Braving the Food Processor (Zucchini Bread)

A few years ago, I spent a week in San Antonio helping my aunt go through some things in my grandparents' house getting my O'pa ready to move to Houston. One of the items that caught my eye was my grandmother's 1977 GE food processor. I didn't have one of my own, so my aunt said I could take it home to Virginia with me.

The thing is, I have a slight phobia about appliances with blades and spinning attachments. It was 7 1/2 years into our marriage before I broke down and used the Kitchen Aid stand mixer T and I received as a wedding gift.

You'd think a successful run with that piece of machinery would've cured me, but a glance at the sharp blade attachments for the food processor scared me away for the better part of two years.

It took a generous neighbor with a box top full of fresh veggies for me to overcome my food processor fears.

I did a little internet searching and found a recipe for zucchini bread on allrecipes.com that had a couple thousand good reviews.

A little chopping, a little noisy shredding, and we were on our way!

The bread turned out delicious: dense, moist, and sweet.

Here's the recipe:

{Zucchini Bread}

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

So it was totally worth risking my fingers for! A great treat to pair with a homemade mocha when friends come over for a playdate.

{Any recipes or appliances you've been holding off on trying?}

Linking to Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Hope you'll join me for the next Dishing It! party this week. Click here for the topic!

*Special thanks to today's Sponsor, one9designs!*