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| Sunday's Zucchini Harvest |
Today, my daughter picked six more zucchini when she went out to water the fruit trees in the back yard!
Eileen had asked me, in a comment on an earlier post, how many zucchinis I have picked. I didn't keep a tally, but, I went over some of my earlier posts and found out that the first zucchini harvest took place on June 2 and we picked 9 zucchini (although only 7 were photographed). Two days later, on June 4, we picked another 8! The next day's post states that I pointed out more zucchini to my daughter for picking, but, I didn't say if she picked them or not. On June 9, another 7 were picked. On June 11, more zucchini were picked, but, I hadn't made a note of the number, although, on June 16, M picked 12 zucchini and I had written that we had picked "almost as many" the previous Friday (June 11) - so maybe we picked around 9 or 10? I am sure we picked at least a couple of zucchini on June 18 and going by my reference to some salad made with one of the zucchini picked that day, we must have picked at least another couple of them on June 22, too. Then, on June 23, M picked 6 zucchini followed by another 5 on June 25. And today (June 27) we picked another 6! Of course, we have 14 zucchini plants.
Today, I tried a new to me zucchini bread recipe that Lady Ella had mentioned making on her blog, Flowers of Progress (not sure if I should post a link to her blog as her blog is now a private blog I have Lady Ella's permission to link the post) and emailed to me. It is a regular yeast bread with grated zucchini added to it! You salt the grated zucchini and leave it to drain, then squeeze out as much moisture as you can, add the drained zucchini to some yeast that has been activated with lukewarm water and flour and mix it, adding more water to mix as needed. Then, you knead it and leave it to rise:
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| The First Rising |
Lady Ella mentioned kneading by hand, but, I used the dough hooks on my stand mixer, because I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to knead. After the first rising it was kneaded again. Once again, I used the dough hooks for the second kneading, too. The dough seemed very gloppy! Lady Ella had said she used a lot more flour than the recipe had called for because she found the dough to be very sticky when she kneaded it, so I added more flour and a little more flour and still some more! My daughter and I were worried that we might have added too much flour, so we shaped the still somewhat gloppy dough into a tapered loaf on a greased baking sheet and allowed to rise again. Even with all that extra flour, my bread dough spread sideways and didn't form a nicely shaped loaf like Lady Ella's had done! I was afraid that it might overflow the edges of my baking sheet, so after the second rising, I brushed the top of the dough with some vegetable oil (Lady Ella had used olive oil which I don't have) and baked it at 425F for 20 minutes. Her recipe had said to bake for 40-45 minutes, but, my bread was done much sooner because it was flatter!
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| Zucchini Yeast Bread Fresh Out of the Oven |
It was, however, as delicious and as crusty as Lady Ella had said it would be:
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| Crusty and Delicious! |
My daughter and I couldn't wait until it had cooled - we just cut into the bread right out of the oven (which, I know is a big no-no!)
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| A Slice of Deliciousness! |
You really can't taste the zucchini. We ate it spread with a little butter. We will definitely make this again!
In addition to the zucchini, my daughter picked the only two nectarines we had on the new tree:
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| Nectarine Harvest! |
The tree was planted only this spring and we weren't really expecting any fruit! Therefore, these two are a bonus! Daughter and I shared one and it tasted wonderful. I hope we get a good crop of them, next year.
Today, I am grateful for:
- More zucchini from the garden!
- The first nectarines!
- A new zucchini bread recipe (Thank you, Lady Ella)
- The old oven still works and didn't explode!
- Another pain free day
Today's joyful activity was baking zucchini yeast bread.
Plans for tomorrow include going to my MRI appointment in the morning. I'm not planning anything else, but, daughter and I were discussing the possibility of making another batch of chutney!
How was your Sunday? What are your plans for Monday?
Updated to include link to Lady Ella's blog post about her courgette bread.
Your bread looks perfect. That's the nice thing about zucchini it doesn't have much taste of its own (IMO) but keeps things it is blended with moist. Lady Ella, I am sure, will be proud of your creation from her recipe :)
ReplyDeleteMarvelous about your nectarine tree producing in its first year. You have got to appreciate that effort :)
The bread was delicious. My daughter cut it in squares today and split the squares horizontally to make sandwiches and we agreed that it made good sandwich bread rolls. :)
DeleteWe were very pleased to have the two nectarines. We weren't expecting any, this first year! :)
Nectarines, yum! You seem to have good luck with your fruit trees producing not long after you plant them (in the fruit tree world, that is). Must be the right combo of weather and care. How many fruit trees do you have?
ReplyDeleteI really didn't expect any fruit to form on the newly planted trees, so the nectarines were really appreciated! I have about a dozen fruit trees, currently; four of them were planted this year - the nectarine, a plum, Asian pear, and Fuyu persimmon. The others are lemons (3 trees), orange, calamondin, peach, pineapple guava (2 trees), and pomegranate. Plus, two seedlings (avocado and fig) which will take years to produce fruit, if they ever do!
DeleteThat sure is a lot of zucchini! The bread looks delicious and congrats on getting the two nectarine samples. Wishing you the best for your MRI today!
ReplyDeleteYes, I certainly can't complain about this year's zucchini harvest! :D Thank you, Martha, the MRI, itself, went well; now we wait to find out the results. :)
DeleteThe zucchini bread looks delicious. Which recipe do you prefer - this one or the one that's more like cake? I suppose the more recipes you have the better, with all the zucchinis you are harvesting!
ReplyDeleteThe nectarines look delicious too.
I hope the MRI appointment goes well.
I'm very pleased with how the bread turned out, even if it didn't keep its shape! I like both versions of zucchini bread! I like the cake like version because it is sweet and you know me and my sweet tooth! Plus, it is a quick bread and doesn't take long to mix up and bake. The more bread-like version takes a longer time to make, but, is probably better for me because it doesn't have any added sugar!
DeleteThank you; the MRI appointment went well. The results will be sent to the doctor and I hope to hear from her by the end of the week.
Must have been at least 70 zucchini so far! The bread looks delicious and worth diving into as soon aa it came out of the oven. I hope all goes well with your MRI.
ReplyDeleteSince DH cut down the main berry patch in front of the deck, it has become an open space for birds to wander around. We sometimes see a couple of robins looking for food, and very early this morning there were two crows just taking a morning stroll here and there.
That's what I thought, too, Bushlady; must be around 70! Today, my daughter cut squares of the bread and treated each square as a bread roll, splitting them horizontally and sandwiching them with cold cuts, lettuce, etc. It made a very filling brunch after we came home from the MRI. The appointment went well; they will send the results to the doctor and I hope to hear from the doctor by the end of this week.
DeleteSounds like you have a nice area in front of the deck for the birds to enjoy and for you to sit and enjoy watching them! I am amused by the antics of one particular mockingbird that seems to have taken an intense dislike to one of the garden cats! The minute the cat appears in the garden, the bird will start screeching at it and chase it!
Well done for trying out the recipe! I'm sorry it wasn't as straightforward as it could have been. As per my post/email, I also tinkered with it but now that I've looked back at my photos, I wonder if I used brown flour, or added bran to soak up some of the excess moisture. Either is possible as I would usually have both in the cupboard ... yet, if so, it's odd that I didn't mention it. I wonder how long after making the bread I wrote the post ... long enough to forget? Anyway, glad you liked it and cutting it lengthways was a great idea... a bit like a ciabatta!
ReplyDeleteAnd glad the MRI is done. :o)
Thank you for sharing the recipe, Lady Ella. I am sure you would have mentioned something if you had used brown flour or bran, but, that is a good suggestion to try in the future! We are enjoying the bread, no matter how we slice it! :D
DeleteMe again. It's really weird: the top photo definitely shows white flour (and I specified that it was strong flour rather than plain), but the dough looks slightly brown. I reckon I must have added some bran as well as additional flour... Will try it again this summer and pay proper attention to what happens!
ReplyDeleteYes, you mentioned that you used strong flour; I'm sure that helped. I don't have bread flour, but, I do have some whole wheat flour, so, maybe I'll use that, next time (or try half all purpose flour and half whole wheat). I'm pretty sure that it is my lack of bread making skills more than anything else which resulted in the misshapen loaf, but, my daughter and I have finished over half that loaf of bread in just two days, so, obviously we like it! :D
DeleteIt sounds like you and your daughter have so much fun. That zucchini bread looks and sounds delicious! Gorgeous nectarines, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stephenie; yes, we do manage to have some fun! :) The zucchini bread turned out quite well - the recipe needs a bit more tweaking to get it right (the zucchini added a lot of moisture to the dough), but, it is quite tasty and I will be making it again. The nectarines were delicious! :)
DeleteThat bread looked delicious. glad your oven worked. I would've slathered it not with a little but with a lot of butter. Looks like you're still harvesting plenty of zucchini. Have you offered any to your mail carrier? Since I know you like sharing. Good luck with your MRI appointment. Hope all goes well. Denise
ReplyDeleteThe bread was a success! I usually don't turn the oven on in the summer, but, I will make an exception for this bread! :)
DeleteNo, I haven't offered any zucchini to the mail carrier, yet! That's a great suggestion! Thank you! I shall keep an eye out for him, tomorrow. I did give more to neighbor S, today, though. :)
Thank you; the MRI appointment went well. The results will be sent to my doctor, they said; I hope to hear from her when she receives the results.
It is unreal how productive those zucchini seeds were! When you spell it all out with your prior harvest mentions it really adds up to a large number.
ReplyDeleteThe bread you made from Lady Ella's recipe looks delicious. It's so funny how it was so gloopy and even with all the additional flour it stayed gloopy but turned out wonderfully.
Fruit trees must like your garden. That new nectarine tree giving you fruit so soon is a great sign. I remember your new peach tree started producing quickly too.
We picked three more zucchini, today! :D I think I am well above 70 zucchini harvested, now!
DeleteThe zucchini bread turned out quite well for a first time trial of a new recipe, I think. We have saved a piece of it for M to taste (poor guy gets to taste test all our zucchini recipes!). I will be making it again, another day.
So far, the fruit trees are doing well; the real test will be later in the summer, when the temperature rises to triple digits and how much we water them!