Fall Cooking

During the fall months I get a hankering for certain foods and lately I have been longing for them a lot. I also like to hang out in my kitchen during the cooler months and try out new receipes.

The last few days I have been making homemade soup. Yesterday it was Potato soup and today I made Curried Lentil Soup. I will share these two recipes at a later date.

I have also been baking a bunch of Zucchini Bread with zucchini that came from our neighbors garden and this is the recipe that I am going to share with you since my husband thinks it's the best bread that I make.

The recipe I use comes from Better Homes and Gardens Old Fashioned Home Baking.

I have had this book forever and use it a lot especially when I want a good old fashion dessert. It has never failed me yet.

Here is the recipe:

 

11/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 beaten egg

1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

1/4 cup cooking oil

1/4 tsp finely shredded lemon peel (I didn't have any lemon peel so I omitted it and it still came out fine)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 

Grease an 8x4x2" loaf pan. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda,salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture so it looks like this:

In another medium bowl combine the egg, shredded zucchini, cooking oil and lemon peel if using.

I was making a double batch and I was using some fresh eggs from a friend that raises chickens that are just starting to lay so their eggs are still small. I used two of the smaller eggs to make one regular sized egg. You can see in the photo that the yolks from my friends eggs are darker than the store bought egg.

This is what the egg and zucchini mixture looks like:

Add zucchini mixture all at once to the dry mixture.

 Stir just till moistened (batter will be lumpy).

 Fold in chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into the prepared pan (remember I am making a double batch so I have two pans).

 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or till done. Mine were done in 40-45 minutes because I have a convection oven. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then remove bread from pan and completely cool on the wire rack.

The bread comes out with a slightly crisp top and the inside is so moist and yummy. A slice of zucchini bread goes good with a cold glass of milk or a cup of hot tea.

I gave the other loaf to the neighbors who gave us the zucchini to thank them for thinking of us. And I think I will make another batch tomorrow as my husband has a meeting to go to tomorrow night and wants to bring a loaf to share.

 

So I was wondering what are your favorite fall foods?

 

Teresa