Zucchini Bread

Now that the garden plot is at its peak, I’ve had an abundance of zucchini that I’ve been happy to put to use in my mom’s zucchini bread recipe. She adapted it from an old parish cookbook, and because it was a late summer staple in our house as I was growing up, it tastes just like August to me.

Ingredients:

1 cup  vegetable  oil

2  eggs,  slightly  beaten

2  cups  sugar

2  cups  grated  raw  zucchini

1  cup  grated  raw  carrots

2  teaspoons vanilla  extract (I love this)

3  cups  all  purpose  flour

1  teaspoon  baking  soda

1/4  teaspoon baking  powder

1  teaspoon  salt

3  teaspoons  ground  cinnamon

1  teaspoon  ground  nutmeg

1  cup  chopped nuts (I usually go with walnuts)

1  cup  raisins or dried cranberries (I went with the latter)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Combine raw and wet ingredients in a large bowl, stirring by hand 
• Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl
• Slowly mix wet and dry ingredients together
• Fold nuts and dried fruit into the batter, stirring gently without beating
• Spoon  batter  into 2 buttered  8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans or unlined, buttered muffin tins
• Bake for 1 1/2 hours (slightly less if baking muffins)
• Let cool, put on a pretty plate, pour a glass of milk (preferably into one of these) and enjoy!