Zucchini Bread or Muffins

We have been harvesting a ton of zucchini from our garden in the last week and I've been making all kinds of stir-fry and zucchini chips with it. Last week though I had about 3-4 zucchini and I needed to use them up before they staredt attracting flies. I came across a good recipe on Smitten Kitchen (a blog I like to look at) and adapted it a little.


It turned out really well and it's great because I can freeze or give away the extra loaf since it takes us about a week to eat one.

Here is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Zucchini Bread

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (See those pictures of the cakes inside their non-stick pans? Yup, they’re pretty much hanging out in there for the time being.) Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

Sewing Project

So lately a lot of friends of ours are having babies. Between last October and this September there will 9 babies born! I have 4 baby gifts to make so I got started last week with a vintage pattern I picked up at a thrift store. The next 4 babies will all be girls and out of the 9 only 2 are boys! Anyway, I tried out a bubble pattern with some vintage pink and white gingham and it turned out pretty well. It was just a trial run so now I'm on to the real deal.

These vintage buttons were some from my grandmothers massive stash.

The pattern is a 1970's Simplicity 8811

Canned Green Beans

Friends from church & work have parents who for some reason planted 10 rows of green beans this year. As you can imagine there are more greens than all of them could possibly eat or can so we went over last week for some picking. We picked enough for 10 quart jars and I'm hoping we can go back for more so I can freeze some.

I canned them in a brine with garlic, dill seed and paprika for a little kick. If you're interested in the recipe you can find it here at Food In Jars.


We are currently living in the worlds smallest house which makes any sort of cooking a challenge.
This is how you can on a very small stove...I don't recommend it.

Pink Princess Birthday Cake

Two weeks ago my friend Brandy and I made this cake for her daughters 3rd birthday. It was definitively the most fun I've ever had making a cake. It was like we got to be fashion designers and bakers all in one.

We made the cakes and fondant on Friday and assembled everything on Saturday. I am not a huge fan of fondant but Brandy found a new thing called marshmallow fondant. I've never heard of it but it's just melted marshmallows and powdered sugar. It tastes a whole lot better than regular fondant.


The whole thing turned out amazing and Francy's could hardly stand it she was so excited. We can't wait to make another one and try out some other dress designs.

Beach Day

Last Friday Nathan and I and my brother headed down to the beach for the day. Tybee Island is the closest beach; only an hour away. It's definitely not the nicest beach but when you're in need of a quick beach fix it will do. It was quite windy which didn't make it too hot until about mid afternoon.
It was nice to get out of town for the day. Due to limited funds we don't have the opportunity to get out much so this was a nice break from being cooped up around Statesboro.

Savannah Wedding

Saturday we went down to Savannah for Nathans childhood friend Josh's wedding. The weather was beautiful (not to hot) and the wedding was lovely. The service was at Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church and the reception was at the Savannah Yacht Club.




I just finished this dress last week to wear to the wedding. It's from a vintage 1950's Simplicity pattern. The shoes were Nathans grandmothers.





It was a lot of fun and nice to get of of Statesboro for a little while.

Wheat Free Pancakes

I've been using different recipes using quinoa flour and I think I like these pancakes better than wheat ones. I love the texture of cornmeal or semolina flour.

1/3 cup quinoa flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp. natural sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Mix together dry ingredients. Add milk, egg and oil. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto prepared griddle. Turn cakes as soon as they are puffed and full of bubbles but before the bubbles break.


I cooked some of our strawberries down with a tiny bit of sugar to go on top.