Zucchini Bread

What could be more satisfying than turning a vegetable that you're not particularly fond of in any cooked form into a delicious snack or dessert? Making zucchini bread always gives me such a charge cause none of us really eat it otherwise, but hey, in a cinnamony bread we eat great quantities of the stuff. Not as healthy of course, but I figure that eating it in any form is better than none at all. As desserts go it's a pretty good alternative to cake. And it is a great way to use up zucchinis that have grown too huge to use for any other purpose.

Zucchini won't keep for very long after you've picked it. But you can grate it and put it in containers or bags in the freezer, premeasured for your favorite zucchini bread recipe, and make bread all winter long. When you thaw the grated zucchini out, it will be very watery. Don't dump away all the water or your bread will be too dry. On the other hand, if you use it all, it might be too wet. When you make it regularly, you'll learn what consistency of batter to shoot for, and you can adjust accordingly.

Here's a recipe to try, but don't be afraid to experiment. I like to cut back on the sugar and I always use raw sugar instead of white. Or try Sucanat instead. Try a teaspoon of walnut extract along with a teaspoon of vanilla. Also feel free to substitute some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour. Or even try subbing in some unsweetened cocoa for some of the flour! Or sub chocolate chips for the walnuts...Another nice touch is to sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the batter just before you put the filled pans in the oven to bake.

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

We know beans...

I just read an entire book about beans and was inspired to cook split pea soup this weekend, since these lovely little green babies hail from here on the Palouse. For some reason in our house we refer to this by its color – “green soup” – probably because when Reed was little he was in an anti-pea phase and I thought the words split pea would put him off– and it is generally a favorite, probably due to the generous amount of bacon in which I saute’ the diced onion and carrots before adding the water and the dried split peas and bay leaves. The only other ingredients are salt and pepper, although I have been known to make this with chicken stock in the past. This time I didn’t yet have chicken stock so used plain water, without using a bouillon cube or anything, and surprisingly I found I liked the lighter, less salty flavor of it; it was cleaner and fresher on my tongue. So I might stick with water for green soup in the future.

The other legumes we grow here are chickpeas/garbanzos and lentils. This next weekend our church (Community Congregational United Church of Christ) in Pullman is doing a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser. I’m planning the food and using chickpeas as my starting point I’ve planned a Mediterranean-style menu: pitas, hummus, couscous, tabbouleh, vegetable and lamb stew, cucumber salad, etc. Lots of tomatoes, eggplant, onions, olive oil, and lemon juice. Of course, lemons and olives don’t grow here, but being strictly local is not the point of this fundraiser – thinking about the rest of humanity is the point, and I think olive oil is a great place to start doing that.