Zucchini Bread

Have you heard the one about the woman who grew the world’s largest zucchini? She wanted to take it to a friend to show it off. The zucchini was so huge, it stuck out the car window and she couldn’t lock the car. Stopping at the grocer’s for a few things on the way, she returned to her car to find something awful happened while she was in the store… someone had left her the world’s second largest zucchini too!

You thought that was going a different direction, didn’t you? 😉

Growing up, everyone had more zucchini from their gardens than they could use or give away. After all, how much zucchini bread could you eat? And there seemed to be only one recipe which varied with the addition of walnuts or raisins. We didn’t really treat it as a vegetable … it was the magic ingredient for super-moist bread! And cake. Mom had a really great chocolate cake recipe too now that I think about it!

And, wouldn’t you know it? Now that I have my own garden, I can’t seem to grow it! I do not know what happens but it just doesn’t survive. After all those years of not being able to give it away, I am buying it. I am buying it, grilling it, roasting it … making things like ratatouille and harvest vegetable medley … and baking all kinds of sweet and savory bread.

My favorite zucchini recipe discovery is Parmesan Zucchini Bread. It is a savory quick bread with just a hint of onion. This bread is so amazing warm from the oven but toasting the cooled slices with a little butter is incredible! Then there’s always the good ol’ grilled cheese option. All I need now is a bowl of tomato soup!

Since you can never go wrong with a chocolate variety …