The comfort of zucchini bread

One food that brings me more comfort from the simple smell of it than almost any other is Zucchini bread. It was a bit of a specialty of my mom's. We grew our own zucchini every year, and being made into zucchini bread was, in my opinion, the only worthwhile endeavor for a zucchini. Man I loved that stuff.

When I grew up and had a garden of my own, I of course planted zucchini in the hopes that one day I could fill up my house with the intoxicating aroma of cinnamon, vanilla and baking bread with the hint of health: a vegetable baked in. Today I felt like I wanted some comfort, so I baked mom's recipe with a two tiny twists: chocolate chips and a mini muffin tin. I made one mini loaf for the purist within, one mini muffin tin for the wild child within, and a regular muffin tin because I still had some dough left. I had to make some adjustments for the muffins, I baked them at 350 for approximately 16 minutes, the mini loaf for approximately 25 minutes. I say approximately because I really wasn't paying attention, just bake them until the toothpick comes out clean as they say. Hours later, I can still smell that baked cinnamon. Sigh.

Grammie's Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 C. oil
2C. sugar
3t. vanilla
stir in 2 cups grated zucchini (with or without skin)
3 C. flour
3t. cinnamon
1t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
1t. soda
(optional: nuts or chocolate chips)

2 greased loaf pans (or 1 mini loaf pan, 1 mini muffin tin, and 1 regular muffin tin, however you prefer)

325 for 1hr and 15 mins