Mother's Day lunch

I spend entirely too much time watching the Food Network. Seriously. I watch Glee, Revenge, New Girl, and Food Network... And when it's FN time, it's all day Saturday and all day Sunday (if the TV is on), plus anytime one of the 3 shows above isn't on. I love "The Pioneer Woman" and Trisha Yearwood's show. The problem, however, is I get all these ideas of things to cook and my kids or husband won't eat half of them. So, what's a girl to do? Talk her dad into making some of the recipes for Mother's Day, of course!

I watched a particularly awesome episode of "Pioneer Woman" with a Sour Cream noodle bake. Nothing in the title even suggests my husband will try it. She served it with an awesome looking garlic cheese bread. I can't lie, the bread is what really had me sold. I thought about that bread for weeks! And who doesn't like garlic bread with cheese on it?? Let alone 3 different kinds of cheese? I wasn't disappointed. My oldest son, the one that's usually more into trying new recipes didn't like either, but my picky youngest loved both.

And of course, Mother's Day lunch wouldn't be correct without a dessert. The boys, both of which love zucchini, made my grandmother's zucchini cake. Since that's a recipe that was given to me by my grandmother I'm going to share it. The other's I'll put a link up to the website I got it from (I hope that's how I'm supposed to do it), and you should try them both.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake:

2C all purpose flour*
2C white sugar
3/4C unsweetened cocoa powder
2t baking soda*
1t baking powder*
1/2t salt*
1t ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2C vegetable oil
3C grated zucchini
3/4C chopped walnuts (optional)

for topping:
chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate because that's what I prefer, the original recipe used semi sweet)
milk

*I use self rising flour and leave out the baking soda, baking powder and salt. I'm sensitive to salt when I'm not pregnant, and now that I'm pregnant it's only gotten worse, so I skip those ingredients and you really can't tell.

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour pan. I used a 9x13 baking pan because that's what I had. My grandmother used to make it in a bundt cake pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in nuts and zucchini until they are evenly distributed. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting.

For the frosting (so very easy!)
Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips. Add about 1/4 cup of milk (more or less depending on consistency).
I use a saucepan on low on the stove. You can use a microwave, or a double broiler, I just have better luck with a plain old pan on the stove low stirring like a maniac.


This is cake is great! And really you don't have to tell your picky eaters that there's zucchini in it. The chocolate color covers it up if you shred it finely, and it doesn't add any texture. If you shred it more coarsely you may have a different texture. I bet it had been 10 years since I've had a chocolate zucchini cake, and it was worth the wait!

Oh! and in case you haven't seen the show, here is the website that I got the recipes for the noodle bake and the bread from. Just be careful...she's a photographer and blogger also so you may just find yourself still sitting on her blog in two hours! http://thepioneerwoman.com/