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                                  Zucchini Corn Bread
My name is Monique.
I'm a 2-time Emmy Award winning TV Producer.
Having been in the business for over 15 years I've produced my share of live tv cooking segments, but never had much time to devote to cooking myself.

Last year when I got married, I moved out of New York City to the east end of Long Island, to ...wait for it...The Hamptons.

Now before you roll your eyes, there's more to the Hamptons than mansions and celebrities.

The Hamptons have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, miles of productive farmland, plus a rich clamming history that continues to this day.

When I moved out east and realized I was surrounded, not just by the bounty of the sea, but also local farms and vineyards, I couldn't wait to explore and sample my new environment.

That's what this blog is about.  Cooking, living, exploring and sharing those experiences.

You'll notice that my blog is a little of this and a little of that, kind of like a potluck meal.

As the month of August comes to an end and summer begins to wane, the muggy heat seems all encompassing.
Was it always like this? Wasn't there a time when the air was cool and dry and the sun felt good on my skin, rather than just hot and sticky?
Its late August now, and parts of the garden have shut down.
The rasberry bushes are now a tangled mess of branches, mixed amongst various species of weeds. The herbs are beginning to grow amongst each other; dill mixed in with rosemary, lavender tangled up with basil, while the mint has taken on a life of it's own, putting out small purple flowers that the butterflies and moths flutter back and forth to.
Yet even as those plants whither, another battle in the garden has just begun. The backyard critters are jockeying for position, because after months of planting, watering and pampering, the giant payout is upon us.
That's right, the corn and the tomatoes are finally, and I mean
Finally! coming in and with that begins a daily battle with the creatures who live on the garden's outskirts.
My husband has told me about his battles to grow corn from past summers. One year he grew a bumper crop with hundreds of ears of corn, only to discover one morning that a herd of deer had passed through overnight and feasted on his efforts, leaving him with only one or two baskets.
This year we planted about 300 ears, half expecting most of them to disappear before we got a chance to enjoy them. But it's actually been a very fruitful summer for the garden, pardon the pun.
The rasberries kicked things off, after that came string beans, bok choy, broccoli rabe, eggplants and plenty of herbs.
Now comes the final harvest; corn, tomatoes and zucchini. And what do we owe this fruitful summer to? Not a what, more like a whom, our dog, Lexie.  She is the Golden Retriever/Chow mix that we adopted back in January.
I definately believe that she is the main reason why the deer, rabbits, raccoons, moles and ground hogs have avoided our yard this year.
Lexie patrols our backyard like a dutiful soldier.  Before she
arrived on the scene, we would regularly see all types of animals wandering thru the yard. Now Lexie wanders the
perimeter of the property, sniffing the ground for any signs of activity and movement.
When she does see something move or dart across her path, she is after it like an angry rhinocerous, hurling herself forward, snorting and snuffling.
While she never catches anything, she always returns happy, her tongue hanging from one side of her mouth and what looks like a big grin on her face.
In the months since she arrived and began leaving her scent all around, we saw a serious drop in animal activity. That is until the corn began growing, that's when I began to notice a sudden uptick in animal droppings around the garden, almost as if they were marking their turf.   So when my husband went away on a four-day trip, leaving Lexie and myself in charge of guarding the corn, we took our job very seriously. Two to three times a day we would take a walk out to the garden, strolling its perimeter, looking for any physical changes to the rows of corn.
I encouraged Lexie to leave her scent nearby and "Hey, what the hell", sometimes late at night I did too, hoping it helped.   It did. The crops were left alone and pretty soon we were swimming in corn, tomatoes and zucchini.
Now came the question, what to do with all these fruits of our labor? The tomatoes were easily cooked down into sauce and
frozen for another day.  So was the corn, plus a lot was eaten fresh and given away. But we were still stuck with a lot of corn, plus zucchini, which nobody wanted.
That's when I decided to add the last of the corn to my zucchini bread. The combination is actually very good, in fact, I think it actually improved the bread. The corn kernels give the bread texture, but it's still soft and chewy and its still the easiest thing to make.
Just cut the kernels off a piece of uncooked corn or use about one half a cup of canned corn, then add it to your favorite zucchini bread recipe or try mine below.

ZUCCHINI CORN BREAD 1 Cup Grated Zucchini 1/2 Can or Corn or 1 Cob of Corn 1 Egg (Beaten) 1 Cup Sugar 1/4 Cup Cooking Oil (Try Olive Oil) 1 & 1/2 Cups Flour 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder Mix the egg, sugar, zucchini, corn and oil together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, add all the dry ingrediants together; Flour, cinnamon, salt, Baking soda, Baking powder. Then add the dry ingrediants to the wet ingrediants and mix. Pour into a greased baking pan. Set oven to 350 Degrees and bake for 55 minutes. Enjoy, yum!
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