🎂When Life Gives You Too Much Zucchini...
Make Chocolate Cake!🎂
A few years ago, a neighbor went on vacation and asked us to check her garden while she was gone. “Please take any zucchini you find!” she said. “It’s growing so fast we don’t know what to do with it!”
“Thanks!” I replied. I may have been up to my ears in zucchini from our farm share, but I am always up to the challenge of saving food from rot.
Two days later, I sent my eight-year-old to check their garden. “Bring back any zucchini you find,” I called as she biked down the hill. When she came home empty-handed, I was quite surprised. “Was there no zucchini?” I asked as she walked in the door?”
“Oh Mama! There’s zucchini. But it is so big it doesn’t fit in my bike basket!”
I was standing in the kitchen, where the counter was full of fresh produce waiting for me to wash and store. My hands were wringing wet from the carrots I was scrubbing in the sink. I didn’t have time for this.
I looked at my wet hands, then looked at her. “Go get Daddy and ask him to help you.”
She found him tinkering with tools in the backyard. I heard her through the open window. “Daddy, will you help me get zucchini from down the street?” The backdoor slammed—no matter how gently we close that door it always sounds like someone is angry—and they came up the stairs, bike helmets in hand. “Don’t forget to bring a bag!” I called as they walked out the door.
They biked together, father and daughter, to the neighbor’s garden and came home with a bag full of zucchini. It was only three zucchini, but each of them was at least 9 inches long, and 2-3 inches around. That was on top of the eight zucchini I had from our farm share.
I piled the zucchini on the kitchen counter and stared at it in disbelief. It stared back at me. I swear they grew eyes.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed by this zucchini with eyes,I texted a picture of the mound to my friend Kelli, who invited us over for dinner the next day. “What’s your favorite way to use up a mound of zucchini? Bonus points if it’s dessert.”
“Chocolate cake!” She replied instantly. I started a response that went something like, “Chocolate cake?! With zucchini?! You’ve gone insane!” but then I noticed the little bubble with three dots signifying she was still typing, so I held off before I pressed send.
“Let me find the recipe my mom used. I’ve never made it, but I remember her making it. And it’s the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had.”
Knowing Kelli never uses a recipe and it could be weeks before she heard from her mom, I turned to Google to do a search on my own. I typed in “Zucchini chocolate cake” and surveyed the results. There were several for zucchini chocolate muffins, but that sounded more like breakfast than dessert, so I kept scrolling until I found “Zucchini Chocolate Cake” from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
I’ve used recipes from that site before and the pictures made that one look amazing, so I saved it in a new tab and continued my scrolling. I clicked two more links and switched from tab to tab, trying to compare the three. One had buttermilk, one had cream. One had butter, one had oil. I had no idea which one to choose.
I sent all three links to my friend Rebekah, who I go to when I need to understand the science behind cooking.
“How do I tell the difference between these three recipes? Which one should I try?”
She replied in record time. “All of them!”
This was not really what I was expecting her to say. Usually, she dives into the way baking powder reacts to flour, or some scientific thing like that. It’s one of the things I love most about her: the way she views her kitchen as a science lab.
Giggling, I sent a response. “Of course. But if I make three different chocolate cakes, I have to do a taste test to see what’s best.”
“Obviously,” she said, “I’ll help! I’ll even make one of them for you, then you only have to make two.”
We agreed to spend our afternoons in our kitchens, making zucchini chocolate cakes, and set a time later that day for a taste test. “You can come down for Happy Hour,” she invited.
“There’s nothing better than cake and cocktails,” I agreed; “Now let’s get to work.”
When the cakes were made and cool enough to cut, I loaded them up in our blue wagon and told my family it’s time to walk down for Happy Hour. “It’s like a cooking show,” I told them. “We made three kinds of cake and you have to tell us which one is best.”
Eager over the prospect of eating cake before dinner, my children began to run down the hill. Rebekah lives a quarter of a mile away, so it made sporadi happy hour easy. “I’ll meet you there,” I called to my daughters before asking David to pull the wagon handle.
A few minutes later, I walked into Rebekah’s house carrying two cake pans, where her husband looked at me like I had three heads. “What’s all this?” he asked, pointing to the three cake pans lined up on the counter.
“We’re having a taste test!” I proudly exclaimed, as the kids raced through the kitchen to play outside.
He’s not a huge fan of cake, so my excitement was totally lost on him. “Why don’t I make drinks?” Shaking his head, he walked to their bar to collect ingredients for mint juleps, his favorite summer drink. As he made drinks, Rebekah and I cut the cakes and began our test. We made notes on which was more moist; which was more chocolatey; which tasted more like brownies and less like cake. With every bite, the excess of zucchini felt like more of a gift than a burden.
As I write this, my kids have been sick for more than a week. We leave in three days to drive South for the rest of July. I have laundry to wash, suitcases to pack, and hotel reservations to make. But all I can think about is my produce drawer full of zucchini. We have a huge farm share at our favorite farm and we are in the thick of peak summer squash season. We’ve probably eaten three dozen summer squash in the last two weeks, and there’s at least a dozen more waiting.
I should be giving thanks for this summer bounty—last year the squash didn’t fare so well—but with a two week vacation on the horizon, all I can think about is how the heck I can use all this zucchini in just a matter of days.
Zucchini does this to me every summer. It piles up— growing eyes and staring at me—waiting to be turned into something delicious. And every year I feel overwhelmed by the excess. But if I learned anything from that first zucchini overload several years ago, it’s that friends are there to help carry the load.
Sometimes the best thing to do is invite a friend over for happy hour. And make chocolate cake.
This is the very best Zucchini Chocolate Cake recipe out there. I like to make 8-inch round cakes and turn it into a layer chocolate cake. I recommend doubling the recipe: one for now and one for later. They freeze well; it’s so fun to find chocolate cake in the freezer in February! And I highly recommend pairing it with this Zucchini-Tini from my friend Rachel (remember her from last month?)
Because we’re talking about zucchini overload, this Zucchini Pizza Crust is the best way to sneak zucchini into your kids’ lunch. I parbake the crusts then freeze. Zucchini butter uses up a TON of zucchini, freezes well, and makes a great spread for toast or sauce for pasta or white beans. Zucchini grilled cheese and zucchini quesadillas may sound weird, but I promise once you’ve made them you’ll want them forever. And if you don’t already have a favorite zucchini bread recipe, this Ultimate Zucchini Bread is our absolute fave.
Sometimes the best recipes are accidental surprises. I made this Italian Sausage and Zucchini skillet on a whim this week when I was feeling too lazy to make the cabbage rolls I had planned. It was amazing. I served it over pasta, but it would be amazing over rice or mashed potatoes or even on a bed of salad greens.
We’re reading The Hobbit with our kiddos right now and they love it. I always thought of The Hobbit as being too hard for kids, but I think they understand it more than I do. Don’t underestimate your kids - they can handle big ideas.
I just finished The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles and dare say it was one of my favorite books of the year. I loved every single page. Each character is flawed, yet Towles somehow makes you fall in love with each one of them. I found myself cheering them on, even though what they are doing is definitely dumb—and quite possibly illegal. It may be 500+ pages, but every page was part of an incredible journey and it never felt hard to read.
A Splendid Ruin is my latest Audible listen. Set during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the main character—who has not a penny to her name—goes to live with her very wealthy family in San Francisco after her mother dies. She sketches in her free time and when her sketchbooks are discovered by a local architect, she gets invited to what might be a life-changing opportunity. I’m just barely into the story, but there’s a spooky vibe that I’m really enjoying.
July and August are SO hot, everywhere, even in New England. This month’s playlist is great for cranking up outside by the pool or inside while you do summer cleaning projects next to the cool A/C. It’s also a great playlist for a dance party, if you’re up for that kind of thing.
I found this look at what dinner might look like in the future both hopeful and frightening. I personally hope to see a resurgence of small farms feeding their local communities with less reliance on meat and fewer genetically modified seeds.
Because it was my choice to make, once I decided to become a mother, I went all-in. Had motherhood been foisted on me, however, the experience would have been tainted by resentment and regret. ~This Letter from the Editor is a few months old, but is even more relevant now than when it first came out.
I can’t stop thinking about this article exploring one author’s shift from memoir writing to fiction writing.
I’m intrigued by Tsh Oxenreider’s month-long internet sabbatical. Every year I take a month or two off social media, but she has me considering a larger digital sabbatical.
Speaking of sabbaticals, by the time you read this, I’ll be at my first ever writing workshop, learning all about how to explore food and faith in art. I will begin my annual social media sabbatical Monday, July 25 and will remain off social media through all of August. There will be a shortened monthly newsletter at the end of the month!
Summer is always slow for me on the publishing front but I did write about giving myself permission to write (and feel) and shared my Summer Reading List on the blog.
We saw the most beautiful art exhibit while on vacation in the Berkshire Mountains. I walked a prayer labyrinth and reflected on the state of the world, introduced myself to Literary Mama blog readers, spent some time in the field picking peas, wrote a haiku about our very long two weeks of sickness, and got my breath taken away by the sunset
May you feel the blessing of overabundance and the comfort of friends as you journey through the final summer months.
Until next month,
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