Happy Independence Day to those in the US!

See the bright blue sky?  There are about 340 wild fires still burning in CA, but that's down from the 1400 of last Friday, and the wind has shifted so the air is much cleaner.

And Happy Birthday to FullHouse, who is 4 today!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Clawdette! 

Our 8-ball (or roly poly or ronde de nice) zucchini plants have been producing like crazy for at least a month, and the fruits are growing very fast. The last few I picked went from baseball-sized to small pumpkin-sized in just a couple of days.  Mr. Ken has decided that, even though he wanted to grow this variety, it still reminds him of zucchini and he doesn't really like zucchini. 

Short of leaving them on doorsteps in the middle of the night, I'm pulling out all my recipes for the trusty ones that  people really like.  Sunday night we had dinner with Joan and Will, Will's mom and her husband of 3 weeks, the new husband's grandson and his bride of a month and Will's daughter.  I made Chocolate Zucchini Cake for dessert, and it was very well received.  (Joan - Shirley asked me to have you email this to her.)  It was suggested that this is good enough to enter in the Zucchini Festival Cooking Contest, but I'm never sure about wanting to subject myself to that much scrutiny.

Here's the recipe, because I think good recipes are meant to be shared (and because I thought my copy was lost forever - it was hiding in my favorite Italian cookbook, Cooking From An Italian Garden).

I'll start with the original recipe, then I'll list the changes I always make. 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (from the San Jose Mercury-News, September 6, 1989, no attribution)

• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 4 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups peeled, grated zucchini, drained in a colander
• 1 6-oz. package of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together the butter, sugar, oil, eggs, sour cream and vanilla.  Then stir in remaining ingredients, except the zucchini and chocolate chips. 

Fold in zucchini.  Pour into greased cake pan, 13 x 9 x 2.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over top.  Bake at 325* for 40 to 45 minutes.  Do not preheat oven.

Now, for the changes:

1. 6 Tablespoons cocoa at least - what can I say?  I like chocolate!
2. 1 teaspoon of each of the spices
3. I never peel the zucchini, and use at least 3 cups of grated zucchini
4. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
5. Milk or Imo can be used instead of sour cream
6. Everything than can be is non-fat or low-fat, and I use Nucoa margarine (from habit, because it's parve and I used to keep kosher)
   
7. I prefer vanilla powder, so that's what I use
8. I've used white flour, unbleached flour and whole wheat flour - they all work just fine

Add these to the will list:

Finally dye the white yarn I keep buying with the dyes I keep buying.  This should be a fun activity, even though it will be solo - none of my knitting friends is even remotely interested in dyeing yarn!

Also dye the jeans that have faded so much that I refuse to wear them.  They fit well and make my butt look good!  Why am I procrastinating?

Poison the blackberries again if the wind ever stops blowing.  (Never fear, these are wild blackberries which are determined to take over my whole yard.  The berries aren't even sweet.)

Work jigsaw puzzles - we can leave them set out in the front room (at least until we have a party) and it's a great way to wind down and relax.

Learn to make cioppino.

Finally, complete the self-improvement makeover program started this week.  I'm not ready to go any more public than that right now, but in a few weeks details will be revealed. 

Debbie loves summer and she's asked her readers about their summer wish lists (what you want to do this summer). I've tried, and think that the problem (for me, at least) is that I really don't like summer all that much.

Don't get me wrong; there are parts of summer that I do like, but as a season?  Not so much.

I like growing things, and some things - tomatoes, for example - grow best in the summer.  (I'm often pulling productive vines out at Thanksgiving, because I can't stand dealing with them anymore.)

I don't like hot weather.  I don't like dry weather.  

I do like fog.  Summer in the Bay Area tends to be cool - the average summer high in Fremont is 78* and that's even a bit warm but tolerable.  It's too dry - we won't have rain again until late October, if we're lucky (otherwise it may be late November).  Fog is, however, really good.  It's natural air-conditioning, and it keeps things cooler and greener without rain and humidity.

I've never (as an adult) like taking vacations in the summer.  We don't have kids, and don't want to travel when people with kids are traveling.

All in all, I prefer fall and spring, and perhaps even San Francisco Bay Area winter to summer.

That said, here's my summer will list:

1. Paint the front room.  Really, finish painting the front room, because half of the room is done.  I almost want to choose a new color, but at this point it's not going to happen.
2. Eat on the patio as often as possible, and invite people over for dinner every week.
3. Visit open houses and get ideas for updating ours.
4. Declutter.  Every room needs it, and it really isn't that hard.
5. Garden.  A little every day makes a big difference.
6. Knit (see above) whatever I want.  Start project.
   
7. Read. 
   
8. Work of staying healthy, not so much focus on losing weight. Eat lots of wonderful in-season fruits and veggies.  Ride my bicycle for fun, not just for exercise.
9. If I choose, to once again pursue arts and / or crafts that I've enjoyed in the past, besides knitting.  These include: needlepoint, embroidery, crewel, sewing, quilting, pottery.  And perhaps, to finally learn to crochet.

And, here's my summer won't list:

1. Read books just because they made a best-seller list.
2. Be pressured into travel because it's "the season" for it.
3. Obsess over the state of the garden re-design - it's a work in progress!
4. Worry about my tan, or really, worry about my blindingly white skin.
5. Force myself to read "literature" - mysteries are good, and relazing.
6. Pack every moment of every weekend full of activity, just because it's summer.

Time again for a Barb -inspired Love Thursday entry. 

Knitters on the various lists of which I'm a member constantly debate the merits of project faithfulness and bemoan startitis* as an ill to be overcome.  If you've read this blog for any length of time, you already know that I'm rarely faithful to any project and that I love to start new projects with complete and utter abandon.

Today, I'm going to celebrate my startitis and show the projects I've started in June.  Some of these will be completed soon, others will be frogged, still others will languish in the basket and get worked on by some occasional whim.  Still, I'm happy with each of these for various reasons, and don't regret starting them at all.

I love having a stash that allows me the ultimate knitting pleasure of finding or creating a pattern I really want to knit, and being able to find enough yarn that will work just waiting patiently for its big scene.  

I love being able to "see" what a yarn wants to be - same with fabrics - and then letting us create that together.

I love Mr. Ken because he not only doesn't care how much yarn I have, he thinks I should buy more!

I love the fact that I do finish at least 12 sweaters and 12 pairs of socks just on BART every year, and finish more while watching TV (even just a couple of hours a few times a week = a sweater every month or 2) and open mic listening.

I love (and hate) the fact that my creativity ebbs and flows, and that I have to take advantage of every creative opportunity I get.  I'm still creating from doodles made 10 years ago - it's a good thing I keep my old DayTimers and notebooks! 

A note of explanation:  I love knitting cables and such, however, I cannot count for anything if I'm even a little distracted.  We go to a lot of live music events - open mics, mostly - and I knit.  For those times, I need relatively simple stockinette patterns.  Several of these sweaters are based on the West Side Raglan pattern from Oat Couture.

1: Forget-Me-Not.  The yarn is Wendy Rembrandt, bought a few years ago on eBay. In the skein and knitted, it reminds me of my yard in early spring when the grass is green and the forget-me-nots are blooming in drifts everywhere.

2: Tangerine Dream, yarn is from stash (I think it's called Tricadie, and I have it in a sage-y green and mellow as well).  The yarn is a knitted ribbon, very easy to knit, and quite stretchy.

3: Southwestern Sky, also stash yarn.  I bought this yarn at the Yarn Barn in San Antonio 12 or 14 years ago to make a Chanel-type jacket.  Love the yarn, but I know now that it would be wrong wrong wrong for a jacket of any type.

4:  Pearlspun is the yarn - creamy cotton with shiny coppery rayon bits.  Some from eBay, and some bought from Lee Wards in the going-out-of-business sale about 1993!

5:  Indian Corn, yarn from stash (what a surprise!) bought at Stitches West in two batches a year apart (maybe 8 years ago?).

6:  Autumn Colors, more stash yarn bought at Stitches West sometime.  It's a knitted ribbon tube, and feels like a t-shirt.

7: Too Teal, a Naturally Designs sweate, knit in Paton's Classic Merino.  Color is Too Teal, which is really a rich turquoise color.  I cannot get even close to the right color on my monitor.  This will be relatively mindless soon, because the diagonal pattern is a simple repeat.  I suspect I'll need a cheat sheet for the cable always.

8: Must Have Cardigan from Paton's Street Smarts brochure.  Yarn bought from Stash! just for this sweater, and I never thought I say this:  I wish the sweater was charted!  I'm going to have to chart this puppy or I will love what remains of my mind knitting it.

9:  Zig Zag Top: Yarn from stash, Horstia Tweed bought from Knitpicks back in the days when they didn't have their own yarns!

That's it for the sweaters.  There might be a shawl, a hat, and 2 or 3 socks too, but they managed to escape the camera.  In fact, there are still a few days left in the month, and there are a few more stash yarn projects I'd like to start!  I need to poke around in the attic and bring the yarn down stairs...

*Startitis:  The overwhelming urge to start new projects before existing projects are completed.   

Wildfires. Such a frightening concept, and even worse as reality.  Fire so wild that it jumps roads, spreads from tree-top to tree-top without burning things at ground level, skips one home and demolishes the one next door.  There are over 1000 wildfires burning in California now, most in the area between Santa Barbara and the Sonoma wine country, many in the truly rough country near the coast where the trees are tall and the wind can be fierce.

We live closer to the Sonoma fires than the ones in Monterey and Gilroy, about 20 miles inland as the crow flies.  For several days now, we've not seen the sun because it's obscured by smoke from these fires.  Our normally blue sky has a yellow-ish cast.  The air smells and tastes like smoke; there's soot or ash in a fine coating on plants and lawn furniture.

This is the hills behind us, about 1/4 mile away.  It looks foggy, but it's really smoke.

Same hills, about 1/2 mile away, taken about 10 days ago.  See the incredibly blue sky?  (And see the hills covered in dead grass?) 

We're in a "drought condition" according to those who know these things.  Our rainy season stopped fairly abruptly in early March instead of gradually dwindling to nothing in May, and we received only about half our average annual rainfall for this rain year (July 1 to June 30).  What we need now is a good drenching rain.  That will cleanse the air, provide some relief for firefighters, wet the trees and and the tinder dry grasses that are the cause of many of the wildfires: dry grass and dry lightning  is a very bad combination indeed.

Weather guessers say we have a chance for thunderstorms this weekend.  That would be wonderful and unusual.  It rarely rains here from May to October, just when the rest of the country is getting most of the annual rainfall. 

Supergirl 90% Superman 85% Spider-Man 80% Wonder Woman 80% Green Lantern 80% Robin 75% Iron Man 70% Hulk 65% The Flash 55% Catwoman 45% Batman 35%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

That's pretty funny!  I was hoping for Wonder Woma, because I knew my childhood wasn't traumatic enough for Batman.

Your results:
You are Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy 69% Mystique 68% Dr. Doom 62% Apocalypse 59% Lex Luthor 57% Venom 57% The Joker 56% Green Goblin 56% Kingpin 56% Magneto 54% Riddler 53% Mr. Freeze 53% Dark Phoenix 50% Juggernaut 48% Catwoman 44% Two-Face 12%

You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

I'm sure my fellow Green Task Force members will find this amusing and appropriate!