This is to make in a 9x13 baking pan or for cupcakes! Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix the following well:
3 cups unbleached flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp pumpkin spice
1 tsp baking powder
14 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/3 of a 15oz box of raisins
In another, seperate large bowl, mix the following well:
3 eggs
3 cups grated zucchini
1 cup veggie oil
3 tsp vanilla
1/8 cup evaporated milk
brown sugar to your liking
Once you've mixed your wet ingriedients, you can then pour them into your already mixed dry ingriedients and mix everything together well.
Spray baking pan or muffin cups with non stick spray! Crush a very small bag or can of shelled walnuts and sprinkle the crushed walnuts in the bottom of the baking pan or muffin cups, then pour the zucchini bread batter into the baking pan or muffin cups. Bake at 325 degrees, 45 minutes for the baking pan (or until inserted knife comes out clean) or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes (or until inserted knife comes out clean).
Cool completely. You can use regular vanilla or cream cheese icing, if you chose. For the baking pan version, I cut the bread into 12 squares, wrap each individually and put 3 at a time into a zip lock bag. I keep some in the fridge and I freeze some, which you can later thaw out at room temp. (You can do the same with the cupcakes).
To make this for a loaf pan, either use multiple pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes or, 1/2 the recipe.
Here's my writing piece from last Friday:
Friday, August 08, 2008 10:00:32 PM
Right now I'm sitting in the living room with no lights on, trying to see my note book by the light of my laptop! The Cicada's are chirping back and forth to one another in the trees. People are coming and going for the night here at the complex.
Some of the most wonderful summer night sounds are best heard in our bathroom! In there (which doesn’t face the courtyard) the crickets & other summer night time bugs aren’t over powered by the Cicada’s and their incessant chirping (because they don’t generally go in the trees along that fence). Our bedroom faces the courtyard and the dang cicada’s, so sometimes I feel like throwing some pillows on the bathroom floor so I can fall asleep listening to the crickets! (Hey, I’ve never claimed not to be odd!) Oh how I LOVE to be lulled to sleep by their summer songs! (Unless, of course, there’s a cricket in the house! Then I just want to kill it!) My hesitation in the whole sleeping on the bathroom floor thing is the fact that Vic doesn’t exactly have good aim when he goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night!!! (Not to mention the fact that he’d probably think I’d lost what’s left of my mind!)
Around 5pm this evening, I wrote how summer rain and thunder had brought wonderful quiet to the complex! Those children not scared by the storm were called inside by their parents!
I also wrote how Summer is winding down. Really?! Already?! Years are starting to fly by at an alarming rate for me! Yesterday it was January and 2008 stretched out before me - Today, there are only just over 4 1/2 months left in the year!!!
Last night I wrote the following: "Ok, I'm stuck in our Legion Post bar with a gabby, wacka-doodle bar maid and a cheesy guy who used to make eyes at me all the time when I worked at Home Depot! (Actually, he still does, just not when Hubby's looking!) He's kinda cute. Nice body. Then he opens his mouth and it goes down the toilet from there! He's got a high nasally voice with a Bayonne accent - need I say more?!?! (Not as bad as actor Joe Pesche, but...) Shit! He's leaving so that means I'm stuck with her and she's gonna gab my frickin ears off now! Lord I hope Vic's meeting doesn't take long tonight! Brett Farve is now with the Jets?! What the F?!
This week I've written about Stephenie Meyer, author of the "Twilight" series, how after seeing her on Good Morning America and CBS News Sunday Morning, I wonder... Can writing really be as easy and fun for her as she claims it to be?! I don't know, something makes me suspicious! I'm not begrudging her any of her (enormous) success, a lot of people like and buy her books and that's great, but while 'someone doeth protest too much' raises a flag, so does one who seems so happy go lucky about everything!
And don't even get me started about this whole YA lit craze among adults going on right now!
But, I am curious about "Twilight," though Gillian read it and, well, disliked it! Of course, I skimmed a copy that's on hold for someone else at the library today and found that it's written in the 1st person - I'm so not a big fan of novels written in the 1st person! (Nor am I big fans of novels whose main character is a child or teen!) The librarian told me that "Twilight" is actually on the summer reading list! "TWILIGHT" is on the summer reading list?! I find that disheartening and I haven't even read it myself! Based on what I've heard though I'm sure there are far better books that kids and teens could read in place of "Twilight" that are also contemporary!
Anyway! I've also written about my writing this week. I've been frustrated! Why is it that when I sit down to write out these inklings I've got regarding story idea's THEY ALL JUST GO AWAY?!?!?! It's so damn maddening!
I've got all these wonderful idea's floating around me, just out of my reach, and I don't know for the life of me how I'm ever going to be able to catch them! I know they're there! I can feel them! I get this creative buzz going on and they feel so close! I don't know how to let them in or how I'm supposed to grab them!
I've been writing for YEARS about how I need and want to write my way to a better life! How the hell am I supposed to do that if I don't and can't write?!
In a large bowl, mix the following well:
3 cups unbleached flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp pumpkin spice
1 tsp baking powder
14 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/3 of a 15oz box of raisins
In another, seperate large bowl, mix the following well:
3 eggs
3 cups grated zucchini
1 cup veggie oil
3 tsp vanilla
1/8 cup evaporated milk
brown sugar to your liking
Once you've mixed your wet ingriedients, you can then pour them into your already mixed dry ingriedients and mix everything together well.
Spray baking pan or muffin cups with non stick spray! Crush a very small bag or can of shelled walnuts and sprinkle the crushed walnuts in the bottom of the baking pan or muffin cups, then pour the zucchini bread batter into the baking pan or muffin cups. Bake at 325 degrees, 45 minutes for the baking pan (or until inserted knife comes out clean) or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes (or until inserted knife comes out clean).
Cool completely. You can use regular vanilla or cream cheese icing, if you chose. For the baking pan version, I cut the bread into 12 squares, wrap each individually and put 3 at a time into a zip lock bag. I keep some in the fridge and I freeze some, which you can later thaw out at room temp. (You can do the same with the cupcakes).
To make this for a loaf pan, either use multiple pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes or, 1/2 the recipe.
Here's my writing piece from last Friday:
Friday, August 08, 2008 10:00:32 PM
Right now I'm sitting in the living room with no lights on, trying to see my note book by the light of my laptop! The Cicada's are chirping back and forth to one another in the trees. People are coming and going for the night here at the complex.
Some of the most wonderful summer night sounds are best heard in our bathroom! In there (which doesn’t face the courtyard) the crickets & other summer night time bugs aren’t over powered by the Cicada’s and their incessant chirping (because they don’t generally go in the trees along that fence). Our bedroom faces the courtyard and the dang cicada’s, so sometimes I feel like throwing some pillows on the bathroom floor so I can fall asleep listening to the crickets! (Hey, I’ve never claimed not to be odd!) Oh how I LOVE to be lulled to sleep by their summer songs! (Unless, of course, there’s a cricket in the house! Then I just want to kill it!) My hesitation in the whole sleeping on the bathroom floor thing is the fact that Vic doesn’t exactly have good aim when he goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night!!! (Not to mention the fact that he’d probably think I’d lost what’s left of my mind!)
Around 5pm this evening, I wrote how summer rain and thunder had brought wonderful quiet to the complex! Those children not scared by the storm were called inside by their parents!
I also wrote how Summer is winding down. Really?! Already?! Years are starting to fly by at an alarming rate for me! Yesterday it was January and 2008 stretched out before me - Today, there are only just over 4 1/2 months left in the year!!!
Last night I wrote the following: "Ok, I'm stuck in our Legion Post bar with a gabby, wacka-doodle bar maid and a cheesy guy who used to make eyes at me all the time when I worked at Home Depot! (Actually, he still does, just not when Hubby's looking!) He's kinda cute. Nice body. Then he opens his mouth and it goes down the toilet from there! He's got a high nasally voice with a Bayonne accent - need I say more?!?! (Not as bad as actor Joe Pesche, but...) Shit! He's leaving so that means I'm stuck with her and she's gonna gab my frickin ears off now! Lord I hope Vic's meeting doesn't take long tonight! Brett Farve is now with the Jets?! What the F?!
This week I've written about Stephenie Meyer, author of the "Twilight" series, how after seeing her on Good Morning America and CBS News Sunday Morning, I wonder... Can writing really be as easy and fun for her as she claims it to be?! I don't know, something makes me suspicious! I'm not begrudging her any of her (enormous) success, a lot of people like and buy her books and that's great, but while 'someone doeth protest too much' raises a flag, so does one who seems so happy go lucky about everything!
And don't even get me started about this whole YA lit craze among adults going on right now!
But, I am curious about "Twilight," though Gillian read it and, well, disliked it! Of course, I skimmed a copy that's on hold for someone else at the library today and found that it's written in the 1st person - I'm so not a big fan of novels written in the 1st person! (Nor am I big fans of novels whose main character is a child or teen!) The librarian told me that "Twilight" is actually on the summer reading list! "TWILIGHT" is on the summer reading list?! I find that disheartening and I haven't even read it myself! Based on what I've heard though I'm sure there are far better books that kids and teens could read in place of "Twilight" that are also contemporary!
Anyway! I've also written about my writing this week. I've been frustrated! Why is it that when I sit down to write out these inklings I've got regarding story idea's THEY ALL JUST GO AWAY?!?!?! It's so damn maddening!
I've got all these wonderful idea's floating around me, just out of my reach, and I don't know for the life of me how I'm ever going to be able to catch them! I know they're there! I can feel them! I get this creative buzz going on and they feel so close! I don't know how to let them in or how I'm supposed to grab them!
I've been writing for YEARS about how I need and want to write my way to a better life! How the hell am I supposed to do that if I don't and can't write?!
Comments
I've experienced the same writer frustration. I've been attempting to write fiction, which was not covered in my journalism major.
I recently went to The Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie, IN. I got to meet lots of published authors and hear their writing tales.
I took an intensive seminar from Shirley Jump. She is a romance writer. I cannot BEAR to read romance novels, but she had great advice about construction, plot, character development, and brainstorming techniques. Plus, she was a very entertaining presenter.
She offers on-line writing classes (free!) and stories and advice. Maybe you can find something that helps you on her blog - www.shirleyjump.com.
Jeff Stone, who writes the Five Ancestors series of YA books, was also a presenter. I read the first of the series when I got home. I liked it.
I'm hearing all kinds of buzz about Twilight, but I haven't picked it up yet. I am encouraged by the author's success. And I'm glad to see YA's reading any book!