Endless Zucchini

What to do with the huge zucchini and its only slightly smaller cousin, that I found hiding under the foliage when I began cleaning up the garden for winter?  Your average zucchini bread recipe requires two cups  of shredded zucchini, which used up only a third of the largest zucchini.  I was running low on olive oil and eggs, so I only made one recipe [Mom's Zucchini Bread] and baked it in a spring-lock tube pan.  That was yesterday.  The only change I made to the recipe was doubling the amount of chopped walnuts to a full cup. I tend to like my tea breads to be rich with nuts

To the left is a shot of the second zucchini, which measured 11 1/2 inches long beside the zucchini bread  and a plate of Fig and Bleu Cheese Scones.  I just had to try a recipe for Fig and Bleu Cheese Scones that was in a recent Tea Time issue, while I was doing all that baking yesterday.   Fall always makes me want to bake.  The cool weather just calls out for a cozy kitchen smelling of spices.  Usually, I find myself making fresh apple cake or New England gingerbread at this time of year.  But I have yet to visit the local orchard ... maybe next weekend.

Today, after an early trip to the grocery store for more eggs and more canola oil and more olive oil, I will be making zucchini "cakes" - not really a cakes at all, more of a starter like a crab cake appetizer.  I found both the Mom's Zucchini Bread recipe above and this recipe on the allrecipes.com website.  Still, this will only use up the largest of my zucchini.  I guess I'll be making zucchini muffins tomorrow.  Or maybe the Zucchini Souffle that I downloaded from the same website.  I'll have to freeze half of the zucchini bread and half the scones.  At least, I'll be well provided with goodies for afternoon tea for the next little while. That's the problem with being a two person family ... finding freezer space for all the cooking and baking!  However, there will be a bit more room since this morning I am also making 10 dozen cookies for the catechist meeting tonight ... using the boxes of pre-portioned frozen cookie dough that were samples promoting our Fall Fundraiser. 

Since I'll be working late tonight, I took some time to chop and saute the onions and peppers and defrost the chicken for chicken quesidillas that can be assembled quickly for supper and washed some greens so I can throw together a quick salad.  Sometimes I wonder about these days when I don't have to be into work until noon or one.  Waking up at 5am with my husband, I tend to put in a full day of work at home before heading into work at the office.   And then I wonder why I am always so tired.  In the immortal words of the Lethal Weapon duo, "I'm getting too old for this shit!"

On the stitching front, I did get a little more done on The Primitives Shop ornament yesterday but not enough to warrant a photo.  I am hoping to finish it up today.