Another veggie that has been making a weekly appearance in my CSA box has been zucchini. As much as I love sauteing them up with summer squash, garlic and onions, I was craving something a bit sweeter and thought it was the perfect time to bake a loaf of zucchini bread. I’ve made this loaf a little heartier by tossing in more chopped nuts and zucchini than most recipes call for, and to brighten up the flavor a bit, zested a lemon into the batter. Result: deliciousness.

What’s your favorite zucchini bread recipe? Or how do you use up the copious amounts of zucchini growing this time of year?

Hope everyone had a lovely Fourth! We made a very last minute trip to Maryland to celebrate with the family, which has been lovely. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that our baby girl waits to come till we get home!:)

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On my drive back from visiting family in South Carolina there are tons of little roadside stands just South of the North Carolina state line. This time of year, I can never pass that strip without stopping at one to pick up at least one basket of peaches. They have to be one of my favorite things about the season. It takes a lot of restraint for me to resist eating them all before I can bake up something delicious, but I always try and set a few aside.

If you’ve been a reading my blog for very long at all, you may have noticed that I love my cast iron skillet. I’d definitely say it’s my favorite kitchen tool, and I’ll use it every opportunity I can. Something about it’s rustic, old timey feel maybe? Whatever it is, if you don’t have one, I encourage you to go out and buy one pronto.

Here I’ve made something similar to a cinnamony-peach loaf, but thrown it in a skillet and topped it off with an oat and sugar crumble and sweet drizzle. It turned into more of a desserty dish (hence the “cake” in the title), but we also enjoyed it as a next-morning breakfast.

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Lots of big things have been happening around here. For one, we’re in the process of moving closer to Clif’s job in NC. We recently have found a place that we love that’s not only close to a downtown area, but also has a guest room! This is very exciting, considering we’ve always had only a couch to put guests on. Also, it has a yard. This is big… I’ve never had a yard of my very own. I have high aspirations for gardening, and I’ll keep you updated on how that actually turns out for me.:) But needless to say, between the pregnancy and the move, my time in the kitchen has dwindled somewhat.

When I saw Laurie from Simply Scratch post her granola recipe last week, I loved how yummy and simple it looked. Perrrrfect. I’ve tried a handful of granola recipes in the past, but I’ve never been completely pleased with the outcome. But I knew anything Laurie makes wouldn’t disappoint, so I went for it. I took her granola recipe base and just replaced some of the ingredients with what I had in my kitchen. So amazingly delicious. I highly recommend bagging this up and bringing it to friends or people that you want to be friends with. I’ve tried it and it works. Next on my granola-making agenda: I plan to try the original Honey Almond Granola. Doesn’t that combo sound amazing? Mmmm.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m so ready for spring. We had a very brief glimpse of warm, sunny weather, but it seems like winters come back all over again. Our little produce market around here has drastically shortened their hours (understandably so) due to the slim pickings we currently have, and even when they are open it’s a sad little selection to choose from. Does anyone else feel uninspired in the kitchen? Please give me some tips for surviving till spring if you know of any!:)

One thing I can always count on making year-round is some variation of banana bread. It’s one of my favorites because it’s simple, delicious and comforting. I threw in some chopped up dark chocolate in this loaf and in my opinion, it’s better than ever.

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The weather here lately has been unusually warm for February. A month ago we had the biggest snow storm in years, and this month we are having temperatures in the high 70′s with sunshine! I’m not sure how long it will stick around, but in the meantime I’m taking advantage of this early spring by enjoying daily walks and open windows. Oh, and this cake.

The citrus selection is slimming down a little since the season is wrapping up, but before it was gone completely I knew I wanted to try out a recipe using kumquats. They really are so cute and tasty, but I haven’t found many ways to use them in recipes. Yesterday the idea came to me that maybe I could make a cake reminiscent of a lemon pound cake, but using kumquats. Since you can’t exactly get much juice from these little guys and zesting would be a pain, why not use the whole thing? So that’s what we’ve done here. I used Ina Garten’s Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe as a platform, and went from there. This citrusy dessert is super moist and delicious, and really is fitting for this lovely weather.:)

Has anyone else had many experiences baking/cooking with kumquats? I’d love to hear!

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