Zucchini Bread

Tomorrow we are running our second half marathon. It has kind of snuck up on us, as our training has been lacking, at best. As I sit here and drink lots of water (it's going to be freezing, so it'll be easy to get dehydrated) I'm wondering where the time went between when we registered (June) and now (18 hours away from kickoff). We were so confident that we would keep up with a training schedule, despite knowing some of the major hindrances that were coming up in the fall - weddings, Homecoming, travel, etc. But after keeping up with a loose training plan this summer, we each slowly but surely started to fall off track. It's been disappointing that time has evaporated and we haven't trained. We know we feel so much better when we run, but the workdays are long and the academic commitments are more challenging than ever. So as we prepare to run in freezing temps tomorrow, all we can do is go in with a good attitude and laugh off whatever the hell is going to happen.

If we each survive the half tomorrow in mostly one piece, we are looking forward to barreling towards the end of the semester. Will only has a month left of this semester (hurrah!) and all is quiet on the events front for me, until the spring semester. We're looking forward to visiting all our parentals in Virginia and Arkansas at the holidays and then will only briefly be home before flying out to Seattle for me to attend a conference! Will's never been to Seattle, so we're really looking forward to having him join me for the duration of the conference. Then after that, we both start going in different directions for work and school again, which will probably ensure an equally crazy spring! It's hard to believe Will is only one semester away from being done with his master's degree...hard to imagine what life brings after next May, when we're both out of school for awhile!

Perhaps it will mean more attention to the blog, though at the pace I've been keeping up, I won't make any empty promises. I will simply enjoy sharing this surprisingly delicious bread with you. Will is usually hesitant to try dessert-like recipes that involve zucchini, but we were getting desperate on the zucchini-usage front and needed to be a little more creative. I'm glad he added the walnuts and raisins because I don't think we would have enjoyed it as much otherwise!






Cooking Notes: We had one HUGE zucchini that inspired this recipe, so we're not quite sure if it was a full pound or not (as suggested), but it seemed close enough. Will added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup golden raisins, as special "optional" additions from the original recipe. He used 3/4 cup canola oil instead of olive oil. We also chose to use our 1.5 qt loaf pan, which seemed seems bigger than what was in the picture on the original recipe.


Zucchini Bread (adapted from The Kitchn; makes one large loaf)
1 extra large zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup golden raisins



Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 1.5 qt. loaf pan with Crisco. Shred the zucchini with a box grater, in the best way possible for the size of the zucchini. Gather the shreds in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze to press out moisture from the zucchini possible. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices in a large mixing bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, sugars, canola oil and vanilla extract.

Toss the zucchini, walnuts and raisins in the flour mixture. Pour the liquid mixture over top, then gently stir and fold until there is no more flour visible. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan. Bake 45 minutes and begin checking for doneness - keep baking until the crust is golden brown and the top is springy (ours took 1 hour and 15 minutes). Cool in the pan for 10 minutes when done, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Recipe: The Kitchn; Zucchini Bread