Saturday, August 28, 2010

Survival

I decided to make zucchini bread this afternoon. It was a tough decision, I can tell you. I had a long debate with myself.

It’s SO hot outside. What are you thinking?
―But there is zucchini in the refrigerator.
Do you even bother to READ anything you blog about?
―But there is zucchini in the refrigerator.
Have you looked at the hall thermometer? It says 78 degrees. Inside. Before the oven has been on for 45 minutes.
―Only 78? That’s not bad.
But it’s the first time it’s been under 80 inside, during the daytime, since … since I don’t know when.
―But there is zucchini in the refrigerator. If I don’t make bread I will have to eat green blobs in my dinner tonight.
Oh, right. The green blobs. What was I thinking?

I baked. And I doubled the recipe and baked four loaves of zucchini bread because when I looked more closely in the vegetable bin, there were two zucchinis. I did not want to sweat in a hot kitchen for nothing. I needed a guarantee that for at least tonight, my dinner would be zucchini-free.

Here is my favorite zucchini bread recipe, courtesy of Dean’s mom.

ZUCCHINI BREAD

Cream:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup salad oil
3 tsp. vanilla

Stir:
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon

Combine with creamed mixture. Add ½ cup chopped nuts. Pour into two greased and flour bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

In the past I have added all kinds of nuts … walnuts, pecans, sliced almonds. Today I used up the rest of the sliced almonds and since I needed more nuts I also added pecans. A little coconut sounded good so I threw in about ¾ cup of that just for the heck of it. I didn't add them this time but you can never go wrong with raisins. Never.

Buen Apetito!
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3 comments:

Leslie said...

This is also a great way to use up zucchini....cookies!
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=519934
I omit the chocolate chips and walnuts but they never last more than a day at my house.

Cathy said...

Thanks, Leslie. I will try that next time. But I think I'll leave in the walnuts and definitely leave in the chocolate chips. :-)

Art Elser said...

Is this the same "Cranky Cuz I'm Not Gettin' Any" Cathy wanting to heat her house even more by baking? Zucchini bread, cookies, pies they all heat up the house.

Perhaps the heat has affected your brain and you can't make rational decisions. Slip the zucchini into the trash when no one is looking and have another glass of cold water, or a beer, or iced tea or coffee.