zucchini bread
Growing up, this is what my parents set aside a space on the side of the house for, lined by a raspberry bush and just steps from the sour cherry tree. Sadly, the tree died just as I developed a taste for the tart cherries, the raspberry bush became overrun with poison ivy, and the last round of landscaping whittled the garden area to half its size, but I swear, somewhere in the back there is still a matted indentation from the Summer of the Zucchini Bats.
I don’t know if something was particularly haywire in the soil that summer (insert your best Jersey joke here) or maybe this is just what happens from time to time if you don’t pick your zucchini when they’re a more manageable size, but the summer when I was about seven, the zucchini never stopped growing. Now, I was short then (and sadly, still am) but I remember these things being at least half my size. And heavy. And we had no idea what to do with them.
Which brings me to my very first cookbook, aptly titled something along the lines of My Very First Cookbook. I’d do anything to find another copy of it today, but to be honest, I’m not even sure if it was mass-produced in any way. Bound with one of those white plastic comb spines, with hand-drawn illustrations inside, it could easily have been picked up at a craft fair form by the neighbor across the street who gave it to me as a birthday gift. It’s generic title and odd construction have not made it easy to hunt down.
But in truth, no matter what nostalgia I deck it out with, it was nothing spectacular, your run-of-the-mill peanut butter sandwich recipes with a hippy-dippy bent of “try this with raisins!” But within its pages was a timely gem, something we’d never made before but were surprisingly delicious. And although I can’t actually imagine my mother letting us bake batches upon batches of sweet cakey food, I remember making a lot of zucchini muffins that summer.
Zucchini muffins are sheer brilliance, if you ask me, crafted from the same ingenious logic as carrot cake: of course it’s healthy, it has vegetables in it. And, um, there’s nothing wrong with that line of thought, not that you couldn’t swap half the oil for yogurt or applesauce or half the flour with whole wheat for an especially earnest treat.
But I didn’t bother with any of that last night. I just wanted it the way I remembered–loads of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and a heaping pile of shredded squash. Of course, I have this husband thing now and he has but one suggestion for all food items, always: couldn’t you add chocolate chips to that? Thus, in the loaf I didn’t bring to work today, I did, but I’ve got to say, although delicious, they didn’t work for me because my idea of what zucchini bread should taste like was set at an early age, and is apparently unwavering, like some ten-pound zucchini from back in the day.
Which brings me to a question I’ve been itching to ask: Do you remember your first cookbook? Do you remember what you made from it?
Zucchini Bread
Adapted from several sources
Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins
3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (See those pictures of the cakes inside their non-stick pans? Yup, they’re pretty much hanging out in there for the time being.) Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.
Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.
Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.
Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
My first cookbook was the Betty Crocker kids cookbook and like you my neighbor (one of 2 boys at my 7th birthday party) gave it to me. I can’t recall the first recipe I made from it, but I do still have the cookbook with my name written in the front cover in big 7 year old letters!
The first cookbook I remember receiving was one my mom gave to me when I went to college. She gave me the Betty Crocker Cookbook that she got as a wedding gift (25 years ago, at that point).
The first, and only, recipe I made from the book was macaroni and cheese.
My husband and Alex have the same philosophy. . . .everything can be improved with chocolate chips.
My Aunt used to make this for me when i was a kid. I managed to get her to give the recipe to my Mom but she never made it for me because she can’t cook. Oh Well. So Sad.
The Boxcar Children Cookbook, and I made beef stew with dumplings. My family ate it, if I remember correctly, but I don’t remember a whole lot of praise. Probably because I don’t recall it asking for any salt or pepper?
My first exposure was a cookbook for kids that I still have on the shelf at home. With the help of my mom I made a simple version of Shepherd’s Pie for my family. I remember how proud I was of myself, presenting dinner to the family as if I was now a bona fide chef.
PS…Zucchini bread does ship well!
My first was the Alpha-Bakery cookbook. I think my grandparents sent it when I was 12ish? I’m 28 now and I still make Cheeseburger Pie and Lemon Bars from it. I’ve tried a dozen or so other lemon bar recipes and I SWEAR that this one is the best. Or maybe it’s the nostalgia that tastes so good…
My boyfriend’s mother just mailed us his first cookbook– The Superheroes Super Healthy Cookbook. It is brilliant. The recipes are your usual peanut butter and banana sandwich, salad (Batman and Robin provide that), and grilled cheese, but the illustrations are my favorite thing. Wonder Woman lassoing a glass of milk. Batman zooming over in his batmobile to get a taste of the salad dressing. I seriously want to blow up these pictures and hang them in our kitchen.
Valentines Day Toast – Toast, construction paper in the shape of a heart and confectioners sugar…
Fun question! My first recipes came not from a book, but from the loose-leaf pages my sister brought home from her 7th grade home-ec class when I was 10. She said the “German pancake” (aka Dutch baby or oven pancake) was really good, so I decided that I was going to make Mother’s Day brunch for my family, even though I don’t think I had made anything other than a sandwich or boxed mac n cheese to that point. The pancake came out beautifully, all puffy and running with butter; the homemade apple syrup made it a real treat; and if I remember correctly, I served it with strawberries, grapes, and orange juice. I set up a card table in the back yard under the huge hawthorn tree, covered it with a white tablecloth of course, and basked in my family’s enjoyment. It became a tradition. The next year for Mother’s Day I did dinner instead. For that I took on a curried chicken and vegetable rice dish from my mother’s local Junior League cookbook, and had raves once again. I was hooked and have been cooking ever since.
I think it was the Betty Crocker cookbook as well.. And I would steal my mom’s Gourmet magazines and read them too.
P.S. I have a boyfriend of the same mind as your husband — anything could be improved with the addition of chocolate.
Isn’t it funny? They always say women are the chocoholics, and while I would never turn down a champagne truffle from La Maison du Chocolat, I positively swoon at the thought of a vanilla bean-flecked creme brulee.
Have you ever made chocolate zucchini / zucchini chocolate cake? (Sounds healthier the second way.) Perhaps your taste buds wouldn’t mind the addition of chocolate if it’s intended to be a different sort of cake altogether. I think Clotilde has a good recipe, although the one from Anne in Clotilde’s comments looks more like the one I usually make. Soooooo good. In fact, I’m going to make one right now! Thanks for the reminder!
There was a series of children’s activity books in the library, I can’t remember the name of the series or the publisher… the illustrations were all rather creepy, children with big eyes and circular curls… but the purple book in the series was recipes. I made tea from pine needles and the major culinary accomplishment was Daisy Buns: canned biscuits dipped in butter and sugar, arranged on pineapple tidbits and maraschino cherry halves arranged to look like flowers.
The first and only cookbook I consulted throughout my childhood, mainly for baking recipes, was The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. When I moved to college, my mother gave me one of my own. It, for me, was and still is the quintessential go-to source for American cooking and baking. I use it to this day, broken spine, covered in food stains, and all.
My first cookbook came with a set of plastic measuring spoons. I only remember making the breakfast recipes, hard-boiled eggs, french toast, and raisin bran muffins. I was very proud of my muffins. Oh! And popcorn with different toppings.
Oh, as for the actual question you asked, I think the first cookbook that was supposed to be mine (I read everything in the house, including my parents’ cookbooks) was something by Pillsbury. Ooh, found it in the closet… it’s by Gold Medal flour, called Alpha-Bakery. There’s a recipe for every letter of the alphabet. :) The recipe we made the most was Turtle Bread: a white bread dough arranged in the shape of a turtle, with raisins for eyes. All the recipes in the book are pretty decent though, with the exception of Quick Cheeseburger Pie.
Mine was the Betty Crocker New Boys and Girls Cookbook. I still have it although it’s now just loose pages between the yellow and white stripe covers! My first recipe was the “Cinnamon Puffs” dated Nov. 29th, 1971 (I’ve always dated my recipes..still do it today!) I even included my family’s reactions..my mom said to “make them smaller”, my sister thought they were “good” and my 10 yr old brother said “I don’t hate them”.
Deb – The cookbook you described was my cookbook as well! Once you mentioned the spiral binding I figured it was the same. I still have it at my parents house, I saw it about a month ago. It was so simple and so adorable. I will take a picture and e-mail it to you. So crazy.
Debbies, just get some pots and grow some veggies and herbs on your roof. Our zucchini, tomatoes and herbs are doing great in their containers on the patio. You can do it!
I had the Mickey Mouse cookbook, which is weird because I hate Mickey Mouse and all Disney-related things. I was really into the cookbook, though. Thumper’s Tuna Noodle Casserole = mmmmmmm.
*Thank* you! People who didn’t grow up with gardens never ever believe me that zucchini get so big – ours were the size of small children for so many years running that I still think of the ones in the store as miniatures.
My first cookbook was the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook, but I don’t remember making much out of it except biscuits, like once a week for a year. Much more formative were my mom’s instructions for making scrambled eggs on our push-button stove: 25 years later, on any stove in the world, I still think “turn it down to 3″ when I lower the flame and put in the eggs.
The first one I ever owned myself was Betty Crocker. I think as soon as I signed the lease on my first apartment, it magically materialized in my hands. I use it for basic structure of recipes now. I used it yesterday to make pancakes, albeit with half-and-half white and whole wheat flour, plus some flax meal for extra “I’m not fun anymore” adult-itude.
The first ones I ever used, though, were a spiral bound, short and fat little book we called “The Amish Cookbook.” I have no idea what its real title was. Having a mother who would subsist solely on desserts and breads if she could manage it, I learned to bake before I learned to cook, and almost exclusively from this book whose recipes never extended past 3/4 of a page, for all their straightforwardness.
My first cookbook was the Better Homes and Gardens for Kids (or For Youth or something like that) and, after I tried to fathom meatloaf with marshmallows on it – ugh – I always made snickerdoodles with my mom. That recipe is still good!
My (former) sister-in-law gave my first two cookbooks one Christmas when I was 8 or 9. The “Fun to Cook” book must’ve been a Carnation freebie because every recipe used Carnation milk (evaporated, condensed or powdered). The pictures were cute, the girl reminded me of Pippi Longstocking. But who cooked with carnation?
The “Lip Smackin’ Joke Crackin’ Cook Book for Kids” had jokes, recipes, puzzles and fun. And the words to On Top of Spaghetti next to a meatball recipe. I worked the puzzles, sang the song, told the jokes.
I cooked out of my sister’s copy of McCall’s that my Mom appropriated. First recipe was chicken pot pie. Still a favorite.
I don’t remember the first cookbook I owned, but my first memory of cooking something from a cookbook was Christmas Cutouts from the red plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that was my mothers. My poor mother, she is not a fan of the cooking and even less of the baking. She and I spent an entire flour covered weekend making sugar cookie stars for me to take to school. Most of the batches were burnt to a crisp, but I can still taste them today in their shortbready goodness. 25 years later they are still my favorite flavor of Christmas.
Your zucchini bread, like your writing, is impeccable!
My first cookbook was inherited from a garage sale–the ubiquitous orange Betty Crocker hardback. I must’ve been about seven or eight; I made chicken fricasee (even though I didn’t know what it was–still kinda don’t) and peanut butter cookies.
So ’70s, indeed.
My first cookbook was the Better Homes and Gardens Step-By-Step Kids’ Cookbook. The two recipes that really stand out in my memory were spaghetti-crust pie, an egg-parmesan-spaghetti crust concoction topped with red sauce and mozzarella cheese, and polka-dot pancakes, a dense baked pancake dotted with slices of breakfast sausage. I remember thinking they were sooo good.
Here here to the orange Betty Crocker hardback–that was me, too. Except mine had permanent concentric circles burned onto it from someone’s well-meaning stove. Nice touch.
That’s a great question! My first cookbook was Linda Mccartney’s Home Cooking and I made Aubergine Parmigiana. I was 12 and I didn’t know what an aubergine was, but I knew it looked delicious. I don’t think I realized it until just now, but that cookbook was probably the reason I stopped eating meat as a kid… I have since come back to the darkside though. Maybe I should dig up that book… Thanks for the walk down memory lane question!
Your zucchini bread looks wonderful.
My first cookbook was Betty Crocker hard back my Mother-in-Law
brought it for me. As I really didn’t need it my mother was a great
cook & tought me at a very young age. I think that is why I
like to cook, I have been doing it all my life. As for the zuchine
I know I have grown in my own yard very BIG ONE’S made a lot of
great reipes with them. will share one day.
My first cookbook? A relatively recent acquisition called “How to Boil Water.” It’s rather simple, meant for a cooking newbie like myself, but I made my first proper meal using it, and it was quite a moment of pride.
My first cookbook that was all my own was a cheap, thin paperback that I got from one of those Scholastic book things we all got in grade school. I don’t really remember any of the recipes, probably because I only made one dish out of it. It was a “5 Alarm Chili con Carne”. I still make a variation of it today. So yummy!!
Ok, so as I was writing that, I just remembered another cookbook that may have come before that one. It was a Chez Panisse cookbook for kids. I used to read that book over and over. All the food sounded so amazing(lavender ice cream!! for an 8 year old, this was an astonishing idea) I think the only thing I ever ended up making out of it was chocolate kisses. Which didn’t turn out as perfectly as I wanted, so I gave up on cooking for awhile. Yeah, that’s the kind of perfectionism I’ve been blessed with. If I don’t get it perfect on the first try, stop and never return. : )
My first cookbook is still the only cookbook I own. My mom typed up all of the recipes she makes and printed them all out, 3-hole punched them, and stuck them in a binder for me. She gave it to me for a going-away-to-college gift. I just graduated and finally have a kitchen (no more dorm, yay!), and finally have a chance to make stuff. The first thing I made was chicken parm. Yummy.
Good question. The very first cookbook I actually remember reading through and making something from was a little church fundraiser book. It was one of those plastic-bound local copy shop specials, complete with pb&j recipes for the kids and amusing 1970′s dinner party food, but my grandmother had contributed some artwork and a few of the Southern desserts she had grown up eating (chess pie, chocolate chess pie, and — of course — pecan pie). I swear, I must have read the whole thing through every time my mom and I made one of those pies… The book was lost in a move years later, but I dreamed about the chocolate chess pie for years. I only recently managed to find a copy of the recipe, and I think it took me a whole two seconds to decide to go get the ingredients and start cooking!
I don’t remember the name of the cookbook, but I remember the first thing I made out of it was deviled eggs. Gotta love those complex recipes in kid’s cookbooks. ;)
My first cookbook was actually my mother’s copy of Joy of Cooking. That and Betty Crocker were the only two cookbooks I remember her owning. I would read it for fun out on the couch – I remember their descriptions of seaside clambakes and cooking potatoes in hot resin were especially fascinating. The first recipe I remember actually making was what they called, if I remember, Creamy Italian Dressing. It was so good I could have eaten it with a spoon.
Seems like Betty wins the day. My mother thought that teaching us to cook was teaching us to bake. When I got married I could bake anything, but cook nothing. A few months later she moved to Maine, and I had Betty Crocker. Today it is missing its spine and some pages have been so stuck together you can’t read the recipe. I don’t rely much on Betty anymore – not with the internet so handy, but I still turn to her for that muffin recipe, and recently went searching for that “just like mom’s” recipe for Snickerdoodles for my boyfriend – and yes, Betty had the exact one.
My first cookbook was “Whole Foods for the Whole Family” – can we tell that my mom was a member of LLL and a health food junky? this probably explains my addiction to ice cream and chocolate as an adult – and the first recipe out of it I remember making was “Dandy Candy”. It was a brilliant mixture of peanut butter, honey, powdered milk and carob powder and I can remember eating it long before it set and was ready to be eaten.
Wow, Gwen. I just saw on a blog this week something about rolled up peanut butter candy that sounds like that. I had never heard of it before, yet it was someone’s favorite thing on earth. What a coincidence!
Nancy (37), I think we had the same mother. My mom still can’t cook worth shit, bless her heart, but the confections she bakes, my goodness. I myself learned to cook on the job, when I got promoted from the deli to the kitchen of the only (wannabe) frou-frou restaurant in a very small western KY town. Now I go home and make the most standard of dishes–spag and meatballs, say, and knock the fam’s socks off. But I still can’t touch Mom’s chocolate pound cake.
Hey, just wanted to let you know that I love your blog. I was recently asked to list my top 5 female bloggers and I had to put you down. I love your great pictures, writing style and recipes. I am determined to try most of them!
My first cookbook (or the first one I remember) was the Beatrix Potter cookbook for children, and there was a recipe in it for stewed fruits (or was it baked?) that I loved as a kid – raisins, apples, other assorted fruits that were – I think – sort of mulled in cider? I also remember a local church cookbook (with comb spine thingy) that had recipes in it for play-dough as well as really yummy lemon bread – that one I think my mother still has!
i don’t remember the name of the book exactly – but i bought it through the book ordering service in my school – around the 5th grade. and i remember that peter max did all the art. and the recipe i made over and over was a pineapple upside down cheescake for my father because he loved it. that was over 30 years ago…. total blast from the past memory. thanks for stirring it up.
My first cookbook was the Boxcar Children Cookbook and the first recipe I ever tried was along the lines of “Broken Bottle Apple Pie” or something equally dangerous-sounding. I think this is the main reason I wanted to try it but my mom made me use a boring wooden rolling pin instead of a bottle like the Boxcar Children used and it just wasn’t the same.
And I don’t think the pie was even all that good!
I had a cookbook in Russian that allowed me to make boats out of wedges of tomato with Swiss cheese slices as sails, and parsley on the side as oars. It wasn’t so much cooking as ‘crafts with food’ but Russia didn’t exactly have a market for young, budding cooks age 6. I started my own cookbook when I was 4 though where I attempted to document my culinary journey through my childhood. I think I lost it shortly before we left for America though.
Mine was a hardback book with a red and white checkered front. I believe it featured a couple of 70′s kids stirring something in a bowl. I have a vivid memory of some strange gingerbread cookies–shaped like worms? Or maybe letters of the alphabet? I do believe they had raisins for eyes. I also remember making a meatloaf covered in mashed potatoes from that book.
For the record I am definitely the vanilla person and J is 100% the chocolate.
Oh, the amazing flashbacks I’m having from these comments. I believe my first cookbook was somewhere in the Betty-for-kids family; I remember that it featured a cake frosted to look like a giant hamburger, complete with real sesame seeds on the top “bun”, that I shamelessly begged, BEGGED! my mother to make for my 13th birthday. She can’t cook either, poor dear, but she persevered through that cake. I also have distant memories of a four-color pamphlet of fancy Christmas cookies that my grandmother had, probably a grocery store or brand giveaway.
And way up there, to Kara: I think there’s some sort of federal law that mandates teaching the Dutch Baby recipe to all junior-high home ec classes. Everyone I’ve ever known learned it under the same circumstances!
Betty Crocker kids cookbook. Still have it. Haven’t cooked from it in years, but I did make stuff from it up through my teens.
My first cookbooks were from the checkout line at the grocery. I was in 7th grade and my sister was in first. Mom went back to work that summer and I was in charge of babysitting. Her payment to me was a new little cookbook nearly weekly! Oh, the joys of Betty Crocker’s 101 Things To Do With Chicken, or Bisquick’s pages upon pages of impossible pies. (I made up those names, but you get the point.) I still have some of them and treasure them. I tried something new nearly daily and I’m sure the grocery bill that summer was more than childcare would have been. But now I’m an adventurous cook in love with my kitchen!
First off, I swear I was trying to picture a particular type of bat (marsupial) that thrived in zucchini patches until about halfway through your post. But I am a sleep-deprived new mom whose refrigerator just crapped out today, so I’m not thinking super-straight.
Second random thought in a jumbled beaded thread . . . this zucchini bread looks fantastic Deb. I too grew up on zucchini EVERYTHING and have been craving my mom’s zucchini bread as of late . . . she puts peanut butter in hers which is quite heavenly.
Third . . . I have my first cookbook sitting right here in front of me–Betty Crocker’s NEW Boys and Girls Cookbook (interesting boys came first). My mom just rescued it from their attic so that I can pass it on to my daughter. I’d take a pic and insert it here if I knew how to do that in the comments area.
The most spilled-on pages are: Silhouette Sandwiches (where you make cutouts from a piece of American cheese and lay it over a slice of salami); Frank Roundup (I LOVED this one! You make shallow slices on one side of a hot dog and wind it around a dollop of pickle relish on a hamburger bun); Sloppy Joe (self evident); Bunny Salad (canned pear halves with cottage cheese tails, almond ears, cinnamon candy noses and raisin eyes); Polka Dotted Macaroni and Cheese (a mac and cheese casserole with sliced hot dogs); Chocolate Chip Cookies; and, sadly, the Tuna and Chips Casserole.
Lia Huber
http://www.swirlingnotions.com
So hungry now!
I don’t believe I ever had a first cookbook… but I do remember lots of random pieces of paper that my grandmother had scribbled recipes on. I still love those recipes to this day. =D
My first cookbook was my mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook – it came as a ring binder, and I think it dated from the mid 50′s. I still fondly remember my favorite chocolate frosting (Brown Beauty), among other gems. My mother in law is on high alert to bring me back one from a tag sale find, because I don’t want to pay the premium price it commands on the net!
My mom was a straight up housewife raised in the midwest by depression era parents, and she always had a huge garden with tons of zucchini. Sadly, I didn’t learn about the joys of zucchini bread until I was 17 and out of the house, when my roommate and I made zucchini recipes for all of one very long hot summer. Great memories :-)
Actually yes, there are two of them and I still have them, let me go look…
Ok,
1. “La Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants” because my mother wanted to raise me speaking French, though she fell off the bandwagon rather quickly. It’s an oversize book with hand-done drawing and it involves make-believe mushrooms, a crouton omelet, lemons stuffed with olives and sardines, cheese souffle and chicken in a salt crust.
2. Step-by-Step Cookbook which is British so I never managed to get the measurements right , but has everything shown by color photo step-by-step. It has a killer recipe for beef stew that my mother still makes (the key is a bit of orange peel).
This was really fun, great idea!
Strange to me that only one other person so far has mentioned the Joy of Cooking. My mother had my great grandmother’s copy (with extra recipes, like her pie crust, written on the end papers). The first things I made from it all on my own were peanut butter cookies and raspberry jam. I was seven years old and wanted pb & j cookies. It’s funny, because I was just remembering this the other day (might have something to do with those nutter butters). Oh, and I’m with you on the chocolate thing, I’d much rather have crème brûlée or other vanilla bean inflected desserts over chocolate (and definitely not in my zucchini bread thank you very much), but my husband is in Alex’s camp.
Oh, Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, circa sometime in the ’70s, for sure. That was my parents’ go-to cookbook for everything and it was the first one I used on my own, to make my mother’s heavenly pancakes for the first time when I was about 14 or so.
Claiborne’s collection was unfussy but exacting – everything I’ve made since from that book is classic and well-balanced.
The first thing I ever remember making wasn’t from a cookbook. My mom would make her crust for pies, and then give me the leftovers. I would use small cookie cutters to make shapes out of the dough, and them bake them with sugar and cinnamon. When I was a little older, I would roll them out, add butter, cinnamon and sugar, roll them up and slice like cinnamon buns. They came out crispy and good!
My favorite item with zucchini is chocolate zucchini cake. So moist. We puree the zucchini first.
My first cookbook? The original,non-updated, loaded with dairy fat Moosewood Cookbook. It was a 16th birthday gift from my stepmom who wasn’t thrilled about my refusal to eat meat, but found a way to be supportive. Honestly though I don’t remember what I first cooked from that. I do remember that at 16 my specialty was curried rice made with plain old white rice, raisins, almonds, peas, and tons of Sun Brand Madras curry powder. And now I find myself with a bit of a craving for that gummy and very yellow dish……
i remember reading cookbooks for kids as a child, but my most oft-executed recipe was chocolate frosting with graham crackers. wow, my first mastered recipe was extemporaneous. to this day, i read cookbooks like no one’s business, but rarely follow them.
This looks so good, and the zucchini adds moisture and nutrition-somehing to do with all that garde-grown zucchini! To answer your question, my first cookbook was the Better Homes and Garden classic red and white checked binder cookbook (I’m feeling likeJune Cleaver about now!)
I remember the Betty Crocker kids’ cookbook, but what really sticks out in my mind is the storybook “Old Black Witch!” It’s about a witch who haunts a tearoom, and had a recipe for blueberry pancakes that I made many times, first with Mom’s help, and then on my own.
Here’s a picture of the cover. You can still find used copies at ABE.com, Amazon and eBay.
My first cookbook, given to me by my Mum shortly after I got married, was The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. It’s been an excellent resource ever since, even though I now live in Europe (and long ago divorced the husband) and have to do various math contortions to get the measurements right. Now I cook WAY more than I ever did growing up. My Mum was such a fabulous cook that there was simply no need… and no room for an inquisitive kid in the kitchen with eight of us to feed three times a day. (Great question!)
I love this blog, I grew up with my mom and grandma in firm charge of the kitchen. They rarely used a coockbook but owned every one that was ever printed ,lol. Oh the memories, me standing on a chair , apron on…I just knew I was a the best cook on earth . Thanks to my mom and Grandma, I am a good cook, never afraid to wing it and yes, I go home and read my moms cookbooks still…My specaility is homemade spaghetti, strangely taught to me by an aunt , to this day Im still asked to make it for all our family functions
The first cook book I was given was “Look! I Can Cook” and I was 5 or 6, and the first things I made were chocolate kisses (sandwich cookie). The book fell apart over the years and then disappeared. I mentioned it in passing to My Lovely Young Man who, unbeknownst to me, found it on eBay, bid for it, and a nice lady in NYC sent it to me in London a few years ago. I was sooo happy :-) And it brought back lots of lovely warm memories.
Love the blog, and I hope you are going to love Napa.
I didn’t have buy my first cookbook until I was in college, but I remember my mother transforming the overwhelming bounty of our garden grown zucchini into zucchini bread. Let me tell you it’s hard to convince folks outside of the States that it’ll be good, and I often have to refer to carrot cake as an example of vegetable used in sweet breads or cakes. Once sampled though, there is no denying that it’s delicious!
I think I had a couple of cooking-for-kids type cookbooks, but didn’t really use them. In college, when I went to Budapest for a semester, my mom gave me the paperback Joy of Cooking (volume 1)…so virtually everything I made for 6 months came from there. Particular favorite was chicken and dumplings – Thank goodness for that book or we would never have eaten chicken! I had no idea how to cut up a whole chicken and that was the only way you could buy it in Hungary at the time. But Joy of Cooking had explicit directions, of course!
It’s been a while since i first wrote, but i look forward to your Smitten Kitchen every day. I miss it when you take a break. I don’t cook now, living with my daughter and family, but the book i did use when i lived by myself was always the Joy Of Cooking. My daughter now has my copy and faithfully uses it for her family cooking. Love you pictures, the comments and all. By the way I’m 75 and you make my day brighter.
My first cookbook was a kids science cookbook. It had nifty pictures and I loved cooking out of it. I believe my first thing to bake though was chocolate chip cookies or pretzels. I can’t remember which one. Maybe my parents know.
I don’t remember my first cookbook, but I vividly remember the first recipes I ever made. I was about 12, and I made Caesar salad (julia’s recipe) and beer-and-cheddar soup (a la the Frugal Gourmet — I wrote the recipe down desperately quickly while the episode rushed by on PBS. So glad we don’t have to do that anymore! Or send SASEs to get recipes from the TV show. Instant gratification: The Only Way! Anyway, where was I? . . . oh, right.). I remember loving the Caesar salad, but not being able to get down more than a spoonful of the soup. Luckily, my dad loved it (or did he?) and ate way more than his share. Thanks, dad!
Hrm- my first cookbook… I don’t remember what it was called, but it was something to do with mircowavable dishes. It had this bright yellow cover, with the black spiral bound sides. Inside it had little traffic lights, little red, yellow and green lights indicating the hardness of the recipie and if parents should be keeping a close eye!
I was so proud to get that book!
I read smitten kitchen every day and I too am sad when there are no new posts. Also, I can’t tell you how many random people I have told about it.
My first cookbook was a Gold Medal Flour cookbook for kids. It was just a little pamphlet type deal and I am certain the first thing I made from it was pancakes. As a grown-up, I couldn’t wait to get my very own copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook. My favorite recipies are brownies and the yellow cake best known by my family as “Birthday Cake.”
However, most of my early cooking memories don’t involve a cookbook. Just time spent in the kitchen perched on the stepstool with dishtowel for an apron and tutoring by my Grandma, aunts, uncles and mom. That’s the best way!!
The farmers market by me sells those insanely large zucchini that grow unchecked for the same price as the teeny ones, but I usually get small ones anyways.
My first cookbook was a hand-me down from my mom that sounds much like the one you described. I’m not sure though if I ever made anything out of it though.
My siblings and I were all avid devotees of the Klutz Kid’s Cookbook. Frequent favorites included Happel Bagel Sandwiches (bagel+apple+cheese+cinnamon, all toasted), Chili con Carne, Put-Back Potatoes, and Frozen Bananoids (bananas+chocolate+coconut, frozen)…all of which I still make from time to time for a good dose of comfort food.
I love zucchini bread, but only my step grandmothers. However I am no longer in touch with my step family and cannot get the recipe. I have tried a couple but they weren’t right, and I have seen too many that ask for pineapple.
Looks like this one is next on my list. I’m not sure if hers had nutmeg, but other than that, is seems about right. I may just have to try it both ways.
Hope my husband likes zucchini bread.
…And I think we must have been on the same wavelength yesterday, because I made zucchini bread with chocolate chips yesterday, too! (only the chocolate chips were my idea… heh, heh)
I was cooking out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 8th grade. But I also used Joy, and Diet for a Small Planet.
When my mother tried to grow zucchini, my brother & I used to knock the flowers off because we hated the product so much. She never understood why she didn’t get more zucchini. We fessed up recently.
My first cookbook was Betty Crocker’s Boys and Girls Cookbook, not the new one, but I’m guessing the original. I still have it, but it’s really in bad shape after all these years. My first recipe was a cake made in the shape of an igloo that I made for my 11th or 12th birthday in January. I thought it would be really “cool” to keep with the winter b’day theme and do the igloo cake. I remember being extremely proud of it. I also remember baking breakfast muffins from the book along with a candle salad made with a banana and a cherry flame!
the bread looks great! i just make 101cookbook’s bread with curry powder and was VERY pleased. oh – a garden is not always all it is cracked up to be. after leaving mahattan for boston, i was SO excited to plant my vggie/herb garden. among other things, i had zucchini last year – not only did the plants overrun my pepper plants, but i had all leaves and no fruit!
Damn, how cute is Gladys up there? What does it mean that I think old people are cuter than babies these days?
I’m a little disappointed in my zucchini plant because it’s not as prolific as I’d hoped. No bats yet (cucumbers are a different story). My first belongs-to-me cookbook was a Better Homes & Garden cookbook, a paperback that fell apart quickly, but from poor binding rather than lots of use. I think I made popovers first–my brother and I were briefly obsessed with them. My first use-it-frequently cookbook was my mother’s Betty Crocker Cooky book. Whenever she dies I’m taking it. Actually, whenever she unearths it from the boxes of her recent move I’m probably taking it, because the day I started making cookies, she stopped. Dad has to make chocolate chip cookies himself if he wants them.
First cookbook was a Sunset Magazine basic cookbook (Sunset is a west coast thing). I think my grandma found it at a library book sale or something. It’s actually still good for basic stuff and has a great chart that lists the cooking time for every vegetable you could ever think of. It came in handy the first time I made a baked potato on my own.
The Settlement Cookbook! A present from my American grandmother to my Roman mother, who promptly shut it into her kitchen cupboards until I discovered it as a pre-teen.
I can’t remember actually owning a cookbook until i moved to college (after which I collected them by the dozens, it seemed). I loved cooking though, and most of the stuff I remember was learned either by just figuring it out on my own or by hanging out in the kitchen with my Mom/Dad/Grandma and “helping with dinner”. One of my favorites that I can think of right now was my Mom’s apple crisp. I loved helping her peel all those apples, anticipating how great it was going to taste after it was all done.
BTW, I made your chili recipe last night for my husband and I, and it was just perfect! Thank you. =)
How wierd, I had a book with plastic spiral binding, also called something like “A Child’s First Cookbook”! I remember making some sort of candy that ended up tasting like burnt sugar – yuck!
I have the same feeling about banana bread – although I think that almost everything can be improved with the addition of chocolate (or if not chocolate then bacon, but that’s another story) I don’t want chips in my banana bread. Melted chocolate added to the batter however, is wonderous!
My first coookbook was “The Sesame Street Cookbook. It was filled with truly trashy American delights like: Cookie Monster’s Un-Cookies (refrigerator cookies made with ccookie crumbs, peanut butter and chocolate chips), Oscar the Grouch’s Trash Salad (a chopped salad featuring tinned sardines) and my favorite Snuffaluphaloaf on Big Bird’s nest of noodles. The Snuffyloaf was just meatloaf shaped like Snuffaluphagus sitting on a tangle of buttered egg noodles. – I remember making his eyes from hard boiled eggs and olives. Wow – The memories that cookbok brings back are just so intense. I can practically smell the beef, onions and buttered noodles. Good times.
The Mennonite Community Cookbook… I grew up using that cookbook and had to have my own copy when I left home. Not that my Mom and I didn’t use plenty of other cookbooks.. and I have shelves and shelves of them now…along with a bunch of bookmarks to recipe and food blog sites (I’ve made that whole lemon tart you posted a few weeks back twice now) and I subscribe to two cooking magazines (only two at the moment, that’s some serious self control :-D ) but the Mennonite Community cookbook lives in the cookbook holder on my kitchen counter because it’s just not worth putting it on a shelf since it won’t stay there long enough to make it worth the effort.
My first cookbook was called “Yum! I Eat!” and it was written specifically for kids in that 70s style of handwritten fonts. My mom gave it to me, and I loved it. We would make things from the book together, and to this day, if we are eating together and something tastes good we exclaim “YUM! I EAT!”
My first cookbook was The Joy of Cooking
My first recipe was Banana Bread.
Still make it, but from memory now and with a few small changes.
GREAT question!
My first cookbook was the ever-popular Betty Crocker Boys & Girls Cookbook. What’s funny about the timing of this post was that I just gave my daughter 2 cookbooks (her request) for her 11th birthday this past week. Also, I made 2 loaves of zucchini bread from a “bat” that a co-worker shared with me. My husband mentioned the addition of chocolate chips, but instead I used mini cinnnamon chips in the batter. My original recipe is very similar to yours, but the cinnamon chips melt into little pockets of extra cinnamon flavor. Yummy. I also use them in pancakes & homemade waffles that the kids love.
BTW, I hope you can find (a copy of) your first cookbook again.
I, too, had a spiral-bound cookbook from the seventies, but I don’t remember a recipe for zucchini bread. It was illustrated and arranged by holiday, suggesting meals you could make for say, Father’s Day (I think it was something like hot dogs and lemonade). But, the recipe I remember was for Christmas candy cane cookies. One batch of sugar cookie dough flavored with peppermint extract. Half of the dough was flavored with red food coloring (lots, so the dough was red, not pink). Grab a piece of white dough and roll it into a snake, same with the red, then twist together and shape into a candy cane. Good times.
I made my first batch of brownies when I was about 10 with my mother’s cookbook which I think was a Betty Crocker. I didn’t have my own cookbook until I married and bought The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I still have it today, well worn and it has the best brownie recipe ever. I’ve got some extra zucchini from my garden but I think I will make some fritters. I did that last year and they were really good.
My favorite cookbook as a kid was based on the Charlie Brown characters. I loved making Lucy Lemon Squares. Love your blog!
My zucchini bread (though I prefer them in mini muffin form) recipes is virtually the same. I always swap out half the oil for applesauce, and half the flour for whole wheat as you mentioned. I also add 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 3 Tbs. flax seed, and 1 1/2 Tbs. wheat germ. Then I feel all virtuous eating them, as they are moist and delicious. They freeze beautifully, too. A few years ago I grew a zucchini in the garden that was the size of MY LOWER LEG. I am not kidding.
My first cookbook was the little black binder that my mother has had forever, and which holds all of our family favorites, including ones from my great and (regular) grandmother. My brothers (three) and I never fight, but there just might be a turf battle over who gets that binder when Mom is no longer with us. I, as the only daughter, of course call dibs, because Mom didn’t make THEM cook dinner every Wednesday, from third grade until I left for college, with recipes from that book.
Mine was that old 50′s Betty Crocker kids cookbook that belonged to my mother and aunt first and they left it with my grandmom, who took care of me for years. I seem to remember being very into the recipe where you cooked the egg inside the toast with a hole in it and the concept of “Pig in a Blanket” intrigued me, but my grandmom thought those “biscuits” were an abomination (We are from Memphis, TN)!
My mom had a whole set of Ladies Home Journal cook books, slim, alphabetized like encyclopedias, hardbound, with he most gorgeous color illustrations. I cannot for the life of me imagine where she got them,or, if she bought them, how she afforded them, but we cooked out of them since I can remember.
She passed when I was 16, but I kept them until they molded and roaches got to them (I live in Florida) before I finally gave them up. They were the only really personal items she left me when she died, and I owe my love of cooking to her and those books.Thanks for that memory Deb, I had forgotten.
The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook was the first cookbook I remember ever making something out of. It was almost three inches thick, and my parents cooked it from cover to cover on a fairly frequent basis. My dad would make Saturday breakfast for us out of it, and my earliest memories of cooking were helping him make thick velvety Russian pancakes out of it.
My very. very first cookbook was, embarassingly, the Barbie Cookbook, courtesy of my grandmother (defying my mother, who had banned Barbie). Published the year I was born, it contains charming vignettes of the Blonde enjoying home, school, and holidays in the kitchen. Shortly thereafter I graduated to a Unicef cookbook entitled “Many Hands Cooking,” and then the Mennonite Central Committee’s “Loaves and Fishes.” At about the same time, my mother gave up her long-standing flirtation with Adele Davis, and turned into a Franky (Moore Lappe) devotee. I still wake up screaming some nights, thinking of those hideous blobs of oily “natural” peanut butter mixed with gritty undissolved powdered milk, honey, and carob powder, then rolled in shredded unsweetened coconut. Curse you, Diet for a Small Planet!
Betty Crocker? Junior League? Who are you people? Obviously, I grew up in a far different… remote location that the rest of the world. I grew up in Minnesota so of course my first cookbook was a “Lutheran Church Basement” cookbook. Really, a collection of recipes handed down to the younger members of the church for important occasions like… dating …or the ice going out on the lake. This cookbook had about 50 recipes for jello salads (my husband – the Philly boy – just about died when I called Jello a “salad.”) and about 100 recipes for bars (cakes and cookies made in a rectangular pan and cut into 1″ squares. Bars come in a large variety, but chocolate and lemon are the best.) and the rest was dedicated to hotdish recipes. (Hotdish in MN is anything that is held together with cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup. Hotdish is usually topped with tater tots or a can of crispy, fried onions.) Does anyone else notice that the vegetable category is missing? My husband attributes my avoidance of all things green to this fact. To this day, a hotdish is my go-to comfort food.
My first cookbook , which I still own, was The Peanuts Cookbook and the first recipe I made was Lucy’s French Toast or maybe it was Peppermint Patty’s..Now I have to go dig that out for Izzy. Reading these comments has been quite fascinating..
Love these comments! (Ahna, great post!) Glad you asked the question! (tho this new preview feature is a bit freaky, watching a mirror image of what I’m typing magically appear at the same time!
Growing up my mom had a Fanny Farmer cookbook. She never encouraged me to cook, so it wasn’t until after I moved out after college that I even got my own.. and I haven’t stopped. Dozens, and dozens… but do I use them? I keep printing out recipes fromthe Food Network, and yours…
My first own cookbook was the Joy of Cooking, and one put together by a social group. All high fat and yummy. Ignorance was bliss back inthe late 70′s.
Annie
The Peanuts Cook Book! I remember that! I think that was my first cookbook as well – I can remember making Security Cinnamon Toast as a wee kidlet. Fond memories.
My first real cookbook was the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking; first I learned how to bake cookies, then cakes, then bread. It’s still the cookbook I refer to most often. Can’t beat the classics.
by the time i grew up adn started taking an interest in the kitchen my mother had quite a collection of cookbooks and all them, specially the ones with loads of pics, amazed me no end… Tho my first and favourite one for its sheer simplicity is the one mom got for free for collecting a number of McDougalls product wrappers, Better Baking cookbook!
I don’t remember which came first, the chicken or the egg, Cooking with Susan or the Joy of Cooking. What I do remember is how everything changed when Julia Child appeared on PBS in the 60′s. I went right out, bought her books, read them from cover to cove, and that was it for me. I was hooked. What a gal.
I have a similar feeling about you. This blog (this is a blog,right?) is terrific. You are very funny, down to earth, an incredible photographer, and I know you would be a hoot to bake cookies or break bread with. Cookies, hell, let’s cover everything in plastic and make a croquembouche!
My first was “Strawberry Shortcake’s Cooking Fun”. We made sandwiches shaped like cat faces (cheese triangle ears, celery whiskers). I don’t remember making anything else from the book, except perhaps the occasion PBJ pinwheel roll-up. What a fun thread to read, and see where we all started from!
I love a walk down memory lane! My first cookbook was a winnie-the-pooh small hardcover that I got for Christmas around age 8 or 9 (I’m jewish but we believe in celebrating). I made the blueberry muffins and they were AWFUL. One of my favorite cooking rituals was making shirred eggs with my father–lots of pomp and circumstance and so good.
On the chocolate chip front–I ran a very basic cooking (really baking) class for little kids at my temple for a few years and the 2 rules were everything was made from scratch and everything had chocoloate chips. Really messy but a lot of fun!
Thanks for asking and I love the site.
I had (and still have) the Betty Crocker New Boys and Girls Cookbook…..as well as the beloved BC Cooky Book that I still pull out for the Toffee Bar and Spritz recipes each Christmas.
But how funny that Kitt mentioned The Old Black Witch. I loved that book!
chocolate mousse, from the little book of chocolate. still making it from that recipe, you can´t beat it.
I don’t remember the very first cookbook I cooked out of-it was probably more like something off of the back of a canister of Quaker Oats- but the first cookbook I bought for myself was the Real Vegetarian Thai Cookbook in college. I still make the Green Curry with Zucchini and Bamboo shoots on a frequent basis. Delish! That first purchase made a monster out of me and now I have 42 cookbooks on my bookcase along with a box of antique cookbooks stored away somewhere.
i don’t even remember the name of it, but the cover was bright yellow with cartooney-like people characters on it, and it had a red comb binding. i wish i still had it, but alas, i believe it still resides somewhere in the confines of my parents’ home, about 1700 miles away. it chock- (choc?) full of extremely basic recipes like “peanut butter on celery,” but with twists, like how to turn them into wagons by placing them atop toothpicks with carrot rounds on each end. let me tell you…was i amazed. i think my favorite recipe, however, was that for witch’s brew. it was an ever so easy concoction of orange and cranberry juices, and probably something like gingerale. let me tell you, that sh** was delicious, and it’s still something i seek to make every halloween.
I DO remember my first cookbook – Joy of Cooking. I was a new bride, at that moment living in some pretty ugly temporary digs in Pensacola, FL (with a kitchen that hardly qualified as one). I made cherry pie. But I didn’t have a pie plate, only a round aluminum cake pan. Made crust. And filling. And a lattice top that I hitched to the edges. Baked it. It oozed all over the sides of the pan and the bottom of the oven. Awful. Pie was wonderful, but it stuck to the pan, so it came out in spoonfuls. Looked dreadful, but tasted just fine.
My first cookbook was also the Fannie Farmer cookbook. My brother and I used to make sugar cookies all the time. He would mix the wet ingredients, I would sift in the dry, and then we would race to see who could fill up a baking sheet first. After gorging ourselves on cookies, he would wash the dishes and I would dry. Good times (sniff, sniff).
hmmmm…first cookbook was actually a collection of three different sources: my mother’s Joy of Cooking (still one of my favorites), the Southern Living series (bestest, southernest desserts EVER), and a small wooden drawer in the spice rack that held a myriad of my mother’s index cards, faded and stained, collected from friends and relatives. Still has the best southern cornbread recipe I’ve tasted.
daw. Now you’ve made me sentimental for cornbread. have to go make some now.
Believe it or not, my first cookbook was the Nancy Drew Cookbook. I still have it…recipes for “Togo dogs” (corn dogs…I remember searching around the grocery store for self-rising flour at age 8), homemade fortune cookies, and my second grade piece de resistance — a “stained glass window cake” featuring little cubes of colorful gelatin and made in a springform pan. In retrospect, I can see that my mother was very patient!
From there I moved on to my mom’s Bon Appetit subscription…at age 10 I made homemade croissants, Chicken Kiev, and apple fritters. I will also third the recommendation for the Fannie Farmer cookbook – the best all-around resource I know. I often give it as a graduation present.
I too first thought this post was about dodging flying bats in the garden!! LOL. Some of my first cooking came out of the Campbell Soup Cookbook and the Joys of Jello cookbook(is making Jello considered cooking?) The first cookbooks I bought were in college and I chose the Better Homes and Gardens 3 ring cookbook and Sunset Cooking for Two and the Casserole Cookbook.
My first cookbook was the Mandie cookbook. It took years and years, but I made the bread pudding recipe in it a few years ago. My first “real” cookbook was the all-purpose Betty Crocker cookbook with the red cover. I made cheese sauce with it. I mean, what can’t you make better with cheese sauce?
What a wonderful topic!
My first cookbook (seems I stole it from my sister since it says Happy Birthday [sister's name] inside) was Meals of Many Lands: A Cookbook for Children. I’ve always made the simple Ground Beef Stroganoff and have modified the can of cream of chicken soup and can of mushrooms to now be a can of Golden Mushroom soup. It’s a quick and easy alternative (although rightfully not as good) to a traditional stroganoff.
I remember us making many of the international recipes in this book – probably why both my sister and I have wonderfully broad palates today!
I don’t remember the name of my first cookbook, but I do remember it was from the grade school book fair. The first thing I made was english muffin pizzas. MMmmm…NOT! Nasty sounding, eh? *shrug*
btw- I work with Jocelyn your substitute blogger! “Hi!”
My mom’s “red plaid” Better Homes and Garden book. Since my mom was a great cook with no sweettooth, I was all over cookies (frequently sugar) and brownies….
At least one person has mentioned this already (I can tell thanks to that nifty new “five most recent comments” feature over on the left!), but the red and white plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. My mom’s original — that she got for her wedding — is now in a hope chest of sorts, waiting for me, but I have another edition of it and use it more than any other cookbook I’ve owned. What did I make first? Probably snickerdoodles or chocolate chip cookies…I’ve always been a cookie girl. This cookbook has the recipes of my childhood, and it’s the only way to recreate the things that aren’t simply “family recipes.”
My first cookbook was one my grandmother owned, but I baked from it. It’s called ‘Aunt Chick’s Pies’. It’s a simple paper cookbook all about pies, with a red paper cover and 36 pages, covering 345 different types of pies. It was published in 1941. I baked my first pie (apple) with it when I was 10, by this time the book was well over 20 years old. But, from this little book, came the best pies with the flakiest, lightest piecrusts that just melted in my mouth. My grandma’s copy was mere shreds by the time she died in ’81, so my mom threw it away. A few years ago, in a fit of nostalgia, I went to eBay looking for this heavenly cookbook. I found it immediately, bid on it and won it. When the cookbook came in the mail, the pages were dark from age and had some stains from baking. That was fine, as it evoked strong memories of my grandma and her cookbook. I again made a apple pie from this book from scratch and it was just as good as the first one I made at age 10.
I wore off the covers of my first cookbook, The Auburn Cookbook, published by the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. It had a meal planner’s guide, menu patterns, tips on “harmonizing” flavors and even how to follow a recipe! I was given the cookbook for a wedding present, and it was one thing I used a lot since it had step-by-step instructions. The page to biscuit recipes is still turned down at the corner.
Hello,
I just wanted to say that I tried out this Zucchini Bread recipe and it was simply amazing! I am a frequent visitor to your site, and had been wanting to try out a one of your recipes. So when I purchased an abundance of zucchini at the farmstand down the street the other day, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.
I substituted applesauce for the 1 c. oil and made muffins instead of the loaves. Some I made plain, others I added raisins, and others still chocolate chips. My favorite by far were the chocolate chips ones — especially dunked in milk the next day!
The only problem I encountered was that the muffins stuck to the cupcakers liners quite a bit. I found that the spraying the tin with the Pam spray with flour worked better.
Can’t wait to try out more. Thanks!
-amanda
I’m not sure how I found your web site, but I’m so glad I did! Finally a collection
of recipes that makes sense and are simplified! THANK YOU!!!
Kindercrunchies from Discovery Toys. It was “healthy” snacks for kids. I made the big, soft pretzels like 1000 times LOL! My mom held on to the book and after my daughter was born she passed it along. Now we both enjoy it together :)
Heya – I hope you’re still getting notified about this. There’s some funky rendering of the text so I just wanted to make sure
1¾ cups sugar = 1 3/4
and
½ teaspoon baking powder = just 1/1 teaspoon and not 1 and 1/2
Thank you :) I adore your website.
I just made the zucchini bread and it’s in the oven now. My apartment smells incredible! I can’t wait to try them. I tried the recipe with 2 cups of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat.
My first cookbook was one that was handed down for many generations, originating in the 1700′s. My Mom was a wonderful cook (still is!), and taught me everything she knew. I’ve been making your zucchini bread for years, my grown kids now ask me to send them some! Love to bake and cook, now I do it for others as my 4 kids are grown and gone.
My first book with a recipe was a hardbacked Sesame Street book that had a recipe for banana bread. It was a one page comic strip where Grover marched through every frame, from measuring the ingredients to mashing the brown bananas. When I was little (under 5 yrs), my mom used to let me ‘make’ banana bread with Grover’s help. It was a great way to get rid of old bananas, I am sure. I can remember sitting in front of the oven window, willing the banana to rise to perfection. 45 minutes seemed like an eternity to me!
Hah! I was just doing a little surfing while waiting for my lunch to show up at the office, and I followed your new link back to this post. Since I was young, Zucchini Bread has been one of my most favorite foods. On a whim, I found an old copy of my mother’s recipe to see how it compares to yours… and they’re almost exactly the same! Sure, she didn’t use nutmeg, but did put an extra teaspoon of vanilla. Also, she only used 1/4 tsp of baking powder and no dried fruit. But other than that, even the proportions are the same.
Now I want to make some.
My mom had this beautiful (I thought) international cookbook with full-color photographs of each of the dishes. I was 9 when I decided I wanted to cook something and the oyster soup sounded delicious. This turned out to be a hugely labor-intensive project for a young girl but I had committed and was going to see this thing through. My mom helped me gather the ingredients and made sure I didn’t do anything stupid. We served it up to my family and I anticipated heaping helpings of praise from each of them. We tucked in and it was terrible. It had this sickly sweet flavor and was not at all what I had imagined. Suddenly my lets out this little gasp. She had told me to use a jar of chicken broth that was in the refrigerator – just as the recipe had called for – but she had forgotten it was actually honey/peach water left over from a batch of canning she had done. My first cooking experiment was a dismal failure, but I’ve always taken comfort in the fact that it wasn’t really my fault.
Can’t wait to try the zucchini bread recipe!
My mom had every year, starting at 1971, of Southern Living’s Cookbook series. I started thumbing through the weird hued pages – they all had that strange prisma color look that the first colored movies had.. kind of like they were all taken during a total solar eclipse..
Those were my first books. My first recipe out of them was some casserole that basically demolished any structural integrity of a squash and topped it with delicious ritz crackers.. And lots of butter. I remember, even at seven years old, feeling as if the butter measurements had to be completely wrong..
She stopped collecting sometime in the 90′s – has them all proudly displayed on her kitchen shelf to this day…
Could you please tell me if I can use frozen zucchini in this recipe without destroying it? Thanks KP
Karen — It would probably depend on when you froze the zucchini. Already shredded? Whole? I’ve never worked with frozen zucchini before but I suspect if it was the former and well squeezed out before adding it, it would work just fine.
Just wanted to say I made the Zucchini Spaghetti last week for my husband, sister-in-law and myself and we LOVED it. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but this is the first time in the six years of knowing him, that my husband actually. ate. cooked. vegetables!!! I’m sure to make it again now that I know that he enjoyed it! Thanks. love your site.
My first cookbook was Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Cookbook, which included recipes from all of the famous Disney characters, in all of the major dining categories – appetizers, main courses, beverages, and desserts. I remember the illustrations so clearly! One of my favorite pages showed the Seven Dwarves decorating enormous cupcakes…I think it might be time to give Moosewood a rest, and break out Disney for a little fun in the kitchen! Thanks for sending me on a trip down memory lane with this post. : )
This is the first time I’ve made this delicious recipe this summer, as my zucchini matures to abundance. I’ve actually been anticipating making it for about a month, because the flavor is just so simple but delicious. I brought it in to my office and already some has asked me if they can take home any leftovers (if there are any). Two things I tried that are delicious additions are some shredded carrots (with the nuts, raisins and spice it is almost like a carrot cake variation) and some ground ginger for zing.
As for the frozen zucchini, I have made this before using some shredded frozen (I did a bunch in the food processor and put a batch in the freezer to test it). It was OK, but I prefer fresh, obviously. You definitely do need to dry it very well before freezing, and I found that it shriveled up a bit, so I’d use more than the 2 cups of fresh that the recipe calls for.
My first cookbooks of my very own were hand-me-downs from my Aunt’s Sister-in-Law. I know one of them was the Betty Crocker Kid’s cookbook and the other one was red and might have been called “Mary Alden’s Children’s Cookbook” or something of the sort. I still cook out of the Betty Crocker (there isn’t a finer sugar cookie out there!) and my copy was so worn and tattered that I recieved a new copy for Christmas last year. I guess so many of us had such fond memories that the powers that be decided to re-issue it for another generation to discover! What’s interesting is now they have added an editor’s note of sorts warning you about using raw eggs and other things that are frowned upon nowadays…not like it was in the 50′s when the book was originally released.
My mom bought me a few kid-friendly cookbooks when I was younger, but MY FIRST COOKBOOK, the one I went out and bought myself at age 16, was Ina’s very first cookbook. Did I tell her this when I met her at a signing a few years ago? No. I drooled and slobbered all over her and made a total fool of myself. The first things I made from the book were her Cheddar Corn Chowder, Perfect Roast Chicken, and Outrageous Brownies. The book now opens to the roast chicken page. Be still my heart.
Getting to this a little late, but I will answer none-the-less! My first cookbook was my mom’s 70′s Betty Crocker cookbook. I still have it right above my fridge and use it to this day! It’s chock-full of poorly colored pictures of “grandma food” on avocado and harvest gold plates. I don’t remember what I first cooked with it, but I’ve never been one to cook true to a recipe–something that’s got me into trouble at times, but has taught me a lot about how to cook! Right now I have two loaves of your marvelous sounding bread in the oven which, true to nature, I modified slightly to include maple syrup instead of sugar ;) We’ll see how it works!
This question brought a flood of memories, and a few tears. As I child there was no cook book, partially because my mom’s family handed down all their recipes by word of mouth and they included a lot of pinches of this and a dash of that. The first cook book I owned was givento me by my husband’s grandmother as bithday gift before we were married. It was one her church ladies group published, so it had recipies from her and his mother and their friends.
Great question! I cooked and baked with my mom often but my very own first cookbook was Peanuts Cook Book (as in Lucy, Linus, Charlie Brown). I ordered it at school from Scholastic. Does anyone else remember those monthly newsprint book orders? I used to practically drool over the pages, circling every book I dreamed of owning! Then, my mom would take a look and narrow my choices to one! Anyway…The Peanuts Cookbook was both a collection of Peanuts comic strips AND a cookbook. I still have it. Best thing about it?…The pages are all NEON PINK! (so seventies!) My favorite recipe is Lucy’s Lemon Squares.
My first cookbook was a Christmas gift from my mother, similarly entitled, “MY FIRST COOKBOOK.” Published by Imperial sugar company – Sugarland, Texas Copyright 1959. It naturally contained dishes requiring SUGAR!
My cookbook is paperback, with tan and orange line drawings and well placed staples rather than a plastic comb to bind the spine.
Jerry’s Bars, a pecan bar cookie were my favorite due to my grandfather’s home grown pecans and possibly because they just tasted so sweet and crunchy! Good luck tracking down your cookbook from your childhood.
I remember my first ‘cookbook’ was a child’s no cook, cookbook. I don’t remember the title right off hand, but I still have it and my children use it from time to time. The cookbook I remember using most is a Betty Crocker book my aunt gave my mom as a gift when my parents married. I have greatly enjoyed cooking from it for years. My aunt (actually my second momma) passed away 15 years ago and I miss her a lot. My mom gave me her cookbook last year. Now as I, and my daughters cook from it, it’s like adding a little of Aunt Betty to our home each time we open the book. My daughter’s favorite recipe is the yellow cake. Me… there are to many to list.
Booty Food was my first cookbook that I myself purchased. Lol. Growing up I utilized my parents books mostly consisting of recipes gathered from the ladies of Star Pride (women’s club) in small town Texas where I grew up! Note: Your zucchini bread recipe is in my oven now (x2)! :) This is one of my favorite recipes of all times. I now write down all of my and other peoples recipes that I really enjoy on index cards and keep them in a box. Next weekend I’m having a recipe party!
My first cookbook was a Sesame Street cookbook. My mom and I made a meatloaf shaped like the Snuffleupagus that was sitting in a ‘nest of noodles’. I know we did it more than once, because we had so much fun molding the groundbeef. As I write that, it makes me wonder… Anyway, I know I couldn’t have been older than 5 at the time. Wish I knew where that book went :(
I was just surfing looking for a zucchini bread recipe and found a couple of them, yours sounding the best, can’t wait to go home and try it out, I am making baked goods baskets for work friends and at the holidays so many people do cookies I wanted something different and zucchini bread is just the right addition to my homemade scones and biscotti. Thanx so much.
my first cookbook: the kids kitchen takeover by sara bonnett stein (published 1975). my younger brothers and i always made the raw cookie dough recipe (no eggs) for two reasons: 1) it was raw cookie dough satisfaction before cookie dough ice cream was invented and 2) it was the only junkfood/sweets we were allowed to eat in our no-sugar-whole-grain-homeschooled household. i think because we ‘cooked’ it ourselves, my mom could never say no to a raw cookie dough baking session. as she saw it, cooking was reading comprehension practice and science class all rolled into one. ah, good times!
Hi Deb, My fiance and I have been reading your blog for a few months now and finally tried one of your recipes – zucchini bread. It turned out great, I really like the addition of vanilla. I think it really made the flavor richer. We didn’t add any nuts or dried fruit – I think we’re going to try that out next time. BTW, my first cookbook (like everyone else on this board) was the Betty Crocker Cookbook (what my mom always referred to as the “red check cookbook.” Although I now have tons of other and much fancier books, its still my go to for just basic recipes :)
Does it make you happy, Deb, that people are still commenting on this post almost 3 years later? :)
My first cookbook was not really mine, it was my mothers’ mother’s, some old Pennsylvania dutch cookbook with a green worn-in cardstock-like cover. My first recipe that I remember making all by myself (other than brownies from a box, which came out fine except for the fact that I forgot to grease the pan 9/10ths of the time!) were called “Millie Richardson’s No-Bake Cookies” and they still are some of my faavorite things. Margarine, sugar, and some cocoa are boiled for just one minute, then quickly mix in peanutbutter and 3 C of oats, scoop onto wax paper and TADA! Heaven in your mouth.
My first cookbook was some sort of European kids cookbook. Impossible for a 9yr old to figure out how to convert the measurements to cups and tablespoons from grams and ounces. I think to this date (I’m 26 now) the only thing that we ever made from it was chocolate truffles. Equal amounts of chocolate powder, powdered sugar, and butter. They never make it past the mixing stage cause we eat it on everything. Dried apricots? Graham crackers? Spoons? Oh yes.
My mom also has the Whole foods for the whole family cookbook. We make cheese leather and b-b-q chicken from it.
My first cookbook was called Clueless in the Kitchen which I promptly took offense to since I decided at a very young age I was going to be a Chef. Despite my resentment I actually WAS clueless at the time and made a good portion of the recipes in the book.
I love the layout of your website. It’s been a joy looking through.
First cookbook, from my dear mamma, Moosewood. First recipe I made was the tomato soup, which I still make to this day.
My first cookbook was “The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook,” which my mom gave to me as a birthday present for my ninth birthday because 1) I loved the book so much and 2) she wanted me to learn how to cook and thought this would be a fun way for me to learn, and it was! The recipes are simple and delicious and created from foods served during parties and picnics in the book.
The first thing I made from it was egg salad; the second, pound cake. Twenty-some-odd years later, my family still begs me to make the pound cake. Good thing I’ve kept the book all of these years.
P.S.- I remember the raspberry tarts being exceptional.
Wow – I am so glad I came across this site. I’m in Florida and it’s the middle of May and already have zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers coming in like crazy. Can’t wait to try some of these recipes!
Thanks!
Believe it or not, Zucchini bread works really well with fresh blueberries. My husband and I experimented one early fall when we couldn’t find any other type of fruit. We have only used blueberries since. Our recipe is very similar to this one.
My first cookbook was the Strawberry Shortcake Cookbook. My mom gave me a box of stuff she saved for me in case I had a little girl. Well, when I had my daughter a year and a half ago and there it was in the box! I using the recipe to make different types of berry floats and berry roll up sandwiches. I plan to recreate these with my little girl!
My first cookbook that I actually used was the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I used it for recipes like stuffed peppers (heavenly), oven-fried chicken (awesome), and just for hints like cooking temperature for meatloaf or cornbread. I have used this paperback one so much in the last 15 years that the pages are all falling out, but among all of the 20 or so cookbooks under my cabinet, it is the only one that was worth the money.
Wow, I’m having such a great time going through this site.
My first cookbook was either the Little Women cookbook–I can’t remember what I made from it, maybe molasses cookies? I still have it actually, and it’s got a few things that don’t look too bad; bought it when my mom took us to visit the Louisa May Alcott house. –
anyway, either that or a Jill Krementz book, The Fun of Cooking, which I also still have and which I also actually occasionally use. It’s got great photos of about twenty kids (ranging from six up to late teens) who each contribute their favorite recipe and talk about it. I got obsessed with the idea of baking the teddy bear bread (bread shaped like a bear–you make various sizes of dough ball and put them together) and talked my dad into helping me; I was probably about eight. It came out pretty well, if I recall correctly.
I remember making strawberry parfaits out of that book all by myself, too.
I didn’t cook very much as a kid; my parents cooked a lot but there wasn’t much space in our kitchen and I would have mostly gotten in the way. I did learn to bake early though; my grandmother taught me about pie crust when I was probably nine or ten (my mother’s never been any good at it; she says it skipped a generation) and by the time I was eleven I was supervising smaller kids making peanut butter cookies so I guess I knew how to do that on my own by then.
My first cookbook, was my grandma. It was all in her head. I remember she had a big huge drawer she had filled with flour and the other one with sugar. A dash of this and that, and voila…sugar cookies! Like grandma magic! She would have special sunday dinners and I could always count on fresh iced tea in the summer. I really miss her. The very first thing I ever made were bread loaves shaped like teddy bears for her birthday. With mustard I put a big old “7″ on one and “8″ on the other and I made her homeade lemonade. I was only 10 or 11. She made the biggest deal of that, to this day that memory makes me smile.
Yummo, I’m going to give it a go with my crookneck squash.
The best zuchinni bread I have ever made (and I am a professional baker). There was nothing I would do differently or change. Keep this in your books!
My very first cookbook was a “Laura Ingles Wilder Favorites” (You know, Little House…) Anyway, it didn’t have zucchini bread! :( I actually first encountered zucchini bread while i was on an airplane, and i figured if it tasted that good on an airplane, it must be better when its homecooked… and it is. I’m actually off to cook some now. :)
Good Housekeeping cookbook, 1947 edition; my mother’s copy had fallen apart, but my Great Aunt Mary had a copy that was still in good shape and I begged it from her. It has the best banana tea bread recipe and a lot of rather quaint stuff you can’t always find easily now. About the same time, I got my mid-sixties edition of Joy of Cooking, which is still a useful reference too. Off to make zucchini bread, thanks for the ideas.
My brother also has a garden that produces giant zucchini and being the loving brother that he is, he gave me one. Since it weighs about 8 pounds I am guessing that it will produce far more than 2 cups of zucchini…..what do I do with the rest of it? Can I freeze some for later? Or do I have to do a baking marathon and pass out loaves to everyone I meet?
I’m making this today, with my fifth zucchini of the season! I made a (nonsweet) yeast bread yesterday–it’s a nice alternative when you have too, too many squash.
My first cookbook was KidsCooking, from Klutz Press – I still have it and the measuring spoons that came with it! I consider its “Disgustingly Rich Brownies” to be THE definitive brownie recipe, and there are enough splotches on those pages to prove it. Other memorable (though not as recently repeated) recipes were french toast with strawberry butter, put-back potatoes (more commonly known as twice-baked), and Frozen Bananoids (chocolate-covered frozen bananas on popsicle sticks!).
I’ve made this recipe for zucchini bread and it’s fantastic! Thank you for sharing. For me too, zucchini bread is all about summers in the backyard as a child and demanding my mom to “Make Zucchini Bread!” the moment I discovered the zuccs were ready for the plucking. As for my first cookbook, our entire basement as a child was devoted to my mother’s cookbooks which desperately needed some sort of catalog system, but what stands out the most for me is her TIME LIFE collection of cookbooks in every category under the sun.
Just made this recipe (as muffins, with cranberries) and I have to say that it is easily the best zucchini bread/muffin recipe that I’ve ever tried. Fantastic! (Though I was concerned about the amount of sugar and oil….oh well, you only live once!)
My 4-H cookbook
My first cookbook, was a hand me down from my mom, which was of course her first cookbook as well. It was the Betty Crocker for kids Cookbook that came out in the early 60s maybe late 50s. My favorite recipe in the book was gingerbread real ginger bread, not cookies, with Fire-Dog topping to drizzle on the slices, (something I rarely see and haven’t made since childhood). Hmm…maybe I should make soo delicious
First cookbook(s) were probably related to 4-H and 11 years of cooking projects! Now 12 years removed from that I finally feel like I’m starting to learn something about cooking.
I made this recipe over the weekend (in muffin form with choco chips and walnuts), and it is absolutely fabulous! I can’t stop eating them! This will quickly move into my favorites file. Thanks!
My first cookbook was not a cookbook at all, but a set of cards in a special filing system organized into soups, sandwiches, entrees, breakfasts, desserts, kids, etc. It was something my mother ordered from TV and we would get a new set of recipes every week to try. At the time, I thought this was very cool and loved fingering the colorful cards which showed the finished product. I remember making quiche and chili and pancakes.
I think they were from Betty Crocker. This was the 1970′s.
Oh my gosh, this is the best zucchini bread I’ve ever had! Between me, my 3, 2, and 1 year old we’ve eaten a whole loaf in less than 24 hours. Sad but true! Thanks for a great recipe….I am actually using your birthday cake recipe for my daughters birthday this weekend, now I’m extra excited!
Thank you for the recipe.
I’ve finished baking my first batch of this. I’ve added 1 1/2 cup of grated carrots in place of the chips/raisins, and switched the 1/2 cup of walnuts/pecans for 3/4 cup of almonds. I’ve also decreased the amount of sugar to 1 cup. Finally, half of the flour used was changed to whole wheat flour.
I am having my muffin right now and they taste wonderful.
I’ve recently moved into a new place with my boyfriend, and until now, none of us has really cooked. Prior to this, we relied mainly on dining out and cheap take-out from various places. And so far, I’ve been relying on recipes that my family as taught me since I was a kid. That, and your blog.
Since I’ve never cooked anything with meat and rarely touch it. I need help. So, I bought my first cookbook yesterday: The Cook’s Bible written by Lorraine Turner.
As I’ve said before, I do love your blog. Beautiful photos, simple layout, and easy to read and understand.
i saw somebody else mentioned KidsCooking: a very slightly messy manual, circa 1987 (http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Cooking-Slightly-Messy-Manual/dp/B001E35A8E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248844416&sr=8-1). toads in a hole and the breaded chicken drumsticks were childhood favorites, and the chocolate chip cookies are still my go-to recipe despite all that new york times 48 hour cookie dough nonsense. this book is incredible.
I still have my first cookbook. A 3 ring binder with my grandad and grandmom’s favorite recipes, as told by them. Written in my hand. I still add to it every time I test a “new” recipe. It is my most prized posession. The memories flood back to me with the turn of each page. My Grandparents have both gone on now, but I have them, with me, right here in my kitchen.
The first thing I ever made was the first entry: buttermilk biscuits, Grandad was my “quality control”. I can still see the look on his face when I took them from the oven.
Thanks for the memory.
My first cookbook was The American Girl’s cookbook. I made volcano mashed potatoes for my whole family! I fondly remember the rush of independence I felt in the kitchen as I topped each mound of potatoes with cheese and paprika. Thanks for this post! I can’t wait to try it with my fresh-from-the-market zucchini that I’ll pick up this weekend.
These were good, but we’re not big fans of oil based breads/cakes, so our viewpoint is a little off. We made 24 mini muffins, 8 mediums, plus 2 mini bundt cakes… love the minis! It was super easy, and just used half of our baseball bat zuke… we’re thinking of making latkes with the rest.
longtime pregnant lurker who just had to post upon reading about “my very first cookbook” after searching your archives for zucchini bread. think i had the very same cookbook! had completely forgotten about it, but was the same kind of construction and title. my first recipe from it was the cinnamon toast. wish i could find it, but it’s probably in some manhattan ministorage locker growing mildew. good luck with the baby stuff. i’m 28 weeks and only have energy enough to plan my next meal. thanks for all the delicious recipes
I must say, I just made this recipe and it’s fantastic.
May I suggest getting yourself some lovely cast iron bread pans. I made mine it in and they fell right out when finished – not sticking at all. I’ve never been able to get anything as non-stick as seasoned cast iron (I was often baking in my skillet for that very reason (round zucchini bread anyone?), until I bought the bread pans).
I also suggest sprinkling a little sugar (perhaps a teaspoon or two per loaf) on top of the bread right before you throw it in the oven. It makes for a delicious crispy crust right on top and it gives it the most beautiful look. You can sprinkle turbinado sugar as well for some crunch.
Thanks for the recipe, gives me something to use all those zukes from the garden for.
Love the zucchini bread, but am wondering about calorie counts, etc. Do you have them for this recipe?
I think my first cookbooks were Time-Life cookbooks. I loved the real Texas chili from it. But the book I loved most was a Good Housekeeping cookbook probably back from the late 1950′s. It’s in my sister’s house now because my mom moved in with her. It had the best pie crust. It never failed to be flakey. I think it’s Susan pie crust #1.
But my real thought is zucchini bats. My first year growing I had no idea that they grew so fast. I go out to my garden one day and nothing, then 3 days later I had 10 pounders. Now I go out every day and harvest. And even now every so often I find a bat.
I just made bread yesterday but my recipe got wet and I couldn’t read it well. I’m going to try your recipe along with the raisins and walnuts (and maybe a pinch of cardamon). My husband can suffer without the chocolate.
I don’t remember my first cookbook, but I remember the first one I used. It was my mom’s and she still has it uses it often. The first thing I remember making from it was No-bake Cookies. The first thing I actually baked from it myself were Mexican Wedding Cookies. The funny thing is that I remember liking the cookies (or maybe I was just so proud of myself that I believed I liked them) but I have never made them since. Maybe it’s time I do!
The Peter Rabbit cookbook. It must have been a gift, because I’ve never liked Peter Rabbit, and none of the recipes appealed at all- except the oatmeal cookies. My dad was ultra health conscious those days, and wouldn’t buy processed foods. Those cookies were my only treat, and even though I had to beat the butter by hand, I had them perfected by the age of 6. Seriously! He wouldn’t even help me make them. I can’t even imagine my 10 year old making cookies like that. My dad still doesn’t eat anything processed, and I still prefer my cookies to storebought, but luckily I’m all grown up and own a stand mixer. :)
Gotta say I’m disappointed that so many first memories were the Betty Crocker variety. I grew up in the West, same vintage as most of you, and I guess there was always a mild streak of rebellion in my family, because when I found the
Alice’s Restaurant cookbook, I knew I’d found what I could relate to. I loved her loosey-goosey requirements and substitutions, plus her chapter on “If You Worry About Your Weight,” which advised “Don’t.”
Just made this zucchini bread and the flavour is DELICIOUS, but a bit too cake-y and less bread-y, in that I can’t really pick it up to eat it because it falls apart. Is this how its supposed to be? I am also living in Holland right now and am experimenting with their baking soda (has to be purchased at the pharmacy) and self-rising flour (the only one at the store). They may be off – do you think this has something to do with it?
My mom was a nutritionist and food instructor and we had many cookbooks around the house, including the Betty Crocker but the one I remember most strongly is the softcover Peanuts cookbook. I honestly can’t remember cooking from it, but we carted it around forever and it is probably still at my mom’s, minus a few pages.
My grandma gave my mom a BH&G cookbook many years ago and my mom told me it would be mine when i finally move out. The first thing i made from it’s pages was the best muffins recipe. over the years we’ve made just about everything in the book. it is so much fun to pick a recipe that we’ve never had before and cook with my own son.
when I was 8 I started cooking in 4-H on my 3rd year we had a cook book with a great dinner roll recipe I still use to this day. That recipe was the only one I saved was wondering if avy of your readers know where i can find another one it would have been around 1971
That bread was wonderful I recommend this 100%. I made a little change brown sugar not white sugar, a dash ground allspice and a little more flour.
mmm, I am going to make this today. I think I will try it in a 9×13 with cream cheese frosting. My mom and sister hand wrote a cookbook of all their favorite recipes. I cherish it. There is space for me to add my own recipes too.
LOVED this recipe! The olive oil gave it such a lovely texture and delicate flavor. My 3- year old loved it too and we made it together for out “Letter Z” day! Thank you!
I had heard of your blog but never checked it out until I googled “zucchini bread” and there it was. Needless to say I’ve spent the last few days drooling over your recipes and gorgeous pictures. I made this recipe exactly as is, and it’s absolutely delicious and a total keeper. I’m intrigued by other commenters’ suggestions, particularly fresh blueberries… why not? =) Maybe next time I’ll swap half the oil for applesauce and use some whole wheat flour, just in the name of being healthy, but honestly this recipe is so good there’s no need to tinker with it. Thanks for this incredible resource, and congratulations on your beautiful little boy! You’ve made a permanent fan out of me.
lovely zucchini recipe. Thank you. My first cookbook was Betty Crocker, and I’ll never forget the pancakes made with buttermilk on p. 57. That’s the only recipe I remember. Not sure where that book went!
Betty Crocker as well – and I loved making peanut butter cookies with my mom. She would do most of the work but I would stand on a step stool in my little apron, dip the fork in flour and put the criss-cross pattern on top :)
I’m wowed, again. (Though I shouldn’t be by this time… everything I’ve tried from SK has been awesome.) I used two-thirds whole wheat flour and reduced the sugar to 1 1/3 cups. Absolutely delicious, with approval from everyone from the husband to the seven-year-old. I didn’t peel the zucchini and it turned out with these gorgeous flecks of emerald green all through the batter. I’ll use this recipe from now on!
just took the muffins out of the oven and love them! although my boyfriend is completely put off by the idea of a vegetable in something slightly sweet like this and has psyched him self into thinking they are bitter (they are soo not bitter!)
my first cook book was called Perfect Vegetarian…i am not a vegetarian but my boyfriend is and my mom gave it to me when we started dating
Yes, I check Smitten every day. But today I was led here in a google search for my mom’s apple fritters, which she says came from the old red and white BHG cookbook. The new pink version does not have the recipe (shame!), but maybe someone has that veteran cookbook? It featured chopped apples, not rings, and did not involve separating eggs or anything else too complicated for weekday breakfast.
My first cookbook was the Tassajara Bread Book! And the first Moosewood. Does that date me or what?
This is such a sweet post! Nostalgia tastes good, doesn’t it?
I don’t remember which cookbook was my very first, but I have lots of fond memories of flipping through my mother’s collection at a young age. She kept them in a box in the cupboard (poor Mom didn’t even have a bookshelf for them!) and I combed through them, delighting in all the possibilities. I don’t think I cooked much from them, but still, it was a nice pastime. And it’s clear that my cookbook reading habits haven’t changed much, except that I do try to break out the pots and pans every once in a while and MAKE something!
I made 2 batches last weekend, and they were absolutely delicious!! One was 2 big loaves and the other was 6 small loaves which I baked for 45 minutes. Shared a loaf at work and everyone was delighted. They couldn’t believe it had zucchini in it or that it was made from scratch. Can’t wait to make some more!
I just made Zucchini Bread using your recipe, and it is amazing!!! First time ever making it and I’m very proud!! :-) Thanks so much for the post!
The Kids Cooking Cookbook – it came with its own measuring spoons and I 100% absolutely adored it. I made lots from it…buried treasure muffins, walrus salad, tuna cones…and the forget-the-cookies-just-give-me-that-batter chocolate chip cookies come to mind :)
Delicious recipe. And I love that you can eat one and give one away. First cookbook I liked to look at was one from Hershey’s because, well, because it was from Hershey’s. I liked the Rockwell-style illustration on the cover, and the stylized photographs were amazing. Pinker than pink icing on a layer cake with choco kisses. It was almost too much for a grade-schooler to bear! I was one of those kids, tho, that got to “help” Mom bake by licking the bowl, and not making a mess, so I didn’t really start following recipes until I got married. My 9-year-old daughter, however, can make choco-chip cookies pretty much by herself. Of course, she does make a mess . . .
We just pulled our first zucchinis from our garden and I may shred every last one it produces to make this bread over and over again. This is ridiculously good. I subbed milled flax seed for eggs because we are out. I let my 3.5 y/o dump in about a fourth cup of semi sweet chocolate chips. So SO good.
My mother wasn’t a huge cook or baker but one thing she did make every year was zucchini bread. I had already decided to make some for her this year when I found your recipe and saw your suggestion of making it into muffins. For some reason that had never crossed my mind. I made half into a loaf and half into muffins. The bread is for my mom, the muffins are for myself and friends. Worked out perfect!
Ok, I’ve made this recipe 4 times in the past 2 weeks. I have a garden full of zucchini and now I have a freezer full of zucchini bread. First, this recipe is FLAWLESS. Love it!
But I wanted to let you know some substitutions I used that worked for me:
1. I use 1 cup of whole wheat flour (not whole wheat pastry flour, just the regular, heavy whole wheat flour). So overall, 2 cups unbleached flour + 1 cup whole wheat.
2. The first time I made the recipe, I halved it. I used 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk to make a loaf and it was perfect.
3. I almost always add 2 heaping cups of zucchini, so you can get away with adding more if you have it!
4. I have been making 1 loaf plus 12 muffins in the same oven. I take the muffins out after 25 minutes and leave the loaf in there for 55-60.
5. I don’t add nuts or fruits because of the picky eater I live with. So yes, you can get a great loaf without add-ins that isn’t too dense.
6. I added 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (along with the vanilla) once and it was great too.
Thanks again for the perfect zucchini bread recipe! I have tried MANY others without great results. You’re the best, Deb! :)
i have never made zucchini bread before and i just finished baking this recipe! and OMG IT WAS SO GOOD! i halved the recipe and made a second loaf into a chocolate zucchini bread/cake thing – both were FANTASTIC. but the original recipe with included raisins and pecans was FANTASTIC. seriously good.
by the way, this is now my 4th recipe of yours that i have tried and i can’t tell you how great of a cook/baker you are! you never fail me! : )
I am a new fan who has been BINGEING on the archives the last couple days in preparation for a move to brooklyn and finally gaining that foot of counter space (yes, our current apartment has no counter, just an oven and a sink. literally.) Anyway, this post made me crave my mother’s chocolate zucchini cake in the worst way. And doesn’t the zucchini cake deserve a little love? It’s all carrot this and carrot that, but in my family we ate at least a dozen chocolate zucchini cakes every year and carrots were eaten raw. Am I alone in this?
I did a search and found this recipe, looks fantastic. I’ve got a couple zucchinis knocking around and will give it a whirl – the cranberries are a nice touch. :)
Your website is great!
Incredible! I just made this recipe (the whole thing, yeah) and beat the living daylights out of the eggs while adding a thin stream of the oil, to make an emulsion (read: mayo) before adding the other ingredients, and this had a great effect on the texture of the muffins.
These + chopped walnuts + simple powdered sugar/milk/vanilla glaze = Heaven! :) And no butter? Yes, sirs. I will be making this again. Thanks, Deb!
Just made this- wonderful!
I used some Greek, extra-fruity, extra virgin olive oil. Next time I will swap half for yoghurt, and half the flour for whole wheat. I made 12 muffins and small, square casserole dish. Simple, easy to make, and baked off beautifully in a crumby oven on a 100% humidity day.
I’m so glad my pal turned me on to your blog- all the quick breads I have on file are too sweet, and this is just perfect.
I’ve been making this for several weeks now, and forgot where I got it so I could comment! This is really good bread, Deb. My son just hounds me to make it now. The only change I made was to use half melted butter (I tried browning the butter one time, but you couldn’t tell the difference, so never bothered again) and half oil. I used toasted pecans, ground in a hand cranked nut chopper, so they were finely chopped and raisins one time then cranberries ever since. That’s it! It’s so good and not as sweet as some I’ve tried, so we like this recipe best. Thanks for all you do!
My first cookbook was a large yellow paperback that I think I got from school, also with the comb spine, except mine was red. I remember reading it like a pleasure book, which, for me, I suppose it was. To this day I read cookbooks just to read them. I vaguely remember making homemade donuts (the kind where you cut a narrow circle of dough into 1/4ths, so the donut has no hole) and shaking them in a bag of cinnamon sugar while they were still hot, and then walking around the neighborhood and knocking on doors with my hot donuts in tow. I wish my neighborhood had kids like that now…
My first cookbook was the Tassajara Cookbook, very Zen. No wonder I never actually follow a recipe to the T. I showed it to some baking friends recently and they had a fit. “There’s no measurements!” “How do I know how long to cook it for?!” “There are too many suggested variations — what if not all of them go together???” I was 20 then, and I learned more from that cookbook than I have from any other: trust your instincts; my well-done might be your raw; if you dislike something, leave it out.
I just made this tonight, and it was fabulous! I made one regular loaf and one chocolate loaf by adding a bit of cocoa to half the flour. I didn’t have any trouble with it sticking to the pan, since I used parchment paper. It made for a slightly rumpled loaf, but no sticking!
Made this. It was very good. I’ll make it again! Loved the addition of nuts and cranberries. I used a Chai Spice in a zuc. bread recipe, not this one, and it was really good. I might try that with apricots and pistacios next using this batter.
ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! Just made this yesterday and will be making more probably today because the zucchini plants exploded this summer! This is the best non-banana bread I’ve ever had and I LOVE there is NO ICKY PINEAPPLE. (Sorry if you like those versions!) My cousin down the road was making one of the infamous pineapple recipes yesterday as well and when she walked by last night, I had her try mine and she was shocked at how good it was!
I substituted 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 white and will try more ww because that’s all I use in banana bread and that turns out fine.
My first cookbook was The Joy of Cooking, when I was about 6, which I know is totally weird for a little girl. I was food obsessed from day one; for my fifth birthday my mother asked me what I wanted to have for dinner and I requested steamed artichokes and fettucini alfredo with creme brulee for dessert. My first recipe was making blueberry pie from that cookbook. It is a staple recipe that I can’t live without, its beauty is in its simplicity. Every bite of that pie is bursting with memories of eating warm pie on the back porch under the shade of a large tree in virginia while shooing the gnats away.
This is the best zucchini bread ever! I’ve made it more than 5 times and it always comes out great! Thanks for sharing!!
The charlie brown cookbook – a thin green hardback with bright pink pages. It was my older sisters and she made lemon squares, buttermilk banana cupcakes (fabulous) and sauce pan brownies…I made iciing. Over 35 years later it is in my kitchen.
its actually called the “Peanuts Cookbook” published in 1969
Have lost a zucchini cookbook and would like to replace it but don’t remember the exact title or the author. Can any one help. It was the size of half of a page and plastic spiral bound like most church cookbooks but not one. The cover was off white with light olive green design and printing and the pages were yellow to orange colored. Probably from the 1970′s. Thanks, Linda
Hi Deb!
I am a 14 years old food junkie and Smitten Kitchen lover of many years and last night I baked this recipe and I couldn’t be any more pleased with the results! I “healthified” it by halving the oil and using Fage 0% Greek yogurt, used Splenda instead of sugar, and replaced half of the flour with Buckwheat flour. I love some raw walnuts in practically anything so I added some into it. I also really agree with the amount of cinnamon you used because it gave a heavenly scent to the whole thing (and my kitchen!). I made mine as muffins so I could pack it up and take with me to school!
Thank you so much!
My first cookbook was one my mother had compiled herself; it had grease and chocolate-stained pages which had become so fragile over the years. I can’t remember the first recipe I made. I was always helping her with something in the kitchen, but I do remember making her brownies fairly frequently, especially when I was able to do it on my own. Makes me very nostalgic to think of that.
My first cookbook is an odd one most people won’t ever find. It was one from where my mom worked compiled with employee recipes. It is a monroes 35th commemorative cook book. The first thing I made was stuffed green peppers.
I made your zucchini bread recipe over the weekend and it was a hit! very moist and flavorful!
I made this for a camping trip and it was a big hit! I love zucchini bread ;)
I made this and brought it to work to keep myself from chowing down both loaves. It’s a people-pleaser (esp if you brag about how the zucchini came from your own garden!) and I would say it’s pretty much perfect. Not too oily or sweet. Only one thing: I didn’t sift my dry ingredients and got a nice mouthful of baking soda. Ptewie.
I have one small tip that helps keep the zucchini bread from becoming soggy.
After grating the zucchinis place them in a clean dish towel and ring out all the extra juices before you add it to the egg, sugar, oil mix. I love this recipe my bread and muffins turned out perfect.
This is in the oven right now and I’m so excited! I just wanted to say that when I make breads I grease or butter the pan, then line the pan with a piece of parchment long enough to go down the side, over the bottom, and up the other side. Then I grease over the paper. When the bread is done, one can just pull it out of the pan using the paper as a “sling” (i.e. just pulling the paper up and out with the bread “hammocked” on it). This works great! Thanks for the recipe!
Update: MMMM yum! Perfect! A couple caveats: I halved the recipe, I used half butter and half oil, and I did use pecans, some (<1/4 cup) raisins, and some (<1/4 cup) chocolate chips.
just made this today…i used pumpkin seeds (without the shells) and milk chocolate chips for my nuts/chocolate combo. it turned out splendid! this is my new fave recipe for zuke bread. alot of others turn out too wet or too dry. this one is the perfect combo of moist and dense, but it still light enough to not feel super heavy in your tummy…which means eating more than one piece! thanks!
My attempts to bake almost always end up in disaster. I think it has something to do with my lack of measuring anything.
But this was AMAZING! Moist and delish. Next time I’ll substitute half the oil for apple sauce and add in some chocolate chips. Also, I used almost 3 cups of grated zucchini and it turned out fine. (I was a bit over zealous when grating)
The first cookbook I ever used was The Joy of Cooking (first edition!) However, the first thing I ever cooked was skillet bread, a cross between a biscuit and corn bread, cooked, as the name implies, in a skillet. It was my grandma’s recipe. Many years late, I inherited her own cookbook, a simple elementary writing pad filled with her hand-written recipes. Most of them are so faded, I can’t read them – what a loss.
Great recipe! Since I was craving chocolate as I woke up (a rarity) I just tried it with the addition of a cup of mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut. Mini muffins cooked at 400 for 11-12 minutes. You should smell my kitchen!
My first cookbook was the Anne of Green Gables cookbook. I felt special having my very own cookbook!
I was given a giant zucchini from a friend’s garden & last night I turned it into two zucchini bread loaves & one pan of muffins! The muffins were the most successful, I would have to say. To that batter I added a small grated apple, raisins, craisins & the zest of one lemon. They were so good! (“were” as in past tense, because the whole pan is gone as of this morning!!).
First ‘cookbook’ was from the ditto copies collected from my home ec class in 6th grade. Learned to make crepes, and still do to this day. I laughed when my friend made crepes from a box mix and said that she couldn’t make it anymore because she was out of the box mix I told her you can make it from scratch and has very simple/basic ingredients! Thanks for the recipe. The very first time I made zucchini bread, I didn’t drain well and it turned out soggy, and I didn’t make zucchini bread for a long time after that, now I wring it to death for fear of soggy bread!
Long time reader – love your sight. Never commented before, but I had to respond to the question about cookbooks that you posted years ago…
My first cookbook was “Kids Cooking: A very slightly messy manual.” My mom bought it for me when I was about 5 or 6, and it came with its own measuring spoons and everything.
I made a number of the recipes (very few of which I would care to revisit in my adult years), but the one that was made many, many, many times over is the Disgustingly Rich Brownies. Best brownie recipe ever, and I stand by that statement to this day. I know the recipe by heart, but I still love to consult the 20 year old, chocolate-batter-stained, egg-crusted and tattered pages. Love.
this was my first time baking zucchini bread, and this is a keeper. It is just incredibly good, moist, not heavy and not too sweet. Another great recipe from you.
I made these muffins, and they were a HUGE hit with my son who was 14 months at the time (who devoured 6 muffins in one sitting!). Instead of putting in 1 cup of zucchini in I made them with 1/2 a cup grated zucchini and 1/2 a cup grated carrot. I also used 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup multi-grain flour, and finally I put in dried cranberries which I had plumped with a little Grand Marnier. I have to say that I don’t often adapt recipes, but I really liked the changes to this one! Thanks for such good recipes Deb, they are really well tested!
I baked this this morning and followed your recipe to the letter – it is absolutely, without a doubt, the quintessential zucchini bread. I made a loaf for my boyfriend to bring to his office and a loaf for us to keep, and our loaf is already half gone. To me, this is the perfect thing to bring to someone’s house for brunch… it’s so easy to make! Thanks for making my Sunday morning nicer!
Hey Deb! I have to say – I am a HUGE fan of your blog. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration to all.
So I baked these twice in the past two weeks and they turned out wonderful. I haven’t tried making them into muffins yet… I’d like to bring the muffins into work the next day for a lab meeting (usually held at the end of a work day). Do you have any tips on keeping the muffins fresh/moist until then, if I make them a day ahead?
thanks for this – i have a garden bursting with ridiculous amounts of zucchini right now (down in New Zealand). i made some muffins and bread for the office today. they are definitely delicious!
~Hi Deb~
Your mention of very first cookbooks and asking if any of us remember what it was and what we made from it reminded me of my very first cookbook. It’s called Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual and even came with its own measuring cups!!! i very much wish i still had it, but amazon does sell it, so that could be an option at a later date. I can’t remember everything I made (with or without help, though remember making some of the recipes with my friends and felt sooo grown up having my very own cookbook and kitchen accessories! The menu items that I do remember are: eggs in a frame (that my dad made for me, I was definitely WAY too young to be using the stove, and wouldn’t have come close to being tall enough to use it at that time, I think I was around 5 years old when I was given that very cute cookbook), buried treasure muffins, personal pizzas, homemade lemonade, oven fried potatoes (which I remember was something that was made on multiple occasions, and frozen bananiods. I first found your beautifully presented fantastic recipe site almost 2 months ago when I was looking for a better challah recipe than the one I had used last time. That challah came out AMAZING! (and soo very pretty and by far the darkest brown ‘crust’ that one normally sees at the deli/bakery. I ‘liked’ your facebook page and subscribed on twitter, but was wondering how exactly I could show you the picture of the pretty (and very tasty) challah that I made a couple weeks ago? Thanks sooo much for your time. I can imagine that it would take many hours to just do the research, tweaking, trying it out, writing it up complete with your absolutely incredible photographs (and I can kinda understand about searching for that one recipe as I’ve spent more hours than I could or would want to count). I’m still working my way through reading all your recipes. I’m at the moment looking for some recipes to try out during a house party. I’ve really been enjoying reading through your blog! And Happy (early) Valentines Day!
*take care*
~Leah~
was the cookbook organized by color from easiest to hardest? I had a similar cookbook, the first recipe was honey lemonade and I think the last was beef stew or meatloaf. I loved it!
I am a huge fan of zucchini bread and had a disappointing cooking experience last weekend with a different recipe I usually use. I went on the search for a new one and when I came across the one you have listed here I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed! I’ve yet to try one of your recipes and found myself wanting more! I am happy to say that after baking this recipe up today, the result is a delicious zucchini loaf and 9 scrumptious zucchini muffins! It’s a winner! As always, thank you thank you!
Like Leah, my first cookbook was “Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual”, complete with the measuring cups. It must have been back in 1992 or so. Guess who still has that cookbook with the others? Yep! I still make the twice baked potatoes from it, and reference it when I need to know how exactly to make a baked potato.
Love that cookbook.
Also, I’ve loved zucchini/nut/raisin muffins. So many people are grossed out by the idea, then crush on the actual product.
Just made this from CSA Zuc! SO delish. :) My first cookbook was a DK number called… My First Cookbook. I made quiches in a muffin tin for my mom, and she still talks about it to this day! (15+ years later!)
http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disneys-Mickey-Mouse-Cookbook/dp/0307168123
I still have it. :) I cooked from it almost daily.
This looks absolutely divine. This recipe is definitely going on reserve for the time I want a zucchini cake.
My first cookbook was Cooking Light. I made strawberry shortcake and it came out awful. The first cookbook in which I managed to create an edible and absolutely delicious recipe was (surprise!) the Joy of Cooking’s pound cake. I ended up making a delicious boston cream pie with it. I was so happy! Joy of Cooking made me really love baking.
I remember mom receiving hard covered Southern Living books through the mail during the eighties. I was 8-10 years of age, hungry and mom was working. I searched for a recipe which used the same ingredients I could find around the kitchen. We had everything for Potato Skins! I still make them to this day :)
my first cookbook: Family Fare, A Guide To Good Nutrition by the US Dept of Agriculture. First recipe was Lemon Chiffon Pie. Still have the booklet from early 70′s!
My first cookbook was the Little House on the Prairie cookbook! I loved it because my dad read the books outloud to me when I was little and then we would make the food that they ate in the book! It was great!
This recipe is amazing. I’ve made this countless times. Is there any way I can make it vegan?
LIZ! This recipe is so, so easy to make vegan. I did it today because I ran out of eggs – just Google flaxseed vegan egg substitute.
My daughter Julie introduced me to your site — it’s so wonderful.
My first cookbook was THE MARY ALDEN CAKE AND COOKIE COOKBOOK, and my favorite thing from it was cookies called Applesaucies. That was back around 1960.
Looking forward to trying your zucchini muffins.
Almost identically to another post – “my” first cookbook was my older sister’s copy of the Peanuts’ Cookbook. And it’s so very true – Lucy’s Lemon Squares are truly the quintessential and absolutely perfect lemon squares. I believe this is also where I learned to make French Toast. I do remember feeling quite superior because I ALREADY knew how to make Cinnamon Toast. :-) Also, the Betty Crocker Cooky Carousel got quite the workout around our house!
My mom gave me a Betty Crocker cookbook which I still reference to this day. One of the funniest recipes I use is for guacamole. I’m sure that guac was incredibly novel and very exotic when the cookbook was first published. What’s even funnier is that the guac is fresh and amazing. I’ve entered it in friendly competitions and won!
Deb – huge thanks for this recipe. I made it for a market baking competition and won (I blogged about it and linked back to you).
My first cookbook was an English one for kids and I made a victoria sponge cake. It was good but flat. As it was an English book it assumed the use of self-raising flour and I didn’t add any baking powder so ended up with a wafer cake. It was good but I was crushed. I think my mum made the rest of my family eat it all so I would feel better.
just made this recipe – and my loaves were done after about 35 minutes. I used a convection oven (not sure if that makes a difference) and split the batter into two 8×4 loaf pans.
Hi Deb…..as a person might guess, it’s zucchini season…. and I just saw your recipe as I was searching for a new one. The photo looks exactly like what I wanted, and it is in the oven as I write. Growing zucchini always makes me feel like a successful gardener….whether I am or not! Lucky for me I love the stuff and keep finding new things to do with it. Thanks for the recipe….my house smells so good right now!!
P.S. My first cookbook was a Better Homes & Gardens (the notebook loose-leaf kind) that my mother gave me when I was 16. I have had it almost fifty years now (yikes!), and it is falling apart.
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe. My first cookbook is actually entitled, “My First Cookbook.” It’s yellow and is bear-themed and I got it at the book fair in the first or second grade. I think the first thing I made from it was banana bread and I still use that recipe today! I still have the cookbook too– falling apart though it may be.
P.S. The zucchini bread was perfect….exactly what I wanted. I actually added a banana (but only because I could bring myself to throw it away). Thanks again for the recipe. I love your website, and your photography is super.
It was awesome! I couldn’t bring myself to tell the kids it had a vegetable in it. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” lives on… in my kitchen.
looking forward to making this bread! reading the post about your first cookbook reminded me of mine. it was “Kids Cooking: A Very Slighty Messy Manual” and it came with my first set of measuring spoons which i still have and use!! I made eggs in a frame, and it seriously is one of my favorite breakfasts to date.
I love your zucchini bread recipe. It is exactly what I want when I go to make that traditional loaf. I just wanted to let you know that I was inspired by your recipe to come up with one of my own. It has rosemary, orange and pecans in it. I wrote about it on my blog today http://dabblingsandwhimsey.blogspot.com/2011/07/zuccini-week-part-one.html
I made sure to give you credit for the inspiration and linked back to this post. I don’t have a ton of followers but I love your blog and hopefully some people will check it out. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
What a wonderful and warm post, from the heart . I am going to try this for my grandchildren as they love to cook . Thank you.
Sadly, I don’t remember my first cookbook or what really turned me on to cooking. But, now I pay more attention to these things and I will definitely recall the first time I encountered your recipes, when a friend gave me the link for the summer strawberry cake this summer. I made it and ate it three times, as long as the strawberries held. So, now that I have a huge zucchini in my fridge, I know where to turn for tomorrow morning’s baking event with my four year old. Thank you thank you!
I am definitely going to try your zucchini bread recipe….sounds delish (gotta use that 10-pound monster from my garden). My first cookbook was an old Betty Crocker Cookbook…..I LOVED it. The recipe I used, and STILL use, isn’t in the new Betty Crocker books….but it was the Olive Cheese Balls recipe in the appetizers. It is scrumptious.
I’m awash in zucchini from the garden (and the kindly neighbors bring more over…I don’t have the heart to refuse) and I have fond memories of the zucchini bread my mom used to make. I knew SK would have a recipe. I just had zuke bread with melting butter fresh from the oven, delicious!
So counting the zucchini in the fridge and the ones growing on the vine, I only have to make…let’s see…90 more loaves and it’s all used up!
I made this zucchini bread, my family – especially my 1,5 year old son – loved it. Your website is fantastic! Thanks for it! Mónika from Hungary
ps.: My first cookbook was a Hungarian cookbook: Ilona Horváth: Szakácskönyv :)
Baking now, the kitchen smells amazing and I can’t wait to try it! Thank you :)
Betty Crocker’s Jr. Cookbook was my first one, back in 1977! I still have it.
I made the peanut butter crumble muffins and the best oatmeal raisin cookies (which I would add chocolate chips to), because everything tastes better with chocolate!
yum! True Smitten style, they’re light on sugar. I used white whole wheat flour and about 1/4 cup yogurt with oil.
I just finished making a double batch of muffins. The texture and aroma are divine! I made a “hippy dippy” version with mostly whole wheat, oats, flax, wheat germ, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/2 coconut oil. And then made yours to the T. I love them both! Thank you to friends who share garden zuch’s and to you Deb, for promising a tried and true recipe to showcase my gift:) Most Sincerely, Jess from Tallahassee Florida
Yummmmmm! Last week we expected a share of cucumbers from our CSA and got zucchini instead. I’ve been cooking with zucchini almost daily since and just got to the point that I can see the bottom of the box. I made muffins using this recipe last night and they turned out wonderfully. Thanks for another zucchini recipe to add to my collection.
whoa…a colleague brought some of this yummy goodness into the office and it was devoured within hours! Unequivocally the best bread my belly has ever had…
My first cookbook was some Italian herb recipe book… I was really little and when my Dad told me a recipe for cookies was in it it completely blew my mind! I remember standing on a stool and making lavender cookies with him from lavender we picked from the front beds and ground ourselves. After that we squirted the dough out of a cookie press into different shapes and tried to figure out what each shape was. Very nostalgic.
Betty Crocker “New Picture” Cook Book, published in 1961. It was my grandmothers. She gifted this book to four of my aunts and my mom, all newly married; at the same time, she bought a copy for herself. She was a great cook and baker and loved learning new things. She inscribed the book to herself, “To Elsie, From Elsie. March 1964″
When my grandmother passed away, my mom passed Elsie’s cookbook on to me. Great illustrations, meal planning and kitchen management basics.
I just bookmarked this receipe. Looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful blog, and what an impressive group of readers/responders you attract! Cooking and cookbooks certainly touch our lives, isn’t life grand? Just discovered a huge zuchinni in the garden (something of a jungle, no wonder it wasn’t found when it would have been lovely roasted), but that led me to recipes for zuchinni and this delightful site, thank you very much. Now, just wondering (re: that jungle/garden) what do you recommend to use up a constant supply of green beans…….
My Mom had an odd little recipe book, the Inglenook Cookbook, the Banana Cake with caramel frosting…….yum
I know this post was from 2007, but as I was looking for a great zucchini bread recipe (and knew I could count on you…), I read the post about children’s cookbooks. I still have mine 35 years later. I had two – Cooking Adventures for Kids and a UNICEF cookbook called Many Hands Cooking. From the first, I would make both the family macaroni and cheese and the paprika-garlic roast chicken. From the second, I loved making the Swedish meat balls and the Guava Toast from Brazil. I wasn’t so adventurous back then to try the Fu Fu from Ghana or the African Stew from Zaire (!!). Oh how I wish I could find this book now for the kids in my life! I look for it every so often, but alas, I can’t seem to find it. Let me know if you ever see it! Thanks for all your great recipes!
Seriously, amazing recipe. So, so good!
my first foray into zucchini bread, because i can’t stop myself from buying more zucchini! had two for dinner last night, totally two more for breakfast this morning. they’re amazing.
My very first cookbook was one my 2nd grade class put together to sell so we could go to marine world! My favorite recipe in it (as well as the one I contributed) is the only one in there that was not food…. it was for playdough!
I made this zucchini bread last night and while it tastes delicious it barely rose at all. It’s only about an inch tall. Is there a reason this might have happened? I followed the instructions as listed…
Just made this bread. Haven’t tasted it yet, but it smells divine!!!
i have tried a few of your recipes and they always turn out great! i just made this and it’s delicious! i put two cups of courgettes in but next time i think i will put more in!
thanks for all your nice recipes!
I made this bread last year for Christmas gifts and everyone LOVE it. This is the BEST recipe ever. I am making 20 loafs tomorrow to give away to my friends and family, thank you for this lovely recipe!
This recipe worked really well. I halved it using 2 eggs instead of 1.5 eggs and 2 t cinnamon instead of 1.5 t. I used toasted pine-nuts (1/2 cup!) and baked them as muffins. EXCELLENT. Thank you, Deb!
I do remember my first cookbook! I can’t remember the name, but it was like a board book, had a spiral spine, and a set of measuring spoons were attached to it. The first recipe we made, and the only one I remember, were Frozen Bananoids. Peel and halve some bananas. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a saucepan. Insert popsicle stick into cut end of banana, dip/roll banana in chocolate mixture. Freeze in one layer on wax paper. Ha!
Oh, and I LOOOOOVVE zucchini bread :) I will definitely try this recipe
I made these last week and they were absolutely wonderful! They didn’t last more than a day! I did make some substitutions. I cut out 1/2 cup of the sugar and I used 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup melted coconut oil instead of the cup of veg/olive oil. The coconut oil gave it a nice flavor, too. Tonight I’m substituting fresh blueberries. Can’t wait!!
Just made these…YUM. Did a loaf and 7 muffins. This stuff may be gone by morning. :)
Yum! I made this yesterday and it was quick, easy and the bread came out delicious! (I made it with chocolate chips, of course!) :)
I’m a new reader and I love your blog! I’m also pretty new to cooking/baking and find that your recipes are easy to understand, yet come out tasting fit for a gourmet! My first cookbook… the one I received as a wedding gift. The Joy of Cooking.
I had that same exact cookbook…still own it. I think it was a book fair purchase. Love this recipe!
This might be the most delicious zucchini bread I’ve ever tasted (and I had a really good one out the other night). Thanks for the awesome recipe Deb!
My first cookbook was also the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Girls and Boys. I wish I knew what happened to it. My goal when I got it was to make every recipe in it and I did. I remember making cookies as one of my first attempts when no one was home but me, and I used cornstarch instead of flour, I didn’t know the difference, and they spread off the baking sheet onto the bottom of the hot oven and it made a smoking black mess that my poor Mom had to clean when she got home. Thanks Mom and sorry. She still encouraged me to cook after that.
My husband and I eloped at 18 and moved to Florida. His grandmother sent me Betty Crocker’s Cooking for Two. It had sections for economizing, starting out and back to two. It was great, actually.
The first recipe I cooked was halibut baked with butter fresh dill. I used dried dill and margarine. It was good, but I didn’t know my new hubby didn’t like fish. :)
This is my new go-to zucchini bread recipe. The cranberries really round it out.
Zucchini season is definitely upon us…I get a weekly veggie box that never fails to contain at least 2-3 full size zucchini (and a few summer squash to boot). Every Wednesday emails fly around my office about what to do with all the zukes!
I have made many loaves of zucchini bread and this is hands down the best. I made a few small adjustments, as I only have one bread pan…I cut everything in half, using 2 eggs, a little less olive oil, and probably about 2-2.5 cups of zucchini.
It was amazing! I think this is definitely going to win me the title of office baker.
Thank you!
It is that time of year again.
I have a bowl full of cucumbers sitting in ice waiting to make the pickles.
I have several zucchini waiting to be turned into something other than roasted, so I thought I would give some bread a try. Love the idea of the cranberries. Will try a loaf with walnuts and cranberries, it will be a great combo.
I love your recipes, especially the desserts! I am planning on making a birthday cake next week for a friend who loves carrot cake, and I thought it might be fun to add a summery twist and make zucchini cake (with the requisite cream cheese frosting) instead. Do you think this recipe would lend itself to layer-cake form? Or would I be better off using a carrot cake recipe and substituting carrots for zucchini?
Julia — Maybe a carrot cake (like this one!, which also yields a 2-layer 9-inch cake) using zucchini. Zucchini will be wetter and it might take slightly longer to bake. I think it will be delicious because I had lunch a few weeks ago at ABC Kitchen and they had a slice of a two-layer cream cheese frosted and filled zucchini cake for dessert, and it was wonderful and seasonal and I ate it all.
I’ve been a long-time reader, but this is my first comment! I love absolutely everything on your blog and have made many successful recipes, so thanks! I’ve had zucchini bread before but never made any myself, so I thought I’d give it a shot tonight, and oh my goodness is this ever a wonderful recipe. Just so moist, so delicious, and hands down the best zucchini bread I have ever had.
Oh my goodness, this is a good bread. I made it tonight with yellow squash that needed to get used. I didn’t have any cinnamon (who doesn’t have cinnamon??), but I did have some lavender, so I swapped the two and kept the nutmeg. It is SO good. The lavender is amazing in this mild, moist loaf.
Thanks Deb! I’m planning on making the cake this weekend and will let you know how it turns out
Oh, how I love the internet and google search. That is how I came across this post. My first cookbook (not as a child but as a young adult) was a Good Housekeeping cookbook. I made zucchini bread from a recipe in that cookbook that was fantastic. The binding of the book loosened, and the book fell apart, and I got rid of it and did not keep that recipe and have regretted it since. Your recipe looks really close from what I remember, and I cannot wait to try it. Thank you for posting this, and for the memories you invoked.
I’m excited to make this. How long do you think I would bake if for if I used an 8″x8″ glass dish?
Love a good zucchini bread.
And loved my first cookbook (which I still have 40 years later, in a box in the basement). It is called My Learn to Cook Book and was a gift from the UK so had all these weights and measures in it that were tricky to work with. Hand drawn pictures, which made it all look easy. And things like Baked Alaska, that I never made. But I did make the chocolate mousse. Carefully followed the steps and very carefully poured it into 4 little glass bowls. So pleased. But living in Winnipeg had its perils and a mosquito promptly landed, stuck and died in one. At first I was upset. Then pragmatically made very sure my brother got that bowl (heh).
my first cookbook wasn’t really mine, it was moms. i believe it was an old copy of “The Joy Of Cooking”, spiral bound and grungy pages worn from use. I liked to make the potato dumplings that were a part of our Thanksgiving feast. I also liked making Salmon Loaf, which was and still is a family favorite. As for the zucchini bread – i love it toasted with a little butter. simply delicious!
Mmmmmm… this turned out super!
I had half a huge zucchini in the fridge that was pleading to be used up, but I couldn’t bring myself to make anything too naughty. Happy to report that an earnest attempt at a healthy-ish zucchini muffin turned out moist, fluffy and delicious with half of the flour swapped with whole wheat flour, half of the oil swapped with plain yogurt, and half the sugar swapped with mashed banana. The recipe gave me 22 muffins at, if anyone is curious, 179 calories each (with the walnuts, without the chocolate/dried fruit). Thanks for such a good recipe to play with, Deb! (I’m sure the original is to die for, too!)
I forget the name of my 1st cook book but I remember making the pineapple-banana candle stick salad recipe someone else mentioned. When I was in about 6th grade we moved to a house in southern California that had a huge yard. My mother grew a zucchini plant that unfortunately produced lots of zucchini. My mother would sauté slices in oil, which I truly hated. It wasn’t too long before I ripped it from the ground and threw it in the incinerator. My mother would occasionally comment about it’s sudden disappearance but i didn’t confess until I was in my 40′s.
This was an excellent recipe — thank you! I made muffins (with extra walnuts and raisins, cooked in pineapple juice) and they turned out wonderfully! My zucchini crop was unexpectedly successful this year.
My first cookbook was my mom’s, the big red classic Betty Crocker … but the first I bought for myself was the Moosewood series, and remain my favorite.
Thank you again for the great recipe — fantastic website.
Liked flavor but a little dry for me.. Maybe another cup of zucchini?
The very first cookbook I ever worked out of was the “Mighty Funny” cookbook. I think that’s the title, and we made birthday cake cookies from it endlessly. It is still stained and crusted with batter and chocolate chip mush. The very first cookbook I ever “owned” was given to me by my mom called the Gold Medal (as in the flour) Cookbook, and I have only ever made one recipe out of it, which I’ve made several times…Banana Bread, with or without chocolate chips. Delish. :)
My first cookbook was MMMMM! A Feasiary by Ruth Reichl, in about 1975 and I use it still. Favorites from there: Ever Pucker (shaker lemon) Pie, lemon chicken, baked potatoes stuffed with eggs and cassata.
The kids love these! I use half whole wheat and half white flour. Still light and fluffy! Thanks!
Made it this weekend and it was great! Added 1-2 cups of frozen cranberries. Perfect.
My first cookbook was the Pillsbury one from the early 70′s and my best recipes were the Spicy Apple Crescents and the Quiche Lorraine – the apple recipe comes out every fall and the rave reviews continue after 40 years! Next was the orange Betty Crocker which I run to for White Mountain or 7 Minute Frosting and Snickerdoodle and Peanut Butter Cookies – but the best (in my humble opinion) is the Fluffy Meatlaof (from Mom’s 50′s version)! This was not “prison food” as others remember meatloaf! Next was the Woman’s Day Encyclopedia with a slew of favorites – but the old family and friend cards and scraps will forever win my applause and will be my “go to” for the memories, the love and the countless hours shared comparing, correcting and trying to read the German-English, spattered and tattered pieces!
Thank you for this recipe – my memories of baking this with my Grandmother for my Mom following an accident – will compliment the tasty treat for dessert tonight!
I just fricking love you. So many times there have been ‘projects’ that I haven’t quite got to completing (like, make the perfect store-cupboard tomato sauce) and then you’ve just handed me the whole thing completed. It’s like having someone do my homework for me before I’ve even unpacked my school bag. Thanks, thanks and thanks, I’ve wanted to make a courgette loaf cake since I had it for breakfast (yes, cake for breakfast, totally legit in France) at a B&B in Provence. And you’ve done it for me! Cannot wait for your cookbook, have it on pre-order. Kisses xoxo
A bit late to the party, but to answer the question it was the 1989 Betty Crocker three ring binder style cookbook. My first recipe was the butterscotch brownies. I located a copy at the local thrift store a few years ago and it is delightfully outdated with it’s discussion of the “miracle of microwave cooking” but the baking sections are no nonsense, utilitarian and great for a base for modifications.
My first cookbook was Peter Rabbit’s Natural Foods Cookbook. I remember making Mr. Pricklepin’s Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Hey! Were we supposed to squeeze the liquid out the zucchini?!!
this looks great! would it work to make half this recipe?
Delightful blog. I really enjoy coming to your site and using the recipes you have here.
My first cookbook was a checkerboard Betty Crocker soft bound book. Still using it. I grew up with the 3 ring book at home and loved the recipes in there.
Thanks again.
alice — No reason why not, although splitting an egg can be like splitting hairs. You can blend the egg and pour half in the batter or just use the egg yolk from one to get 1 1/2 eggs.
Christine — Nope! It adds to the moisture (and low fussiniess) of the bread.
Easy, adaptable, and tastes great
how can you scale this recipe for a 9 by 5inch loafpan?
I loved this recipe and it came out perfectly EXCEPT all of the chocolate chips were at the bottom of the bread. Why is that? And how is this avoided in the future? Thank you!
I have a beautiful, underused Wilton bundt pan. Can I grease and flour the hell out if it for this recipe, or is it more of a line loaf pans with parchment situation?
Lori — I haven’t tried it in a bundt but think it could be worth trying. It looks like commenter #178 made mini-bundts.
I made this last night and my husband said it was the BEST thing he ever tasted!! Huge success!! Thanks Deb!!
The first cookbook I remember owning was “The Little Cooks Cookbook” with recipes from around the world. I remember making delicious almond pyramid cookies for my 6th grade report on Egypt.
I’m curious. This was posted five years ago (jeeze!); have you had any luck tracking down your own first cookbook?
Made this bread a couple months ago with the last zucchini in the garden. Great recipe. I added the dried cranberries like you suggested. Perfect!!!
I know I’m a couple years late on this, and in the wrong season… but for good reason. ;) My local co-op puts together 99¢ grab bags of damaged/past prime fruits and veggies; this cold January week I ended up with a plethora of zucchini and am tickled to thaw out my bones with a favorite summertime treat. Next, you brought back the memory of The Pooh Cook Book, which I don’t think we tried many recipes out of. As an adult, my first cookbook was The New Vegetarian Cookbook which I often still reference.