From the Kitchen: August 2004 Archives

This is for Blue Witch, who enjoyed the carrot cake recipe. This time of year we have an overabundance of zucchini. Even one plant can provide enough zucchini for an entire neighborhood, so we're constantly trying to find ways to use them up, or share them.

This recipe for a zucchini tea bread is older than most of our children, and I make it at least once a year. I hope you enjoy it.

Zucchini Bread

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup salad oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Mix thoroughly. With a spoon, add the zucchini and walnuts, and spread the batter in the pan.

Bake 70 miunutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack, and then remove the loaf from the pan. Let cool completely. Wrap to store.

This year, because we are making an effort to cut calories and fat from our diet, I may try replacing the oil with applesauce. I'll let you know what happens

Carrot Cake

2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cups cooking oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Sift the flour once, add baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and sift the mixture into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and beat until blended. Add carrots and pecans. Pour into a greased, floured 10" tube or bundt pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes. Cake test. Remove from oven, let stand ten minutes. REmove from pan and cool on a rack. Dust with 10X sugar. Serve with ice cream.

Thirty years later......
A number of years ago, a friend told me that I could substitute applesauce for part or all of the oil, and now, I do. And, should I never find the definitive Bundt pan, I will consider making this cake in a 13 x 9 cake pan. It will take some adjustment of cooking time, but it would be worth it.

If I could remember how this recipe came to me, I would give the creator credit for it. It seems that it has been in my family forever, and my personal copy was typed more than a quarter of a century ago. I equate this cake with comfort. My head, which is trained to read labels and think "Low-carb," simply has to give way now and then, so that my heart, and taste buds, can enjoy the comfort of food from my youth. Thank God that doesn't happen often! *G*

I rarely bake any longer.

In my twenties, I made bread from scratch. This was before the invention of bread machines. I baked an occasional cake, and made pies and cobblers. We have a refrigerated dough crescent roll that is served at every Thanksgiving dinner, and a pastry called "Sugar Crisp" that's made each Christmas. For a number of years, the women of my family have been invited to a day of baking cookies in December, to get ready for Christmas.

When my doctor suggested that I stop baking, I thought he was crazy. I kept on baking, but shared the fruits of my labors. Then....gradually, I started to cut back on my baking.

There are times, though, when I get a taste for a certain dessert, and carve out the time to make it from scratch. Last night, I cleaned the kitchen, put everything away, and then checked to see if I had the ingredients for carrot cake. I needed more oil. I decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store today, and pick up what I needed. I'd still have time to make the cake and cool it before dinner.

With the exception of needing two cups of grated carrots, the recipe is extreemely simple. Some time ago, I discovered that I could use my blender to chop the carrots, so that's what I did today. I think I must have dirtied every bowl in the kitchen, and several spoons and measuring cups. Why is that? I think there must be an axiom somewhere establishing a relationship between the number of dirtied dishes and how good something tastes.

By noon, I had the cake in the oven, and worked on dinner preparations while it baked. The house smelled wonderful with the scent of cinnamon filling the air.

When my timer went off, I did the cake test (piercing the cake with a toothpick to determine if the batter has been cooked thoroughly), and set the pan on a rack to cool. When it was cool, I used a knife to release the cake from the edges of the pan, turned the pan over and tapped the bottom to release the cake.

Two thirds......maybe three quarters.....of the cake came out of the pan.

I have one lightweight, metal, easy release bundt pan that will be in the recycling bin this evening.

It was incredibly frustrating to have put all that time and effort into making a special dessert and have it look like something that came through an urban war.

It tasted fine. We had carrot cake after dinner. BUT....I knew it wasn't what it should be, and it bothered me.

I think I have one more carrot cake in me, maybe more than one, but I won't be using that crappy pan, that's for darn sure. Sur la Table.....Crate and Barrel......Kitchen shops across Illinois....here I come, looking for the definitive Bundt pan.

I was shopping for veggies the other day, and noticed a rack of magazines in the veggie department. What caught my eye was a new magazine from Better Homes and Gardens called "Diabetic Living." Apparently this was the premier issue.

It's wonderful! The first section held lifestyle tips, and information about managing diabetes. The second section was an incredible range of recipes, made over to fit a diabetic's needs.

We've found a LOT of recipes, on-line and in cookbooks, that work for Dear Husband, but I've never seen so many recipies in one place that I would be willing to try.

We picked up an eggplant at the Farmer's Market, and I have two recipes for chunky spagetti sauce that would accept cubed eggplant nicely. And better yet, half of each recipe could be frozen, so that on the days when I don't have the time to do an entire meal from scratch, I have most of a meal ready to go. That's a major issue...needing to be careful about what we eat, even when there isn't preparation time. I also like the idea of cooking once for two meals, just as a time saving device. One of those recipes was done in a crockpot, so that would save me even more time.

Where to I sign up to subscribe? Congratulations, BHG on your new mag!

Oh myyyyyyyyyyyy!!! We have just had a meal fit for a king, and it came out of our own kitchen!

If reading about incredible food makes you hungry, then do NOT read on! The rest of you....be prepared to drool! *G*

We made it to the Farmer's Market! YEAH!!!!

It was wonderful to be back. I really missed the crowds and the great veggies and fruits for sale. The one thing I mind is that they have banned dogs from the area. It used to be a lot of fun to see all the dogs parading through the people.

Usually I go early in the morning. I'd rather get there before the crowd is quite so large, and have first pick of the veggies. It's also easier to get a place to part at 7:30 in the morning, and then you can go on to breakfast, or to the rest of your day. This time, we had to make a stop at the pharmacy, and it doesn't open until 9:30, so we compromised and went about 9:00. MAN, was it busy!

Mother had her sewing scissors sharpened. I bought bi-color sweet corn for dinner tonight. Big, red, ripe tomatoes, green beans, a red pepper and a green pepper, pickle size cucumbers, four HUGE garlic bulbs (roasted garlic with feta on toasted French bread, anyone??), two egg plants, four bunches of flowers (asters, creamy yellow lilies and blue salvia), peaches, crimini mushrooms, wild Alaskan salmon and a cedar plank!

Yummmmmmmm.......gonna have some GOOD MEALS this week!