grandma clark's zucchini bread party!

I’m so thankful that I grew up with two sets of doting grandparents. I’m blessed to have known all of my grandparents and have many years and memories with them. My grandmothers couldn’t have been more different but they were both wonderful examples to me of living a simple life, having high morals and spreading seeds of love.

Today marks 7 years that my Grandma Clark has been in heaven. My grandparents met when grandpa was 6 years old and grandma was 4. Grandpa was in first grade; he went home that day and announced to his mother that he had met his future wife. They were engaged on Christmas day when grandma was a senior in high school. She spent the summer after her graduation making quilts, sewing pillowcases and canning vegetables to prepare for their wedding. They were married for 53 years before Grandpa passed away in 1992.

Grandma and Grandpa Clark lived on a 140 acre farm, their favorite book was The Bible and they believed that every meal should include bread and butter. Grandma loved having family over for lunch and you could count on lunch being at noon, straight up, 12:00, don’t be late. If you were lucky it would include her cubed steak and brown gravy. If you were really lucky it would include mashed potatoes and her famous chicken and noodles.

As a very young child one thing I loved about mealtime at Grandma Clark’s house was that they had SOFT margarine that came in a little plastic tub. Oh, it was very special, no wonder I licked it off my bread  and asked for more. No one else I knew had little plastic tubs of soft margarine. I would slather it on the cornmeal mush Grandma would fry for breakfast. I would wash it down with a big glass of orange TANG. It was full of sugar but Grandma served it for breakfast and I loved it.

She must have had a hundred of those little plastic butter tubs in her cupboard and she put them to very good use. They had a huge chest freezer in the basement and grandma would buy many different flavors of ice cream, her favorite dessert. She’d divide it into the plastic butter tubs and label it for individual servings. The freezer was full of ice cream in butter tubs and you would think you were at an ice cream parlor when she opened the heavy freezer lid. After dinner we would go to the freezer and ponder the flavors as grandma would read them to me. I would consider each one and take my time deciding, knowing there was no where else in the world to have this opportunity except at Grandma Clark’s house. I was just about as tall as the freezer and I can still feel the excitement I felt when the ice cold air hit my face, waiting a millisecond for the mini cloud of vapor to clear so I could see all of the little bowls of ice cream neatly labeled and stacked.  It was usually a battle between chocolate and butter pecan. Inevitably someone else at the dinner table would claim to have the same dilemma so I’d grab one of each and we’d split them both.

To remember Grandma today I made her delicious zucchini bread.  It’s simple with the perfect sweetness and full of cinnamon and walnuts. It freezes well and makes a great little after school snack or giveaway treat.

I love you, Grandma! My kitchen smells like yours tonight. xo

Grandma Clark's Zucchini Bread

click HERE to print recipe only

ingredients

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 cups shredded zucchini (I put the shredded zuke in a strainer and press the excess water out of it.)
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans 

directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease loaf pans. I also like to line the greased loaf pans with greased parchment paper. 

 2. Beat eggs, sugar and oil. You can use an electric mixer but I use a whisk. 

3. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.

4. Stir in flour. Batter will be VERY thick. If you started with a whisk, trade it for a wooden spoon. 

5. Stir in zucchini.  Stir in nuts.

6. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans for 50 minutes to one hour. I baked it in two smaller loaf pans for 40 minutes and made 24 mini muffins, baked for 15 minutes. 

To test doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the bread. If it comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached to it, it's done.

Grandma always served this with whipped cream. Enjoy!