Rudders at Home

And these days, you’ll even hear me call them courgettes once in a while. But that’s only when I slip up. 😛

When I was home, it only took me a day to discover these monsters on the back porch. These are home grown in our family’s garden, and I just had to take a picture because I haven’t seen any zucchini this big in quite a long time. Also, it’s nice to have these weird little pictures from home – the zucchini table.

For scale, I reckon those blocks on the table are about a foot, or just over a foot long. And I don’t know what the story of the cabbage is, so don’t ask.

Later that week, mom and I peeled and grated a number of these. It was fun (I really mean entertaining) activity for us once we had our electricity restored to us. While she froze a a good amount of grated zucchini (I mean at least four or five bags with 2 or 3 cups each bag, maybe more – I’m not sure), she also held back four cups and made some zucchini bread for us.

Mom’s zucchini bread was, simply put, gorgeous. And while I munched it all up with the family, I couldn’t get it out of my head these past couple weeks. So, I guess you could say I was inspired when I returned to London. I’ve had my mind set on making some of my own since, and plenty to share with others.

Here are the fruits of my labor. I added in a broken up dark chocolate bar, because I’m saving my Nestle chocolate chips for something else.

Mom’s Zucchini Bread (makes two loaves)

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix together and add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips as desired.

Bake 350 degrees fahrenheit (180 C) for about 40 minutes or until done.

2 Comments »

You can’t get Libby’s pumpkin just anywhere in the UK, and sometimes it can cost a fortune.  However, I’m lucky enough that a local grocery store stocks it and at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, they don’t get very much in, (unlike the Wal-mart I went to when I was back home), and it always seems that I’m behind the crowd. Last year I was too late, and they were all out, so there was no pumpkin pie in the Rudders household. It was a very sad time.

But I’m ahead of things this year. I’ve stocked up.

I stopped by the grocery store today in order to get some pumpkin puree. I am now officially ready for fall and the holidays. Let the pie making begin!

3 Comments »

I made this Nutella cake ages ago, one weekend when Paul was working. I’ve been looking at this cake in Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess for a couple years now, and finally got the time and ingredients together enough to make it. I’m quite impressed by how it came out.

Check out those hazelnuts! This cake took a full jar of Nutella, a half a dozen eggs and at least two bars of dark chocolate. Not to mention all the ground up hazelnuts in it as well. It was so dense and moist, it was like eating fudge. Gorgeous, dark, nutty fudge. It also took me better part of an afternoon to get it done, with planning.

Paul working weekends isn’t an ideal set up, especially on what seemed to be the sunniest weekend of the summer. And even thought we didn’t get to enjoy the weather together, we did get to enjoy the results of my baking together. Aww… isn’t that sweet? About as sweet as that cake, baby!

No Comments »

As you all know by now, I had a couple girlfriends in this past Saturday night. The plan was to have some food, have some drinks, and well, have some ice cream. I think we succeeded on all parts there, and when my camera came out, it didn’t stay in my hands for very long. So, let me share some pictures from our girls night in.

I’m not sure what this picture on the left is all about. I think I look a bit more like Vanna White. “I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat.” Or maybe I’m saying,  “Welcome to my kitchen, let me feed you some ice cream.” but, really, I think I’m supposed to be showing off the couple boxes of ice cream that I prepared in advance of my friends’ arrival. It’s a good thing I did, too, as the one kind I did try to freeze while they were there didn’t freeze very well and turned into something more like soup.

On to the ice cream. First we have Margarita ice cream, then Cheesecake ice cream, and the last is Vietnamese Coffee ice cream churning away in my ice cream maker.

They all seemed to be a pretty big hit, judging by the reaction of the crowd. The recipe for the margarita ice cream came from Nigella, and the recipe can be found here on the BBC website. I thought it was pretty good, and extremely easy to make. You don’t need an ice cream maker at all. Just throw everything together in a container and stick in the freezer. I did it the night before and it was perfect on Saturday. I had to let it soften a bit before scooping it out but it all worked fine.

The next two kinds I made, I got the recipes from David Leibovitz’s The Perfect Scoop ice cream cookbook. The cheesecake ice cream was absolutely gorgeous, and was so easy to make. I mixed it up that morning before the girls came over. Once it was churned I added in some crushed gingersnap cookies, which was a brilliant thing. They added that graham cracker crust taste to it and the cookies absorbed some of the cream, so were soft when you bit into them and not hard little bullets in the ice cream, like I was afraid they might end up being.

We were running late in the night which is why the last one came out a bit soupy. I think we might have gotten caught up in drinks and other things and so the ice cream came at the end of the evening. Still, the Vietnamese coffee ice cream was pretty tasty. Basically, it’s just a combination of strong coffee and condensed milk with some cream and then churned in the ice cream maker. It wasn’t as rich as the other ice creams I made at the weekend, but it was still nice and I could see it being very refreshing on a hot day.

The evening started off with drinks, margaritas to be exact, and once both, Rochelle and Anneli had arrived we broke into nachos and then dinner. Dinner was my vegetarian chilli which turned out really well this time, with Anneli’s nachos grande, and Rochelle’s homemade guacamole.

Then, right as we started to dish out ice cream, the girls cottoned on to the fact that we have a Wii. And I promptly displayed the fact that I don’t know how to run it. I broke out the only game I really know how to play and the only game I really enjoy, and that’s Rayman’s Raving Rabbids, so we proceeded to play that and eat ice cream until it was time for the girls to catch their trains.

As I said before, my camera wasn’t in my hands for long. At some point in the evening, someone took some rogue videos of us playing on the Wii. There were also a number of “artistic” shots, which included this cracking photo of the miniature American flag I have by the front door. 🙂

A few more pictures of our evening are available in the gallery.

3 Comments »

The other day I was in the grocery store, moaning about the fact that I couldn’t get Karo Syrup in this country. Well, not moaning, really, but I did say aloud (quite loudly) to Paul, “You just don’t get it here. It’s something I’ve just come to accept,” and I picked up a tin of Golden Syrup.

I said it a little too loudly. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I caught the eye of an older gentleman who was walking down the aisle behind me, and he asks me, “What? What’s wrong with our country?” I must add here that he did have a mischievous smile on his face, but I was suitably chastened. I very quickly said, “Nothing at all!” He smiled again and then went on to seriously ask me what I was looking for. When I said I was looking for corn syrup, he simply said, oh, and then shrugged his shoulders a bit, smiled kindly and went about his business without another word. And left me there.

I’m not sure whether I should be embarrassed because I was speaking to loudly, or feel vindicated, because I did know what I was talking about. I think I’ll take vindicated, but next time I’ll remember to use my indoor voice at Sainsbury’s. Oh wait, I don’t have an indoor voice… Outdoor voice it is then!

No Comments »