Zucchini Bread French Toast

Posted in breakfast, the important stuff by

We must be doing a lot of baking if we have a whole loaf of leftover zucchini bread. Because of the surplus, we decided to experiment a bit. Using our standard French Toast recipe, we substituted zucchini bread in the place of Texas Toast- not the most successful experiment.

When I’m trying to be creative in the kitchen, and deviating from the norm in the process, there are some groans about “Mom experimenting again.”

I thought it was a good idea- I mean Denny’s has Cinnamon Roll French Toast, how could homemade Zucchini Bread French Toast go wrong?? Apparently it can, cause even the dogs were hesitant.

_DSC0038Since there’s some extra room on this post, I had to include a little something about my new kitchen sign.

eat sign edited

Isn’t it awesome? Our little town has an annual street fair, and I happened upon the JunkArtGypsyz’s booth, and fell in love with their signs.  I just had to have an “EAT” sign for my kitchen. And then, of course, I had to make it a special order, removing the vintage lights. Luckily, they were very helpful, and were happy to oblige. A short time later, my special-order “EAT” sign was hanging on the wall in our kitchen.

Check out JunkArtGypsyz’s Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/junkartgypsyz, and Etsy shop- http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunkArtGypsyz

Summer Reading – Day 1

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Today I started my own summer reading program. As much as I love summer, I sometimes have a hard time when I’m not running 16 different directions, trying to keep up with with sports, homeschool activities, Biblestudies, and all the other fun stuff that goes on during the school year. But seriously, after a busy home school year you would think I would be thrilled for the break – and I am, but I am such a control freak that when I have free time I don’t know what to do with myself. If I actually just relax, I feel guilty. Weird, huh? So besides the regular summer activities such as beach days and bbq’s, and the summer projects such as cleaning out the school cabinets and closets, I have decided to start a summer reading program.

summer reading- day 1 (1)

Today was my first day. I plan to read through the Psalms this summer. Not a huge stretch, I know. There are 150 Psalms and like 90 more days of summer, but this gives me focus and for me that is good. Today I read Psalms 1 – 5. Piece of cake, but so encouraging- you should join me.

Psalm 3:3-4 says, “But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To The Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.”

Psalm 5:3 says, “In the morning O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”

Have a great day!

The Treat of the Month: June

Posted in sweets, the important stuff, things we like to eat by

(In case you missed it, here’s the back story, and May’s Treat of the Month)

Out of all of our friends, Danae is, by far, the most excited about zucchini season. She adores our grilled veggies. Seriously, I’ve never known someone to like vegetables that much. Considering the amount of meals she eats at our house, you would think that by mid-summer she’d get tired of them like the rest of us do, but somehow she’s always excited to hear that grilled veggies are on the menu.

Because of this love for squash, I decided to make her a loaf of Zucchini Bread for June’s Treat of the Month. When I called to ask whether she wanted walnuts or chocolate chips (she didn’t want either), she was thrilled to hear about the upcoming delivery. Here’s the link to the original Zucchini Nut Bread recipe, except I obviously left out the walnuts.

All ready to deliver…

zucchini bread, treat of the month june 1

Jordan

Garden Update – The Farm Stand is Open

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Well, it’s official! We opened our farm stand yesterday. I know, you didn’t see it in the paper or anything, right? Let me explain how the farm stand started. Several years ago we put in a MASSIVE garden, I’m not exaggerating – it was huge. We had such a bountiful harvest that we just couldn’t keep up, we were handing out bags and bags of stuff, freezing, eating until we couldn’t stand the sight of all the veggies. So the kids set up a table at the top of our property and started selling the fruits of our efforts to strangers.
farmstand 1

It was so successful that the kids each paid for their own water-park membership. The next year we borrowed an amazing farm-stand from our neighbors that was self-serve. I use the word borrowed loosely- we’ve now kept their farm-stand for the last four years, so really we stole it. So back to our awesome new business. People would drive up, pick out the veggies they wanted, and drop the money into the money can. It was always so exciting to go up and empty the money can and count up the dough. We then write it on a piece of paper to tally up how much we make. It’s all very exciting. So we opened our stand with much fanfare and made $5.25 yesterday! Sometimes we sell our eggs or even bake bread to sell. It’s really fun and people start coming by to see what else we have available. Sometimes we get notes stuck in our money can telling us how much they love our veggies. So fun!

When walking around the garden the other day I noticed a lot of insect activity. Since we don’t use pesticides – we share with the bugs. Such a drag. We also share with the peacocks at times, that’s how it is in the country. Here you can see where the snails have started eating the beautiful purple beans that I have been waiting anxiously for. Errrrrrg!
farmstand 3

farmstand 2

So back to the garden, our grapes are going crazy and look beautiful.

farmstand 4

Also the cucumbers, tomatoes and onions are coming along great. We also have some hot peppers that are looking like they will be great for salsa along with the cilantro that is thriving.

Yesterday I made an amazing vegetable lasagna using zucchini and yellow squash. Watch for a post about that soon. So yummy!

veggie lasagna 1 edited

^^just a teaser- more to come!

I’m off to the garden.

farmstand 6

farmstand 5 (2)

Best Banana Bread

Posted in breakfast, sweets, things we like to eat by

We bake a lot of banana bread and I’m not really sure why. It could be because it is so delicious, but seriously, why do we always have so many overly-ripe bananas lying around? I’ve tried a lot of different recipes and this is by far the best banana bread recipe we have. We do have another recipe that is a close second, but there is just something awesome about this one, I think it might be the sour cream. Mmmmm, so moist and delicious.

Alex came home from college this past weekend for Travis’ high school graduation. It is so wonderful to have all three of my kids home at the same time. When I went to sleep on Friday night, I gave a little sigh of satisfaction having everyone under the same roof. Today was a guy bonding sort of day. They decided to go to a jeep show with a couple of friends. Around 7:00 this morning they were starting to load up to leave when our friend handed me a bag and said, “here, these are for the chickens, or, you could make me some banana bread“. I thought it was so funny. I had planned to make some anyway and it was so cute that he saved me some brown bananas so I could bake for him. Between us we had 8 overly ripe, perfect for bread bananas; so I got to work on a double batch, which is 4 luscious loaves. Yay! I did two loaves with chopped walnuts and two loaves with mini chocolate chips. The bread is dense and moist and absolutely delicious!

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman website quite awhile ago. I added vanilla to mine and I don’t measure the bananas. Other than that, it’s her recipe. Oh, and she uses a Bundt pan, and I used regular loaf pans this time. So I modified bake time. Oh, and I added nuts/chocolate chips – but really, its all her recipe! See changes on the actual recipe below. Now get yourself some gross, brown bananas and get baking!

bb 1

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour Bundt pan or two loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar together.

banana bread 2

banana bread 3

Add eggs one at at time, beating for a few seconds after each addition.

banana bread 4

Add mashed bananas and beat (I have to admit that I don’t actually pre-mash the bananas. I just peel them and smoosh them with my bare hands before throwing them in the mixing bowl).

banana bread 5

Add vanilla and mix well.

banana bread 6

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined.

banana bread 10

Add walnuts…

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Or chocolate chips, if desired.

banana bread 13

Pour into Bundt pan or loaf pans…

banana bread 14

banana bread 15

and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes for Bundt pan, and 1 hour for loaf pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Invert on a cooling rack and allow bread to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

So I (Jordan) actually have a good reason for not having finished product pictures this time…we made the banana bread and I immediately raced off to a birthday party sleepover for a friend, and by the time I got home the next day, the banana bread had been completely decimated. 2 loaves went to the guy who donated the bananas, 1 loaf went back to college with Alex, and the other 1? Well, apparently the guys in our family are really good at eating large amounts of banana bread very quickly. So long story short, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the finished product before it was enjoyed by my apparently starving family 🙂

Best Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter

1 and a 1/2 cups +2 Tablespoons sugar

3 eggs

3-4 mashed ripe bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups + 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 and a 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and a 1/2 cups sour cream

1 cup chopped walnuts or mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour bundt pan or two loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at at time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and beat. Add vanilla and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined. Add chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips, if desired.

Pour into bundt pan or loaf pans and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes for bundt pan, and 1 hour for loaf pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Invert on a cooling rack and allow bread to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

tags: bread, sweets, dessert, breakfast, bananas, baking, Bundt