

I finished the table runner I made for Becky's birthday. There are lots of mistakes in it and I am very sorry. I really wanted to get it finished so I didn't take the time to rip seams out and re-do it. And I was hurrying.
For those of you who prefer to use oil over butter, be my guest (use 1 cup vegetable oil instead of the butter) but I have to tell you, I've made these both ways, and the butter version just tastes better.
You don't need a mixer for this recipe.
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add these dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the walnuts and dried raisins or cranberries if using.
2 Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.
Note, if you are including walnuts and dried fruit, you will likely have more batter than is needed for 12 muffins. I got about 14 muffins from this batch, and that included filling the muffin cups up as far as they could possibly go (above the surface of the muffin tin).
Last week I attempted Zucchini bread and after it baked as long as it said I took it out and when I went to dump it on the cooling rack the top came out and pool of goo was in the middle. I quickly put the top back on and put it back in the oven. I had planned on giving it to the Disney's (a couple in our church who moved a couple miles away from us) but then I decided not to since it wasn't so pretty. I actually ate it and it tasted good to me, but I decided not to use that recipe again.


Yay, JJ is holding the sparkler... (he fell asleep before we started doing these so Dave woke him up)
