Z ~ Zucchini Muffins

Here we go - alphabet project 2013!

I'm going backwards just to change things up.

Here we have zucchini muffins. Chocolate zucchini muffins to be exact! I was pretty excited to try these since zucchini muffins/bread is typically a healthier option. Unfortunately, these tasted healthy. You know what I mean....sometimes healthy stuff just doesn't cut it in the flavor department and these fell into that category. Kinda rubbery texture and the flavor is...blah. I got the recipe from a blog and I've sorta decided to stop using recipes I find on random blogs via web searches. It's been my experience that if you go to sites like allrecpies.com or epicuious.com that have a rating system, you have a pretty good chance of finding something that will be worth your time to make. People don't mince words when leaving reviews ~ you'll know if it sucks.

I think this is one of those songs you either love or don't.

It's weird because it's not something I would normally think I'd like, but I really like it. Something about sad songs. This is the original demo tape that Ryan Bingham recorded. I don't think it has ever been re-recorded.




Until I'm one with you
Until I'm one with you
My heart shall not pass through
It'll only be forsaken

Until I'm one with you
Our world is torn in two
Until I'm one with you
Our love will be mistaken

Until I'm one with you
My death they will pursue
Until I'm one with you
My life will be degraded

Until I'm one with you

Tomato Update #3

Well....not a great week for the tomatoes.

First, lost a branch. I noticed it was bending and by the end of the week it had broken off at the trunk of the plant :( Have to make sure those branches grow within the tomato cage or have to tie them to it for support. Live and learn.

broken branch

Next, I noticed that the tomatoes were not turing that red/brown color and one had split open. This started making me think I had something other than black cherry tomatoes. Indeed, this is the case. I talked to my friend who gave me the plants and she said she must have mislabeled them. What I actually have is Dr. Carolyn tomatoes. A pale yellow cherry tomato. So these have been ready to pick for over a week...which is why one of them split. I will admit I was a bit disappointed to learn I didn't have the black cherries. I've had yellow tomatoes (from the store) before and making a sauce from these won't really be what I was going for. However, I'm still grateful for the gift of the plant and we will enjoy them! There's a tiny bit of hope that the second plant will actually be a black cherry plant. The tomatoes are still green so I'm watching them for any signs of color change. We'll see.

Dr. Carolyn tomatoes

Alphabet Project - 2

A few days ago I was thinking about something....I forget what it was, but it made me think back to the alphabet project I did on Flickr a while back. I've managed to convince myself to do it again. It will keep me busy for 28 days. I could use some help with a few letters. If you have any suggestion of commonly found objects/items/products that start with the following letters, let me know!

E
I
K
O
V
W
X
Y
Z

So look for that to start soon on a blog near you!

Previous alphabet project

Black Cherry Tomato Update #2

Soon!

A few of the new sprouts.

If this doesn't make you laugh ~ you need to lighten up.

Tomato Update #1

My black cherry tomato plants are doing great! They have grown about a foot since the last picture. On Friday when I was admiring them I saw these....baby tomatoes!! I understand these are just tomatoes, but I got so excited! The other plant doesn't have any yet but I'm not worried. The person who gave me the plants said it takes about 75 days to before you'll see anything and it's well under 75 days. I guess this one is an early bloomer :)

Baby Black Cherry Tomatoes

Summer Card Camp 2

I created a card for Summer Card Camp 2. These are the colors we had to incorporate:

There are 3 different sketches to base your card on and this is the one I used:

Here's the card I came up with! Hope you like it :)

Cherry Cherry!

A friend of mine offered me 2 black cherry tomato plants that she started from seed. I love cherry tomatoes and she says these are especially delicious! I've never seen/heard of them but I'm excited to try them. This will be my first time growing tomatoes and I thought I'd take you all along for the black cherry tomato  ride :)

This is what they (hopefully) will look like.

This is what they look like now. About 1.5 feet tall.

Rutabaga!

Last night I made a rutabaga & cauliflower mash to go along with our turkey meatloaf. It was....awesome!

To the best of my knowledge I've never had a rutabaga before. They are ugly and sound like something only your great great grandmother would eat. I had wanted to get a parsnip to go with the cauliflower, but the grocery store didn't have any. But they had rutabagas. What the heck, I'll Google it when I get home and see how to cook it and if it tastes gross, I just won't use it. So I looked at all my options and most of them were small but there were a few softball sized ones. Going with the idea that bigger is better, I got a gigantic one. Yeah....it turns out that in the case of rutabagas, big is not always better. You're supposed to buy the small ones. Live and learn. What I learned about them is, the big ones get fibrous and bitter. The small ones are supposed to be tender and sweet. Sweet?! I get so annoyed when I read that things are sweet. Rachel Ray is a terrible offender of saying this. She'd cook a rutabaga and call it sweet. COME ON! It's not sweet. Sugar is sweet. People really need to find another word to use because sweet isn't correct. It's true that cherry tomatoes can be sweet....but rutabagas....no. So annoying. Ok, enough of that. I scrubbed it well because they are really dirty. Then I microwaved the it for 5 minutes to make it easier to remove the outer skin (got this from a website). Then I cut it into chunks and steamed it with the cauliflower for about 25 minutes. It looks very much like a yukon gold potato. It tastes pretty much like a parsnip! Thankfully the one I got wasn't fibrous or bitter. Once tender, I put them in the food processor with some milk and blended them into a "mash". If you didn't know, you'd think it was mashed potatoes just by the look of it. Salt and pepper finished it off. It was yummy! And healthy! It turns out that rutabagas are a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals! Next time you want mashed potatoes, try a rutabaga & cauliflower mash instead. Much better for you.

As a side note, the turkey meatloaf was outstanding! We used up some rosemary crackers in place of breadcrumbs. Had a 10oz bag of spinach so I sautéed that with garlic and added that along with diced onion, yellow bell pepper and some spices. I don't miss the beef and either does Greg. If you can get it past Greg, then it must be good.

I'm just going to tell you now, this will all sound weird.

Since I was a kid, I've rocked while sitting in a chair. Imagine kids with autism....it's like that but controlled. What I mean by controlled is, I don't do it in front of people because it's....well, not socially accepted. People will think you're "special" if you start rocking in your chair. But when I'm alone, I rock pretty frequently. It helps me think. And it's an unconscious movement - I just start doing it. If someone comes around, I stop instantly....again, without really thinking. I've always wondered why I do this. I'm rocking as I type this! I thought maybe it was a hyper kind of thing...like a way to release excessive energy. The only problem with that is, I'm not hyper. I've never thought to Google it, but this morning, I did. Less than 5 minutes after I Googled, I found people in a form talking about Maladaptive Daydreaming. Uhhhh....what the heck? I found a Wiki page about it and as I read, my jaw dropped! It's weird, but it's totally explains everything. Just to preface, I don't have Asperger's or ADHD but I've always thought I have ADD. Sometimes paying attention is a real chore. I'd rather daydream! As for attendant distress or functional impairment...humm....don't have that either. I also wasn't abused and there was no trauma in my childhood. However, an outlet to creativity....that part fits. I've always said, I can daydream like nobody's business. As a kid, I imagined very vivid situations or "stories" with characters that I felt were part of me and that I've become "attached" to. Maybe they are extensions of my personality? To this day, I imagine full stories, beginning to end, in my mind and get lost in them. I'll see something that reminds me of a story I've imagined and I'm suddenly there. This all plays out during normal day to day happenings. I've always wished I had time to just write all the stories down and submit them as dime store novels. Ugh....it would take so long tho. Just one story would take months. I'm a little OCD about getting the exact description of things. I imagine them so crisply that every detail can be seen so I feel the need to get it just right. I dream all my dreams, asleep and awake, in Technicolor. Speaking of which, if I wrote them all down, when would I sleep? This would be a full time project. Maybe if I win the lottery I'll quit my job and be a writer.

Here's what the Wiki page says - and don't judge me!


Maladaptive daydreaming: (Compulsive Fantasy) is a term first proposed by Eli Smer, Ph.D., to describe a condition in which an individual excessively daydreams or fantasizes, sometimes as a psychological response to prior trauma or abuse. This title has become popularly generalized to incorporate a recently-described syndrome of immersive or excessive daydreaming which is specifically characterized by attendant distress or functional impairment, whether or not it is contingent upon a history of trauma or abuse, as introduced in 2009 by Cynthia Schupak, Ph.D. and Jesse Rosenthal, M.D. of New York City. Dr. Schupak and her colleagues published the results of a follow-up study based on an email questionnaire in 2011.


Excessive daydreaming may begin as an outlet for creativity or as a method of escaping trauma or abuse. The daydreamers experience very vivid and intricate fantasies and may become emotionally attached to the characters in their fantasies or express emotions they are feeling through vocal utterances or changing facial expressions, although most keep such behavior hidden from others. People with Maladaptive Daydreaming know the difference between reality and fantasy; they realize that everything they are dreaming about is a fantasy. Some also exhibit symptoms similar to Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD or OCD.  Many people have social anxiety and/or depression along with maladaptive daydreaming. A large number also find their social lives are negatively impacted by this disorder. 79% of those self-identified as having excessive daydreams had a kinesthetic repetitive movement accompany their daydreaming, such as pacing, rocking, tapping, or shaking an object. Many others also move their hands around and make facial expressions: laughing, crying, whispering, and gesturing with hands. Listening to music while daydreaming is common and hearing music may trigger a fantasy. A repetitive movement may be articulated to music while daydreaming. Watching a movie or reading a book, can also trigger a fantasy.Many people have novel or movie type fantasies. They create their own world, with characters, settings, plots, heroes, villains, friends, etc. -- they also may imagine storylines using the characters or settings from already existing works of fiction.  Some people have reported dizziness, headaches and other physical symptoms after daydreaming.