Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Does your freezer look like mine?

When I planted my new zucchini I realized I still have a ton frozen from last year! I always think I will use it more during the winter and spring, but it got a little ignored. Well, time to break out a zucchini recipe to make room for more!

Meet the Chocolate Zucchini Cake... made with wheat flour and crumbly as I tipped it out of the bundt pan! This is a recipe from my Aunt Tamie that I grew up with, and I love the combination of chocolate with cinnamon.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. softened butter
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. milk
1 c. walnuts (optional)

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla and zucchini. Stir in dry ingredients and milk alternately into zucchini mixture. Pour batter into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Cool 15 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool thoroughly. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Glaze

2 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together and beat until smooth.

Garden Beginnings

Freshly tilled, clean soil. No weeds. I love a clean slate with all the possibilities!

This week I planted beets, carrots, beans, corn, butternut squash, cucumbers, and watermelon from seed. From starts I planted yellow and green bell peppers, a jalapeno, two zucchini plants, and tomatoes. The varieties I am trying this year are Parks' Whopper, Celebrity (again), and Early Girl.

On the other end of the garden, the peas are growing nicely. 

The lettuce is doing well, and in fact we had our first salad this week! Looks like we will be having salad every night for the next month or more.  Anybody need lettuce? We can never keep up.

Unfortunately, the spinach never does well here! A friend of mine said her spinach always thrives, but it's in a shady spot. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but it doesn't like my garden!
 

The other thing growing right now is the chive I took a start of from my mom last year.

The purple blossoms are so unique!

Of the Earth

Springtime is magical... the world breaks forth in glory! I have had the opportunity to tour two of my favorite gardens this week, and just want to share some of the wealth. It reminds me of a scripture:

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; ...for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and eliven the soul." (D&C 59:18-19)

That is what the earth's beauty does for me.

The first set are from the Noni Gardens. My kids love them as much as I do and were so excited for our picnic there.

The double tulips are amazing. They are so full they look like peonies.

My mom and I really want to figure out what this is. I can't remember for the life of me, but I love them.

We just bought a tri-color beech like the middle one on the island. We need to find a large spot for it because they get huge!

The flamingo colored tulips were my mom's favorite.

My girls picked blossoms off a tree to wish me Happy Mother's Day.

These yellow tulips were so interesting.... I have never seen variegated leaves on a tulip before.

I absolutely LOVE the color of redbud blossoms. We just planted a small weeping version of this and hope it will be as beautiful.

The kids kept finding hiding places and jumping out and yelling "surprise"!

We ran into my old boss, the head gardener, and he was so kind as to grab some fish food and let us feed the trout. The kids loved watching them jump. 

The flower gardens are glorious, but I have to say I love having four little "flowers" of my own to care for.

The second place I toured was Temple Square. 

I loved this bed of rainbow color. The poppies POP, but the undertones of the tiny forget-me-nots and english daisies are sweet too!

These campanula or bluebells are knockouts.
 

We were a little too late for the pink blossoming trees, and a little too early to see the peonies in bloom, but I did find one beginning to open.

I love the groundcover lamium. I think I need to get me some of this in my shade beds.

Speaking of shade beds, these hostas were huge and happy!

There were also lots of hellebore or Christmas rose in shady beds. They are so unique.

Now for a little look at my yard's claim to glory right now... my bleeding heats are in bloom!

Yes, these definitely "please the eye and gladden the heart."

Back Yard Progression

Now is the time! I am so excited to have a back yard. The thing that makes me the happiest is not having to fight the weeds out there. Here's a little timeline of the project...

April 18nd- Mike was finished retrofitting the sprinkler system he did two summers ago, in order to remove a few large flower beds from the design and increase the lawn area. We decided we have plenty of flower beds already in place to take care of, and didn't need much more!

Our lot goes diagonal back from this point to the smaller pile of dirt.

The same day Mike hired an operator to dump three loads of fill dirt to level our lot, and then 5 loads of topsoil to spread on top of the whole area to be hydroseeded. We have found this to be a very important element to growing a beautiful lawn from seed.

This guy was good! It was like magic to see the weeds disappear and the holes filled in. It's amazing what a little dirt can do!

April 22nd- After lots of weeding, raking, and smoothing the back yard was ready for curbing.

April 29th- And then came even more raking and smoothing! Mike was a superhero and spent all day the Saturday prior installing sprinkler heads and preparing for hydroseed. My dad was visiting (for the arrival of our baby boy on the 25th!) and even he got out and raked.

The raised area of dirt to the right is up against our deck, and is the future site of a deck extension and paved patio. That is next year's project!

And now we wait! We hope to be able to play on the grass by summer!