Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Thanks for the zucchini bread recipe, mom.


The garden started innocently enough, with just a few packages of seeds and high hopes.

I planted a few seeds. I bought a couple of plants. I've become OCD about the watering.

And the pumpkins have found their way into the yard.

To the right of this shot is a profusion of zucchini.

They propagate like bunnies, the zucchini.

So when a few zukes the length of my finger become large and unwieldy almost overnight, it's time to spring into Action Mode.

We've learned about blanching, and now there are bags and bags of zucchini in a state of suspension in the freezer, waiting until we're ready to make a tasty sauce. We've done our share of grilling.

And then there's the bread.

My mom passed along what is arguably the best zucchini bread recipe ever. Thankfully for me, the recipe is easy. At this stage of the game, I've memorized it.

So I make a couple of loaves almost every morning, and the loaves have fed the folks at my job, my friends, my kids, the neighbors who choose not to ignore me, and many loaves have wound up in the freezer, next to their blanched cousins.

It feels good, this odd garden-oriented veggie sustainability.

At this point in the season, it takes a bit of creativity to keep making interesting things out of oddly shaped squash. And I do wish that zucchini and acorn squash were a valuable currency of some sort. I'd be so very rich.

I know my mom's zucchini bread recipe won't make me a millionaire, but there's a richness in creating these loaves.

This morning, when I was wrist-deep in suds, washing the two loaf pans I use to make my zuke bread, I wondered how many hundreds of loaves of my mom's zucchini bread I've made in these two pans. 

I thought about my mom, from whom so many fruitful, subtle riches continue to generate.

This morning, while I was readying myself to make two more loaves, I wondered how my mom, whose departure from this crazy planet happened 10 years ago tomorrow, would have taken the news that her zucchini bread recipe had found such a solid place to land in my world.

I think she would have been proud, in a quiet, unassuming kind of way.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, she would be very proud and happy that she passed down a great recipe and skill to her daughter.

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  2. Bless you and your mom and her zucchini bread recipe.

    Do you have any interest in posting the recipe to share?

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  3. Sure!

    This is what I do.

    I have a great mixer. That's the best part. So get 3 eggs spinning, add 1 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of half and half, then add 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves, a touch of salt, 3 tsp cinnamon, 3 tsp vanilla, 2 cups grated zukes, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour. Bake at 350 for 67 minutes. Makes two loaves. I like to take it out of the pans in after 32 minutes of cooling. Easy and delicious, yummy in your tummy, great for breakfast!! Give it a shot!

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