Betty Crocker with an Iron Chef Twist

Yesterday my sister Amy and I had a baking afternoon. The secret key ingredients were yummies mainly from my neighbor's garden and from our kitchen counter tops: 2 giant sized zucchinis (monsters- 10 cups grated), half full grocery bag of apples and 9 rotting bananas. Together (Chef Amy and Chef Shelly) we made banana bread, zucchini bread, apple sauce and apple crisp. Think when all the loaves came out of the oven and were sitting on the washing machine and dryer to cool, we had 17 loaves. Some of the loaves had nuts, some not (I don't enjoy nuts with things baked), some had chocolate.

With all the loaves we could have opened a bread store. Amy brought her KitchenAid over to help with the mixing and it performed wonderfully. My Grandma helped us with figuring how to make the apple sauce and the crisp. My sisters and I are blessed to still have a grandparent around. Now I will always remember how to make apple sauce because my Grandma showed me how.

My parents were the judges to determine who would win the Iron Chef award for the evening. Amy had two special dishes that she presented as an appetizer and the main dish. She made home made pot stickers and a stir fry. After the meal my dad said, "Oh, I love the pot stickers (as he ate the last one). That really made the meal for me. Yummm Ummm Yummm." Mom said, "What a delicious meal. Right balance of vegetables, meat and the seasoning. You really did it with this meal". The judges conferred that Amy is the new Iron Chef. Her prize was several loaves of banana and zucchini bread.