Harvest and Zucchini Muffin Recipe

 

As we move into FALL, many of us with gardens in our back yards, or where ever, are looking at food preparation.  Our Ancestors canned fruit, vegetables, and even chicken, beef, and ham.  

We have come to rely on large factories to do our canning for us.  We get additives in “store bought” food that we would not add on our own.  

Good food feeds our body and our soul.  Clean food keeps us young. Canning is good to support our Free Will.

This year seems to be a bumper year for zucchini.  Everyone in our neighbourhood has loads of zucchini and everyone has recipes to share.

Zucchini Muffins

  

• 3 cups all purpose flour (I use gluten free flour and add Xanthum Gum) 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 2 tsp baking soda 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• ½ tsp nutmeg (optional) 
• ½ tsp salt 
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1 cup vegetable/canola oil 
• ½ cup milk 
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice 
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 cups shredded zucchini, thawed if frozen 
• Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips and/or ½ cup chopped walnuts and/or pineapple or banana

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with baking spray. 
2. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. 
3. In separate large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, milk, lemon juice, vanilla and zucchini. 
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir just until completely combined (it's best to do this by hand to avoid over-mixing, which results in tough muffins). 
5. Fold in chocolate chips and/or walnuts if using. 
6. Divide batter over 12 muffin cups - they will be full! Bake for 22-26 minutes, until tops are golden and toothpick comes out clean from centers. Let sit in pan 3-5 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely. 
7. Best served fresh, or freeze extras, well wrapped or in an airtight container, and thaw or reheat as needed.

Blessings,

Judy

Welcome September 1 2023

Fall is one of my favourite times of the year.  For me, it is almost as though the smells change on September 1 and the weather changes at the same time.

I think of September more than March or April as the month of change.  It seems that most of my life, my career changes have happened in the fall, usually, sometime in September or early October.  

When I think of September, I think of abundance.  This is the time of pickling, and canning, and freezing all of the produce of the summer. 

I picture Mother Nature getting all of her charges in the Northern Hemisphere ready for bed.  Winter comes early in Alberta.  Already, there are new skiffs of snow up on the mountains.

The contradiction of autumn is that while we are finishing things off on one hand, it is a time of seeking renewal and many of us start new things – craft clubs, fitness programs, bowling, curling, hockey, and the list goes on.  

A resting time!  I see that, often, we use the fall to plan a rest from the activity of summer, and to get ready to vegetate through the coldest of the winter. 

I see the Elementals, the energy spirits in the park, change their behaviour from wild to more gentle as they prepare the park for winter.  

I think that the fall is a time of healing for nature and for humans.  I see us all come closer to that peacefulness of Oneness.  For, all of us are matter, and all of us are of the Earth.  

For me, September is a time of contemplating what will happen next.  I love the surprises that it brings.

Blessings,

Judy

Humour and Love

In my meditation this morning, the two words of the day are LOVE and HUMOUR.  At first, I had a difficult time putting the two thoughts together.  I don’t normally think of Love as funny.  Yet, on reflection, I realize that my three days with my sister and her family were filled with lots of love and much laughter (humour), because we found everything funny.  We were together and we felt that hint of invincibility that comes from being one family.  

I then thought back to the the last group meditation that we did several months ago and realized that the same feeling was there – Humour and Love  -  because we all enjoyed one another so much and we had the same, off beat, view of life.  We talked and laughed and shared.  

I bow to Creator/Great Spirit for once again being able to teach a wonderful lesson to me through the use of two words.  

This was a very healing lesson.

Blessings,

Judy