Saturday Sweetly

Every Saturday there is the task of cooking the yummies for the weekend. Sometimes it will be a savory meal, like pasta salad, and sometimes it will be the sweets, like cheesecake or pies. However, every week I try to find time to help Mom cook in the kitchen, at least for an hour or so. I helped her today with the sweets for the weekend, and every Saturday I help I will share the recipe(s) of the day.
Today, we made a peach pie with a crumble topping, and some home made zucchini quick bread. We started with the pie, because it could cook while we prepared the bread. For the pie all you need is a pie shell and peach pie filling, and for the crumble topping all you need is one stick of butter (1/2 cup), a package of graham crackers, and 1/2 cup of sugar.

You can either place the pie filling in the pie, then work on the crumble, or vice versa. Just make sure to preheat your oven to 425ºF. (We made the crumble first.) To make the crumble, you Read More...

start by using a utensil of choice to crush the graham crackers into a crumble. You could use a potato masher, a blender, put them in a bag and hit them with a rolling pin, or a Ninja. If you do not know, a Ninja is a small blender that makes everything you put into it a fine dust, or if it is wet, a mushy mess.

The item on the right is the Ninja, before it ground up the last of the graham crackers.

Don't worry, you don't need to measure out a certain amount of graham crackers. We just decided that since we measured the sugar in that measuring cup, it would work to mix the dry ingredients inside it. That, by the way, is the next step. Mix the sugar and the graham cracker dust together, while the butter is melting in the microwave. It takes about a minute to make the butter into a liquid. After the butter is melted, pour the sugar/cracker mixture into the bowl with the butter and stir. It might not look like enough liquid at first, but if you use a mashing and cutting motion, it turns out just right.

Now, the last step: sprinkle the crumble over the peaches until the peaches have disappeared or to you preference.

Now your pie is ready to bake! If your pie looks a touch over-filled (ours did) just slide any oven-safe pan underneath the pie and stick it all in the oven for about 15-25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Mmmmmm. Pie!

Now, this pie would not be complete with out the helpful floor-cleaning services of Bo and Argos, our boxer dogs. They never miss a moment in the kitchen, making sure the floor is clean and food-free.

Argos is the more unhelpful of the two, laying right in the spot where you need to get a bowl, stand to mix, or walk to grab something. Bo is a little smarter, always finding the nice soft rug in the corner and curling up for a nap until he is needed.

Now, we are onto the harder recipe. Zucchini bread is considered a quick bread because you do not need to punch the dough down every hour or so, but there is still some difficulty in making this recipe. Mom takes her recipe from an old cookbook she got for her birthday some years back.

 The ingredients required are:

• 1  1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup finely shredded unpeeled zucchini ( you can use frozen or fresh)
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

The first step is to preheat your oven to 350º F. Next, you combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg.

( If your baking soda or baking powder seems clumpy, grind it in the bottom of the bowl first with a spoon. If you leave it clumped, you will taste it when the bread is cooked.)

Make sure to stir until the flour mixture is white with spice specks.

 In another bowl, separate from the first ingredients, combine the sugar, zucchini, cooking oil, egg, and lemon peel.

 Mix well, the egg can sometimes clump together. When combined, add the flour mixture to the bowl and stir just until combined. If you over stir, the bread will be tough.

 Now the batter is ready. Grease a bread pan well, this bread tends to stick. (Mom and I doubled everything in the recipe in order to make two loaves of bread.)

 Pour in the batter and stick it in the oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out cleanly. When the bread is cooked place it on a cooling rack for ten minutes, but do not attempt to remove it from the pan yet.

 When the bread has cooled ten minutes, remove it from the pan and place it back on the rack to cool completely. Make sure wherever it cools is out of reach of stray doggie noses and mouths. So there was our task this Saturday, now we have one peach crumble pie and two loaves of bread.

What is your favorite pie recipe? Have you ever made a quick bread?