Zucchini Bread

In my fantasy life, I have a beautiful garden full of fresh produce and when faced with an overabundance of zucchini I am forced to bake mounds of bread and share them with our friends. Wardrobe, a slightly flour dusted linen dress suited to a scene in 'Pride and Prejudice,' bread to be hand-delivered after a graceful walk carrying a wicker basket full of home-made goodness. Reality bites...I bought the zucchini (for the double recipe - yellow squash, too) and baked bra-less in pajamas, and friends may not get any of this double batch. I guess the point is that in spite of my less than romantic relationship with baking (an inherently messy endeavour) the results are often stellar.

Ingredients for one 8 inch loaf:

• 2 small zucchini (1 pound) grated (squeezed in paper towels before being added to the batter to keep the bread from getting soggy)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 Tablespoons melted/cooled unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease an 8-inch loaf pan, and grate the zucchini

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt together

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt and lemon juice together until smooth

4. Gently fold the zucchini, flour mixture and yogurt mixture together (it takes more muscle than you would expect...might even require bowling muscles) Add any extras to the batter here.  This time we added the good parts of bruised granny smith apples and golden raisins

5. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan (or 4 mini loaf pans) bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean -- about an hour

Let it cool before eating

(as long as you can stand or an hour on a wire rack)

with goat cheese, ripe banana and black currant jam....mmmmmmm

Fried Fish & Vegetables

 

(Mom is master prepper.)

(Watch as she masterfully hacks cauliflower to pieces.)

(Such smooth knife movements.)

(They didn't stand a chance.)

(We love those mushrooms.)

Zucchini, red onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, red cabbage, napa cabbage, carrots, celery and tilapia filets

(Dad's I'm-making-egg-drop-soup face.)

(Egg drop soup.)

(We quickly learned that using a non-stick pan was a better idea, so we switched.)

(From the stick pan.)