A quick bread: strawberries

When you enjoy cooking, you look for ideas EVERYWHERE. Some of them ain't so good, and some are wonderful. This one falls into the pretty good category. I wouldn't call it fabulous, or an eye opener. In my opinion, what it is, is a neat little variation on a classic - banana bread, that you should try once in a while.
Annalena tries to be ruthlessly seasonal in her approach to cooking. That means that, just about now, she's getting sick of root vegetables and apples. There is her stash of frozen goodies from the spring, which is coming out little by little (fava bean and ricotta salata pasta yesterday), and then there are the "cheats," where she violates her own rules (we sometimes call it "granting an exception"), and buys frozen goods. That is in fact what happened with this recipe, as her hankering to p lay with strawberries got the better of her.
I found this recipe in a catalog from which I buy my spices : "Penzeys." Many of the recipes that are printed here, are just not worth my time. But the baked goods speak to me: they are simple, they are quick and they are good. So, let's make this one together.

This makes two big loaves, so it's good for when you need to bring something somewhere. You start by mixing together, in a big bowl, 3 cups of flour, a tablespoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of baking soda, and a teaspoon of salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 1.25 cups of vegetable oil (quick review: if there's oil as the fat in the bread, what does this tell you about it's provenance? Think zucchini and pumpkin bread, think about where butter went in history when there were food shortages...), with three large eggs, a hefty teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 cups of sugar. You can do this with a big spoon. In fact, you should. Now, stir the dry ingredients in. This is gonna be thick and you're going to wonder if you did something wrong. You didn't , because...

Now, you take two 10 ounce packages of frozen strawberries that you have thawed. Separate the berries from the liquid, and stir those in. Don't worry about chopping them. The act of stirring will break 'em up. After you do that, if this looks too thick, stir in some of the strawberry liquid, as much as you see fit, because you're now going to add a cup of chopped pecans, (unless you have a nut allergy, in which case you should leave them out, unless you're giving them to someone with one whom you're trying to harm....).

Ok, now, after you have this all mixed together, grease two 8.5x4.5 loaf pans. This is an important point. A standard quickbread pan is 9x5 and is too big for this. If you don't have the smaller "pan loaf" pans, then perhaps two 8x8 square pans, or a big, 9x13 will do. If you use those, though, please keep an eye on the baking time.

If you use the loaf pans, bake them at 325, for an hour and ten minutes. You will get remarkable height on these loaves, and they will be very dark. They will also take that full time to bake up properly. Let them rest for ten minutes before you knock them out of the pan.

What are they l ike? This is a fair question, because cinnamon and strawberry is not an obvious combination. To my taste, it is a cinnamon bread, flavored with a bit of strawberry jam. Others may feel like the strawberries are more prominent than I do, but that's a matter of taste.

In any event, if you are feeling like you MUST have some berries, rather than use those ghastly pink ghosts that are coming from Buddha knows where, get the frozen ones, and do this. it will take you all of fifteen minutes to throw together, if your berries are thawed (and if they are not, that's what a pot of hot water or a microwave oven are for), and get to it. You'll have a good breakfast ready for you, every day of the week.