan with a paper towel. Return any liquid to the pan and reduce to a thick glaze over medium high heat. Keep on adding juices to the pan as they run out of the vegetables into the bowl.

8 When all the juices have been reduced, return vegetables to the heavy pan. At this point the ratatouille should be moist and shiny, with very little liquid. Turn heat off. Add the chopped tomatoes and cover. If serving as a warm side dish, let the ratatouille stand for 10 minutes, just enough to "cook" the tomatoes. The ratatouille can be served at room temperature or refrigerated and reheated the next day.

9 When ready to serve, remove the bay leaf, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Fried Zucchini and Dip

Eggs beaten in a pie plate
1-2 dashes of hot sauce:
Dunk zucchini into egg mixture
italian bread crumbs
fresh parmesean cheese
salt and pepper:
Dunk zucchini into bread crumb mixture
Slice zucchini either into long strips or rounds. This is great as large rounds from the extra large zucchini's grown in your garden!
Oil the bottom of frying pan with extra oil and lightly fry.
Dipping Sauce
1 jar favorite spagetti sauce
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 package cream cheese
1/2 c. shredded cheese (I like to use a mixture of mozerella, parmesean, chedder)
Combine cream cheese and Italian seasoning. Spread into glass pie dish (or 8x8 glass dish).
Pour spagetti sauce over the top. Top with cheese. Place in microwave until warm.
Also very good sauce with bread sticks!

Fresh Peach Salsa

Fresh Peach Salsa

2 large tomatoes

2 medium-size ripe peaches, peeled, halved, and pitted

½ Cups finely chopped red onion

½ Cups finely chopped red or green bell pepper

2 to 3 T sugar

¼ t salt

¼ Cup lightly packed cilantro or Italian parsley leaves, chopped

Core, seed, and finely dice the tomatoes. Place them in a medium mixing bowl. Finely chop the peaches and add them to the tomatoes. Stir the remaining ingredients into the salsa, adding the lesser amounts of lime juice and sugar at first. Wait a few minutes, then taste the salsa and add more if needed. Cover and refrigerate the salsa until serving.

Favorite Peach Cobbler

It looks like lots of us have similar tastes!

8 large peaches
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder

Grease 8" square baking pan. Peel and slice peaches into pan. Combine flour, sugar, salt, shortening, egg and baking powder into dough and crumble dough on top of peaches. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Peach Cobbler

This cobbler recipe is from my sister in law (Janet), we just tweaked it a little to what we had on hand. My kids loved it! Thanks Janet:)

• 1/2 c. butter


• 1 c. sugar


• 2 c. flour


• 4 tsp. baking powder


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1c. milk


• 1 tsp. vanilla


• 1/2 tsp.nutmeg


• 5 cups diced fresh peaches (may use canned)


• 3/4 c. sugar


• 1/2 teas.cinnamon


• 2 c. sprite (or could use peach juice from canned peaches)

Cream butter and 1 c. sugar until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg until mixed add milk and vanilla. Pour batter into well greased 9x13 pan. Spread diced peaches evenly over batter. Sprinkle the 3/4 c. sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (mixed) oever peaches. Pour sprite over all. Bake @ 375 for 45 minutes.

Ruth's Funeral Potatoes

Boil 6-8 (depending on size) whole potatoes (skins on) for 20 min.
Cool completely. Peal. Grate into a 9X13 pan.
In bowl mix: 1/4 C. butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pint sour cream (2 C.)
1 T. minced onion
1 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
add any seasonings you like to season it up a bit (ie. salt,
pepper, lowry's, etc.)

Pour over potatoes. Top with 2 C. slightly crushed corn flakes mixed with 2 T. melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. Let them sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Nanny's Stuffed Zucchini

**In ( ), I'm going to write how Jason and I made these--it didn't take too long and they were absolutely delicious. Robby ate two!! This recipe is a very old one from my amazing Grandmother Nona Hunter. She is a fabulous cook and shared this recipe with me. We doubled this recipe and have enough for dinner tomorrow.

1 egg
3/4 lb. hamburger
tennis ball sized sausage
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cooked rice
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/8 tsp. chili powder
quick oatmeal (optional)
cheese
zucchinis

Parboil the zucchinis in salted water for 4-5 minutes. (We didn't boil the zucchini first) Scoop out zucchinis to make boats. (We cut them lengthwise first and then cut these in half. We scooped out the middle to make little canoes--you have to leave zucchini on the end, so the meat doesn't fall out while baking) Mix all other ingredients and stuff zucchinis. (Put the meat in the hollowed out section of the zucchini--it looks like how bread domes up after its been cooked in a bread pan) Place in dripper with a little water, (this means set them on a cookie sheet) and cover with foil. Bake 40 min. @ 375 degrees; uncover and cook 15-20 minutes more.

Top with:

2 cans tomato sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chili sauce
1 stick cinnamon
Tabasco sauce to taste
(Boil the above for a few minutes until sugar dissolves and sauce thickens.)

Vanessa's Pumpkin Cookies

3 cups canned pumpkin
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3 c sugar
1 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except flour and chips, and mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time and mix well again. Mix in chocolate chips (Vanessa likes to use the blender to chop the chips into small pieces. This way the chocolate is evenly distributed and doesn't make a mess all over little brother's hands.) Vanessa won 4th place at the 4-H cook-off with this recipe against 22 other 4-H participants! Enjoy!

Jennifer's Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c grated zucchini
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups flour
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Beat eggs until light and foamy (I do this for 3 - 5 min). Add sugar, oil, vanilla, and zucchini. Mix and sift dry ingredients (I always sift) and add to zucchini mixture. Add nuts if wanted. Bake 350 - 375 degrees in greased pans for 1 hour (I bake at 365 degrees for about 50 min. at my house). Makes 2 loaves. This is by far my family's favorite recipe! It's great for the fall when you have all the zucchini. I freeze my zucchini in freezer bags in 2 cups amounts so we can have this bread all year.