Harvest Time!!!

Here is part of the bounty!!!!

A local farm was on "last sale day" of their produce stand so I drove down the road...

And spent every penny I could scrape up!!!!

We grated the zucchini for zucchini bread:

Beth took this picture and she clearly forgot the rule of making sure I look good!!!! Drat!!!

:)

Mary Ruthy, Joslyn and Xavier were my helpers... note I tried to keep their fingers out of the SHARP BLADE AREA!!!!  But hey, that's why we get ten fingers, right???  (laughing, laughing!!!)

We got enough grated zucchini to make two loaves of bread and 5 bags of zucchini to make bread over the winter.

Then we went to Crew #2:

Oh, wait, that's Beth, isn't she adorable???

Okay, back to Zucchini bread:

I used this recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook, a wonderful edition that I picked up years ago. When I realized how many good recipes it contained for today's cook (guy or girl!) I went back and got three more copies for my oldest kids.

Ingredients

3

cups shredded zucchini (2 to 3 medium)

1 2/3

cups sugar

2/3

cup vegetable oil

2

teaspoons vanilla

4

eggs

3

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or whole wheat flour

2

teaspoons baking soda

1

teaspoon salt

1

teaspoon ground cinnamon (I changed this, tripled it to 1 TBSP)

1/2

teaspoon ground cloves (I deleted this)

1/2

teaspoon baking powder

1/2

cup coarsely chopped nuts  (optional)

1/2

cup raisins, if desired   (optional)

(Ruthy changes:  Per my old recipe I used a full tablespoon of cinnamon. I used no cloves. (blch). :)  My kids don't like nuts and raisins so I omitted them. In one loaf I added 2/3 cup of chocolate chips. Mmm....)  :)  Happy dancing with the chocolate chips, oh my stars!!!

Megan, Brody, Elijah and Xavier...

Directions

• Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 (8x4-inch) loaf pans or 1 (9x5-inch) loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray. (Ruthy note: I greased and floured whole pan)
• 
  In large bowl, stir zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well mixed. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts and raisins. Stir in nuts and raisins. Divide batter evenly between 8-inch pans or pour into 9-inch pan.

• 
  Bake 8-inch loaves 50 to 60 minutes, 9-inch loaf 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack 10 minutes.

• 
  Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on cooling rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.  

SCRAPING THE BOWL!!!!  :)

• Ruthy note: I did not wait two hours before slicing. What would be the point in that????

We sliced some warm and delicious and spread butter on it and LOVED ON THAT BREAD!!!!

Warm bread from the oven must be eaten. It is a Ruthy Rule!!! But if there is some leftover, then by all means, eat it cold!

My bounty for stopping by DeMeyer's stand was a bushel and a half of butternut squash.... 7 large zucchini.... 2 pecks of green/red/yellow peppers... 2 heads of cauliflower.... And the joy of fun projects with my little peeps, learning how to clean and freeze food for the winter! And then there's this!!!!