Super Hero of the Grill

Right now as I am writing this my wonderful husband Frank is outside grilling some chicken and corn for me, at my request. I am bringing lunch to a girlfriend tomorrow for her birthday and the salad recipe calls for grilled marinated chicken tenders and grilled corn on the cob. He's so sweet to do that.

There was a time I wouldn't have asked him to do it. You see he was born and raised in New York City, Spanish Harlem, to be exact, so he didn't really gain the skills needed to grill.....he had to gain street skills to survive gang wars, Mafia bosses and extra large roaches!

We have struggled through most of our marriage with bad grilling. Always with a charcoal fire that didn't stay hot or was too hot....fighting over badly cooked, undercooked, taking an hour to cook, food that was not edible. He tried different ways to build the fire, went through 3 or 4 charcoal starters to no avail. Until we went on vacation this summer and used the NICE, BIG GAS GRILL that was provided for us.

Our wedding anniversary is in July so we decided to buy ourselves a NICE, BIG, GAS GRILL. It turned my husband from a mediocre griller to a SUPER HERO OF THE GRILL. He got into it. He's got his own area in the corner of the yard where he made a rack for all his utensils, has a garbage right there and even a place to rinse the utensils. There's a chair there also for anyone who wants to sit and chat while he works.

I came up with the name Super Hero of the Grill because he loves all the super hero Marvel and DC characters, movies and paraphenalia that goes with it AND he wears his Captain America pants while he grills.

That HAS to have something to do with the fabulous food we've been eating since July.

 

 

MMmmmm........perfect!

 

 

AnnMarie :)

 

Try this recipe for the Grilled Chicken, Corn and Avocado Salad....it is so good I had to include it!

 

 P.S. This blog post was approved by Frank.....he even laughed while reading it :)

 

Got Zucchini.....Still? Make This Bread!

I had forgotton how fabulous this Zucchini Bread recipe is until I had a lot of zucchini to use up! The orange and coconut in it is what makes it irresistable. It is a very easy recipe also.

I hadn't had a lot of zucchini over the summer and the season for them is pretty much over here in the Northeast. When I saw some really nice ones at a roadside stand I couldn't resist buying 3 of them for 25 cents each. I decided to have a zucchini bread baking marathon. This recipe makes two nice sized loaves, so I set out my two mixing bowls to make two recipes at once.

The Junior League of Rochester, NY put out a cookbook in 1991 called For Goodness Taste. Every recipe in it is fabulous and this one is called.....

 



 Taster's Choice Zucchini Bread

 

 

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable or canola oil

3 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups shredded, fresh zucchini (1 1/2 lbs.)

1 medium orange, ground with the peel

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup raisins

 

Mix sugar, oil and eggs. Stir in all other ingredients.

  



Grease and flour pans (either 2 large or 3 small). Pour dough into pans.

Bake at 325 degrees 40-45 minutes for small pans, 75 minutes for large pans. I baked these about 75 minutes, but checked them at 60 minutes.

 

So good! Even the raw dough is SO good to lick off the spoon! Enjoy!!

 

 

 

It is Tuesday and I just finished off the zucchini I used for the bread to make a cake, so I had to come back, edit, and include the recipe. It is UNBELIEVABLY good. The ingredient that makes this cake irresistable is the cinnamon. It is from the sister cookbook from the Junior League of Rochester, called Applehood and Mother Pie and is simply called....

 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

 

 

 

 

 It literally just came out of the pan to cool. I usually put a chocolate glaze over it but the recipe does not call for any frosting....it is that good by itself!



 



 2 cups sugar

3/4 cup oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup milk

 

In a large bowl beat sugar, oil and eggs. Add vanilla and zucchini. Mix dry ingredients together. Add alternately with milk to zucchini mixture. Blend well. Pour into a 10 inch tube or Bundt pan.

 

Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes then remove from pan.

 

 

 

These two recipes have been staples for me every year at zucchini time. You should see how messy my cookbook pages are that the recipe is on!!

 

Enjoy!

 

AnnMarie :)

 

 



 

Discouragement Dispelled

Discouragement can mess with your mind. Just when you think all is lost and some drastic measures have to be taken, something wonderful happens to brighten your spirit and liven up your creativity.

While trying to come up with new things for my shop The Button Lady last year, I decided to offer custom button frames for weddings, graduations, babies, etc. It was a scary thing not knowing what requests I'd be getting, but I like to be challenged creatively, so I put it out there.

This is one for a bride who wanted symbols of Love and Luck in purple and ivory

 Last May (2011) Tobi, a very nice lady from Iowa, asked me to make her some custom button frames. She wanted a dance themed frame and a graduation frame for her daughter who was to graduate in May 2013. I was given specific colors and things about the dance and the high school and then I was on my own. Wow, I had a lot of time to get them done! But when I have something to accomplish I won’t stop till it is done, so I started right away.  I got that funny, doubtful feeling in my stomach as to whether I could pull it off but I did, and she loved them.

Fast forward a little over a year later and I am really discouraged about The Button Lady shop on Etsy. I have lost interest in making button things. The work had kick started the inevitable, hereditary arthritis in my hands, and aggravated my  bad C5 disk in my neck! My attention has been 99.5 % on NaNa's Things and so I have been thinking of what to do about it all. I was discouraged, my creativity for buttons was dry and my shop was just there on Etsy.

Then Tobi emailed me again.

This time she wanted three custom button frames for her daughters graduation party….still not happening till May 2013. She said she is a Mom that likes to do things ahead of time!

She ordered a candy themed frame to go on the candy bar at the graduation party. Her daughter is going to the University of Iowa and wanted one University of Iowa-ish. On the third one she wanted to showcase the fact that her daughter plays trombone in the jazz band, the concert band and the marching band at her high school. I was given the colors, the themes and carte blanc to do anything I wanted.

At first I was reluctant because I thought my button supply was low and I didn’t know if I could get all the parts together, or if I even wanted to. She assured me there was no hurry (!). So, since she is a return customer, which is a very high compliment, I told her I would do it for her. It was just what I needed to help the discouragement I had been feeling.

As soon as I set my mind to it, the creative juices started flowing. I found buttons and frames in the colors I needed in my supplies and the paper scrapbooking pieces I needed were readily available….except for the trombone. I had the hardest time finding one, and what I thought was one turned out to be a trumpet! Do you know which one is the trombone?



Neither one is!!!

I enlisted my husband to copy pictures off the internet of a trombone and the University of Iowa logos onto this thick magnetic paper (he works for Xerox!) that I could cut and paste onto the frame.

And then they all were finally finished!!

 

 

 

I got the 100% stamp of approval from Tobi and her daughter Dakota.

I'm not sure what the future is for The Button Lady shop ( I will always be "The Button Lady" though!) but the fact that someone likes my work and my creativeness was the boost and encouragement I needed. 

That is one of the reasons I love selling on Etsy. It is a networking community of creative people who encourage each other through Teams by favoriting items, putting them in Treasurys and pinning them. It is all about encouraging, supporting and helping each other.

How can you encourage someone today?

AnnMarie :)

 

The Little Known "Day"s of the Month

Does anyone really celebrate the little known "Day"s that come around every year? Depending on which calendar you have, there can be as many different ones as there are days in the month....

My Farmer's Almanac Calendar seems to have some unique "Day"s I haven't heard of. In August, I am sorry I missed Colorado Day on the first, National Aviation Day on the 19th and Women's Equality Day on the 26th.

One Day I do know about is National Grandparent's Day. It is celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day and this year it falls on September 9, 2012. The day was created in 1978 by a federal proclamation, passed by Congress and signed by President Jimmy Carter. The purpose was:

To honor grandparents

To give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children.

To help children become aware of the strength, information and guidance older people can offer.

The R & W Berrie Co's made a bunch of these kitschy figurines in the 70's and they were quite popular as a gag sort of gift, as I remember. This one is marked 1970 on the back.

What a cute gift for your dear Grandpa.....

These handcarved figures can be Maw and Paw Kettle or Grandma and Grandpa. They are the work of an 80 year old gentleman who rough carved these as samples for the finished product.

 

 

In October on the 16th is Boss's Day. It is not a public holiday but an observance. Since 1962 employees have celebrated the day in the workplace to appreciate their employers. It actually has become a popular celebration. A great reason to have a pizza party and cake and GIFTS! I just happen to have one of those for Boss's Day too!

 

 

 

Not sure why he is blue and has that grin on his face....I think he is just waiting for you to clock in late. He is also from the 70's from the R & W Berrie collection of kitschy figurines.

After running around getting gifts and trying to observe or honor or commemorate all the little known Days for all the different people in your life, be sure not to miss the International Day of Peace on October 21st. It is a United Nations General Assembly thing, but I see nothing wrong with each of us having our own Day of Peace...... AnnMarie's Day of Peace.... (insert name here)'s Day of Peace......

I'll contact the President to have him declare the day a National holiday.

All in favor, say "I"!

AnnMarie :)

P.S. All the figurines above are available in my NaNa's Things shop.

Last Campfire of Summer - Labor Day Treats

It's a little fuzzy, but somewhere in my childhood memory I was toasting pbj sandwiches over a campfire. I grew up going to the 1,000 Islands every summer so maybe it was there. I somehow inherited the toasted sandwich maker and it has since gone into retirement, it's duties taken over by a newer, online purchased square sandwich toaster.

My vintage round one is called a Jem-Toaster and made at a company in Brooklyn, NY. It is probably from the 1950's and no, I won't be listing that in NaNa's Things anytime soon! Too much nostalgia connected with it! The square one is newer and bigger but my husband thinks the vintage one makes a better toasted pbj.

So, as simple as it is to make, here is a mini tutorial to tempt you to run out and buy a toaster before this weekend. They are called everything from a Toasted Sandwich Maker to Pie Irons and can be found at local Home stores or on Amazon.com where there is a huge variety of them. There are even recipe books to buy but I am going to show you how to make the classic peanut butter and jelly toasted sandwich.

Spray the sandwich maker with cooking spray on both sides.

 

Load one side up with peanut butter and one side with jelly or jam. I prefer my homemade raspberry jam.

 

 

 

Put the sandwich together and into the maker. If needed, trim any crust that spills over once you close the two sides together. You can butter the outside of each piece of bread also before putting into the sandwich maker. Adds those good, extra calories and makes it even more gooey!

 

 

Have the fire nice and hot and start toasting!

 

 

 

Make sure to toast both sides well so that the peanut butter melts into the jam and literally oozes out when you eat it! This one needs a little more time....

 

 

A satisfied customer.....

 

 



If you are a morning campfire type of camper, try an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. Just butter the outside of two pieces of bread, put one on the bottom part of the sandwich maker and put a slice of cheese in. Break an egg on top of the cheese and break the yoke. Cover with the other piece of bread with the butter side out. Toast away, until the egg is cooked.

These toasted sandwiches are good any time of day....we usually have them at night under the stars.....

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

P.S. Summer is not really over this weekend. The first day of Fall is not until September 22nd!

AnnMarie :)

 

The Saga of The Canandaigua Lady

Every year for two weeks in August my son Michael goes off to camp. My husband Frank and I take this opportunity and try to find things to do together while Michael is gone. Things that he would usually find boring or not so much fun for a teenager.

 So, last August we booked a dinner cruise on the Canandaigua Lady.

As of writing this, and four attempts later, we still have not boarded the boat.

We are so fortunate to live at the tip of the Finger Lake area in Upstate New York, closest to Canandaigua Lake, one of the five Finger Lakes. Canandaigua (meaning “the chosen spot”) is a resort community with great shopping, restaurants and access to the shores of one of the most beautiful of the lakes.  

The Canandaigua Lady is a paddleboat that docks at The Steamboat Landing restaurant on the lake and provides lake cruises throughout the Summer and early Fall.

For our first attempt at cruising on the lake in a paddleboat, we were driving the 20 minutes with plenty of time to get there when we ran into lines and lines of traffic outside the area we needed to get to.  I know the area pretty well so we tried other ways to get in. All were clogged up with lines of traffic. It could only mean one thing. There was a concert at CMAC Performing Arts Center, another wonderful feature of this area, just not this particular night for us!

CMAC is located on the campus of Finger Lakes Community College. The outdoor amphitheatre brings in top artists from all over the country to perform. That night it was a huge performer, although I can’t recall his name now!

We were literally on Lakeshore Drive, within site of the boat, and could not get there because we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. The anxiety was high in the car, because of me, and I considered abandoning it and walking the rest of the way! The time came and went to board the boat and it was still sitting at the dock! By the time we got there a half hour late, we were told that the cruise was cancelled due to high winds.

Fast forward to this August. We still have our rain check from last year. We booked another cruise and an hour and a half before we were to be there, we had one of the worst downpours of rain this summer. We cancelled  because the rain had washed away our idyllic perception of being on a boat out on the sunny lake with the water shimmering in all its calmness.

We rescheduled for another day that week. By now we are running out of time because if we don’t get it in before the last week of summer camp, the rain check will sit there another year.

The day of our cruise I woke up sick and in much pain. Another cancellation.

All along I had been having doubts about being able to be on a slow moving, enclosed boat (they no longer serve dinner on the open air upper deck) while eating Eggplant Parmesan. Since childhood I have had a motion sickness problem. We rescheduled the cruise anyways for this past Monday night.

As Monday wore on I was increasingly concerned for the motion, the weather and how cold it was going to be out on the water since it was already one of the coolest days we’ve had this summer. The clouds were as dark as snow clouds.

Then Frank thought of something that never occurred to either of us. On a cruise you usually sit at large tables with other people you do not know. At the risk of sounding antisocial, we did not want that! We were on a mission to spend time together, alone, something that is scarce in our busy lives with a teenager at home.

A phone call confirmed that we would sit at a table for eight with six other people. Another cancellation.

Resigned to the fact that we would probably NEVER go on the Canandaigua Lady, we made reservations at the Steamboat Landing restaurant, sat outside on the deck overlooking the water and had a wonderful dinner together.

After dinner we walked along the shore and since we were in full view of the boat, we watched as others boarded. The weather had miraculously transformed from dark, dreary clouds to bright sunshine that spilled over the shimmering, calm water. Yup, exactly how we had  wanted it to be. There was even a rainbow over the horizon!

It was just not meant to be. And so goes the saga of The Canandaigua Lady. Farewell Canandaigua Lady….….farewell.

AnnMarie :)

Garlic and Grapes in the Finger Lakes

If you have lived in Upstate New York all your life, or more specifically in the Finger Lakes area like I have, did you know that the Finger Lakes are known for their garlic as well as their wine? I must admit that I did not!

Drive along any of the Finger Lakes....Keuka, Canandaigua, Seneca, Cayuga..... and there is that familiar sight of grape vineyards rolling down the hillsides.....dotted with a barn and fences. The grapes are clustered on the vine, almost ready to pick.

It is quite beautiful.

But where is the garlic grown? I never knew until two years ago when I came upon The Garlic Festival, held every year in August at Fox Run Vineyards on Seneca Lake. I thought it would be a nice drive down Rt. 14 S along the lake to see what it was all about. We were pleasantly surprised to see the abundance of garlic, garlic scapes and garlic products that were set up in tents to taste and buy. We have gone back twice since then and it seems to grow every year.....

It seems that the climate is ideal for Northern European varieties of hard neck garlic. Just as Vitas vinifera grapes thrive here, so do these specialty garlic varieties. There are many garlic farms dotted throughout the Finger Lakes taking advantage of the perfect conditions of water and air and sun to grow their special garlic. They make their garlic into butters, salts, braids and wreaths to buy.....

There were tents set up for festival vendors such as homemade soap, jewelry and flowers. There were cooking demostrations by area chefs and a flameworker from the Corning Museum of Glass. There was a tent full of any spice you could dream up to use in cooking or baking.

I couldn't resist buying a handmade silver ring made out of an old fork.

And I got the last bunch of silver dollars from a flower vendor....I could have sold them 3 times over to others that were sorry they missed out! That's me, my husband Frank and son Michael.

My daughter Jena, her husband Britt and baby Chloe joined us for the day.



Lake breezes, sun, garlic slices on crackers, gourmet food, family and entertainment. A very nice way to spend a 90+ degree day!



How have you been spending these hot, hot days of summer?

AnnMarie :)

 

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