One Big Pickle

Last week, dh was on vacation. He and Nathan made a few fishing trips, and after one of them, they stopped at a farm stand outside of Delavan, Wisconsin. Dh is a fanatic for green beans, so he got some of those, some sweet corn for me, and then he picked up a very large zucchini (which surprises me, because he is not a zucchini fan).

Nathan took one look at the zucchini and asked, “How come you’re buying a big pickle?” ROFL! The woman at the fruit & veggie stand got a BIG kick out of that!

When I saw the zucchini, my immediate thought was, oooo, zucchini bread! So I took the opportunity to show Nathan how to make it. First I made a batch, and he assisted me. Then, since I had a ton of grated zucchini left over, I told Nathan, “Now it’s your turn.” I washed out all of the tools and lined them up on the counter, with the ingredients, and, “Go to it. There’s the directions.” Then I left him alone. He was confused at the end, because he didn’t have a bread pan to use (I had used my two glass ones with my batch).

I smiled and asked, “Do we have to bake it in a bread pan?”

He scratched his head and said, “Bread has to be a loaf, doesn’t it?”

“Absolutely not.” Then I handed him a bundt pan. “This is what I used to use when I made zucchini bread for my family when I was a kid.” He grinned.

He seemed to like that idea. I’m not sure if he just liked the idea of a circle of bread, or if it was the realization that I used to make bread for my family as a kid, the same way he’s making bread for his family.

Nathan will NOT, under any circumstances, eat any green veggies, other than green beans, and peas (if I make him). Which, by the way, was the whole purpose of my choosing to make bread with the zucchini, instead of just enjoying steamed zucchini by myself (which I love). I’ll take any opportunity to get green veggies in him, even if I have to sneak them into bread or cake. But not only did he taste some of the raw, grated zucchini, but he had a taste of the uncooked batter, too. That’s really odd, because he doesn’t like to try new things. He even tasted the raw flour for a change, but that fell understandably flat. He was much more appreciative of the batter, since it tastes kind of like cake batter. But we had fun tasting the stuff before it was baked, so we could see the difference after it was baked. He wasn’t impressed with the flavor of the “before” zucchini, either. But you should have seen the look on his face when he got to sample the finished product! His eyes were as big as saucers. Then, when I put a light sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on it, he exclaimed, “That’s the best bread, EVER!”

Success!

But he’s not happy with me calling it “Big Pickle Bread.” Heh heh heh Something tells me he’ll never live that one down. ;)