First Butterbeans and Zucchini Bread

As I was finishing my first cup of coffee this morning, I looked out my window and saw Nanny on her way to the garden with a picking bucket.  I suited up and rode down on my bike to join her.  Two hours later, we'd picked a canner full of butterbeans, a 5-gallon bucket full of purple hull peas, and several two-gallon buckets of squash, zucchini, eggplant, okra, and cucumbers.  I left the peas and okra with Nanny (she's got folks coming for dinner tomorrow), and I brought home the rest.

Among the bounty was a zucchini as big around as a baseball bat.  I washed it, scraped out the big seeds, and grated the meaty part, rind and all.  This grated stuff went into a batch of cranberry zucchini bread.  I'm fixin' to give you the recipe, because it is da bomb.

Makes two loaves. 

Oven:  350

3 cups of self-rising flour
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
[Mix those together and set them aside.]

2 cups of grated zucchini
2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup of dried cranberries (I'm estimating, here.  I had part of a bag left over from another project.  It all went in.  More wouldn't hurt.)
1 cup of pecans. 
1/4 cup of Limoncello *
[Mix all that stuff together, then add the dry ingredients.  I added the pecans after stirring in the dry ingredients.]

Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes. 

Yum.

* Now, I know what you're thinking:  "Like I have limoncello in my pantry."  I normally wouldn't have it, either, but I made some limoncello a few months back, and it's been sitting in my refrigerator ever since, waiting for me to either drink it or do something with it.  I tasted the raw bread batter before the limoncello, and after.  It was o-kayyyy without it, but it was way better with it.  I really can't taste the lemon, but it gave the batter an extra little zing that lit up a bunch more taste buds.  Lemon juice might do the same thing, but I might add another 1/4 cup of sugar with plain juice.

While I was making the zucchini bread, I saw a TV chef making "meatballs" out of grated zucchini, bread, and eggs.  (Hmmm...I think we call 'em "fritters" here.)  He ate them with marinara sauce and pasta, just like meatballs.  He did the same thing with cooked, mashed eggplant.  He said you could either fry them or drop them raw into the marinara.  I shall try this with the next baseball bat I pick.  ;)