Poor Mans Crab Cakes (Zucchini Cakes)

I can hardly wait until the time of year that my table is lined with fresh, green garden zucchinis. They are so easy to grow and so abundant! I cook with them just about every day while they are in season and I bake breads and freeze what I can't use up. Here's a classic recipe that gets busted out and used hard each summer here on the homestead.

 Zucchini cakes (or around here they are better known as Poor Mans crab cakes.) 

They are very, very easy to make, cost less than a dollar and take less then 5 minutes! Make sure to tuck this one away in your recipe box...

It's this simple....

2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbls. Mayo
1 heaping tsp. old bay seasoning (seafood seasoning for those who don't know what that is)
2 eggs. 

Start by shredding the zucchini with a cheese greater.

Mix all of ingredients together

Form patties and fry in butter until golden brown on both sides

After just a few minutes you will have this divine tasting food ready to eat!

This is especially delicious with my salmon cake sauce.

 For that I use sour cream, mayo and lots of hot sauce with dill and minced onion- all amounts are just added "to taste". It's out of this world good!!

Quick, cheap and easy....That's my kind of summer menu. Try them in a Sandwich to make it the star of the show or have it as an appetizer or side dish. You really can't go wrong with these!

Hot Bacon Dressing for serving over wilted greens...In this case, Dandelion!

This is one of my Mom's specialties. She serves it every holiday over endive and people go crazy for it. This spring I decided to find ways to use the millions of dandelion in my yard and this is one of my favorites!


The first step is to gather your greens. My homestead helpers (3 daughters) helped me pick the dandelions by popping them off at the root. You can dig them all up and use the root for other things but we didn't do that this time. It's best to pick the greens before they flower to reduce the risk of them being bitter. Some of ours had blooms but they were still yummy.

Clean them really well. I pick all the leaves and then soak them in my sink.

Next wilt the greens by steaming them. 

They are now ready to be awesome-fied by  Hot Bacon Dressing. Set greens aside and make dressing as follows:

Here's what you need:

1 lb-1 1/2 lb bacon

1 cup sugar

1 tbls flour

2 eggs

1/2 c. white or cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 or two hard boiled eggs.

1 large, heaping bowlful of any steamed greens you like.

Method:

(Steam greens set aside)

Next: Fry bacon over med. high heat. (Did you guess that this bacon came from our back yard? If you did, you'd be right!)

While bacon cooks mix together: 

1 cup Sugar

1 tbls. flour

Add to sugar and flour:

 2 eggs

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

remove bacon from grease and crumple. pour out MOST of bacon grease but not all of it. 

Pour sugar/vinegar mixture into hot bacon pan and stir like crazy until it thickens and is not foaming.  Add crumpled bacon back in.

Stir greens into hot dressing and serve with sliced hard boiled eggs over the top.

 

(Okay...I realize the picture does NOT make it look that appetizing BUT in my defense I was craving it so badly I almost didn't take pictures at all. My eggs were not nearly cool enough to slice..but you get the point, right?)

People either love this recipe or they hate it. Let me know how you feel after you try it!

Very Easy Dandelion Fritters

Dandelions have arrived!!

I've been patiently (Okay, Not so patiently) waiting for my garden to be in full swing this year. There is something wonderful about eating food from your own back yard.

We're right around the corner from asparagus and strawberry season but I can't even wait that long. As I sat on my back porch this morning drinking coffee and dreaming about my summer gardens, it dawned on me that I had a delicious spring harvest all around me! Ahhhhh...Dandelions!

Lila and I got to work foraging a big bowl full of them while Daisy played with the younger kids. About 15 minutes later we had a heaping bowl full of stems and flowers. (We could have dug the roots for coffee and medicinal purposes but we chose to skip that for today)    

The first step to using dandelions is to get them cleaned and ready. First I pop off all of the clean looking  flowers and set aside.

Next, I put them all in the sink and start rinsing and picking off the leaves.

I let the picked greens soak in cold water for a bit and then rinse them one more time in a colander.

At this point the leaves are ready to be cooked in a recipe or simply thrown in salads. I'm going to cook mine with Pa Dutch Hot Bacon Dressing. 

Now to the fritter recipe...

If you picked your dandelions from a pesticide (and dog pee) free area and they look clean, I wouldn't even wash them.

Simply heat the oil in a cast iron pan.....

 dip each flower in the batter (recipe below)......

 and drop in hot oil.

After about a minute remove to towel lined plate. Make your favorite dipping sauce to serve along side and Enjoy!

I used a sauce of sour cream, lemon juice, any sweetener of choice and some red pepper flakes.

Even My kids LOVE these "flower fritters"

Go ahead and try this recipe. You'll never look at weeds the same way again.

Dandelion Fritters:

1 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cups cornmeal, finely or medium ground
1 teaspoon sea salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper
2-4 cups Dandelion flowers
Frying oil of choice- I used sunflower oil.

1)Mix batter ingredients together with fork.

2)Heat oil in skillet

3)Dip each flower (holding stem) in batter mixture and then drop in hot oil

4)Remove when golden brown.

My Husbands Hobby

                                                 

Well it's been about a year since Justin started dabbling in wood crafts and that means about a year that I've been able to ask him to "go build me this" or "go build me that." I've loved just about everything he's created and now that we have a new house on our homestead he has lots of spaces to try to furnish with the lumber that he has milled.

Some of my favorite things he's made for me have been:

 A Pallet wood potting table....

Wood slices, for all my crafting needs...

                                       

                                                                     Candle holders....

Blocks for the kids....

This beautiful childrens picnic table...

He and the girls made this birdhouse to surprise me....

                                                                And a bench or two....

like this rustic little garden bench...

and this very large one.

He made lots of cutting boards too...

A New kitchen table...

A foyer table...

A desk....

And a dining room table.

Whew...That's quite a bit for a beginner (who also happens to work 60+ hours a week and take care of a family and a homestead)  I'm pretty proud of what he can get done in his -not so often- spare time!

I can't wait to see what he'll come up with in 2014.

Let the building begin!