Introducing "Bite-size Biggs Blurbs"

Since blogging became overwhelming for a while, I've decided to simplify my blog updates. I'm not waiting for big "newsworthy" events to post. We're just going to put up pictures from each week with a little bit about what we're up to. We call them "Bite-size Biggs Blurbs". Enjoy!

March 20th was John's 2nd birthday! Hooray big boy!

Aunt Jeanette brought cupcakes so we could celebrate. You can't tell from his somber expression, but John was pretty thrilled! 

We had some beautiful days this last week! We just had to go to the park and dig in the mud.

His clothes were dirty, but he was so happy!

A new favorite outdoor activity--chalk on the deck! This is what happens when you don't have a driveway...

Uh oh! Pen on the wall! John looks guilty, but he actually really liked scrubbing the wall. He didn't want Mom to take the magic eraser away!

John wished he could join the Primary children in singing for the Easter program. He was entranced!

Matt dissembled a pallet to construct a hanging tomato box for our deck.

John loved helping Dad. He mostly used the hammer to "test the wood's durability", but he sure had fun!

The finished box hanging over the side!

A view from the yard. It looks great!

Baby bump at 33 weeks! We're getting so close to meeting little Lucy Lu!

What to do with your Zucchini: Part Two

So last week, our garden exploded with zucchini. We gave three away to different friends (hopefully we didn't seem too desperate) and kept three for ourselves. We made a delicious zucchini parmesan recipe that was super tasty and super filling. It also worked out really well because the zucchini we had was 5-6 inches in diameter....huge! We only had to eat one or two pieces for each meal. I love meals that can stretch out over a couple of days!

Since we still had zucchini left over, we decided to try another recipe for dinner. Since some lovely friends bought us some spices for our wedding, we've been getting the Penzey's Spices catalogue each month. Despite tempting me with their delicious spice blends, I love looking through it because costumers always send in recipes. I am a sucker for new recipes and these always look so gourmet and wonderful. This Easy Cheesy Zucchini Bake definitely lived up to its name: it is easy and delicious! The recipe is attributed to a Karen Niessing and I hope she doesn't mind that I'm posting it here.

What you need:
2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges *
2 zucchini, sliced
2 yellow summer squash, sliced **
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 cup mozzarella cheese

* The recipe says to peel them, but I like the skins.
** We used one large zucchini for the whole recipe (so no summer squash) and it was still great!

Preheat oven to 350. Combine tomatoes, zucchini, squash, seasonings, and cheddar cheese. Place in a 1 1/2 quart baking dish or 9 x 9 glass pan (we used a bigger pan because we had a LOT of zucchini). Top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top and let stand 5 minutes so the cheeses melts before serving.

Enjoy! This is a good one. And pretty healthy too--just go lighter on the cheese if you want to make it even better for you!

Here is a picture update of our tiny onions. They are tasty though!

Our First Harvest (and Zucchini Bread, of course!)

Each of our zucchini plants has at least one zucchini growing. We have four zucchini plants and some are definitely doing better than others. We have two plants that have produced giant zucchini--10-12 inches long! Today we harvested one of our big zucchinis to make zucchini bread. Yummmm! We are saving the next one for when Jessica's grandmother comes to stay at the end of this week. So, as an incentive for anyone coming to stay, we will bake you zucchini bread/cake/or anything else you may want. We also have tomatoes that are starting to turn red, so we can do salsa too. We are definitely excited to see how creative we can get once the zucchini plants really go crazy. Fortunately, other wonderful people have filled the internet with delicious recipes. We'll probably have a few more recipes to post as the summer goes on. Here are some pictures of our successful wrangling of a giant zucchini:

 It was 10 inches long!

Unfortunately, Matt has his eyes closed in this one. In his defense, it seems to be a family trait.

Here is the delicious recipe we made this afternoon. It is a favorite recipe from Matt's family.

3 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. oil

3 c. grated zucchini

2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. coconut

½ c. nuts (We left these out. Nuts are expensive!)

Mix in order given. Bake in 2 large loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. We greased the pans, just to make life easier.

This recipe is really easy and super moist. Definitely recommended!

 Pouring batter into the bread pans.

Potatoes, tomatoes, and onions...oh my!

We have had a lot of fun planting our garden. We got started pretty late, so hopefully we'll get a decent harvest. We planted four zucchini plants, two tomatoes, four peppers, a row of onions and a row of potatoes. The zucchini plants are HUGE now and the tomato plants have a few green tomatoes growing on them. How awesome!

Our newest addition to the garden is a beautiful big potato box Matt made last night out of old pallets and rusty nails. It all came at the best price! Free! Now, our potatoes will have plenty of dirt without taking over the whole garden. We're making sure to water the garden twice a day, but we hope the quails and bugs leave most of our veggies alone! It will be really fun to pick the full-grown vegetables in a few months.