When the World Gives You Lemons…You Pick Onions and Make Some Zucchini Bread
Okay…we can’t all be Hallmark writers, now can we? Well, last week, for the 2nd time in about 6 weeks, my husband was shipped out of town last minute once again at the whim of one of his bigger clients, let’s call them Snike to conceal their identity and protect my husband from running into the wrong end of a rouge sneaker. So off to Portland he went while I scrambled to think of entertainment for the wee folk. What to do…what to do…..when will I get to poo? Hey maybe I should write for Hallmark.
I have an aunt, we call her Aunti, who lives about 1&1/2 hours north of the city who has a fairly liberal open door policy, a big yard, and a lot of farming friends. Perfect. Off we go. First we unleashed the little city boys on the black dirt.
They had a ball pulling onions for Daddy’s welcome home gift and getting dirt into nooks and crannies they didn’t even know they had. (More on the owner of this farm later in the week.)
Oh…and did I mention that my CSA has been providing a disturbing amount of zucchini? 
Well…that was the other reason for my visit…get my hands on THE RECIPE. When I called Aunti sniveling about the woes of a fridge full of zucchini that my kids were not digging roasted or sauteed, she laughed out loud at me. Make zucchini bread Dingbat. Tough love in my family. So I packed the 87 zucchinis and took them for a ride to her oven. With a little help from my gremlins I managed to tranform the inedible veggie drawer filler into scrumptious little wonder loaves. And because no one should have to suffer zucchini season alone…I will share.
Aunti’s Zucchini Bread
- 3 eggs
- 1 cp oil (I think 1/2 apple sauce would work well in this one. I’ll keep you posted)
- 2 cps grated zucchini
- 2 1/2 cps sugar (Yikes! I know….I am going to tinker with this over the summer with reduction and honey.)
- 2 tsps cinnamon (I think nutmeg might be a tasty addition too.)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1tsp baking soda
- 1tsp baking powder
- 3 cps flour (The original calls for all white but I think it could handle some ww swap.)
350 for an hr in 2 loaf pans or a bundt.
****Options**** 1 cp choc chips, raisins, walnuts….you get the idea. The chocolate is really goooooood.
Thanks to that little recipe I no longer fear the seemingly endless zucchini season. In fact I have been grating and freezing the extra in 2 cp bundles so I can enjoy it even post season. It is amazing what a little chocolate can do to even the dullest of veggies. The kids were right all along.
This sounds really good! Thanks for the recipe! Sounds like the farm is a perfect place to keep the kids occupied
Oh thank you for the zucchini bread recipe!
What are you doing with the giant beets?
Yup. I’ve got five loaves of zucchini bread in my freezer so far!
Oh, we went through that last year, and will probably go through it again this year. I make muffins instead of loaves b/c they freeze easily and you can pull them out one serving at a time.
The kids love the farm. What? Pull dirty things out of the ground…on purpose? Sign us up.
Jen…I have just been slicing and roasting the beats with olive oil, garlic and salt. Getting a little old though. I’m in the market for a creative beet recipe.
Mmmmm I love zucchini bread. I’ll have to try your recipe some time.
[...] When the World Gives You Lemons…You Pick Onions and Make Some Zucchini Bread [...]
as far as the beets, I suggest cooking, slicing, and making a nice little salad out of them – just add some goat cheese and really thinly slice red onion (and greens are optional)
Question about the squash – are the yellow ones workable for zucchini bread too? I always thought the zuchhini were the green ones and the yellow were summer squash, but now my CSA sends them all just labelled as “summer squashes” – am I just getting dumb or something?
My CSA calls them yellow zucchini so I used them the same way. No ones exploded or anything…yet.
you can make the breads into single servings too. I wrap mine (whole loaf) in foil, then put them in ziplocks to freeze overnight. Then the next day, I take a good size knife and (with a lot of umph) cut the slices. Then wrap it all up and back in the freezer. Hubby can just take the slices out as he wants them and he can either nuke it for a few secs or if you leave it in tupperware for an hour, it’ll defrost itself on the counter. The reason I freezer first is because if you cut and then freeze, the slices tend to stick together and are harder to retrieve.
[...] got…there is a way to preserve it. I know anyone I’ve ever met will be getting 3 dozen zucchini breads this year. And of course…if all else fails…chuck it in vodka. Nothing lubes the [...]