Another use for zucchini

Savory Zucchini Bread
Mom’s Big Book of Baking Copyright 2001

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup peeled and grated zucchini (use large holes of a box grater) I didn't peel it
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
¼ cup olive oil
1 ½ cups whole or lowfat milk
1 ½ cups grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese I used the canned blend
1/3 cup pitted and coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves I used some dried

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Squeeze the grated zucchini over the sink to remove any excess moisture. Set it aside.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, oil and milk. With a wooden spoon, stir until all the ingredients are moistened. Stir in the zucchini, cheese, olives and parsley.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the loaf until it is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up on the rack to cool completely.
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I was planning on making a sweet zucchini bread or cake when this recipe caught my eye while I was perusing the cookbooks in the library. I had the Kalamata olives so I just needed to pick up some cheese and fresh parsley (which I ultimately forgot to buy). I bought the canned grated cheese since I wasn't going to spend a fortune trying to use up about a dollar's worth of zucchini. I'm famous for that - spending a fortune on other ingredients just because I couldn't bear to see a few cents worth of something go bad.

At first I thought this was going to go into the failure file. The lead-in called this a wet batter and unless 'wet' is a baker's term meaning 'so stiff one can hardly work in all the dry ingredients', I think that was misleading. This was a very dry, stiff batter. It worked though. I was pleased with the texture. As for taste, this bread wasn't much on it's own, but toasted with some butter it was pretty good. The author suggested it toasted along side canned tomato soup and I think that would be great. It was a bit too salty to handle in large doses.

I brought this cookbook home from the library solely for this recipe. It's a nice collection of basic recipes, which they promise to be foolproof, of course. It's a bit boring without any photographs, though.

It was only (lol) in the 80s on Saturday so I had the oven on quite a bit. I hate the weather people. They said it was going to rain all day and it didn't. Sounds like a good thing but I was set for a rainy day. I felt guilty spending most of the day inside cooking, but that's what I get for believing the weather people.

Question of the Day: Did you do any cooking this weekend? What did you make?