Banana-Zucchini Bread

    

     Today, I decided to do the laundry. I decided to wash all my sheets and all my towels. I decided to reorganize my closet. I have piled up all the dishes, and I will do them All. Because my parents are visiting. Not just my parents, but my parents and my little brother. (My little sister having decided to go to school on the West Coast she cannot join the reunion, but I will see her soon so all is well.)

     Struggling to get my comforter back into its newly washed duvet cover a little while ago, I felt a strange kind of vertigo. My family is visiting so I'm cleaning my apartment. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was sitting on the couch folding the laundry with my mom? That I was complaining about the sandwiches she'd made me to take to school? That I could come home and there would be fresh baked bread stored, as always, in the slow cooker? Yes, I get it back for a little while over vacation. But is this, this living in an apartment and making my own meals and folding my own little store of laundry, is this real life now?

     If it is, its a good thing my parents are visiting. I want to be pampered for a little while. I don't want to cook my own meals. I want to be driven around in the car, in the back seat with my little brother. One of my very wise friends the other day commented on our lives at college, how we are constantly running around. No two hours are spent in the same place between different classes and meetings and studying. Its true, and now I need a respite, a little haven. And that is what parents are for, right?

     Just like this bread. I know I gravitate towards banana bread and zucchini bread, so it seems inevitable that a banana-zucchini bread is making its way onto my page. But, when one has half a zucchini in the fridge and wants comforting food, this does seem the way to go. This bread is dense and moist, full of banana flavor and the heartwarming knowledge that one is eating a vegetable. But most importantly, with its cinnamon and nutmeg goodness, this bread made my apartment smell like home. A home my parents and brother can come visit and fill full of home-like memories.

Banana Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Joy the Baker

2 large Ripe Bananas
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 cup Milk (or use Soy Milk to stay vegan)
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1 cup Shredded Zucchini

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 by 4 (or 9 by 5) loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and set aside. Next, in a separate mixing bowl, thoroughly mash your bananas. To your bananas, add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and milk. Whisk everything together until incorporated. Using a wooden spoon, mix these wet ingredients into your dry ones until just combined. Fold in your shredded zucchini, and scrape the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes, testing with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean and the bread is ready. Once it is done, take it out on the oven and cool it on a wire rack for ten minutes in the pan. Then, upturn the cake onto the pan, and leave it to cool completely - or slice and eat right away.

Zucchini Bread

    

     Everyone is making zucchini bread. Joy made zucchini bread. Kristin at the Kitchen Sink made zucchini bread. Scroll down the page on Seven Spoons and there's zucchini bread again. STOP TEMPTING ME PEOPLE! I want zucchini bread so bad so bad so bad. Furthermore, there's zucchinis in my fridge so its so close to possible.

    
     Who invented exams anyway? Why should an exam and a paper be standing in the way of my making zucchini bread? On the other hand, why can't cravings go away because I could sooo easily just make this zucchini bread after said exam and paper! But my craving just won't let me. I want this and I want this now. Isn't it so easy to crave food that way? You have cravings that just won't go away right?

     But, perseverance and a lack of time wins through in the end. I studied for my midterm and wrote my paper people, I did not make zucchini bread. BUT right after I got out of my midterm, I did. I sat there and shredded away at the zucchini with my peeler (I don't have a grater! Next kitchen implement to be acquired. Other than an immersion blender. Which by the way I actually go to use IN REAL LIFE this weekend...and it was awesome...). Anyway, in the two hours between my midterm and my next class, I shredded zucchini, mixed up a batter, and baked awesome zucchini bread AND did (most of) the dishes. Woo hoo.

    
     And then, after my class, I got to eat the zucchini bread! What could be better after a day of exams? Warm zucchini bread, because I had left it in the oven during class - actually, I left it there because it wasn't fully baked by the time I had to leave but I didn't want to leave the oven on while I was in class, so I figured if I just turned the oven off it would finish in there while the oven cooled down. Phewf long explanation. When I came back it was still a little smushy right in the middle of the loaf, I recommend using the whole baking time properly! But in the end, I got a zucchini bread all crunch and crackly at the edges, soft inside, cinnamony and spicy, with the little flecks of zucchini all throughout. Even those smushy bits were delectable, and after eating a whole end of the bread, I then toasted a slice from the middle and buttered it. Yum. It is that fall season again, and it makes me happy inside.

Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Joy the Baker

1 Large Zucchini, Shredded (should yield 2 cups Shredded Zucchini) 
3 cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp Milk 
1 cup Vegetable Oil 
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/3 cup Granulated sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour an 8x4 or 9x5 loaf pan. Also, shred your zucchini! I used a peeler and then chopped up the rather large zucchini pieces I had, a grater would probably work better.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking power, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and sugar together. Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly combined, fold in the shredded zucchini. Then, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them in with a spatula. Make sure to keep lifting the flour up from the bottom of the bowl so all of it gets combined. Once it is well mixed, scrape the batter into the loaf pan and put it in a center rack in the oven. Bake it for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Take it out, and allow it to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack. Cut slices and serve warm! Or wait for it to cool completely.

The Last of the Catch Ups

     Hey! After these recipes we will finally arrive at foods I made this week and not last week before I left for Boston. Yay me! Yay for how much I cooked before I left! Look at how generally healthily I ate. Obviously, that has all gone downhill this week (six brownies do not a meal make) but still. Makes me feel nice to look at all those veggie recipes. And finally, I did cook something with meat in it last week. Hallelujah!

Fixings for a quick meal

     Today is a day for exclamations, apparently. Sorry, I'm just a little happy because two of my classes were cancelled today, and then I skipped the other one. Random mid-week vacation! Hush, a girl deserves a break sometimes. Even if she just had one and got to go home. School is tough and stressful. Staying up all night to make foods, which you will hear about tomorrow and after, is necessary stress relief. Class in which I generally spend all my time blogging is unnecessary stress. Hurrah for strangely circular stress related sentences!

I miss this dinner. I want more.

Resourcefulness

     This week I discovered something. I discovered that in growing up, I have grown resourceful. Things don't faze me as much anymore. And no, I am not just saying this. And yes, I know what happened isn't actually that fazing or that big a deal, but it made me happy so I'm going to go with it. And now you will have to hear about it.

Loaf pan= Trash can bowl (just clarifying)

     So, what happened? Well, people came over for dinner. I love having people over for dinner. I love sharing food with people who are not just me and my freezer (and since he is just holding food for me for later, he doesn't even count - sorry Mr. Freezer). I was expecting PVL and DL (who is visiting from New Zealand for a few weeks, I cannot believe I have not mentioned him! He's the greatest. Anyway...) but I also got BJG. Now, everyone knows that BJG is my friend. He is just also...cough cough...a Vegetarian.

Look! Its BJG! Big Jogging Giant....will work on it

     Well, I was planning to feed everybody the cashew chicken curry I had made with Katch (this was Sunday, I'm so backed up with recipes! It's ok, i'll catch up soon). But, what would I feed BJG? Poor thing, he brought a thing of noodles to eat in case I did not have food for him. As though I would let anyone heat up noodles to eat in my house. Tsk tsk.

TOFU!

     Luckily, my fridge is now well stocked - courtesy Reading Terminal and H-Mart trips with KK over the weekend. So, I had: tofu, zucchini, and carrots. All the fixings for a veggie dish. Chop up tofu, zucchini, and carrots. Heat up oil. Hmmm...at this point there are two options: try to figure out how to season this from scratch, or use sauce courtesy H-Mart. So, I cheated. And now I'm blogging about it. Is that OK? Well, I am blogging about cooking in my college life. And sometimes, that involves cheating and the use of pre-made products. I'm okay with that once in a while.

People over for dinner = Rushed picture taking

     So, I used the sweet and spicy pork marinade I had bought from H-Mart. It has apples and pears in it! It is vegetarian, I checked. It's also amazingly delicious. If you are at any Asian grocery store, you should look for these kinds of Korean BBQ Marinades, especially the kinds for kalbi. They make everything so flavorful. So, I cooked up the veggies and tofu with a couple of tablespoons of marinade, and voila! I had food for the vegetarian. I am un-faze-able.

P.S. I am also on the bus to Boston because I'm going home for the weekend! I love buses with wi-fi.

Vegetable Tofu Stir-Fry 

1 tbsp Vegetable Oil 
2 mid-sized Carrots, Sliced (not too thin) 
1/2 Large Zucchini, Chopped into Quarter Circles  
A dash of Salt
1/2 tbsp Water
1/2 block Soft Tofu, Cut into 1 in cubes 
2 tbsp Korean Kalbi Marinade (or other sweet-spicy marinade sauce)  

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or saucepan (all I have). Add the carrots and zucchini and salt. Stir them around, and then add the water. Allow them to cook until the zucchini looks Slightly more translucent. Then, add the soft tofu and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes. Lastly, add the marinade. Stir everything together, and allow it to cook until the zucchini is translucent looking and the carrots are softer (cook for less time if you like crunchy carrots, and longer if you like squishy carrots).

Serve on top of rice!