Experimental Zucchini/Apple Bread

Mmm...butter

Ok, I'm almost finished rereading The Age of Innocence. It's been a busy summer for me, so I've been a slower reader than usual. Anyway, this post, as the title suggests, is actually about baking. My mom gave me some zucchini from my stepfather's garden (it's good to know your farmer). I found a zucchini bread recipe that I copied by hand years ago (origin unknown) that called for a cup of zucchini. But after shredding my zucchini, I found that I didn't quite have a cupful. So I shredded an apple, and added that to the zucchini to get a cupful. Then, I realized that I only had half a cup of white sugar (my recipe called for a cup...I obviously did not plan ahead very well). So I added half a cup of brown sugar, and hoped for the best. The result was actually really good. Here's the recipe below, with my changes:

Experimental Zucchini/Apple Bread
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup grated zucchini
¼ cup grated apple
⅔ cup nuts (I used pecans)

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease and flour pan (I used an 8x8 baking pan). Add flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon to a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, vegetable oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir. Add grated zucchini, grated apple, and nuts. Bake for 40 – 60 minutes. Let it cool off for 5 minutes, then devour.

Off topic: A Word About Baking

Baking success!

It may not come as a surprise that I, a blogger about books (and the owner of a Master’s degree in English), am not much of a science girl. But there is one kind of science that I love…baking! But baking, dear readers, is an exact science. And sometimes one learns that lesson the hard way. A few weeks ago, I decided to make gingersnaps, which I made last year (I have such a sweet tooth…I’m sure it makes my dentist happy). Now, the recipe I used called for baking soda. But I mistakenly added baking powder. And can we say, baking FAIL? Instead of yummy gingersnaps, I ended up with overly sweet blobs of sugar and molasses. It broke my heart. Well, yesterday, I made gingersnaps again—successfully. And, since I did everything correctly, they were scrumptious. And I was happy…as were my mom and stepdad, with whom I shared the gingersnaps. The end.

Chocolate Cake!

n.b. Wait until the cake cools to cut it--or it will fall apart like this. But it's still good.

I used to think making chocolate cake was quite complicated. Turns out, it’s easy-peasy. It’s one of the simplest cakes I’ve made ever made. I used the recipe on the back of the cocoa box—the one I bought because I wanted cocoa after reading Maud Martha (that book is truly the gift that keeps on giving). The cake was yummy—even though I forgot to add vanilla extract! Also, chocolate cake goes wonderfully with strawberries—which I ate with the cake to add a semblance of being healthy. I halved the recipe, but I’m including it here in its entirety (I must say, halving it was maybe the hardest part—thank goodness I learned fractions!)

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

2 cups of sugar

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup Hershey’s cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

 1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two 9-in. round baking pans.

 2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes (I just stirred it with a spoon). Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans.

 3. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes clean.

 4. Eat it up!

Off topic: A Letter to Three Wives and Gingersnaps

Recently, I had a nasty case of conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye (how very 4^th grade). For the most part, I felt perfectly fine, but since it’s very contagious, I missed a day of work. Sometimes, if I’m sick, I’ll put the television on just to have some background noise while I lie around in misery. But on this particular sick day, I watched A Letter to Three Wives. This is not a movie you want on in the background. It’s one you want to pay attention to.

Movie: A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

My thoughts: Movies like this embody the word “classic.” It’s such a great film. It’s directed by Joseph L. Manciewicz, who also happened to direct my all-time favorite film, All About Eve. This movie is the story of, well, three wives: Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell), and Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern), who have a frenemy in their circle named Addie Ross (who narrates the story and is voiced seductively by Celeste Holm). Deborah is a farm girl who married up and feels as if she doesn’t fit in among her husband’s wealthy friends. Rita writes for a radio soap opera, and makes more money than her English teacher husband (which qualified as a serious issue at the time…hopefully not now).  And Lora Mae is a bombshell from the wrong side of the tracks who marries her former boss, the owner of several department stores. One afternoon, as all three ladies are ready to go on a boating trip with a group of children, they receive a letter from Addie, who all of the ladies’ husbands view as a sort of ideal woman. Addie informs them that she left town—with one of their husbands. Only Addie doesn’t say whose husband… Each woman ponders her relationship in a series of flashbacks.

There is an interesting-in-a-21^st-century-way scene where Deborah, Lora Mae, and Rita notice and stare longingly at a payphone—their only chance to call their husbands and ask, “Have you left me for Addie Ross?”— as the boat they are on sails away. And since the trip is an all-day thing, they won’t be able to find out whose husband has left until that evening. As I watched the scene, I couldn’t help but think that it would have been so different if cell phones had been around. Of course, the title of the movie would be different as well (A Text to Three Wives?) Also, we as the audience never see Addie Ross, which adds to her mystique.

While writing this, I started to think about why this movie is so great. The script is amazing, and Manciewicz crammed this movie with great actors. Kirk Douglas is great as Rita’s husband, an English teacher who corrects the grammar of those around him (I must say that I saw myself in him in this regard). And Thelma Ritter, the great Thelma Ritter, is the sarcastic Sadie, who works for Rita. This is a genuinely funny movie. It’s such a cliché to say this, but they really don’t make movies like this anymore.

Great lines:
Lora Mae: How do I look?
Sadie: If I was you, I'd show more of what I got. Maybe wear somethin’ with beads.
Lora Mae: What I got don't need beads.

Days later, after my eye turned back to its natural color, I decided to use up some leftover molasses and make gingersnaps from this recipe I saw on seriouseats.com. I hadn’t made these since Christmas 2010, which is a crying shame because they are SO GOOD.

Great way to use up leftover molasses!

P.S. I’m still reading A Hope in the Unseen, which, like the gingersnaps, is very good.