Zucchini Carbonara

I was planning on making zucchini bread for brunch this weekend and I misread the amount for zucchini's and bought way too many! 3 too many to be exact. So what did I do? Combine my favorite pasta dish, pasta carbonara, with soft luscious zucchini's. I was out of turkey bacon so I left it out but added plenty of garlic to make up for it. I just cubed up 3 zucchini's, sautéed them with garlic and salt and pepper, and added them to the pasta. Then at the end, hit the pasta and zucchini with the egg/parmesan mixture. Delicious!!!!

1/2 box of pasta, any shape

3 zucchini, cubed

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 Boil water for pasta. Beat 2 eggs in a separate dish and mix with parmesan.

2 While water is boiling, heat olive oil in deep skillet and throw in minced garlic and cubed zucchini and cook together for about 7-8 minutes until softened.

3 Drop pasta into boiling water. Cook until al dente and drain.

4 Once zucchini is softened, mix the drained pasta into the deep skillet with the zucchini.

5 Pour egg/parmesan mixture over the pasta and zucchini and quickly, using tongs, mix thoroughly until egg sauce is shiny and thickened. Serve with more grated parmesan on top. Enjoy!

Caramel-Spiced Apple Butter

I am so happy Fall is here! I love autumn flavors and colors and the bright crisp in the air. Recently, my co-worker was telling me about her canning equipment. "That sounds so cool!" I said, "I would love to make my own apple butter..." The next day she brought me her canning pot, rack, tongs and a great recipe book by Ball. I was so excited to experiment! I ended up making a caramel-spiced apple butter, perfect for sunday morning toast.

I used a recipe from Ball Jar's Blue Book. Here is a similar one. It is exactly the same except I used 3 lbs of apples instead of 4, and cut the rest of the ingredient in half.

It yielded 3, 1/2 pint jars. These are great holiday gifts for friends or family. Enjoy!