Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Zucchini

Zucchini! It's about the only thing besides the weeds that are growing in abundance in our garden anymore. The spinach did GREAT at the beginning of summer and the green tomatoes will eventually turn red, but that silly rabbit got most of the carrots, beets, peas, beans and even the raspberries. The cucumbers never showed their faces, but the canteloupe just may survive and provide us with about three melons. I had Timothy digging for "treasure" the other night when I needed a few potatoes for supper, but we'll see how well those did in a few weeks yet.

But back to the zucchini ... we've been blessed. We've had it on the grill. We've had it breaded and baked. We've had it raw on our sandwiches. We've had it cubed and sauted in scrambled eggs. We've had it added to soups, casseroles and spaghetti sauces. Beyond a doubt, though, our favorite this year has been Zucchini Bread! I shared some with a friend the other day and she called this morning asking me for the recipe and I stuttered a bit because I wasn't sure what to tell her. See, I'm one of those people who likes to substitute and change recipes when I'm in the kitchen. Not sure where that gene came from, but all of us Schley kids have it. I finally did give her what I THINK was the recipe that I used on that particular bread and I'm going to record it here so that I can come back here and try to duplicate it again some day. I was using four (yes, four) different recipes and tried to combine them to get the "perfect" zucchini bread and I did it!! I just wish I could remember exactly what I did. (NOTE: She called me this afternoon and said that the following recipe turned out fabulous, so this must have been the correct combinations of ingredients that I used before!)

ZUCCHINI BREAD
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. Watkins Double Strength Vanilla (or 2 tsp. other vanilla)
2 c. zucchini, grated
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Watkins cinnamon
1 c. chopped walnuts
large dump of chocolate chips
Mix eggs, oil, sugar and zucchini together. Add rest of ingredients and pour into two loaf pans (I greased mine just in case.) Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

8 comments:

heidiannie said...

I like the large dump of chocolate chips. Is that like 4 1/2 oz ?
I am also a recipe mixer- and I would rather just make someone a batch of something than try to write down an actual recipe!

LindaSue said...

can one really use "zucchini" and "blessed" in the same story????

GramS said...

Zucchini is so much fun!

Unknown said...

Yes, Linda. While we may be blessed with other veggies here (like 5 different varieties of sweet potatoes), unfortunately we are not blessed with zucchini. I do miss it!

Karen said...

You sound like my mom!!!! When we were growing up we had zuchinnis out of our ears!
But...I AM the only one who enjoys them at this house.
Roger we have little round gourd-like zuchinnis here...do you?

Pauser said...

I'll have to try out your
zucchini bread. Believe it
or not I was just looking
for a recipie to make it!

a.peg said...

Our zucchini never had anything on the vines. However, the butternut squash is another story. It will be coming out our ears!
We have lots of offers for zucchini and yellow squash. Wish I enjoyed it more.

PS Try pickling it like cukes.
RE: mixing up recipies...is there any other way to make something?

liz said...

Wow, Mar, I didn't realize you had such a variety in your garden! YUM!

Remember the time Mom put shredded zucchini in some kind of cobbler? It was actually pretty good! It does make me laugh to think of all the experimental stuff we ate...