Zucchini Bread

The past few years, I have been getting a lot of my new recipes from the internet- blogs and Pinterest, mainly. However, my very favorite way to get new recipes are from people that I know. Those are the best ones. You know the person and you can trust the outcome. This is from a friend of my husband. He is actually one of his co-workers, and he used to own a restaurant. Thank you to Al for sharing your recipe, and thank you to my dear friends, the Teaford family who shared from their garden this enormous zucchini!

Zucchini or Carrot Bread
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Combine and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together:
3 beaten eggs
1 cup melted margarine or oil- or 1/2 of each (I did 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup oil)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini or carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until well combined. Preheat your oven to 350°. At this point, you can make your batter into a bundt, loaves or muffins. For a bundt and loaves- pour your batter into greased and floured pans. You will have enough batter for one bundt or two loaves. Bake for 60-70 minutes. For muffins- use paper liners, fill cups approximately 2/3 full. Bake for 35 minutes, makes about 2 1/2 dozen muffins.

Super Easy Bread Sticks

Whenever my family eats pasta, we like to have these bread sticks to dip in the sauce and to use as an extra utensil. They are popular with my family on Italian night, I imagine they will be with yours.

Super Easy Bread Sticks
1 1/2 cups water (105°-115°)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
 3-4 1/2 cups flour
In a mixer, combine water, sugar and yeast. Let it stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly. Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (between 3-4 cups) until dough starts to pull away and barely sticks to your finger. Spray a metal bowl and place the dough inside. Cover with a clean dish cloth and let rise for 45 minutes or until doubled. Remove from bowl to a lightly floured surface. Roll into a rectangle- cut into strips. Roll into a snake and twist into bread sticks. Place on sprayed cookie sheets. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425°. Bake  15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt if you desire- we usually do!

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

This Sunday I signed up to bring our Sunday School class breakfast. I was trying to think of something a little different than what has been brought in the past. We often have egg casseroles, fruit of some kind and many different coffee cakes. I think that I have decided to bring Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread- if my bananas make it to Saturday! I really like this recipe, because I love banana bread, and I LOVE chocolate!

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup mashed banana, 3-4 bananas
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In separate bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs and sour cream until just blended. Add flour mixture and beat until moistened. Microwave chocolate chips in a small bowl for 1 minute, stir until smooth and melted. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup plain batter to chocolate. Spray loaf pan with non-stick spray. Pour plain batter in. Add chocolate batter and swirl with a knife. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack, then remove and cool completely on wire rack.

Friendship Bread

Today is Friday. On my street, that means trash day. My trash men come at the earliest hour that is legally allowed, I think. Son#4 loves all trucks, but he adores the trash truck. So at 5 am, he is up in his bed peeking through the blinds at the trash truck, yelling at the top of his lungs, "TRUCK, MAMA!! TRUCK, MAMA!" He will yell this until I drag myself out of bed to come and look at the truck with him. So that was the scene this morning, and since he is not willing to go back to bed after seeing his precious truck, we usually go in search of breakfast. This morning I knew I wanted to make Friendship bread. I went to get out all the ingredients, but it seems Son#1 has drank all the milk. Not an unusual occurrence. So, after I get to the store today, I might make this bread, then again, I might go take a nap and pray that the Recycling truck waits until my nap is over!.
I got this recipe from an Awana book that my son had- it is in one of the Trek books.

Friendship Bread
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 tsp flour
1 pkg. yeast

Combine and set aside for 10 minutes.
In a separate, large bowl combine the following:
2 cups milk
3 cups sugar
4 cups flour
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add in milk mixture. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 4 loaf pans and divide dough between them. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown on top.

Don't let the quantity of loaves scare you, just wrap them up and throw them in the freezer. Or go bless your neighbor or a friend. It is called Friendship Bread after all!

Bread Machine Sweet Butter Rolls

My boys absolutely love these rolls. We rarely have leftovers, but when we do they are so good smothered in homemade jam!

Bread Machine Sweet Butter Rolls

1 cup warm milk (70°-80°)
1/2 cup better, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
Add ingredients to bread machine in the order your manufacturer suggests. Run dough cycle. When cycle is complete, divide into golf ball sized balls. Place in buttered 13"x9" pan, make sure they do not touch. Cover and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the tops with melted butter when removed from the oven.

Focaccia

We love to have bread with our Italian dishes (and who doesn't?). When I get tired of repeating the same garlic bread, I turn to this great but easy focaccia recipe. This one is a winner, it is also very versatile. It can be eaten like a bread, or used as a pizza crust (yum!). I hope you give it a try. For more great recipes check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday .

Focaccia

Mix 1 cup warm water (105°-115°) and 1 package yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes to get all happy.

In another but larger bowl combine: 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp, oregano, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp basil and a dash of black pepper. Add yeast mixture and 1 Tbsp olive oil to the flour mixture. Combine until dough has pulled together. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 425°. Punch the dough down and place on greased cookie sheet. Pat into desired shape. Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.