Greens and Greenies

we have been blessed with wonderful neighbors who grow wonderful food, and that means ZUCCHINI! now, i must admit that i quite like the vegetable-of-plenty, but i am the only one in my house that does. so that means new recipes and disguises. first up, chocolate z-bread. a recipe that i found in my bed and breakfast cookbook, and it was ok, a little too cinnamony though. tonight i made 2 new breads: a plain z. with a coarse sugar topping-weird, tasted like burnt cheese jumped in! and a z. bread with white chocolate and craisins, also with a coarse suger topping. yum. i suggest you make your fave recipe- i like to use sour cream and no cinnamon-then add 1 c. chopped white chocolate and 1c. craisins or cranberries, which would probably be better. i made a delicious and very soupy, soup. the flavor was so amazing with lots of curry, but we are a thick soup kind of family-thanks to g man- and so with leftovers i am using it as a simmering sauce to cook chicken in. i think it'll be really good. i also think adding chunks of sweet potato and even some shredded chicken. i am trying to find new summer meatless dishes. and my meatless means even poultry and seafood. no meat. none. so, the soup up there was a try and i also made this cucumber and mango salad to go along with it, because also from the garden we have many cucumbers. i don't love cukes, and i really only like the seedless versions, but this salad is pretty good, and we'll definitely have it again. next up on the baking list: triple chocolate cookies. we wanted cookies and we wanted chocolate, lots of it, so i recipe hunted and found nothing. no good triple choco recipes. i should explain further that i was missing cocoa powder, but i had 2 kinds of dark choco and white choco and i didn't want to use espresso, so that meant no recipes for me. luckily, i can manage to rework a few recipes and i created a super tasty version. now, i should warn you that glenn and i think the dough is better than the baked option, but we usually do. the recipe should be off to the side there. my last little bit here has a funny story. i sign up to feed the missionaries once a month, as long as there is good day left with a husband at home for dinner, and i prepared to have them come the last fri of july. we were having my favorite salad-the luau-courtesy of one of liz's friend's who somehow got this amazing recipe, and i kept thinking it was strange that the missionaries hadn't called to confirm. now, our missionaries always call, and we have 2 sets of missionaries that need feeding, 1 with a car and 1 with bikes. so, it's important to know who i have signed up for because they might need a ride. of course i have no idea who i am supposed to feed, we haven't gotten the call, and it's getting close to eating time. glenn makes a few calls and finds out the lady who runs the menu calendar is out of town and her husband is pretty uncertain about the set-up for the night. they determine we have the "car" elders, and glenn leaves some messages on their phone. we wait for awhile, me thinking i've written down the wrong time, the kids are getting antsy so i feed the cabes and haven , and get them off to bed, when the elders call. they don't know anything about the dinner, but they'll gladly accept glenn bringing them some before they have to head out again. i am relieved. they are fed. i did my monthly duty. ok. then i receive a call on the following friday morning from the "bike" elders-"sister ashworth, are we still on for dinner tonight?" woah. hold up. i'm confused. it's not on my calendar to feed the elders, what happened here? now things are slowly clicking in my brain. i signed up for the last fri on the calender, which happened to be the 1st friday in august (a very tricky move i must say) and fed the wrong missionaries on the wrong day. i freakishly talk on the phone and convince them that yes we are good. i was not planning on much cooking that day, we have been working on painting furniture and rooms for the kids before glenn heads back to school, and so we were having leftovers. but now i must cook, and so i made a staple pork recipe that is perfect for guests, that i have blogged earlier on, and coconut jasmine rice and luckily we had some honeydew and had made above mentioned cookies that morning. but a vegetable was evading me. i had no time to go to the store, and i had not a lot of choices. oh, did i mention that all the kids and i had some funky stomach ache that involves toilets and no goodness? thankfully to the internet and tweaking of a recipe i made this spicy asian vegetable toss and everyone ate dinner! i love to cook, but i am a procrastinator and i like to have the time to be able to put it off to the last minute, because i want to, not suddenly have to. glenn had to deliver another meal, because the kids and i weren't feeling well enough to have people visit the house of belly pain. the elders have now asked me to cook for an upcoming luau, which i wasn't planning on attending, but i must need to be there, and i'm glad i have a week to procrastinate it!