Zucchini Stuffing Casserole

 This is so yummy, I now make it every year when the zucchini starts growing. 

Ingredients:

• 6 cups zucchini, cubed
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1 package stuffing mix, divided
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded divided
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 Tbs butter, melted
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 8x11 or two quart baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Cook onion in butter on medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and cook for 4-5 more minutes to remove some water.
3. In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 of the stuffing mix, 1/2 of the cheddar cheese, eggs, milk, butter, and the zucchini mixture. Add just enough water for the stuffing mixture to be moist. Spread into baking dish.
4. In a small bowl, combine the remaining stuffing mixture, remaining cheeses and 3 Tbs of butter. Sprinkle over zucchini mixture.
5. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until stuffing is lightly browned.

Potato Ham Soup

 Have left over Ham & an Instant Pot? Make this soup! It is SO good!

Ingredients 

• 1 Tbs Olive Oil
• 2 Tbs Butter
• 1 small sweet onion
• 2/3 cup celery, diced (about 2 stalks)
• 1 cup carrots, diced (about 2-3 medium)
• 3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp Coriander, ground
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Thyme leaves, dried
• 1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 lbs Gold Potatoes, diced (no need to peel)
• 2 cups Ham, diced

To Finish

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups half & half (or heavy cream or whole milk)

Optional

• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Garnish

• Green onions, chopped
• Italian Parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Turn on Instant Pot Sauté function (Normal/Med heat). When the display reads "Hot" add the oilve oil and butter.
2. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook until the vegetables start to soften, and the onions are starting to turn translucent.
3. Add the garlic. Sauté for a minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
4. Add the bay leaf, coriander powder, nutmeg, thyme, and salt. Stir
5. Pour in the broth and stir.
6. Add the potatoes and the ham. Stir.
7. Place the lid on the pot and lock it in place. Turn the steam and release knob to the sealing position.
8. Cancel the Sauté function.
9. Select Manual (or pressure cook) and use +/- buttons to choose 5 minutes. High pressure.
10. When the cooking cycle has finished, let the pot go into the natural release (warm) mode. You don't have to do anything, it will do this automatically.
11. After 15 minutes of Natural Pressure release, you can manually release the remaining pressure by turning the steam release knob to the venting position.
12. When the pressure is all out of the pot, and the pin in the lid has dropped, you can open the lid.
13. Whisk the flour into the half & half and then whisk it into the soup. Turn on the Sauté setting and keep stirring unti the soup thickens. Then cancel the sauté setting.
14. Stir in the cheese, if using.
15. Add the sour cream, if using, and stir.
16. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.
17. Garnish as desired and serve.

Peach Pie

 Had SO many peaches this year from the garden so I decided to try making a peach pie for the first time. This recipe was good, so I am saving it here for later.

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 recipe All Butter Pie Crust
• ▢ 5 cups fresh or thawed frozen peaches
• ▢ 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢ 4 tablespoons cornstarch

FOR TOPPING:

• ▢ 1 recipe All Butter Pie Crust
• ▢ 1 recipe Crumble Topping

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Place one pie crust in the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate and crimp as desired.


• Carefully stir together peaches, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and cornstarch. Pour into prepared pie plate.

TOPPING CHOICES:

• Top the pie with a crumble topping (as shown).
• Top the pie by making a lattice (see note) or a double crust pie. If using a double crust pie, be sure to cut holes in the top to vent during baking. If desired, cut shapes out of the top pie crust using a cookie cutter.
• Place a pie shield around the edge of the pie and place the pie on a cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 425° then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until crust is baked through and golden.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Choices

 Life is made up of a series of choices.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. We are constantly making choices. Some bigger than others, but each makes an impact. A little decision to decide to go to cycle class to check out my friend Stacey's class has not only led to my new favorite workout, but it led to a really great group of positive, fun and uplifting group of friends.

The choices you make don't seem really life changing until you are an adult. Some a lot more so than others. I often think about how my life would have turmed out if I would have gotten married when I was 26... if my enegagment didn't turn into an emotional roller coaster. My life would be completely different. I don't know exactly how different, would I have stayed married? Have kids? Gotten divorced? Knowing what I know now I like to tell myself that it wouldn't have worked and that is why god interfeared and stopped it from happening. I will never know for sure because that is not the path my life took. 

You hear people say all the time that things work out the way that they are supposed to. Seeing where my life is now, it is hard to get on board with that sometimes. A part of me has always been kind of mad that a traumatic experience gave me some deep seeded issues (that I didn't realize that I had until recently) that has prevented me from being open to the one thing I have always wanted the most. Love & family. It feels like I wasted the last 10 years of my life being a victim and upset even though I thought I had completely moved past it. In a way I had. I didn't care about him anymore.... but what happened changed me. The other part of me (the bigger part) is extremely grateful that I didn't get married then. I have so appreciated all of the people that I have met and that have been in my life since then that most likely wouldn't have been and all of the traveling and different experiences that I have had that I wouldn't have had if my life would have gone a different path. I also appreciate all of the lessons I have learned and the person I have become because of the hard things. Sure, I would have had hard things that I would have had to work through going down the other path... but would it have led to the same result in how I have turned out? Not sure, but I'm guessing not.

So occasionally I go down this rabbit hole of what if's and also extreme gratitude of how life has turned out and ponder about the decisions I am making now and how it could shape my life. What choices am I making or should I be making to go down the path that I want to go down? Job choices, health choices, dating choices, friend choices... am I wasting years or am I heading in a direction that I can be proud of? I of course hope for the latter, but some days I am not really sure. I'm still trying to figure out the balance of life. Where I should set boundaries and where I need to just let things go. Who is worth keeping in my life and who isn't. Am I being the type of people that I want to attract? Do I practive what I preach? 

I always thought by a certain age that you had life figured out, but maybe you never really do. I know we are always supposed to be learning and growing, but I just thought I would be more certain of more things by this stage in my life. 

I know that happiness is a choice, and that is something that I try and choose everyday. All the rest of the choices? I am just doing the best that I can with what I have been given and with what I have learned. Thats the best I can do right? I hope that one day I can look back on it all and have it all make sense and that I can say with confidence that it all happened the way that it was supposed to.

I don't know how much this post even makes sense. Nobody blogs anymore or reads my blog, but I guess it doesn't matter. I just felt like I needed to write out some of my thoughts. I miss doing that in my old blogging days. I always really enjoyed writing out how I was feeling. Now that I live alone... I probably should do that more often. It would probably help me process my thoughts better. Either that or I need to start expressing how I feel to Milo. Somehow I don't think it would have the same affect. ha!