Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Zucchini Bread

   Friends. My house smells sooooooooooo good right now. Last night we had our traditional Tuesday night fish tacos for dinner (YUM) and I made a shiny little glazed chocolate sheet cake for Handsome for dessert, but the main aroma-maker from last night which is still delighting me this morning is zuchinni bread. Wowsa. I haven’t baked anything remotely like this in many moons, and I must say that it has drummed up something seasonal in me. It probably doesn’t hurt that yesterday we enjoyed rain and clouds all day and a temperature no higher than about 87 degrees. And this morning is almost crisp outside.

   Zucchini bread is the perfect bridge food between seasons. You are making excellent use of summer’s most bountiful vegetable and lacing it with autumn’s favorite spice, cinnamon.

   This is delicious, fragrant, filling, and relatively healthy, and I would love to share it with you.

   Okay. The following recipe came from Martha Stewart’s lovely mint green cookbook, “Collected Recipes for Everyday Use,” c 1995. I have owned this thick hardback copy since my early twenties, so, you know, just a few years. *wink*

Martha Stewart’s Collected Recipes for Everyday Use

   It’s falling apart now from heavy use and is crusted together in several delicious places, but the recipes are certainly still worth exploring. Tonight was the first time I finally tried the zucchini bread. Total success.

   A few notes first: While it is technically a “quick bread,” meaning, it does not contain yeast and therefore doesn’t need to rise, zucchini bread takes just a little extra time to prepare. So it may be a quick bread, but it isn’t fast. Also, it requires the biggest mixing bowl you have ever seen in your entire baking life. I actually feel like I say that a lot. Does everyone else have ginormous bowls, except me? Do I need to buy bigger bowls? Or have I been watching too much Shark Week?

See what I mean? The bowl on the left still needs to be added
to the very full bowl on the right. I was a nervous wreck.

   Okay. Other than large quantities of basic pantry staples, the only unusual ingredients are zucchini (obviously), nuts, and walnut oil. I had never purchased walnut oil before yesterday. It is a little pricey (almost five bucks for a small bottle), but I do not foresee using it too often or too quickly. Verdict: worth the almost five bucks.

Now I am actually wondering if walnut oil would be good in pesto. Thoughts?

   The first thing you should do is grate a few large green squashes. You need a finished amount of five cups of shredded zucchini. So if you grow them like I have been lately, you’ll need like half of one:

Perhaps you have heard it’s been a great year for zucchini here at the W.

  I just used my cheese grater and considered it meditation. Grate, grate, grate. Think good stuff, pray, say thanks. Grate, pray. Grate, say thanks. Grate, imagine only love. Grate, pray for your enemies too.
  Then wrap the wet, shredded stuff in several layers of paper towels to drain some of the water out. Later, if you have chickens, pour that pale green water into their treats, Free vitamins!
   While the shredded zucchini rests, you can mix up the bread batter.

Martha’s Ingredients:
  6 eggs
  3 1/2 cups sugar
  1 3/4 cup light vegetable oil
  5 cups unpeeled grated zucchini
  5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  2 teaspoons baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  6 teaspoons baking powder
  6 teaspoons cinnamon
  2 cups chopped walnuts
  1/4 cup walnut oil

Marie’s Instructions:
  Using the biggest bowl you can find, even if it is your empty swimming pool…
  Beat the eggs until light.
  Add the sugar, mix well.
  Add the veggie oil, zucchini, and vanilla, and mix again.

  Now sift the (5) dry ingredients in a separate bowl. This one can be normal sized.
  Add the dry mix in small amounts to the swimming pool full of the egg-zucchini mixture.
  Continue mixing until it is all blended. This takes about four hours.
  Now add the chopped nuts. Note: I accidentally bought only 1/2 cup of walnuts, so I subbed in a big handful of     pecans. Still delish!

  Prepare loaf pans (either four large bread pans or eight small ones) by smearing with soft butter then dusting with a little flour and cinnamon. Add lots of the thick, wonderful, crunchy batter to each and bake at 350* for close to an hour. Just wait for the fragrance to overwhelm your soul then test the bread. Clean knife = done. Easy peasy!
   I used both metal and glass pans to get all the batter baked, and every single loaf came out perfectly. The finished bread all slid right out of the slightly cooled pans, still steaming, perfectly in tact, and wonderful.

   Thank you Martha Stewart for this classic recipe! It makes enough for me, the lovely ladies who run the front desk at Handsome’s office, and our neighbors. And all of Rhode Island, probably, although I have never been there. This bread is dense and heavy, too, so one slice is like a meal.

   I am not exaggerating. This morning I plated myself two skinny slices with an orange and can barely finish it. In other news, this week I’m reading Same Kind of Different as Me for Friday night’s book club meeting. It is so good you guys. Can’t wait to talk to you about it.

   What are you cooking with your abundant zucchini? They continue to just tumble off the vines here, so I am happy to collect recipes.

Buy Bigger Bowls
xoxoxoxo

Linking up with Mama Kat today!

My Newest Art Obsession

   I am such a sucker for fresh, new artwork. Different stuff. Off beat. Colorful, neutral, dramatic, plain, big, small, emotional, intellectual, silly, serious. Two-dimensional, three-dimensional, just whatever. So long as it is fairly unusual and not likely to be found in, say, a builder show home. That’s just not my groove, man.

   I especially like original paintings or old photos that have been “built up” with new little painted doodles or decoupaged photos. And maybe some glitter. Or whatever. Eye catching stuff. Meaningful stuff. I really love keeping old things, not tossing them just because their original purposes seem lost. Our home and property are full of re-purposed treasure.

   Well. My husband knows this. And he is the most romantic man ever, always coming up with gestures to woo me and amaze me.

   This evening he rummaged around in my garden shed then spent some time alone in his shop with an array of paints and a small grouping of weird plastic lawn animals.

   Meanwhile, I was in the pool getting lost in a Tom Clancy novel.

   And a while later, he presented these colorful gifts to me:

      Right??? My breath stuck in my throat when I saw them. I had to turn my face away and look again.

   These are nothing but those odd little plastic decoy animals you buy at farm supply stores… painted like folk art! Well, the deer is actually a planter, obviously not a decoy. But that raccoon has tricked me in the barn more than once. Not anymore, I suspect! And the duck? I have never seen a more beautiful, fabulous duck. Silver, With so many little colorful details that didn’t photograph so well in the bright sunset.

   Babe, thank you. I absolutely, positively, unashamedly L O V E these pretty little critters! Perhaps especially their gorgeous little eyelashes.

   I have one more plastic animal craving such a zesty treatment, a white plastic swan, also a planter. Do you have anything like this that could use a face lift? Wait, it’s more than a face lift; it’s a complete and total reinvention. Well, do you?

   Just FYI, this was a simple project. He did not need to prime or sand the critters; the plastic takes paint great. He used a combination of spray paints (we keep quite a full inventory for every day colorful use) and some acrylics. The most important supply is creativity.

   Tune in later this week for some milestone celebrations in our little family, some yummy recipes, and more of Tiny Mr. T. Until then, don’t throw stuff out! Just make it yours.

“The purpose of art is washing the dust 
 of daily life off our souls.”
 ~Pablo Picasso
 xoxoxoxo  

Senses Inventory: Skunked

   Everything was going just fine. I was on a good, average run around the back field. My miles were adding up. My thoughts were sliding by easily, transforming a worried mind into a peaceful one. The harder my heart beat the less it hurt. My sweat was warm and salty and mixing with the cool rain, the oily mixture of both running in beads down my arms and legs.

   I ran downhill through the prairie grass with the forest on my right, rounded the bottom of the trail, and turned south along a little ridge of red rocks made slick from the rain. My footprints matched a string of llama hoof prints. My arm brushed past the same soft pine tree branch that always, always touches me on this lap. It’s like a touchstone, a gentle nudge, even a little kiss every quarter-mile.  I took a deep breath and navigated the rocky downhill corner, enjoying the goose bumps from that pine tree kiss.  Then it happened…

  That deep breath I took should have been refreshing and energizing. Instead, it filled every cell of my being with…

   Skunk spray.

   So obviously it warrants this Senses Inventory.

********************

See: Even through my rain-spotted sunglasses, I see the blurry haze of skunk spray. All the colors of the farm are muddled together. They are slowly dropping into shades of brown and gray. My eyes are burning now.

Hear: Pacino is uphill near the house, singing and screaming at the free range guineas and chickens. I hear Dusty give a little whinny, like he felt a disturbance in the force. Besides these animals voices, all I hear is Shakira from my iPhone, making promises to me about truthful hips. She has no comfort for me about skunk spray.

Smell: I normally kind of like the smell of skunk spray, but this is too much. It’s just so dang strong. It’s so intense. It’s like skunk spray… concentrate. It’s like all the skunks of the world have been warned they have one last chance to rid themselves of spray, and they must do so here at the Lazy W. Behind this. Exact. Tree.

Taste: That sour, peppery, putrid, slightly gaggy, warm, fuzzy air that follows a truly drenching skunk spray. I taste it in my mouth. I taste it in my throat. The awful taste is now seeping down into my empty stomach.

Touch: Now the oily mixture of sweat and rain feels dangerous, like it could in fact be, well, you know…

Think:  Is this skunk spray actually on me? Or is just about me? And where is the skunk??And are green garden tomatoes as effective at sanitizing as standard tomato juice? I know my car needs cleaning, but there is no way I am getting in there smelling like this.

Feel:  Betrayed. I feel betrayed by nature.

********************

   Have you ever been skunk sprayed? It turns out my little run in was just friendly fire; it could have been much, much worse. And I credit the damp weather for intensifying every detail of the blast.

   Still, Momma Llama Seraphine would only get **just so close** to me when I walked back uphill.

Slightly Rude.
All of it.
xoxoxoxo 

Five Things That Should not Bother me as Much as They Do

   I have for many years held close to my heart a wonderful quote which speaks to the disproportionate power of small problems to weigh on your spirit even worse than the biggest trials:

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;
it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
~Muhammad Ali

  Right? We can usually keep a large challenge in perspective, scaling it down, breaking it up into manageable pieces that we conquer one after another until the thing is done. Or maybe our deepest heartaches are surrendered because that’s all there is left to do, and we bear the pain until the prayer is answered. But how often do life’s smallest, weirdest annoyances drive us to the breaking point?

   Super often. Very often. All the dang time often.

   Following are some culprits in my life. The Big Stuff is in check. These things? They makes me use swear words. You know. Like my good buddy M.  : )

1. The wrong color of shopping buggy. It sets the tone for my entire shopping trip. It affects my decision making skills. It distracts me and causes me to buy too much coffee and lettuce and not enough freezer paper. Of all the possible buggy color choices, I simply cannot abide orange. Unless it is Thunder basketball season. Then only if I am wearing blue. I hate that this is so important to me, but it just is.

2.  Hammering my bony shin against the low metal bar of that stupid orange shopping buggy. Childbirth hurts less. I am pretty sure the fronts of my shins are both permanently dented. And it’s not like walking more slowly helps that much! One wrong step and you’re a victim.

3.  When people leave their hair styling products and hair brushes anywhere near the bathroom sink, where I brush my teeth. I have a very real mortal fear of getting hair in my mouth, so brushing my teeth where someone’s hair might at any moment jump up on a light breeze and attack me… well, it is horrific. FOR-THE-LOVE-OF-GOD-BABE. I am begging you.

3.  Tangled up garden hoses. Especially when they are a hundred million miles long. Just kill me.

4.  House flies, squash bugs, and grasshoppers. In that exact order.

5.  Botching a great joke. Either by losing that good, funny rhythm or completely forgetting the punch line. This happens more than I care to admit.

   Whew!! I feel better. Thanks for listening. Now what silly little pebbles are stuck in your shoe?

“Adversity is like a strong wind. it tears away from us
 all but the things that cannot be torn,
 so that we see ourselves as we really are.”
~Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

p.s. Have you read Memoirs of a Geisha? Good movie, great book. Treat yourself.

Apartment Windows

You guys, I am about to blog about something I have not previously attempted to blog about. About which, about, blog about this… Whatever. Dangling prepositions are hard.*

I am about to write about my house.

The inside of it, not the garden. (gasp!) Specifically, the upstairs Apartment. If you’re addicted to home interior blogs like I am, then brace yourself. You are gonna be grossly underwhelmed. But I am excited about some upcoming spruce-ups and thought I’d share.

If you want to, you can click here to see some window dressing ideas I have collected on Pinterest. Yes, I have a Pinterest addiction. So do you. If you don’t admit it; you’re not an honest person.

And really, when you think about it, this kind of apartment setup makes perfect sense for students too. Compact, practical, and easy to keep (mostly) clean—what more could you want during midterms?

In fact, I’ve been reading about how student housing provo developments are leaning into the same idea: smaller, efficient spaces that don’t feel like a downgrade, but rather a smart choice.

Add a few cozy touches, a desk that can withstand endless cups of coffee, and boom—you’ve got yourself a student-friendly haven that still feels like home.

Anyway, below I will highlight some of my favorite inspiration photos so far.

First, some Apartment facts:

  • It is the only room in our home with windows on three sides. Even on cloudy days is gets plenty o’ sunshine. The natural light in there is really really beautiful.
The mess here is NOT really really beautiful. I know this. This was a million years ago, just when we moved here.
Now… the whole big room is “finished” at narrow sliver beneath the rafters
to the left of the window is a tiny attic bathroom. I love it.
  • It was originally built as my girls’ Apartment, and may serve in that way again some day. Right now it serves as a guest room, a sewing and arts room, my sometime-writing office, and more.
  • The color palette is flexible because so many projects are in the works, but basically this is the only room in the house where I am fully indulging my love for mixing greens and blues.
My sweet, smart, beautiful youngest chicken helping to decorate the alcove where her bed once stood.
She added to the blue sky mural I painted, dozens of glow-in-the-dark stars, which still shine at night.
This photo seems like it was taken both a hundred thousand years ago and also yesterday.
  • Except no bright lime green curtains anymore, please. More on that below.
  • The Apartment has four sets of windows: Two sets on the north side, behind the twin beds, and one set each inside alcoves on the east and west ends of the long room. I am not sure that all four sets have to match.
  • The room is carpeted. I think that matters a little bit when choosing window dressings.

   Okay. You are now basically an expert on the Apartment. 
  On to the inspiration photos:

1. Long and Loose  I like these drapes for their length and big, elegant, pleated skirts that puddle so nicely. Perhaps they could afford to puddle even a bit more. What about the oatmeal color though? Really pretty, but perhaps too bland for this creative, energetic space. Again, long and loose. That is nice.

Muraca Design website

2. Balloonish and Bunchy  I like these for their more pulled together balloon poofiness. Except I have tried living with lime green curtains in this sun-filled room for quite a while, and I Just. Can’t. Do it. Anymore. This is probably the only shade of green in the universe that make me want to puke. I need pink. Either hot pink or salmon or something pretty and glow-ish. But I do like this shape. Or navy blue? Or even black? Would that look too funeral-parlorish? Or maybe this playful shape and volume would offset the heft of back. Like, long curled eyelashes.

boho glamour blog

#3. Bohemian Paradise  But you know what? I really like… I mean, I LOVE these Bohemian curtains. Silk hankies and runners sewn into patchwork panels. Simple. Complicated. Colorful. Smooth. Interesting and dreamy. Love em. They make me want to burn sage and listen to Camelia Jordana. I have nothing bad to say about these other than that I would probably need to sew them myself. And I take forever to finish sewing projects.

Babylon Sisters Etsy shop

#4. Preppy and Modern  And how about these fresher, bolder, preppier graphic drapes? I groove the breath of clean air offered by the drapes below. But will this trellis pattern, like chevron, soon run its course? I mean, I am usually the last person in the world to worry too much about trends and following them, especially with interiors. HOWEVER  I don’t want this space to look a decade old all of a sudden one day. You know?

Castle Creek Designs Etsy shop
   Friends, this space is important to me. I love the Apartment and all it has been and all it can be in the future. It needs to always be free to work hard and hold the promise of so many heartfelt dreams for our family. The window in this space connect all of that work and dreaming to the view of our farm fields. So the curtains are important!
And with curtains, of course, comes the responsibility of keeping those windows just as fresh as the view beyond them. After all, what’s the use of a perfect fabric drape if the glass behind it is smudged, dusty, or dull? Clean windows don’t just let in light—they bring clarity, warmth, and that sense of possibility we’re always reaching for in this space. That’s why I’ve learned the value of regular window cleaning, and in the middle of that routine I found ecoshinewindow.com, a service that actually makes the chore effortless while keeping the glass sparkling. Because when the view to the farm is clear, the dreams inside these walls feel clearer too.
I would love to hear your opinions! Lay it on me.

*that’s what she said