Zucchini Pie - You'll Never Believe It's Not Apple!

I promise! My mom had called me last week and told me she tried this new recipe for Zucchini Pie that supposedly tasted just like Apple Pie. My sister vouched for her. I thought, "For real?". But it had my interest piqued.

So, I made it last night for dessert and didn't tell my hubby 'what kind' of pie it was - you know, just to see if it passed the Apple Pie test. With flyin' colors, baby!

This is a great way to use those big zucchinis that you think are too big to do anything else with. Actually, you want the big zucchinis for this.

I forgot to take a before picture of the zucchini, but I'll think you'll get over that minor detail. :0)

The first thing you want to do is peel the skin off, slice it down the center and scoop the seeds out. It'll look something like this.

Then you want to slice it long ways again so that you end up with four long strips.

Next, slice it into thin short strips (you need 4 cups) and boil until crisp tender. Then drain it and run it under cool water to stop the cooking process. See? It even looks like apples.

Next, you want to put the slices in a bowl and toss with 2 tbsp. lemon juice and a dash of salt.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 1/4 c. sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar, a dash of nutmeg and 3 tbsp. flour. It should look like this.

Add your zucchini to the dry ingredients and stir to coat. It's OK if it's runny. It'll soak up.

Dump it all into a 9 inch pie crust. Mmmm! Looking good!

After this, you're supposed to dot it with butter. However, I forgot. Oh, the horrors! And, as bad as I hate to admit it - we never even missed the added butter. Lord, I hope Paula Deen doesn't read this! As if.

Moving on then... :0)

Place your top crust on your pie and add slits or purdy cut-outs, or whatever it is you do to allow the pie to vent. Since I'm sorta lazy, I just put a few slits in it and called it a day. I didn't even make sure that they were evenly spaced.

You can brush the top crust with an egg wash or some water and sprinkle it with sugar to make it extra purdy. Then pop it into a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

If you're really thinkin', you might want to put the pie on top of a foil covered cookie sheet 'cause there's a good chance that some of that ooey, gooey, liquid goodness is going to want to boil over and turn into cement on the bottom of your oven, if you don't. I'm just sayin'. Not that anything like that has ever happened to me before, or anything. :0)

It'll probably look similar to this when you pull it out of the oven.

Lawd 'a mercy, is it ever good! Hubby even went back for a second helping of his veggies!

See all the crusties on the foil? I told you it might happen!

So, there you have it - another way to use up too big (or excess) zucchini from your garden, or a way to sneak some veggies in your kid's dessert.

And, just as an FYI, with farm stands aplenty this time of year, you can get fresh zucchini super cheap, even if you didn't grow your own. The monster I made this pie out of only cost me $.75 at our Farmer's Market and it was so large that I got 8 cups of sliced zucchini out of it. That's enough for another pie. I froze the extra for another time. I hope it stays good that way.

Give it a try. You'll love it, and so will your family!

Finding ways to use up more veggies works for me, so I'm linking up to Works For Me Wednesday.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

I usually do all of my shopping on Fridays. It IS payday, after all. So, true to fashion, yesterday, Little Britches and I hit the stores. He really hates to shop, but he is such a trooper about it. Anyway - while I was at the grocery store having my order rung up - the lady behind me was loading her items on the conveyor. The cashier noticed that the woman behind her only had 2 or 3 things in hand. She was almost finished with me so, she asked the customer behind me if she minded if she rang up the woman behind her with only a couple of items while she finished loading her things on to the conveyor. Are you following - or have a totally confused you? I'm going to finish my story either way. :0)

When asked if it was OK to ring up the other lady first, the woman behind me said, "NO! (sarcastically). Of course she can go first!" Kind of like, "Du-uh! Who would be so rude to not let her go first."

So, we all had a chuckle and the cashier said, "Can you imagine if people actually said no to requests like that? I'd like to be there to see their face."

To which, the woman with only a few items replied, "It can happen. I just moved here from Maryland and it happened there all the time."

Then I asked her, "Do you find people are friendlier in Indiana?"

"Oh, yeah."

By then I had my stuff ready to go and said the customary, "Y'all have a good day!", and I left the store.

I thought it was an interesting conversation about the nature of the people in this great state. There are always stinkers everywhere. There are also nice people everywhere. But, generally speaking, people in Indiana are warm, helpful, kind, courteous and just plain ol' pleasant. It almost reminds me of living in an old movie - in a time that has slipped on by for much of the country. A time when people were grounded with character, integrity, morals and a good work ethic. Maybe it's because there is so much farming that goes on here, keeping people connected to the earth or some yada, yada like that. I don't really know what it is. I just know I love it!

I remember when we first moved back here from spending 9 years in Florida. We were amazed at how friendly people were. All those years in the Sunshine State had wiped it from our memories. Even the cashier at the drive-through at McDonald's was chipper. In FL, it could be a completely frustrating experience to just try to get some fast food - because 9 times out of 10, the person taking our order was too lazy or put out with working to even enunciate when they spoke to us. We were never sure if they got our order right or not. (Usually, not.) Then you had to deal with the deep sighs and eye rolling. That's always a pleasant experience. Not! Coming home to Indiana was like a breath of fresh air after being trapped in a sewer. No offense, if you live in Florida. Maybe the whole state isn't that way. Or, maybe you just don't know anything different. :0) Or maybe you're one of those eye rolling, deep sighing, non-enunciating cashiers. Oh, dear! I hope not. Or maybe you like it when people are rude to you. Whatever...different strokes for different folks, I guess! It just wasn't my cup of tea. Anyway...

I said all that to say this: If home is where your heart is, then my heart is right here in the heartland. This is a great place to live. But, I'd still take the mountains, too! :0)