We finally got our house painted! We originally didn't plan on the yellow, and when we began talking about it, it was always a subtle straw yellow in my mind. But Dan insisted it should be bold. I think I have to give him kudos for that. Sometimes when I look up at it, I laugh out loud because I can't believe we did that. But it makes me happy. I must say though, I'm not sure about the orange door now. The mustard yellow kind of stole it's thunder. I wonder if we should paint it black. Dan says it would be too hot. I say beauty before practicality every time. Sigh. We can never agree on that. Votes?
The sprinkler system and house painting were huge weights on our shoulders, and thanks to a saintly friend of ours, those jobs are mostly done. It's such a relief. However, the projects keep on coming. Right now we're working on the flower gardens. We purchased some flowers on sale at Rock Creek Growers, and Dan's co-worker and his wife supplied us with some more things to plant. It's overwhelming. I hardly know where to start sometimes, but It's so fun to see things transform.
We've also been picking peas, lettuce, zucchini, and squash from our garden. I keep waiting for our plump tomatoes to turn red. It's an awesome feeling to eat things we grew ourselves.
I made a super yummy chocolate zucchini cake that involved a cake mix, butter, sour cream, etc. and added chocolate frosting. I was going to post the recipe, but Dan of course went and one-upped me. He made chocolate zucchini "bread" that didn't even require frosting. I think I'll post that. Of course you never know what he did differently. He's like one of those old ladies who won't give out his secrets. I'm guessing he added extra chocolate chips. Here's the recipe. It says to moan at the end. I don't know about that. But I did imagine myself as gollum, guarding the rest of the loaf and keeping it to myself. "My precious."
Chocolate Zucchini Bread from One Ordinary Day
Ingredients
1 & 1/2 Cups Shredded Zucchini
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup high quality Unsweetened Cocoa Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Dash of salt
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips
Directions
In a mixer, combine your oil, sugars and vanilla. Mix in your eggs and shredded zucchini. In a separate bowl, sift together your flours, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder. Slowly add this dry mixture into your wet mixture. Beat until combined. Mix in your chocolate chips.
Scrape your batter into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 50-65 minutes, or until done. Eat and moan.
