Zucchini, Zucchini and More Zucchini

Last night I decided to tackle the countertop of zucchinis that had been accumulating all week. This time of year you just can’t give them away fast enough. Well,let’s face it. You can’t really give them away at all. My neighbor,Cathy said,“Sure I take some if you put them in zucchini bread”.

With that little nudge I decided to shred my 8 zucchinis and make some bread. Of course,one of the was about a foot and a half long by itself. By the time I shredded them all I had three large bowls of zucchini. I decided I would try a few different recipes rather than sticking with the tried and true. That usually doesn’t turn out the way I am planning. I started with a zucchini carrot bread from a cook book my cousin gave me. It was a little bit different due to the carrots and the recipe also included honey –a nice touch for a bee keeper. I started this batch around 7pm and quickly figured out it wasn’t going to use up much of my raw materials. It only required 1 cup of zucchini and I had at least 20 cups! So I popped two loaves in the oven and started on Paula Dean’s recipe which takes at least 3 cups of the stuff. Then I moved on from Paula Dean’s recipe to my friend’s recipe. This is the “go to”best recipe. She prints me a copy to keep every year and every year I lose it. My recipes are a little like my garden –chaotic! I have them in stacks,books,stuffed inside other cookbooks,you name it. Every once in a while I try to organize them but it doesn’t work very well. I keeping thinking I am just going to put together a cookbook of all my favorites and then get rid of all the papers. One of these days. At least if I put the zucchini bread recipe here,I will know where to find it the next time I can’t find it. Many thanks to my friend Kelly for sharing her recipe and helping me bake a loaf or two on ocassion:

3 cups flour ,1 tsp salt,1 tsp soda,3 tsp cinnamon,1/4 tsp baking powder

3 beaten eggs,2 cups sugar,3 tsp vanilla,1 cup vegetable oil,3 cups shredded zucchini,1 cup chopped walnuts

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat eggs and add sugar,vanilla and oil. Stir in zucchini. Add dry ingredients and blend. Stir in nuts. Bake in 2 greased and floured loaf pans for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Sometimes I add chocolate chips.

I finally went to bed at 11:30 with loaves of varying sizes and about 3 dozen muffins. Its even hard to give away and extra large loaf so I try to make them smaller. But I still had one large bowl of shredded zucchini left. More for the morning.

I got up at 6 am,on a Saturday no less,and started cooking again. This time I decided to break up the monotony while baking the zucchini bread. Did I mention that I had 2 boxes of peaches delivered to my house last night from the high school fundraiser? I also promised Mary Mac I would make her something sweet for breakfast. I started out with the Chico Hot Springs Resort Carmel Rolls. These are yeast bread honey buns that are totally decadent. I made the dough and put it aside to rise while I started on a double batch of peach muffin/bread from a great recipe my neighbor Cathy gave me. While those were cooking I stared down the bowl of zucchini and tried to decide what to do. You can only give away so many loaves of the bread. I remembered a recipe I saw for curried zucchini soup. I dug around in my cookbooks and magazines until I found it. It is easy to make and tastes great.

1 T olive oil,1 medium onion –chopped,Coarse salt,2 garlic cloves –minced,2 tsp curry powder,1 1/2 lbs of zucchini –I used shredded or you can dice or slice,1 baking potato –peeled and diced,1/3 cup sliced almonds –toasted for garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1 T of salt ( use less and add later,it was a bit salty);cook,stirring occasionally,until the onion is soft,4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder;cook,stirring constantly,until fragrant,about 1 minute.

Add the zucchini,potato,and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil;reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender,about 15 minutes.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender (do not fill more than halfway) until smooth;server immediately. Garnish with almonds.

I made a trip batch of this yummy stuff. I gave two large jars away,saved one for myself and spilled about a half gallon all over the kitchen counter. Lucky for me my neighbor had come over to get a sticky bun and ran around the counter to help me clean up my disaster. By this time I was pretty much over my zucchini but I still had half of the largest one that I hadn’t shredded yet. I left it on the counter and headed out to pull weeds and water the garden –enough indoor chores. I even decided to take some honey from one of my hives –more on that another day.

As luck would have it my artistically talented Lindsay managed to come up with the grande finale for the large half a zucchini I had left on my counter. After we got home from the movie (The Help –more on that another day) she sat down at the table with me while I was typing this and started carving.

Zucchini as Art