No Fail Pie Crust

1 c. flour
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. cold water

Combine flour & shortening. Add salt, then water. This recipe is for one double crust pie. If baking empty shell, bake at 375* for 8-10 minutes.

This pie crust bakes up nice & flaky every time.

Mock Apple Pie

4-5 c. zucchini
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
3 tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
9 inch pie crust

Use a large zucchini (at least 12 inches long). Peel, cut in quarters lenghtwise, remove seeds with a spoon and slice crosswise. (So that they look like little apple slices). Cover with water and cook until tender crisp. Drain well and toss together with lemon juice and salt. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients, then add zucchini mixture and mix well. Pour into prepared 9-inch pie crust. Dot with butter and add top crust. Seal edges, cut slits for steam, brush with milk & sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake at 400* for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

*If you've never had this, I can guarantee you will not know that it is zucchini! It tastes and looks exactly like apple pie. I like to trick people by making it for them and not telling them what it is until after they have eaten it.

**Instead of nutmeg, I always use pumpkin pie spice (because I always forget to buy nutmeg), but I like the extra spices that are in the pumpkin pie spice anyway.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
2 c. sugar
2 c. grated zucchini
1 c. vegetable oil
3 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. raisins, nuts or chocolate chips

If using raisins, cover them with water in a sauce pan and boil for about 15 minutes, until they are plump. (Raisins are my favorite thing to add, I don't use nuts or chocolate chips, but that is personal preferance).

Mix all ingredients together. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bake at 350* for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Or use cupcake liners to make muffins and bake at 350* for about 20-25 minutes.

Are you guys still planning on using this blog?

Cause I'm the only one that has said anything...I don't want you all to get sick of me posting things, but I'm still going to use this blog to post recipes.

Also, please remember to bring the dishes that don't belong to you to Traci's house. Traci is missing a glass dish with a red lid, Melanie is missing a shiny silver 9x13 pan, and I'm missing some gladware containers.
Thanks!

Zucchini Relish

5 lg. zucchinis, grated
1 tbs. alum
3 lg. green peppers, diced
ice
5 lg. onions, diced
5 c. vinegar
1 lg. red pepper, diced
5 c. sugar
1/2 c. pickling salt
1 tbs. turmeric
2 tbs. celery seed

Mix all vegetables together and sprinkle with pickling salt and alum. Cover with ice and let
stand 4 hours. Drain and rinse. Combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and boil. Add
vegetables and cook until tender (20-30 min). Pour into jars and seal. Process in cold pack canner for 20 min. Makes 8-10 pints.

My family really enjoys eating this on bratwursts, hotdogs, and I always add a tablespoon or two in my egg salad sandwiches. My husband likes it in his chicken salad sandwiches too.

**If any of you have any large zucchinis that you want to part with, please don't throw them away! I want to make some relish this week but my plant has one of those dwarfism diseases. (Meaning it is the same size now as when I planted it in May!) Let me know if you have any large zucchinis that I can take off your hands. Thanks!

The new way we're doing things...

For those of you who aren't in the neighborhood, I thought you might like to know how those of us in the neighborhood are going to try the food exchange. Just in case you want to try it too... We are each taking a night of the week and we will make (not cook, just prepare) dinner for everyone on that night and take it to their house. Since we are close, we figure it should only take 5 minutes to deliver the food. This opens up a lot more possibilities for food (because some things don't freeze well), and the flavor of fresh food is always better than frozen. :) So hopefully this will work for us. Just thought I'd share in case you want to try it.

I forgot...

Can everyone bring the dishes that don't belong to them to Traci's house?
Thanks!