Wednesday, July 23, 2008

What to do with a Zucchini?

I've had so much food come out of the garden this year. The number one producer is definitely zucchini. It just won't stop. The yellow squash pictured above, really wants to try to out produce it. Its name is Early Prolific Straightneck. Well it might be prolific, but it can't hold a candle to zucchini, even with its propensity to put out twin squashes. I sometimes wonder how much it really is producing. I wish that I had taken notes on the amount that I've harvested.

So this morning while putting away my harvest, I noticed I had five zucchinis in the fridge (though one is a midget since I picked it that way before camping, to keep it from becoming a baseball bat). Sigh. They keep replicating. I eat them and they just come back. It was time to make zucchini bread.

My first stop in cooking something new is almost always allrecipes.com. I like the rating system and the fact that so many people make comments on how they changed the recipe. I'm not good at following a recipe exactly. I'm more apt to add a little of this or a little of that. Their two top zucchini bread recipes are both exactly the same except one adds walnuts and one adds blueberries. I have no walnuts and have half a box of blueberries that are starting to get a little old and need using up. I made one plain loaf and one with blueberries. Here is the recipe I used, which is close to what allrecipes has listed. You can use their recipe to figure out how to bake it.

Sidenote: LOL when I went to allrecipes to copy the url linked above, their front page had a recipe of the day, and it was for zucchini grinders. They look yummy and it is nice to know that they are keeping up with the zucchini season.

Zucchini Bread

  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4c applesauce
  • 1/2 c canola oil
  • T vanilla extract
  • 1 c brown sugar
  • 3/4 c sugar
  • 2 3/4c grated zucchini
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 c whole wheat flour (I would have used more, but ran out, so had to use white)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 5 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 t cloves
  • 1/2 t ginger
  • 1/2 t allspice
  • 1/2 t nutmeg

Plus I added 1/2 pint of blueberries to one of the loaves. If you compare the two recipes (mine vs theirs), you will notice that I love spices. The more the better. And OMG they are yummy. It doesn't quite rank up their with pumpkin bread but it is close.

And speaking of eating from the garden, yesterday for dinner I ate one of the boc choi that I picked. I was shocked. It was so mustardy. I suppose with our temps in the high 80s and low 90s, I shouldn't be so surprised. But the Fun Jen is doing so well in the heat. These were spicy. Not really bitter just hot. Now I like mustard, but I was expecting the sweet mild boc choi taste. I would have added a bit more honey to tone it down if I had known. Or maybe boiled it for 2 minutes first to take a bit of the bite out of it.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recipe. The zucchini bread looks yummy. I plan on growing zucchini next season so it's nice to get some ideas what all you can do with it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love allrecipes.com too! My boys are anxiously awaiting the zucchini so we can make some more zucchini bread. It is an annual favorite in my house.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool recipe. I do like allrecipes.com too. I've gotten some good recipes from there before. Wow, zucchini looks good. We're not having that great of luck with our zucs. We had one that grew full size but the others all die when they reach small-to-medium size. It's rather depressing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. dp nguyen: Have you tried hand pollinating your zukes? Often if they die when small it means they aren't getting pollinated. I can have bees in the garden and have them still not be pollinated. For my zukes hand pollination makes them all set. For my yellow squash it makes them set 2/3 of the time. I guess my yellow squash is more picky.

    ReplyDelete