Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

I’m having soooo much fun adding zucchini to EVERYTHING I am baking!!  I’d like to think I’m making all my baked goods healthier!!!  Works for me!

I took my old pumpkin bread recipe and added zucchini, here ya go:

This makes 2 yummie loaves, one for now, freeze the other or if you feel like it, share the other. 

To a large bowl add all of the following:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon double acting baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

2 cups grated zucchini (*cooks note)

2/3 cups vegetable oil

3 eggs

Mix until blended, divide batter between 2 loaf pans and bake at 350 for one hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Remove from oven, set the pans on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then turn the loaves out onto the cooling racks until cool.  Wrap well in plastic.   

* Cooks Note:  Over the summer as I was given one huge zucchini after another, I grated them and froze them in zip bags in one cup measurements, so in this recipe I used some of that zucchini.  It gets very liquidy in the freezer, I didn’t drain too much of the liquid, it really helps to keep the loaves moist.

Enjoy!!!  The entire house will smell incredible!

Bittersweet Birthday Week

At my age, birthdays should be celebrated in the length of a week!! And this year I have been doing just that thanks to my wonderful friends! However, my birthday week holds bittersweet memories of my family.

My brother and I were exactly one year and two days apart. I only knew my birthday as “Our” birthday. Growing up I never had a birthday cake that was my own, or my own birthday dinner, or birthday party. There were definitely times in my childhood years that I wished and hoped for my own special birthday. But now that I no longer have my brother, I truly miss having him to share our birthday. My fantastic friends always seem to make my birthday special and my own, but I still miss the days of a birthday cake that reads “Happy Birthday Kim & Kevin”. I totally miss the birthdays we shared as adults where I would undoubtedly smear frosting on my brother’s face and have him do something much worse to get even.

I also share a birthday with my Aunt, actually my brother was born on her birthday. We usually call each other on our special days, two days apart, and sing an off-key version of “Happy Birthday”!! And we certainly share the bittersweet birthday week. Many years ago, my Grandmother, my Aunts Mother, died but they hooked her to life support for a day only to disconnect her on my Aunt’s birthday.

And now, this week also marks the anniversary of my Dad’s passing. It’s four years now, although it seems like yesterday. Dad was still struggling with my Mom’s passing just six months earlier, in fact he was quite miserable to be around. He didn’t even call me on my birthday, he called a day or two later in an awful mood taking his sadness out on me which was fine, I certainly understood his depression, but right after that call he died in his sleep.

Soooo, my birthday is still fun, and exciting, and exhausting, AND I am very thankful for my fantastic friends! Along with the fun celebrations this week, there are lost loved ones to remember and cherish as well.

Cheers everyone!