I love my garden!

I can hardly wait until I go into the garden and find the first red tomato! You would not think that a thing like that would make a grown woman so happy, but just think about how awful those tomatoes in the store taste! There is truly nothing like cutting into a fresh, from the vine, homegrown tomato.

Bob always gives the tomatoes a good haircut about this time of year when most of the tomatoes have set - he cuts off everything including blossoms and little tomatoes what will not get big enough to pick. This forces the tomato plant to put all of it's energy into the tomatoes already on the vine, and helps them turn red. It works every time!

This is what I found in my garden this morning - a few more days and they will be just perfect. I also had some zucchini that needed to be picked - that's never ending! So I decided I would make zucchini bread - it is a delightful recipe that you can add almost anything to - my favorite is chocolate chips, but today, I used orange essence dried cranberries:

Zucchini Bread

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup 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 (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, I usually put wax paper on the bottom of my pans, but it is certainly optional, just make sure you grease them or spray them with cooking spray. Line 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 about 55 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

This is what you will get - very yummy! A glass of cold milk will make it even better!

Have a wonderful evening,

Love, Barb