There is nothing better than filling a house with wonderful smells from the kitchen. So today, as I enjoyed a holiday off (which I must admit is great since my last job never allowed me that luxury), I whipped up several batches of banana and zucchini bread that made my house smell splendid!

I think the desire to bake today came from the fact that my freezer was overflowing with bananas that had seen their better day, and zucchini that had overgrown my garden this past summer. Last summer’s bounty ended up netting me about 52 cups of zucchini – diced and grated in the freezer for future use. And that was on top of the zucchini we had already cooked, grilled and given away to the neighbors! The poor kids next door didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into when they started accepting the zucchini over the fence. I planted two zucchini plants last year, which started off slow and then spiraled out of control. They soon wiggled their way through the fence that I had placed around the box, and then spilled over the top. Needless to say, next year, the zucchini gets its own box. When my hubby got tired of me picking zucchini from the garden, I came home one day last fall to see my beloved plants gone. Interesting enough to note, all of my zucchini had come from one plant. Maybe I will only plant one next year.

In addition to my love of growing zucchini, I also love bananas. But if they get to the point of turning completely yellow, and even further a bit of brown, I won’t touch them! The crunchy texture to green/yellow bananas is when they are best. So if the hubby doesn’t eat them in time and they turn completely brown, into the freezer they go – minus the peel.

Then comes days like today, when frozen bananas and grated zucchini get mixed together with flour, sugar, eggs and spices to create tasty breads that fill our house with scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s the kind of smell you want to last, but always fades. But for that time when it wafts through the house, you feel comfortable and happy.

Combine my green thumb and my garden soil and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success in farming zucchini.

The summer after we first bought our house, I planted zucchini and we ate like royalty on this garden staple all summer – grilled zucchini, zucchini casseroles and, of course, my famous zucchini bread. Then came a cute little puppy into our lives, which eliminated the garden for a few years. Now that our little puppy (strike that – HUGE 100-pound chocolate lab!) is now old enough to not trample the veggies we plant, I embarked in a garden once again this summer. The plants were small when I bought them on Mother’s Day weekend, so I eagerly planted a box full of two cherry tomato plants, two slicing tomato plants and two zucchini plants that weren’t more than 6 inches tall. I gave them all a dose of water and an ounce of love and prayed they’d grow.

All six of those plants exploded! In no time they pushed beyond the fence I had placed around the box, inching upward and outward seeking more room to expand. When the zucchini started growing, it came with a vengeance, not one at a time, but five or six at a time. I couldn’t get to them fast enough before they grew into large monstrosities exploding with juicy goodness.

The first harvest netted 26 cups of grated zucchini for the freezer – and that was after giving away five and cooking one for dinner! Another picking amounted in 24 cups of cubed zucchini that will make wonderful soups and casseroles into the fall and winter months. Neighbors and friends netted zucchini as gifts this summer, as well as tomatoes that burst from our garden.

As the temperature dipped this afternoon and the clouds lingered overhead, I turned the oven on for the first time in four months to bake up a batch of my famous zucchini bread. With a touch of molasses, my grandma’s zucchini bread recipe never fails to please. Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups grated zucchini
1 tablespoon molasses
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ cup chopped nuts
Pour into three greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until it “tests” done.