#COOKING WITH CLORIS--BLUEBERRY ZUCCHINI BREAD AND MUFFINS

Last fall I needed to remove a diseased ornamental plum tree from my front yard. While at the garden center to purchase a replacement tree, the horticulturist asked me about my zucchini crop. “What crop?” I asked with a frown.

Zucchini used to be the one produce I could grow, no matter what. I’d harvest so much from one plant, I’d wind up with a freezer full to use in soups and spaghetti sauce all winter. And that was after all the baking of zucchini bread and muffins, the stuffed zucchini, zucchini fritters, zucchini slaw, zucchini you-name-it.

But the last few years, even though I’d rotated where I placed my plants, my harvest had been zilch. Nada. Nothing. A big fat zero. Lovely looking plants that bore no fruit.

“Cheer up,” said the horticulturist. “You’ll have zucchini next summer. The bees are coming back.”

It turns out the bees had departed from my neck of the New Jersey suburbs the last few years. My zucchini plants weren’t getting pollinated. Thus, no zucchini.

So this year I planted my zucchini and held my breath. Sure enough, the horticulturist was right. The bees came back, and this year I’m harvesting zucchini once again.

I don’t know where the bees went or why they decided to leave. I’m just glad they decided to return. The other day I discovered a ginormous zucchini hiding under some leaves. Somehow I’d missed it when it was at optimum picking stage. And what better way to use a ginormous zucchini than make zucchini bread and muffins? And I still wound up with enough zucchini to make zucchini carrot slaw for dinner that night and freeze six cups for future use! That was one ginormous zucchini!

Blueberry Zucchini Bread and Muffins

Yield: one loaf and 6 muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup canola oil

3 tsp. vanilla

2-1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 T. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1 pt. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Set aside 1/4 cup flour.

Lightly grease one loaf pan and one 6-cup muffin pan.

In a large bowl beat together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar approximately one minute. Fold in zucchini.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients, stirring until incorporated. Fold in pecans.

Toss blueberries in reserved flour. Fold into batter.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Pour remaining batter into loaf pan. Bake muffins 20-25 minutes, loaf pan 50-55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes on wire rack. Remove from pans and continue cooling.