Zucchini Bread... who knew?

This past weekend was pretty exciting for me. I spent most of Saturday cooking and preparing food for a picnic Chris and I would have on Sunday for his birthday. As I was merrily baking zucchini bread and zesting lemon into a pasta salad, I got a message from my cousin who is about 3 years younger than me. We swapped weekend plans and as I wiped flour off of my pants, she told me she was going to her first rave that night. Boy did I feel old for a moment as I added feta cheese to the pasta. (But not too much! Low cholesterol was the key word for this picnic.)


The feeling old passed quickly though and the next day, while she was inevitably hungover... or perhaps still drunk, I was spreading a blanket on the ground of Prospect Park and sharing marzipan with someone I deeply care about. The rest of the the birthday passed in a whirlwind of more food (Ethiopian was next), Chris' friends from out of town and a showing of Tree of Life at the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) Rose Cinema. 
Through all of this, I kept feeling a special sense of accomplishment over my zucchini bread. I was so proud of that adorable little loaf of bread. (I didn't even use self rising flour!) I wish I'd taken pictures, but I can add the link for the recipe. 


http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Cornbread-366395


It tastes a lot like sweet cornbread but my domestic side really enjoyed making it. 


Here's the tree where we had our picnic in Prospect Park. It's a weeping white mulberry.


And of course the Ethiopian restaurant, Ghenet. What an experience to share a giant plate of food with 5 people while eating it with your hands. (This is something I would not recommend to germophobes... but we all know I'm not so squeamish about these things.)

This is what our food looked like:

The inside of the place. The metal screens were gorgeous.



I actually found the above picture on an architecture website called The Architect's Newspaper.


Getting the marzipan was another feat all on it's own. I had to trek to the nether regions of Brooklyn to find it (and I'm not even a marzipan fan!) but it was supposed to be the best in the city. I gotta say, after eating this delicious almond confection from Villabate Alba, I'm a convert. 





I mean look at this stuff!! YUM!


(I'm getting the feeling my posts are going to be the ones about food.....)