The Attack of The Giant Zucchini

(c) 2012 by Tom King

Everybody needs a recipe so you'll know what to do with a giant zucchini.

Adventists tend to be gardeners.  If they aren't gardeners they feel guilty because they aren't gardening. If they do garden, they always, for some reason inexplicable to me, plant squash.  Squash, for those non-gardeners out there, is an obnoxious vegetable that not very many people particularly like and which, accordingly, grows prolifically if you happen to drop a few seeds in virtually any patch of brick hard ground.

Amateur gardeners will gleefully show up at church or even come to your door with sacks of squash they need to get rid of because they have no idea what to do with it all.......especially the zucchini.

Zucchinis come in large, extra-large and awesome sizes. So as not to hurt the feelings of their well-meaning gardening friends, Adventist cooks have developed dozens of exciting recipes that require zucchini as a key ingredient.  It is my opinion that most of these recipes were invented especially for zucchini so that people would have an answer when their gardener friends ask them, "What did you do with that zucchini I gave you?"

Fortunately, for us all, the favorite answer is, "Zucchini bread!"

Every Adventist guy needs a specialty recipe that he can bake. It gets you all sorts of kudos from the wife and kids if you can produce something delicious, especially if it solves the problem of what to do with that enormous zucchini that's been jammed in the crisper in your fridge for the last week.  Having a delicious zucchini recipe accomplishes two things for the Adventist male.

1. It demonstrates your competence in the kitchen which is outside your usual purview.
2. It demonstrates your ability to solve problems - and right about now, you're humming "How do you solve a problem like zucchini." to the tune from "Sound of Music".  Sorry about that.

This dish is guaranteed to make you glad to see a gimme zucchini

So, here is a wonderful recipe for zucchini bread, contributed to the Tyler-Athens SDA Churches' "Bountiful Blessings" cookbook by Mrs. Doris Crockett.  It's a wonderfully adaptable recipe to which you can add currents, raisins, chopped apple and stuff to give it flair.

The picture above is me with a gargantuan zucchini donated to us this summer by our over-the-fence neighbor Carlos who grew this baby in a grow-box garden in his tiny backyard.  I plan to add plans for a grow-box garden of the type created by missionary Jacob Mittleider some day in the future, but for now, check out this great zucchini bread recipe for yourself.

Master that and making whole wheat bread and you can capitalize the "A" on your alpha male badge!

Bon appetit!

Tom