OK, so one Mr. John Connolly (sp?) was kind enough to give John and me a large assortment basket of veggies from his garden, including a massive zucchini that clearly lay in the background hiding out all summer long until someone noticed it. It wasn't baseball bat sized just yet but you could tell it would have been in another week or two. I steamed some of it, but decided the rest just had to become zucchini bread. Sure there was a recipe floating around somewhere in my notebook but I hit Epicurious.com instead and used this one: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/109568
I made a few alterations, namely switched out 3/4 cup of All-Purpose flour for Whole Wheat flour, cut back on the cinnamon, and upped the allspice while adding some ginger as well. I thought it was finished baking as the tester came out clean but alas there was some wetness still on the bottom which probably should have been cooked out. Next time. I did use the shredding blade attachment on the Cuisinart, which I highly recommend as grating all that zucchini by hand would get old real fast. After making the bread (bread? or just "large muffin"?) I had a small amount of leftover shredded zucchini. Put in a ziploc bag, add lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame oil, seal it up and shake it up et voila, you have a lovely, healthy, raw salad. It was actually the most delicious bit of zucchini I've had in ages, and it was super easy too. You could probably get all fancy and add garlic or red pepper flakes, but really the basic was pretty damn good for an afternoon snack.
It is a cool thing though to see a big, gawky teenager of a vegetable that quite frankly is more something you eat because you think you should, not because you love it, become this hot little number that everyone wants a piece of. While I was making it I kept thinking about that video for the ZZ Top song, "She's Got Legs" where the nice dorky girl with glasses gets a make-over courtesy three frankly odd looking dudes and becomes the cutest babe on the block with pink high heels, lace-edged socks and fingerless gloves (hey, it was the 80's). Change pink heels for allspice and you have your zucchini loaf. Serve with cream cheese if you have it.
