So, I was rather upset when I found out that my twin would be coming back from the cities to stay for two days because of a baby shower. Steph is completely delightful in her own habitat (which happens to be the cities) but she is one of those people who never clean up after themselves and tend to make a lot of messes. When I woke up last Saturday, I found her laying on the couch looking disheveled and complaining that she needed food, saying that Mom had told her I would make her dinner. Well, this is her house as much as it is mine, so I told her she could make her own food. But she was so bleary-eyed and obviously hungover (wearing makeup from the night before, quite nice for a baby shower) that I eventually gave in when I went out to the garden and found these beets.
I completely forgave her the trouble of peeling and chopping because they were so satisfying to pull up. I tossed the pieces in a bit of olive oil and seasoned them with salt, pepper, red pepper and fresh thyme. Baked at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until they were tender when pierced by a fork.
After I did this, however, I remembered that it is much more fun to make food for other people than yourself (especially when you are on a diet) and went on a little baking rampage.
We have the most ridiculous patch of zucchini that had been neglected and had produced zucchini that nobody really wanted to eat because they looked like limbs. Steph and I went back out to the garden, bolstered by the idea of eating food freshly picked, to try to salvage one to make bread.
Ole and Sven got the rejects, as Steph convinces them that they are new toys.
They didn't need much persuading. They like to play with things from the garden and will even pick vegetables for this purpose.
Such clever dogs.
I selected the smallest zucchini we could find and grated it for the bread.
Even though it was small, I still only used a little over half of it to get the two cups required by the recipe. This is the one I used, with some adjustments. I added the nutmeg from Smitten Kitchen's almost identical recipe. Being on the health-food kick I am, I didn't feel like adding a whole cup of oil-- might as well make a proper cake if you're going to add that much, I thought, so I substituted about 3/4 cup honey greek yogurt instead (not very low fat anyways) and a bit of milk to make the batter. I did two of the three cups of flour with wheat flour, decreased the sugar a bit and added chopped walnuts.
Making things like this healthy is really less fun, but I figured that-- what with three eggs and fatty yogurt-- that it would taste pretty good anyways and it was quite moist. Of course nothing is as good as it would be with a cup of oil, but it was very tasty nonetheless, especially after it had been wrapped up in plastic for a few days.
On a different tangent, I blame Steph, in part, for making me bake healthy zucchini bread. Our sister Anna was married this summer and I defy anyone to see pictures of themselves like this and not want to lose a few pounds.
Steph, fashion diva that she is, has no idea how to dress body shapes that are unlike her own. She is tiny and petite and I am like Joan Harris in a dress that was marketed to petites to create the illusion of hips and bust. I weigh 135 pounds and still look like a lump. I can only think that Steph was trying to be part of the great tradition of buying unflattering bridesmaid dresses. (The professional photos, which we just got this week, are a completely different and incredibly infuriating story. Is there anything worse that paying a lot for pictures of a wedding and getting back eight blurry shots of the ceremony from the back of the church and none of the couple walking down the aisle or even of the bride and her family? Ughh! Where are Mom and Dad?)
Since this photo was taken I've lost ten pounds-- a real ten pounds, not the I've-been-on-a-liquid-and-laxative-diet ten pounds (I could never manage that anyways). I've been going to the gym for an hour of cardio five times a week, eating healthier meals and trying not to snack. Sometimes I do yoga videos on hulu while constantly watching the stairs in case anyone comes up to gaze on my embarrassing poses.
Tirade over. Back to the baking, if you are still with me. Steph, unlike me, actually has a job and mentioned that she didn't have a lot to pack for lunch. I offered to make her bread for sandwiches (I make wonderful breads!) but she said she'd rather have something italian-like with herbs. I usually make wheat bread with milk and molasses so this was rather different for me. Suffice to say I was feeling a bit lazy because I must have just googled "herb bread" and used the first recipe with Parmesan instead of Romano cheese. (Steph later told me it tasted like pizza but I thought it smelled very good.) I also made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for her lunch and her boyfriend, who loves them. I add walnuts and cinnamon but forgot the coconut, though they were very delicious anyways. It was quite late when it was all finished.
Anders has been on various diets for his digestive problems all summer (no gluten, then no sugar or gluten, then no yeast no sugar no gluten, then some flour and lots of sugar) and I hadn't been able to bake anything without feeling very guilty, so this was a nice change.
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