When It's 90 Degrees Outside, the Only Logical Thing to Do Is Bake

As I sit down to write this, there are four loaves of zucchini bread cooling on my kitchen counter.  I had intended to make eight loaves, since I had eight ridiculous cups of zucchini, but yet again, my awesome preparedness skills struck and I ran low enough on canola oil that I had to stop at half.  And I'd already run errands for the day and wasn't going out for more.  Those of you who know me away from the interwebs should not be surprised by this.  I will have to hit the store tomorrow after work and complete the other four loaves then.  There is also a tray of shortcakes--well, minus one, which is safely ensconced in my belly--to be eaten with any of the myriad fruits in my fridge.  Except maybe the cantaloupe.  I feel like cantaloupe shortcake is not so much a delicious thing.

I'll start with the shortcake, since I can still taste its scrumptiousness in my mouth.  Here's my confession about shortcake: Bisquick.  It's my secret for waffles, too.  Yep, all you need is a big yellow box that's got half the work done for you.  All you need to do (for shortcake) is add some milk, melted butter and sugar, stir it, slap it in either a pie tin or drop it on a cookie sheet, bake it, and VOILA!  If you were to make it from scratch, there would be a lot more measuring and washing up.  So hallelujah for Bisquick!  Use it with pride and happy taste buds!

The zucchini bread, alas, requires these Many More Steps, as it does not make use of the magic Bisquick.  But I shall run down the steps so that one day when you are feeling adventurous you can make your own.  If I may start with a confession, though--and I may, since this is my blog and none of you can stop me, plus the name of the blog is "Confessions of a Yankee Baker," so it only seems appropriate--I have to tell you that I'm not especially keen on zucchini bread.  This may seem weird, since from the inception of this blog I have talked about very little else, but for some reason I just can't wrap my tongue around a slice of bread with squash in it.  I can tolerate all sort of fruit, nuts and even certain other gourds (namely pumpkin) in my baked goods, but zucchini just strikes me as weird in a bread or a muffin.  But since I'll have 8 loaves of it in my freezer soon enough, I might need to start liking it.  I'm told this recipe makes quite delicious zucchini bread, so who knows, maybe I'll actually enjoy it.

Hokay, so here it is.  The recipe for the oft-mentioned, oft-baked zucchini bread.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Squirt a little Pam into a couple loaf pans.
2. Add 3/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt into a large mixing bowl.  Dump in 2 cups sugar.  Stir this together with a whisk till it's smooth and creamy.
3. Add 3/4 veggie oil and blend it all together.
4. Add 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla and 2 cups finely shredded zucchini (it helps if you do this ahead of time.  I got 4 cups out of one massive, monstrous zucchini.  A normal sized zucchini probably gets you about 1 cup.  You will have to test this and let me know).  Mix well.
5. Sift 3 cups all-purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl.  Add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.  Toss that around so it's all mixed.
6. Add dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time until well blended.
7. Divide batter between two loaf pans.  Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

C'est tout!  That is the zucchini bread recipe.  If your name is Stefanie, you now owe me a farm cheese recipe.  You promised.

Speaking of promises, I told you I would add pictures to the zucchini bread post.  I lied, obviously.  I still intend to make pictures happen, but it's been a busy week and I'm technologically stunted, so it might take a while for it to happen.  Until then, snack on some zucchini bread and stay out of the heat!