Cooking as Autobiography .
Zucchini Bread
In years gone by, people kept recipes on 3.5 inch cards in files in boxes. I have a box like that and I also treasure the very old box from my deceased mother-in-law. The cards told us how to prepare specific dishes, with more or less detail. But they do more than that sometimes. They remind us of the circumstances that prompted us to write and save them. That can be reminders of our life experiences or events. When I dig around in my old box, I see recipes from old friends and relatives, from old cookbooks of the past, from forgotten but newly remembered times. And then there are recipes about how to prepare something without having to find the old cookbooks that provided them. Boxes of memories.
Here’s a happy example from when we lived in Green Bay. I was surprised one day when daughter Elizabeth (Libby), then about eight or nine years old, came home with a card in her hand. She had been playing with neighbors Leah and Erica. It was summer and the zucchini was ripe. The girls’ mom, Randee, had a recipe for zucchini bread, which Libby wrote onto a new recipe card and brought home. It is written in Libby’s little-kid writing with associated little-kid misspellings. I didn’t ask for it but was glad to have it. I look at it now and it warms my heart for all the good times those kids had when they were little. It reminds me of Randee’s neighborliness in offering me a way to cook something. Zucchini bread is very good.
I have been making zucchini bread from that recipe on the old card ever since. I made it again yesterday, with a bit of modification. When I eat and share the bread, I share the memories. Recipe cards can be autobiographical. Now my recent recipes are word processed and placed in a 3-ring binder. The old box is obsolete but remembered.
Here is the recipe as given to me on that beautiful summer day, with misspellings corrected. Libby is a smart adult person who now spells words better. She cooks well too.
Zucchini Bread (2 loaves)
2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup oil 1teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs 3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups chopped zucchini 3 cups flour
2 teaspoons vanilla 2 teaspoons baking soda
Mix sugar, oil and eggs until well blended. Add zucchini, flour, soda, salt, making powder, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix well. Put in 2 medium sized greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Use tooth pick test.
p.s. My modification is to use less sugar. It’s still good with 1 ½ cups sugar.
