Cool Mornings in Florida = Time to Bake!

Yesterday morning, we woke up and it was cool enough to open the windows to let some fresh air into our home! Yay! It would have been a perfect morning to bake with the boys, but we had decided in advance to use the day to sort boxes in our garage...the good news is that it is supposed to once again be unseasonably cool this morning so baking will be bliss today!
Instead of it being in the high 90's with loads of humidity, it is only going to be in the 70's.
The 70's to us here feel like the 50's if you live up North.
While growing up in either Erie or Chicago, the 70's would mean shorts weather, but once you live in the Sunshine State for a while, it does actually feel cold.
Dear Hubby left for work this morning sporting his hooded Illini sweatshirt.
My kids and I will all be sporting polar fleece or sweats this morning for sure, as it really does feel cold to us when it dips into the 70's. 

We have been reading some books about Johnny Appleseed so we are going to make some Apple-Zucchini Bread, and some Hot, Mulled, Spiced Apple Cider! Yummy!

Can hardly wait for the boys to wake up and for the stores to open to get going with the baking fun!

For the Apple-Zucchini bread, I did an online search and found a great recipe by Rose Putman who describes her bread as:
"A variation of the zucchini bread that is fluffy and light, with a touch of sweetness."

Who can say no to a little sweetness to start your week???


Her original recipe makes enough to serve 24 people. I only want the recipe to serve say 4-6 people. What is nice is that there is a recipe converter on the All Recipes website where Rose Putman's recipe appears, that does the calculating for you.
So, I entered that I wanted the recipe to be for 6 servings and voila!

Here is what the All Recipes recipe converter came up with for me:

Ingredients 

(Thanks to All Recipes for not only listing Rose Putman's yummy recipe, but also, for having a recipe converter on your website!)

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons and 2-3/4 teaspoons chopped walnuts* (*We will just round up to 3 T.)
• 1/2 cup peeled, chopped zucchini
• 1/4 cup chopped, peeled apple

Big Bro and Little Bro will help with washing, peeling, and chopping the zucchini and the apple.
Will have them help to measure the ingredients and to place the batter into the pan.
We will have to keep a close eye on the bread though, as the recipe conversion converts only the ingredients and not the baking time or the pan info.
Am just planning on using one greased loaf pan and then, will keep a close eye on things as it cooks.

Am pretty sure that they will love this bread...know that I will like it as well.

Update: 

We decided instead of making one 9 x 5 loaf, we would make two little loaves.
Each boys wanted to add his own touches to their loaf so that is what we did. 

Big Bro added extra cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and then, he mixed chopped nuts consisting of almonds, pecans, and walnuts to his little loaf.

Little Bro does not care for nuts so instead, he chose to add mini chocolate chips to his tiny loaf. He also did his best to try to pull out any pieces of the zucchini that he could plainly spot in his loaf, saying that he was okay with having a little zucchini into the mix, but did not want to see the zucchini as he was eating the bread...

For the Hot, Mulled, Spiced Cider, I helped things along by buying the base, Five Apple Cider Concentrate, from Williams-Sonoma.

Both of the little loaves of bread & the hot, mulled, spiced cider were delicious!!!

So awesome to bake while it is crisp and cool and then, do our regular Montessori morning work later in the day when it warms up a bit.

For those of you who might start to bake and have extra walnuts to use up after this recipe, here is a link to my Grandma Murray's Irish Nut Bread Recipe!  We may end up making a loaf of this as well. it is quite delicious.

Do any of you ever shift your daily plans for things such as cooler or warmer weather?

If you shift your day to take advantage of what nature brings your way, would love it if you would share and if you have blogged about it, please provide a link!

Also, if you have any neat apple themed ideas or activities, would love it if you would share those with a link to your blog in the comments section.

Update:

Here are some photos of our morning:

Big Bro adds the sugar...

Little Bro takes a turn and adds the flour...

Little Bro adding in some ingredients...

Big Bro adds chopped apples...

Little Bro's loaf with mini chocolate chips and Big Bro's loaf with extra cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and lots of chopped nuts!!!

Big Bro doing his work about Johnny Appleseed.

Big Bro trying out his nutty apple-zucchini bread! Yummy!

Little Bro doing an extension to the apple tree felt set we have. Here, he is adding the apples to the tree and then, he adds Johnny Appleseed to the board.

Johnny Appleseed felt set that I made.

Little Bro doing some work about Johnny Appleseed. He did a little Johnny Appleseed art work and then, made a booklet about the life cycle of the apple.

Eating some of his delicious apple-zucchini-mini-chocolate chip bread! Mmm!!!

This is the one of the books we read together...

This is a Stepping Stone Reader about Johnny Appleseed called Johnny Appleseed: My Story Big Bro read this as a read-aloud to Little Bro and then, the three of us discussed the different information in the book.

Happy Monday!