Lock Your Car Doors! It's Zucchini (bread) Time!

    Well, it is late July in New Hampshire and that can mean only one thing...zucchini season. In May and early June, my garden seems to grow so slowly that it is is difficult to imagine having fresh garden vegetables and then July and August come and it seems like they will never stop growing! The joke here goes that you have to be sure to lock your car doors when you go to a friend's house... otherwise when you get home you realize you have a back seat full of zucchini, some frighteningly large!

    While this grand proliferation often happens with lots of veggies, it is the zucchini that always gets a bad rap..the first one of the summer is delicious,,, then as the week progresses: after zucchini on the grill, grated zucchini into the freezer, zucchini casserole, steamed zucchini, zucchini quiche, you start to ask yourself,"What else can I make?!" Well, I love zucchini bread and I often make this recipe which I got from my mom many years ago. It is a tad sweeter than some zucchini bread recipes and is especially tasty toasted!

  Mom's Zucchini Bread 

for one loaf (EASILY doubled)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

scant 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup grated zucchini

 1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup rough chopped pecans or walnuts

   Beat eggs and sugar together, then gradually add oil, mixing carefully to make sure it fully blends in with the egg mixture. Mix together all of the dry ingredients and then stir into egg/oil mixture until well blended. Stir in zucchini; then add raisins, nuts and vanilla and stir just until everything is incorporated. 
   Spread batter in a greased standard loaf pan and bake in 350 degree oven ~50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. This bread freezes really well. I simply defrost it overnight, wrap it in foil and put it in a 225 degree oven for about 40 minutes and it is difficult to tell that it was previously baked and frozen. 

    So here is one way to bake with zucchini. Up next are my chocolate zucchini brownies, yum!

enjoy-

yours in baking-

p