Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Zuccs up the wazooo ....!

After a 12 hour day of baking, I'm exhausted!  What a mess my kitchen was, and I'm a clean as I go cook!


After two hours of cleaning, this is what my kitchen now looks like!


Love me a clean kitchen!  Don't you dare touch anything! lol

I tried two different zucchini bread recipes.  This one is from King Arthur Flour and is called Whole Wheat Zucchini Nut Bread.


It's quite dark and that's due to my using molasses as oppose to honey.  They gave me a choice and I went for black strap molasses, which is high in iron!  The bread is good and certainly healthy!  I like this recipe but not DD.

Another bread recipe is from the website Family Food and Travel and is called The Best Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread.


This has become a favourite with DD!  I modified the recipe and added 1/2 cup of chopped walnut.... gotta love that food processor!  I have made several batches of this bread and plan on freezing it.  Of course I will send some home with whom ever comes to visit me!  ;o) Let's not forget the muffins too!

Would you be surprised if I told you that I am stuffed from tasting all of these various recipes?  I need a zucchini break!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Zucchini/ Yellow Squash Baking fest .....!

Our garden this year is doing wonderfully, especially the yellow squash and zucchini.

Most "normal" households will plant one of each .... but not this year!  After we had acquired and planted our standard one plant of each, DH was given 4 extra plants!!!!! Not just of zuccs but yellow squash!!!! This is an insane amount for a large family of 20 let alone 3!

If you miss the daily zucchini patrol, this is what you get.


Huge zucchinis!  Great for baking (I remove the center seeds as I find them too large) and not that great for stir fry!

With the over abundant harvest, we have been sharing with many of our neighbours and co-workers etc .... Hum, for some unknown reason, every one seems to be avoiding us as of late!  Could it be they have it up to their zucchinis with us?

Aside from roasting up a couple of pans a day for the girls (read chickens), which they just love, I needed to come up with some recipes I could bake.  So today is mega baking day!

My first recipe for the day is from the King Arthur Flour site and is called Zucchini Lemon Muffins.


Love this recipe!  The muffins are not too sweet, which is what I like.  Great breakfast muffin.  I did make some alteration by adding 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white flour.  I also omitted the raisins.  I'm just not a raisin fan!  This recipe is a keeper!  I plan on making a few more batches and freezing them.

The next one is also from King Arthur Flour site and is called Zucchini Coconut Muffins.


Not crazy about this one.  It does have a glaze, but given my lack of enthusiasm, I am not about to run to the grocery store and pick up some coconut milk!

I should note that all of these recipes are whole grain!  I'm a fan of whole grain recipes!

A word of advice for those working with shredded zucchini.  This might be obvious to some, but it wasn't to me, that is, until I had baked my first batch.  Shredding brings out the water in the zuccs, so this is how I deal with it.


I just let it drain!  Yes, this is another batch that will go into baking!  I will be freezing some in packs of 2 cups, but there's only so much frozen zuccs a family of 3 can handle.

So ... Watch out everyone, I'm coming over with baked zucchini goods!

Catch you later with another zuck post! ;o)

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Say it ain't so ....!

Found this autumn leaf on the ground at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada ..... gasp .... so soon?


Have you ever been to Upper Canada Village?  It's a wonderful place to visit, that is if you like to go back in time to the year 1860.

That's where dd and I spent the day, just wondering around .... looking for photographing opportunities.  It was a perfect day to stroll along the St Lawrence Sea Way.

Allow me to take you on a tour.  Here is Bellamy's Steam Flour Mill.


It was water turbine powered for the longest time, but with recent water issues, a new steam engine was added.


These old types of machinery just fascinate me to no end!  That was an extremely expensive piece of equipment in the 1860.  It's a beauty alright.

Come on in, and hang up your hat ....


They stone ground the grains and produce flour, which can be purchased at the gift shop.


Because the stone ground flour from this mill has not been altered in any way, is it quite different to bake with than your grocery store variety.  It is heavier and thus produces denser breads or cakes.  I love this flour and always make a point to purchase a 10 pound bag.

The ones you see are 50 pounds and a bit much for me.  They do use the flour in their restaurants for bake goods as well as sell it to high end restaurants in Toronto.

Lots of places to see in the village ... the tin smith for one!



DD and I had a wonderful day, just shooting artsy photos! The weather was perfect!

We left Upper Canada Village and headed for Sainte Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, where we dinned by the boat locks!  What a view!



What a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!  Cheers!

Saturday, August 16, 2014

I'm on top of this blog ..... !

For now anyway!  lol

Any of you on Instagram?  It's my new friend.  I've been on it for some time and came across many of my blogging buddies to be Instagrammers!  It's fun to see a quick picture of what they are working on.  You can check me out at c_prevost.  In the meantime, here is what I see every morning on my way to work (Fibre Junction)


Fields of wild flowers!  Love me some of those wild Blackeyed Susans!

It really doesn't matter the season, spring, summer, fall or winter, my ride to work is really gorgeous. What a great summer it is!

On the quilting front, I finally finished Miss Timid Valentines by Rosie de Leon-McCrady of Scarlet Today!


Would you believe this little quilt has been sitting around for more than 6 (six) months?  All that was needed was stitching the binding!  Well, it's now done!

I'm off to complete more UFO's .... maybe ... depending on the weather ... the pool may be calling me! lol

Thanks for stopping by!  Cheers!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

August ..... Already?

Holy cow!  And here I thought I was on top of this blog!  Goodness!  I will admit, I am sooooo enjoying this summer.  I've been doing a lot of this ...


Sitting back, enjoying some Oprah Chai ice tea, while catching up on some reading!  That's been pretty much my life this summer.  What a simple pleasure!

On the quilting front, allow me to share a quilt I made for my nephew Vincent that I call Speedster.

I used a Speedster FQ tower from a fabric line designed by Riley Blake.


The quilt pattern is called Racer and can be had free from Riley Blake Designs.


I made the quilt larger by increasing the size of the blocks.



Love the border fabric!

I so like the way that quilt turned out that I'm thinking of keeping it for myself! lol  Ah.... maybe not ... he's already seen it and loves it! lol

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you've also had some time to relax!  Cheers!
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