Kitchen Adventures 2.5

Last weekend was quite the busy one. Saturday included a trip to the farmer's market, a trip to the mall, and of course baking. Sunday was a church-filled day, which was great! I taught my 4 year olds (10 of them!) in the morning, did a little grocery shopping, met up with my friend Jessica Jones who was in town from Wyoming, then headed to Shaye's to make my side dish for the funLife event at church. Soulfest was a fun church potluck and social time, with water games, volleyball, and the band playing some awesome music. I unfortunately did not take pictures of any of the food I baked, but there will be some pics from Soulfest at the end!
Saturday's baking was a chocolate zucchini cake for the monthly birthday party at work. Each month we celebrate all the birthdays at once, and last week was our party. This recipe seemed perfect since our lone birthday-ee likes chocolate, and zucchini are plentiful this time of year. I picked some up at the farmer's market and used them for this recipe and another, which will be in a later post. I miss just going out to the garden and picking a zucchini to use, so the farmer's market is the closest thing I have to that! This recipe is one my mom sent me. Thanks Mom!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. sour milk
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. cloves
4 T. cocoa
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 c. grated zucchini
6 oz. chocolate chips

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the remaining liquid ingredients (this will be the first six ingredients total). Mix the dry ingredients together, then add to the wet mixture. Stir in the grated zucchini. Pour into a 9x13 greased and floured pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

The next baking endeavor occurred Sunday afternoon at Shaye's house. I needed to make a side dish for Soulfest, and after looking through my cookbooks decided on a recipe form the trusty Triple T youth group cookbook called Homemade with Love. This is actually a recipe my Nana submitted to the cookbook. I don't remember her ever making these, but they sure were good! By the time I got through the line, which was pretty early, most of them were already gone!

Parmesan Potato Sticks

Ingredients:
2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut in strips
1/2 c. fine bread crumbs
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. melted margarine

Directions:
Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and seasonings in bowl. Roll potato strips in melted margarine and then dip in crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until tender, approximately 35-40 minutes.
*Note: I had to make the crumb mixture a second time to have enough, but I cut my potatoes into tiny strips. Also, omitting the salt is probably fine as I felt these were fairly salty.

Though I have no pictures of the potato sticks, here are a few images of the activities from Soulfest.

My friend Kara rockin' the keys


Rousing volleyball game