A loaf of total YUMMMM and a visitor

I have been teasing Larry all week about making Zucchini bread. You see back in 1970 when we first met, we lived on communal land. 600 acres of "Free land for Free People". The name of this land being Earth Peoples Park, way up in Norton Vt.
There was quite a great group of people there, some built houses, some lived in tipi's, some came for the summer... and we pretty much shared in the work, the laughter, the tears and the groove of the times.

Okay, I do have a zucchini point here, the point being that we were all rather poor, and while we did eat every day, it was at times slim pickin's. Squash was something that grew rather well and was a constant companion to your stomach. And unless it was a time when the pantry was stocked, there was little to season said squash with and truth be told, boiled plain squash can be rather um.... BLAND.

So Larry is not a squash fan, he had too many meals of bland squash poor guy.
So the teasing began and he would look at me like "Oh yeah...well I ain't eating no squash bread". And I would say " Oh you'll eat it, I'll disguise it and sneak it in on ya". He would come back with "Yeah right we'll see".

Well let's just say he ate a piece after dinner and another at bedtime and he'll cut another after dinner tonight I'm sure.

Zucchini Bread with Lemon glaze
Adapted from several sources

Yield: I made one loaf to make sure I tweeaked it okay. Or double for 2 loaves or make muffins. This would make about 12 small muffins as written.

1 egg
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/4 c of unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup grated zucchini
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1/2 cup dried cranberries,cherries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)I used dried cherries and chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan, liberally. Or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil, applesauce and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.



Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Stir this into the egg mixture. A third at a time,then gently fold in nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Pour into prepared pan or muffin cups.


Bake loaf for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.( Mine was 60 min exactly.) Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.



Lemon Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar
2 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. soft butter or Smart Balance light or coconut oil
1 tsp. lemon zest

Stir this until smooth. Pour over loaf after it is cool.
You may have to increase/decrease liquid or sugar until a good consistency I really did not measure the glaze ing. As I tend to eyeball stuff like this.



Last night at dusk we were sitting in the great room and had the door to the porch open. I saw something move and realized there was a deer in the yard. Larry snapped a couple pictures. This is one of the best things about living in the woods.




When were first moved here and started to clear the land and build, the deer would come to the edge of our clearing and munch on brush and watch the silly humans wearing themselves out. They got so used to us they would just walk around like we weren't here. Since we got Jackeddy they don't come right up to the house much anymore. And the recent addition of Mikeddy really keeps them at bay. Such a mouth he has.