Back home again!

Yes, we're home from our 2-week trip to the West. What a wonderful trip it was! As time permits, I will share more of where we went and some of the sights that we saw and things that we did. But for now, I will just say that it's good to be home. And there's still some pretty foliage here!

On Vacation!

As I write, Mr. T and I are out West enjoying some special time with our youngest daughter, her hubby and their three adorable children. We arrived here late yesterday afternoon, having left New Hampshire at 6 a.m. Talk about jet lag! I think it hit me about halfway through our third (and last) flight. We went to bed early last night and got up after seven, which is late for us. I'm feeling better now.

I don't expect to have much blogging time while here, but one never knows! I will check in when I can...

Results of zucchini bread recipe testing

As I mentioned in my last post, I was trying out a couple of different zucchini bread recipes to see which one I might like to make in tiny loaves to go in gift baskets at Christmas. Both of these recipes contain chocolate and pecans and (of course) zucchini, but there the similarities end.

Both recipes are deliciously different from other zucchini bread recipes I have tried. The Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread may be a tad bit healthier, since it calls for white whole wheat flour and dark brown sugar. It is not overly sweet, either. It does have a somewhat denser texture, but this is not a bad thing.

The Paula Deen's Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread is probably the recipe I will go with for the Christmas breads. It has a festive flavor with cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange in addition to the chocolate chips. This recipe calls for grated orange rind, but I had no oranges on hand, so I substituted 1 teaspoon pure orange extract for the rind component. It worked beautifully. I thought that miniature chocolate chips might be a good idea in this recipe (especially since I want to make the loaves small) instead of the regular ones called for. I was very, very pleased with the mini chips. I did cut the sugar back to about 1 1/2 cups, and the oil back to about 7/8 cup.

If you're looking for a yummy and different zucchini bread recipe, you'll want to give one of these a try!

An afternoon in Mrs.T's test kitchen

My family likes to tease me about my habit of trying new recipes. They would all have plenty to laugh about if they had seen me today... I tried three new recipes, and plan to try a fourth one at supper!

It's been raining steadily here most of the day (and most of yesterday, too) and so it was a good time to be in the kitchen baking up some zucchini bread and banana bars. I had both zucchini and bananas to use up before they really went bad.

To use the bananas, I didn't really care what I made as long as it was not banana muffins (have some of those still in the freezer), banana bread (since I was already planning to bake 2 kinds of zucchini bread), or banana drop cookies (which would take too much time).

So I paged through cookbooks and ended up with a banana bar recipe from a best brand-name recipe cookbook I've had for years. They contain wheat germ and almonds and also call for chocolate chips. No eggs, though, which seemed a little strange. I was expecting cake-like texture and it was almost more, but not quite, like a brownie texture. I substituted butterscotch chips for the chocolate ones, since both zucchini bread recipes contained chocolate. They are good, but I doubt I'll make them again. Just an experiment.

Now, for the zucchini bread. We have a lot of zucchini to freeze and/or use fresh, and I had the idea that I could bake up some small loaves of zucchini bread and freeze them for Christmas gifts for our neighbors. But I wanted a really good recipe, one that would be a bit more festive than the usual z. bread. So a couple of weeks ago I had browsed around on line and found two that I wanted to try -- Paula Deen's chocolate chip z. bread, and a double chocolate one from another site. I decided to try them both and then decide which kind to make and freeze for gifts.

I initially thought I would just go ahead and bake these in little loaves, but quickly realized I didn't want to take time to wash all of those little loaf pans. This was a good day for taking extra time in the kitchen, as we're having leftovers for supper and I only need to make a vegetable side dish to go along with them. But my time is not unlimited and I have other things to do, so went with the regular-size pans specified in the recipes.

Both kinds of bread (4 loaves) are cooling now, so we'll see which one is the winner. I tasted the Paula Deen recipe and it is just delicious. I'll post links to the recipes (along with my comments) in the next few days if others would like to try them too.

That's all from the test kitchen for now!

Fall decorating

Here are a few pictures of this year's fall decorating. I neglected to get photos of the front door area, but can maybe add them later. Our camera needs to spend some time recharging before I take any more pictures.

In the front hallway, here is my ribbon board with fall-themed paper treasures.

Also in the front hallway, a harvest welcome awaits. I bought the cute metal container on a clearance sale at Jo-Ann's some years ago. Think it was less than $1!

In the living room, I took the birdhouses off the evergreen garland and added fall leaves to the fall flower lights.

Here's the kitchen island. I've had this linen runner forever and never really noticed until this year how autumnal it looks, so had not used it for decorating at all. I think the little paisley-type curlicues are oak leaves. The ironstone soup tureen is a family treasure ... you've seen it before. One of my granddaughters gussied it up with a spray of fall leaves.

Hanging from some of the knobs of the kitchen cupboards, I have these cute fall apple ornaments I made years ago. So much fun. I did them in all sorts of fall motifs. I keep thinking it would be fun to make some with Christmas motifs, but haven't done it.

I continue to find seasonal uses for this little glass cake dome. This time I've filled it with miniature (faux) gourds. Don't they look real, though?

A closer look at the gourds. The fall placemat was pieced by my friend Marilyn. Isn't it gorgeous?

My fall hutch. I never tire of trimming my hutch for the seasons.

Top 2 shelves. The cross stitch sampler is usually on the top one. 2 favorite fall mugs are there too. Next shelf down holds more ironstone, a couple of whimsical favorites, my childhood "Pumpkin Moonshine" book, more faux gourds, and a maple leaf pitcher.

A closeup of some items on this shelf.

Pumpkin Moonshine closeup.

Next shelf : Love the colors here! 2 favorite Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, some autumn advertising art, a few more gourds, Fiesta salt & pepper shakers, and what a young grandson once termed "breakable grapes". My mother gave me that dish -- suppose it's intended for jelly, but am not sure.

A closeup view of part of this shelf.

Here's the bottom shelf: fall cards, one crafted by a dear friend, a fall teapot, a family heirloom mug, a Fiesta teacup, pumpkin candleholder, and mini fall leaves which my friend made and included in her handmade card. I gave my young granddaughter carte blanche to scatter them about on this display.

Here's a closeup of the handcrafted card:

Isn't it beautiful?

Hope you have enjoyed this look at the fall decor around our home! Happy Fall, everyone!

Flavors of fall ~ Squash and Apple Bake!

No time for a long post today, though I'm getting one ready with pictures of this year's fall decorating. But I did want to share another squash recipe with you all. This is in the archives here on my blog from back in 2007. You can find it here:
Squash and Apple Bake.

I made this side dish this past Sunday to go with a chicken dinner. Oh, is it ever delicious! Even though I've been making this for years, every fall we are delighted with the flavor all over again. Buttercup squash is my favorite, but use whatever winter squash you and your family prefer. Enjoy!

Fall flavors ~ Roasted Squash Medley

Recently I've been paging through some of my older Taste of Home magazines to get some recipe ideas to make use of our garden produce. We have more winter squash and zucchini than anything else.

One of the recipes I ran across using winter squash was this delicious one:
Roasted Squash Medley.

We had tasted this recipe a couple of years ago at the home of friends in Nevada. It had such fabulous flavor that I definitely wanted that recipe. At the time, I didn't know that I had the recipe already at home in a Taste of Home magazine!

I made this delicious veggie side dish again for guests this past winter, and was reminded of it again this past week as I bumped into it in an old magazine. So, I promptly made it again. Squash, potatoes, onions, sweet peppers, garlic, olive oil -- absolutely scrumptious!

The recipe states that it serves 6, but this is 2 large pans of veggies. I made half the recipe for 4 of us, and that was plenty. So don't feel you have to make the entire recipe; it can easily be halved and works out just fine. Enjoy this wonderful taste of autumn!