YourPotluck.com     Living & Eating on Long Island's East End 
                                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.



It's August now and the muggy heat seems all encompassing.
Was it always like this? Was there ever a time when the air was cool and dry and the sun felt good on my skin, rather than just hot and sticky?
The rasberry bushes are now a tangled mess of branches,
Parts of the garden have begun to shut down. The rasberry bushes are a tangled mess of branches mixed amongst the
weeds. The herbs are beginning to grow into each other, the dill now mixed in with the rosemary, the lavender tangled up with the basil, while the mint has taken on a life of its 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 begun. Backyard critters are jockeying for position because after months of planting, weeks of watering and pampering the giant payout is finally upon us.
That's right, the corn and the tomatoes are coming in and I
mean coming in. With that begins the daily battle with the creatures on the garden's outskirts.
My husband has told me about his battles to grow corn in the past. One year he grew a bumper crop of hundreds of ears only to discover one morning that a herd of deer had passed through overnight and feasted on all his efforts, leaving him with only one or two baskets.
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, the 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 the deer, rabbits, raccoons, moles and ground hogs have stayed away this year.
Lexie patrols our yard like a dutiful soldier.  Before she arrived,we would regularly see all types of wildlife wander through the property. Now Lexie wanders the perimeter of the property,
movement.
When she does see something move across her path, she is after it like an angry rhinocerous, hurling herself forward, snorting and snuffling.
She may never catch anything, but she always returns happy and satisfied, her tongue hanging from one side of her mouth with what looks like a big grin on her face.
So when my husband went away on a four-day trip, leaving Lexie and myself in charge of protecting the corn, we took our job seriously. Two to three times a day we would walk in the garden, strolling its perimeter, looking for any signs of activity in the rows of corn.
I encouraged Lexie to leave her scent around the perimeter and sometimes late at night I did too, hoping it helped. Well, it did. The crops were left alone and now we're swimming in corn and zucchini.
Now comes 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 still have a lot of corn and zucchini.
That's when I decided to add the last of the corn to my zucchini bread. The corn kernels give the bread texture, while still being soft and chewy and its super easy to make.
Just cut the kernels off a piece of uncooked corn or use about one half a cup of canned corn, 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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