Zucchini

Last year we planted zucchini. I'd always hear about how you only plant one because you will get tons. And we got...none. So this year we planted more plants and the plants are producing! I love it! Rex brings a few zucchini in and I either slice them or grate them and then freeze them, but not before making something fresh with some of it! I've found an awesome recipe for zucchini and I agree that this is the BEST zucchini bread.

BEST ZUCCHINI BREAD

1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/4 c. all-purpose (white) flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/4 tsp. clove

2 1/2 c. zucchini, shredded (about 3 medium zucchini)

1 c. pecans, chopped

4 eggs (or 1/4 c. powdered eggs + 1/2 c. water)

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 c. oil

1 tsp. lemon zest

Measure and sift together the first eight dry ingredients and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, sugars and oil. Blend thoroughly. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture while stirring. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and fold in zucchini, pecans and lemon zest. Pour batter into two greased 8 or 9 inch loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

with her own NOTES: To make this recipe healthier (but just as tasty!), I cut the oil measurement in half with applesauce (1/2 c. oil + 1/2 c. applesauce), leave out 1/2 cup of the white sugar, and use 1 cup liquid eggs (like Eggbeaters). To save time, sometimes I substitute 1 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice in place of the ginger, allspice and clove. If your garden produced more yellow squash than zucchini, you can substitute part or all of the zucchini with shredded yellow squash (I cut the squash in fourths, length-wise, and remove the seeds before shredding.) with virtually no difference in taste. I like to use my food processor to shred the zucchini because it keeps the zucchini from getting soggy the way it does when grated by hand.

You can find it http://allaboutfoodstorage.com/2009/07/the-best-zucchini-bread/.

This morning I am trying it with 3/4 c pumpkin and 1/4 oil instead of the straight oil. I'll let you know how it works. I have also been using only whole wheat flour (no white) and love it!

Freezing Your Harvest

I was reading Organic Gardening this morning while we were waiting for Gavin to go to school. Found a good article on freezing your garden food. Did you know you can freeze tomatoes whole and the skin comes off easily afterward? I didn't know. So I thought you might find this information helpful as well. This is not the same article that was in the magazine, but in some ways it had even more info: Freeze With Ease. I also found Freezing Basics. And then I even found Your Harvest Guide. None of these are extremely detailed, but they do give a lot of good info.

And just for fun I found Garlic for Beginners. I'm wondering if it is too late to plant garlic right now or if it is the perfect time. I'll be looking at that the next couple of days.