Still Gasping

So, I'm behind on this series. Shocking. I thought it was a bit ambitious from the beginning. I mean, there's a lot of the summer to cram into only a few days, so not only did I have to cook, but I also had to go to the beach, complain about my mosquito bites, drink summer wines with friends, curse my bathing suit, provide support when the husband nearly passed out blowing up not one but two kiddie pools, etc.

But these past couple days were like a little fall preview. It's cooler. I noticed that leaves were already falling out in the suburbs. The air smells different (although that could be Newtown Creek). It made me anxious. And I think that a lot of other people were anxious too. Just yesterday, yesterday, I saw some sweet woman frantically trying to find a nice ear of corn in a small little bin in the corner of the supermarket. Back in June, that bin would have looked like a mini-warehouse and it would have been prominently displayed outside the supermarket doors.

With that image in mind, I immediately made some zucchini bread. It was the only right thing to do.

The husband was skeptical. I have to admit I was too. I am not a huge zucchini fan. To me, zucchini is like a bad cucumber. A mushy vessel for water. Gross. But, I've always wanted to like it. The best way to do that would be to transform it into a baked good. Right? Absolutely.

Zucchini Bread

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup grated zucchini

Whisk together all the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix the eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla together into well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then stir in the grated zucchini. Bake in a loaf pan in a 325-degree oven for about 40 minutes.

I found a lot of information on how to grate zucchini on the web. Do you grate the whole thing, with the skins? With the seeds? There are a lot of opinions. In the end, I grated the entire zucchini using the grater attachment on my food processor. It took all of five seconds. One medium sized zucchini turned into 2 cups of the grated stuff. I froze the extra. Realistically, it will live in my freezer for 8-9 months before I throw it out, but for right now, I feel thrifty and hopeful.