Pane, Pane, Pane....

Two very exciting, bread-related things happened recently (if one can consider anything bread-related to actually BE exciting). First, I procured my first bread-maker at a local garage sale. I know what you're thinking, because I've already thought it. "Aren't bread makers kind of like the Nordic Trac of the culinary world? In other words, you buy one, use it 2-3 times, then forget about it?" Well, perhaps that is true. But in my estimation, 2-3 uses for $5 isn't a bad return, and since I tend to use most of my kitchen gear pretty frequently, and since I have a wife who LOVES bread, I am thinking it might be used even more often. We'll see.

The 2nd exciting bread-related thing? I had my first go at zucchini bread. Zucchini are in-season with gusto right now, and gi-normous zucchini can be had for $0.75 or less (each!) these days at the local farmers markets. Needless to say, we've been having zucchini a million ways lately (sauteed, in pasta, breaded and baked, and now in bread) and loving it. I used some interesting ingredients and substitutions, and it turned out pretty well. La ricetta:

Pane alle zucchine
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 large eggs, beaten
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded zucchini (skin-on)
canola oil cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, and next 3 ingredients (through vanilla) in a large bowl, add sugar, and stir just until combined. Add zucchini, stir until well combined. Add flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Divide batter evenly between 2 (8x4 inch) loaf pans coated with the canola oil cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, then remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 2 loaves, about 12 servings per loaf, for 150 calories per serving.

I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light magazine; the original recipe had 1/2 cup of egg substitute in place of 2 of the large eggs, 1 tsp grated lemon rind in place of the lemon extract, and 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts as well. Most of the substitutions took place because I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I'm sure making it as they presented would have resulted in a nice loaf as well. As it is , these are quite delicious, though lemony (which is fine by me), and will struggle to make it through the middle of the week without being eaten, I'm sure!

I'll keep you all posted on the first bread-machine event as it happens. Buon week-end, tutti!

-C

Is it a one-off?

Caro lettore (dear reader)-

What a hiatus! As you probably read in the last post, we were getting closer to expecting a daughter, and indeed she arrived back on the 5th of May. Amelia was born at 4:44pm, weighed in at 6 pounds 6.5 oz, and was 18.75 inches long.

Her cuteness:

Needless to say, she has been a time consuming but wonderful addition, which is why this blog has been dormant for so long. I'm hoping to avoid that blog phenomenon, which is the inspired post after a long absence, followed by a complete shut-down. Fingers-crossed.

In some free-time, I've been really honing in on the cultural aspects of eating, including working with a student to peruse the popular bookshelves for answers about why we, as Americans, are doing so poorly in preventive health respective to our eating and activity habits. I don't think the answers will shock anyone, but the details really make for quite a story. I hope to get into more of this in future blogs, but suffice it to say that the perfect storm of policy decisions and marketing genius certainly haven't hindered it.

As a family we are looking forward to making our own baby food as the various seasonal vegetables come onto the scene, as well as doing our best to live out a mantra that seems simple enough, and was proposed by Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." On the surface it seems silly -- of course we should eat food. What else would we eat? Chairs? Toys?

What Pollan means by this, however, is that we should stick to real (whole) foods that our great-grandparents would recognize as such. Again, this should be easy, but how difficult is it to give up soda (or diet soda), non-butter products (i.e. spray butter), and processed, easy foods like frozen meals and mac-n-cheese? It's not easy. But like anything, we should do our best, and over time I think the payoff will become evident. If nothing else, eating lots of veggies in season allows us to get the tastiest food possible.

Tonight we are having guests over, and I'll probably play it safe with an old reliable. Chicken with some rosemary and garlic from our farmer's market, in foil packets cooked on the grill, vegetables (local summer squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, and olive oil) also in foil packets, and the Cucina Viola original salad - with apples and tossed in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and spices.

-C