Maybe a Bit Too Much

John has been away for much of the week visiting his cousin in northern PA. I didn't have any desire to go along; it's cold (4° F last night), there's no heat in the upstairs bedrooms in the old farm house, and the family stories are a bit boring to me. All of this means that I've been here at home to mostly do what I want. I've been eating grilled cheese or yogurt for dinner, I cleaned a little bit, decorated a little bit, caught up on laundry, and knitted. I also felt like baking something and settled on chocolate zucchini bread. John isn't a big fan of chocolate, so I saw this as my chance to make something that I wanted. 

I browsed a bunch of recipes and finally settled on smitten kitchen's version. I should have paid more attention to the fact that it was called "double chocolate" but I went ahead and prepared it as written, except I used 1/3 cup fewer chocolate chips and didn't sprinkle any on top.

 

 

I baked the bread for 75 minutes and even then, it barely tested as done. But I took it out, cooled it in the pan and on a rack, and tried a piece once it was completely cool. Whoa, this stuff is seriously chocolatey, in fact, maybe a bit too much if that's possible. 

I know John won’t eat much, if any, because of all the chocolate. Some family members are coming for brunch on Sunday, so maybe I can give most of it away. If not, I briefly considered sharing it with the neighborhood wildlife, until I googled it and learned that “chocolate harms raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and foxes because the theobromine and caffeine it contains are toxic to them, similar to how they affect dogs. Ingestion can cause vomiting, diarrhea, increased heart rate, seizures, and potentially death.” I definitely don’t want to be responsible for that.

 

Maybe next time I’ll make a nice, healthy zucchini quiche. I’ve been trying to align my eating with an anti-inflammatory diet, and that definitely doesn’t include anything labeled “double chocolate.”