DISH | zucchini five spice bread

Remember that time I said I was mad busy? These days I can barely get a decent dinner on the table let alone take the time to sit and write. And shit is not slowing down. Just this week I worked a few shifts, taught two cooking classes, did a food styling trial run (um, yes, apparently I’m a food stylist now) and then there was the shopping, recipe development and prep for a two-day gig with Select Nova Scotia cooking up a ton of locally inspired recipes as part of the Meet Your Farmer at the Mall event. Hell, I’m lucky if I get one meal in my face in a day.  Same goes for enjoying all that incredible Summer produce. Market visits are less frequent so when we can, we grab the goods and run. Then scramble to  use it up before it goes bad. Welcome to my life. 

That is precisely how this zucchini five spice bread was born. Well thought out recipe and blog post? Hella no. We simply had to use up two GIANT zucchini we picked up in the Valley before they went the way of the green bin. Though I knew damn well we had no time to deal with two mammoth zucchini, I couldn’t resist. At only 99 cents a piece, they were pretty much giving the stuff away. So far it’s made one chocolate zucchini loaf, two rounds of this recipes – thus four loaves – and two bags of shredded zucchini now in the freezer for Winter baking. TWO DOLLARS PEOPLE. 

This is the first I’ve thrown five spice into baking though I adore anything five spice, namely that Chinese char sui bbq pork. Gimmie all that. Full of those warming spices – cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fennel, black pepper – I knew it’d be right cozy in anything sweet. No surprise, it totally works. I may just start adding it to everything. 

I don’t know when sweet loaves became bread or whatever you call it but it’s pretty much like eating cake for breakfast. And that my friends is a win.