At the Market: Zucchini

I am going to begin a new feature called At the Market which will highlight in-season fruits and vegetables. It is my hope that this will encourage not only fresh, seasonal eating in our household, but will emphasize an awareness for the changing of seasons and the passing of time. It is difficult to believe that we just passed our 1 year anniversary of having moved to San Francisco, and are acutely aware of our temporary stay in this beautiful city. With that in mind we are savoring every morsel we can, including the gorgeous, abundant supply of local ingredients.

I love the zucchina (zucchine, Itlaian pl. or courgette in French)... there are so many possibilities to showcase this summer squash: pastas, sautés, grilled skewers, casseroles, gratins and crudités. Botanically speaking, zucchini is actually an immature fruit and the swollen ovary of the delicate, bright yellow zucchini flower. The soft flavors of this mysterious little plant make it extremely compatible with sweet dishes, one of my all-time favorites being zucchini bread.

This is a quick-bread, one that is reminiscent of my childhood. My mother used to make a deep brown zucchini bread, that I have had difficulty replicating for a long time. Most of the recipes I had tried yielded a golden color that just didn't quite "do it" for me. If was only a few years ago that, after some tinkering around in the kitchen, I was able to come up with a similar recipe. Why not ask mom for her recipe? Well, for some reason, she just one day stopped making it, and I don't believe she ever had this recipe written down. It just came from memory and the lack of practice has moved said recipe to the back of her memory. I think it will one day resurface again... or we will find it scratched on a scrap piece of paper stuffed into a first edition Good Housekeeping cookbook.

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tbls. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (light or dark based on preference)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 tbls. vanilla
2 c. shredded zucchini (about 2 large or 3 small zucchini)

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Butter a loaf pan (I prefer a ceramic dish).
2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a larger bowl, combine sugars, oil and eggs. Mix in vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Mix in the zucchini, and then transfer to the loaf pan.
6. Bake until the center comes out clean when tested, about 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!

note: Use all organic ingredients where possible.
image of zucchini flowers at the Mercato Centrale in Bologna, Italy

Dinner Conversation

One of my favorite, favorite things is great conversation over a leisurely, delicious dinner that lasts for hours; a great glass of wine, beautiful food, lovely people... is there anything better?

p.s... while thinking of this post, I came across the above movie, My Dinner with Andre. I have never seen it, so I cannot make an endorsement, however, it does sound intriguing! The entire movie takes place between 2 friends over dinner:

"Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. He relates to Shawn his tales of dropping out, traveling around the world, and experiencing the variety of ways people live, such as a monk who could balance his entire weight on his fingertips. Shawn listens avidly, but questions the value of Gregory's seeming abandonment of the pragmatic aspects of life."- IMDB

image via a {random} find.

MIA

And I don't mean the snake. It has been busy lately (!) and while I have been absent from my blog, I have had her near my heart, thinking of all the things I want to share :) Gosh, here are a few things that we have done/seen lately:

*spent Friday with my lovely Unominame (an endearing nickname from our college days); we talked about food/cooking over coffee, over lunch, while thrift store shopping, on the muni, over dinner and anywhere in-between. She rocks my world and is an amazing, creative cook!
*enjoyed an UH-mazing late-night burger with Bill and Camille at Marlowe.
*we say The Tree of Life on Sunday. Wow. Complex, complicated, simple, beautiful... all those and more wrapped into an engaging film.
*finished reading The Alchemist (referred by miss Kim); it was wonderful.

*we have my cousin Mac coming tonight to visit for the weekend... so excited!

Fun times and I am having fun taking advantage of these summer months! xoxo

Oh, and "posture, posture, posture"!

Camping...

...I wanna go! I used to camp all the time as a kid, but now it seems to be only once every other summer, if that. My nephew, Diego, and I contemplated pitching a tent in the front yard this weekend (like my friend K), but ended up with a tent in the living room, and only he slept in it. There are still a few good summer weekends left to get on out there. I have been wanting to try this spot for a few years. Do you have any camping trips planned?

image via {sunset}

Sugarland + My Weekend

I spent the weekend at my parent's house in Bradley. My mother gave my sisters and I tickets to see Sugarland for our birthdays so we spent Friday night at the fair... so.much.fun!! I love this band; they rock my world. Jennifer Nettles is so cute and Kristian Bush so rad. We danced, we sang, we drank margaritas out of tall blinking glasses. Awesome.

Saturday I stepped on a bee while trying to put little Rydin to sleep. Ouch. My foot is still a bit swollen.

Poor Diego... the hopeless endeavor of trying to maintain privacy from the little kids (and big adults). He is so good with his little cousins, though. He calls Rydin, "hey bub". Sweet.

Sunday was Ella's 3rd birthday. She is the sweetest little girl... and was probably the most excited over a bag full of water guns (second, of course, to her new little John Deere jeep that she can ride all over the ranch). A wonderful weekend home :)

Comfort Me With Apples

I read this book on our trip up and down Italy... I am head-over-heels for Ruth Reichl and I adored this novel! Comfort Me with Apples is a beautiful recount of Ruth's life just as she was breaking into the world of food writing, full of food tales, recipes, love, joy, tears... and more food. I looked forward to every train ride to steal a few more pages from this book. I am so glad that I will always have this story and our Italy trip intertwined in my memory. I actually got this paperback copy for $1 right before we left, but I had previously scored a hardback edition from a massive book sale for $3 and when I looked inside I found it to be an autographed copy! I have already passed along this lovely gem to my sister :)

We're Home!

Well, after 3 weeks living la dolce vita, we are back in the states. It's nice to be home. We had a wonderful time and I cannot wait to share all of our highlights and food finds: markets, meals, recipes. We have barely had a moment to catch up on sleep since we've been back; we finally walked through our door at 2am on Saturday morning, awoke at 8, took Caltrain to get our car in San Juan Bautista (in-laws), then took the car to get our cat in Bradley ('rents), then back to SF Sunday morning... phew! Work actually seems like a relaxing break, if you can believe that! Anywho, much more of our adventures to come! xoxo