The attack of the killer zucchini: the BEST zucchini bread

There is a tradition, it seems, in the areas of the country where people farm. It doesn't happen in NYC, but perhaps it should.
Every year, late summer, there is a time when the zucchini somehow escape surveillance. And they grow. And grow. And grow. I do believe that, one day, we will hear of someone beating someone to death with a zucchini. (why we call them that when they are that big, I don't know. I love the British expression of calling them "marrow.").
Speaking of Brits, it is also my understanding that, when confronted with these monsters, they make jam.
More power to them. I don't think I would like it.
Now, usually I can avoid these monsters, but this past weekend, as I was leaving the farmers market, one of my favorite farmers, Dave (who, one friend has commented on as possibly my ideal fantasy man. Not true, but SUCH A SWEETHEART), came running after me, and handed me a bag with garlic heads (YUM), and two, enormous squash (not so yum). I already had a bag of "real" zucchini in the fridge, and had no desire to make soup. What to do?

Well, Guy was looking at recipes on the website for the wonderful spice company, Penzey's. I thought that they might have a recipe for zucchini bread, and indeed they did.

Penzey's recipes are simple, and fast, and very, very good. Even when you have your doubts (as I did about this one), they work. Make this recipe, even if you do not have a Godzilla zucchini. It's really very, very good, and you will be out of the kitchen, in ten minutes. I swear.

You need to gather your ingredients, and preheat your oven, to 325. Your ingredients are 2 large eggs, a cup of oil (review: what does it mean when a cake is based on vegetables and oil? HMMMM?), 2 cups of shredded squash (use the big holes on your three hole grater, if you have one) 2 cups of sugar, a tablespoon of vanilla, 3 cups of flour, a tablespoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and half a cup of nuts of some kind.

The amount of cinnamon seemed minuscule to me, but it works. So, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and put them to the side. In a bowl, mix up the eggs (use a spoon. No need for power tools here), and then add the oil and combine them to the point where you have what looks like a very thin mayonnaise, because that's what you have. Now add the vanilla. And now, the squash. Stir it together and then, stir in the dry ingredients, until everything is combined. Add the nuts.

Get two, 8x4 bread pans (to review the significance of bread pan sizes, go back to the second entry in this blog. That long ago...). Butter them evenly, and then divide the batter between the pans. Get them into the oven and bake for an hour. For about 45 minutes, you will be convinced this is not going to work. Patience. In the last fifteen minutes, the cakes/breads will rise nicely, and perhaps split. Use the straw test (insert it in the middle and see if the crumbs are dry) to see if it's done, and if the cakes are not ready, bake some more. Then, let the cakes cool for about fifteen minutes, and bang them out of the pans. If you didn't butter the pans well enough, it will stick, but that's ok. This is an informal cake/bread.

This is really, really good. I ate far more of it than I should have. And I have another "zucchini" (a "zuccono" perhaps?) and I'm making two loaves more.