Independence Day Bread

When life brings you zucchini, make zucchini bread. Well, a dear friend and neighbor brought over a bag of zucchini and eggplant last night and my husband's first statement was "you should make zucchini bread." He grew up loving it, so last year I got the recipe from his mom and made several loaves. While looking for that recipe I found one I had ripped out of Parents Magazine last May. This one includes blueberries too, which I also have in the refrigerator, so I decide to try it. Because I take after my mother, I cannot follow a recipe exactly. There must be some substitutions, so I'll give you the recipe first, and then what I did.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread ~ those gorgeous berries make the zucchini way less noticeable ~ as stated by Parents Magazine, and yes so true. It is very good bread.

• 1 cup all- purpose flour
• 1 cup whole- wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 1 loaf pan or 3-4 mini loaf pans. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl and wet ingredients in small bowl. Stir wet into dry. Carefully stir in blue berries and zucchini. Bake large loaf 1 hour and mini loaves 40 minutes. Ready when toothpick in center comes out clean.

 

MY VERSION

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt ( it's the only "coarse" salt in my cupboard, so I used it)
• 3 liquid eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded zucchini picked by a super sweet friend
• 1 cup blueberries picked by my family from my moms bushes

The mixture looks really thick to me before adding in the fresh stuff, but after folding the rest in it seems to get loose enough to work with. I prepared as above and made 4 mini loaves in my first batch which came out rather short, so I made 3 in the second batch and they were perfect. My mini loaves took just 30 minutes to bake. After cooling I placed them each in a ziplock bag and tied a few with some red, white, and blue ribbon I picked up at a yard sale. After supper the girls and I delivered 5 loaves to extra special people in our community to wish them happy independence day, and to treat them as sweetly as my dear sweet neighbor had treated me.

 

The Good Lord said "love thy neighbor as thyself." Matthew 22:39

 

If we all did, how sweet the world would be...

 

The cross

During morning playtime Teddy was nailed to the cross, he died and laid limp in TwinS's arms and then he was placed in the tomb, after she got him out of the tomb she used her new doctor set (which consists of a stethoscope, bandaid, and thermometer) to make him feel better. About 10 minutes later her was feeling better.

I know all of this, because she explained it to me, including all those details. For a second, while she was nailing him to the cross (AKA the wall) I thought about stopping her, but decided she was really just trying to process and grasp this new information about death and The Blood of Jesus. The girls have asked me about it daily since bible school a couple of weeks ago.

This morning at breakfast TwinA told me that there were 2 others crosses beside Jesus. She learned that last night during bedtime bible reading with daddy.

I've got to admit, I've wondered how much a 3 year old actually gets from bible school, but I guess now I know- my girls took away at least 1 piece of knowledge- the most important piece. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and if we believe in Him and ask Him to become our Savior, we will go to heaven when we die to be with Him. I'm sure they haven't grasped that information, but they're trying to work out.

I want to thank all the people who worked hard for a week or more to teach my girls and all the other children at Evergreen Baptist Church.

Oh, by the way, teddy has also switched to cloth diapers. Don't you just love his hedgehog one?