Zucchini Bread

Continuing on my theme of having too much zucchini, this Sunday's brunch was zucchini bread.  I tried four different recipes of zucchini bread, all of which were delicious and asked my friends what they liked and did not like about each.  This resulted in the following recipe, which I then used to make even more zucchini bread.  (How else am I going to use 20 zucchinis?)  But, since the first set didn't even last a full day, I don't think anyone minds me making more.

French Toast with Strawberry Sauce

This weekend's brunch was French toast.  Growing up, it was never a favorite of mine.  I always thought it was too eggy, and, at the time, I was not a fan of eggs.  Since then I have come to appreciate good french toast.  It is a breakfast classic.  The subtle hint of cinnamon and vanilla compliment the sweetness of the powdered sugar or syrup.  I am particularly fond of french toast with a fruit compote.  There is relatively near my college that sells thick pieces of toast with a wild blueberry compote that is delicious.  I didn't have any blueberries, but I did have a bunch of farmers market strawberries that I needed to use up.  I turned this in to a lovely strawberry sauce to go over my french toast.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Pancakes are the quintessential weekend breakfast.  Back home, Sunday brunches were a common occurrence in our family.  I am now continuing the tradition here a college and cooking brunch once a week or so for my friends here.  This week was pancakes.  If you have buttermilk lying around you should definitely use that.  Two weeks ago, after I made the chocolate cake, I had lots of extra buttermilk and thus used that.  This week, however, not wanting to purchase butter milk expressly for this purpose, I just used regular milk.  If you mix a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice into a cup of milk, it will work instead.  This generally results in a thinner version of buttermilk so you probably want to add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to the batter if you want thick, fluffy pancakes.

Sofia's Blueberry Muffins

This recipe came from our former neighbor Sofia who is a wonderful cook. Between the ages of 1 and 8, Sofia took on the role of a fun loving "aunt" for our daughter Sophie. As she cleaned out closets, she would always surprise Sophie with a fun little gift of rhinestone jewelry or a funky pair of shoes. This was perfect for a little girl who loved to dress up.  To this day, Sophie is still wearing some vintage 1960's clothing she received from Sofia.

One day after spending a day working hard in the yard putting up a play set for the boys.  Sofia brought us over a plate of warm blueberry muffins.  We had been so engaged in working we had not taken the time to make lunch.  Needless to say, a plate of 18 muffins were devoured in minutes.

Lemon Bread

My daughter Sophie has been encouraging me to post despite my lack of technical skills. With Noah's assistance, here is my first posting. This recipe came from a neighbor named Mrs. Riley about 50 years ago.  I was only a year old, thus given to me by my mother.  We make it both for breakfast and as a sweet snack.  While the original recipe calls for nuts, we tend to omit them.