I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. I bet most of you
went out of town, as that tends to be the thing you do on holidays
throughout the summer. Unless, of course, you’re me. My little family
likes to go against the grain, be rebellious, and stay home on holidays,
beat the crowds, hunker down and celebrate in our own way, and then
just as everyone else is still hazy-headed, recovering from their
vacation, we head out on the road for ours.
Yep, we’re crazy in that
way. We’ll be going on our first beach vacation next week and I’m very
excited for it. But this past weekend was a lot of fun! We were able
to get some of those home projects completed, you know the ones that you
keep saying you’ll do, but never, ever get around to doing? Well, why
not take a long weekend to do so? I mean, seriously, if you’re anything
like us, where else is there any time?! Like our playroom…we have
lived in this house for over 3 years and never moved into that room. It
was just a storage room for everything without a home. So this
weekend, as I kept the kids busy, my husband got to work on painting
it. And now it’s beautiful!!
But we also made time to play.
We hit the lake…
The kids ate snow cones (my daughter’s first!)…
…popsicles…
We grilled out in the backyard…
…pulled out the plastic pool…
…which ended up just being a bowl to fill the watering cans…
I doggy-sat for two beautiful doggies…
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| That’s Jacob… |
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| …and that’s Shadow. My favorite part of these pictures though, is the face my daughter decided to make in each. |
It
was a fun-filled, very productive weekend. I really didn’t want it to
end. It was perfect. And since we actually worked during a lot of our
‘vacation’, I say we earned the right to do absolutely nothing next week
on our real one. Don’t you?
We’re
coming up on major zucchini season and if you’re anything like me, you
are often left with a refrigerator full of it. You can saute it, shred
it and bake with it, slice it lengthwise, scoop out the middles and
stuff with a cheesy breadcrumb mixture, or you can slice them very
thinly and roast them like I do below. What you end up with are
delicious, delicate and delightfully crispy chips that will compliment
any meal this summer. This is my favorite way to cook zucchini and the
extra time and effort taken to make this recipe, in my opinion, is
completely worth it.
Plus, it also added another kid’s
activity to the agenda for the weekend. While daddy painted upstairs,
and big brother played with his cars in the other room, I plopped my
toddler up on the counter while I prepared these zucchini chips. It’s
the perfect toddler activity, as it involves transferring something from
one place to another, lining them up, etc. And as she was helping me
line the pans with the raw zucchini, she started to eat them. Bonus!
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| That’s my girl!! |
*Roasted Zucchini Chips
(makes as many as you’d like…2 small zucchinis will yield 1 serving of chips (roughly))
-Wash your raw zucchini and slice off the tips of each end.
-Thinly
slice your zucchini into rounds the width of a thin cracker. They will
shrink as you cook them and you don’t want them paper thin, or they
will burn…and you don’t want them too thick or they will never crisp
up. So…just slice them as thin as you can without making them
translucent.
-Arrange your slices on as many greased cookie sheets as you need to have them all in one, single layer. It’s highly important that none of the slices touch one another.
-Spray the tops of them with cooking spray
(you can absolutely use olive oil for this, but you will most likely
have an uneven coating of the oil and end up with very oily pieces and
very dry pieces so, I highly recommend using a spray. (If you’re
anti-cooking spray then I suggest tossing the raw slices in a large bowl
with some olive oil to evenly coat each piece before arranging them on
the pans.)
-Season well with kosher salt, cracked black pepper and a pinch of sugar (this just helps bring out the natural sweetness of any vegetable and I always do it, but it’s completely optional).
-Place
in a 400 degree, preheated oven and roast for 10 minutes before
checking. Flip them if they’re golden brown on the bottom side and
roast for another 5-7 minutes before checking again. Some of the
thinner slices will be done quicker and should be removed when they’re a
deep, golden brown and crispy. Just transfer them to a plate when they
get to that point.
-Allow
them to cool and serve along side your favorite sandwich, eat alone as a
snack, or as a dinner side. They’re completely addictive!!
Just ask my daughter…
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