Next You'll Tell Me I Should Put Carrot In A Cake

What does one do when they have a really GIANT zucchini fresh from their garden?  Seriously, look how TALL that zucchini is - it's the same size as the wine bottle hiding behind it. 

That's right, one makes zucchini bread!  I would never in a million years have thought to make bread out of zucchini - but my sister-in-law, Karen, brought some over this past Christmas and we loved it.  So I found a recipe, tried it out last week to rave reviews, and decided to make a double batch tonight from our really GIANT zucchini.  Here's the recipe - you're going to love this one, trust me!  Oh, and it's another Paula Deen recipe (LOVE her!). 

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I did not use these)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.  In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice.  Mix dry ingredients into wet, add nuts (if you use them) and fold in.  Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with non-stick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.  Or, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Tonight I doubled the recipe to make four loaves.  Make sure your non-stick spray is all natural - sometimes these have nasties hidden in them.  I use the Spectrum brand for our cooking.  Both times I've made this it was ready after exactly an hour and perfect each time.  We like to eat ours sliced with a little butter spread over it.  The kids LOVE this recipe and so do Darrin and I.