Autumn is upon us and with the pandemic still around, changing our daily lives and upsetting our routines, we might as well find a creative way to adapt to it. To find happiness in the simple pleasures we can create.
For this new article, I thought I would offer you my recipe for zucchini bread, my beautiful photos of zucchini bread, my zucchini poetry and also my tiny pleasures inspired by reading Philip Delerm’s book, The First Sip of Beer and other tiny pleasures. Or more simply, to create these because we really stop. This delicious little book gives us such a present look at the present, at the same time bringing up a past so simple that it seems to me the key to all happiness.
Zucchini poetry
With its large chunks of cut zucchini that show pretty squares in the dough, instead of grating the fruit, the appearance of this bread is very inviting. As soon as you put the knife on the crispy cookie that has become the crust because it took so long to bake and thus scented the whole house, you already enjoy it. For a moment, you know that you will take a little moment for yourself, that you will pour the coffee which will add its aroma of pleasure and that you will put the pretty linen placemat, just to create a little cocoon of well-being. With a beautiful gingerbread color because of the cinnamon and the deep baking, this bread is just as delicious to look at as it is to taste. With this particular smell of cinnamon comes the memory of the children’s return from school. Right there on the gallery, their eyes glowed and they knew that the tasty snack indicating the end of their school day and the flavours of autumn would be served to them. They also knew that their mom was more than eager to create warm and beautiful moments. Those who make the connections. Those that strengthen the heart. The ones you never forget.
Tiny Pleasure #1: Cooking and enjoying the moment you are cooking this zucchini bread. Tiny pleasure no. 2: Take out the beautiful linen table linen and enjoy touching the linen, feeling its texture, smelling the material that retains that characteristic vegetable scent. See and appreciate the beautiful finishes. Tiny Pleasure no.3: Run the coffee, enjoy its aroma. Add a nice, creamy, white milk foam. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Tiny pleasure no.4: Knit a scarf, puncho, stocks or a sweater…And why not this wonderful Autumn sweater by Philip Delerm: “Then you need a new sweater. Wear the chestnuts, the pinkish red of the russules. Reflect the season in the softness of the wool… In shades of green? An Irish green, off-pea, foggy…But red? There are so many red in the season, ophelian hair, desire to taste like before, bread-butter-gingerbread…And beige, why not? A sweater with big stitches, with braces, as if someone still had time to knit for you…”
Tiny Pleasure #5: Read Boucar Diouf: For the love of my mother. “Mom, I wanted to tell the story of the exceptional woman that you are in these pages so that your spirit continues to live in the hearts of all the people who will read these lines. May they make your wisdom about family, solidarity, and well-being together their own. Through your story, which I tell in this little book, I salute in the same breath the work and love of all the mothers of the earth. Thank you for being what you are, mothers with open hearts, thank you for what we are and for what we will be”.
Pretend that everything becomes a small event and experience it for real. You will have created your tiny pleasures.
Recipe for zucchini bread
3 cups flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
Mix the dry ingredients
Beat the ingredients listed below with the mixer for a good minute.
1 cup oil
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
Add 2 cups of chopped zucchini to the oil mixture and 1 cup of dried raisins and mix. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just enough to moisten the dry ingredients.
Put the dough in a 9” x 5” loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Cover the bread with aluminum foil and leave it in the oven for another 50 minutes at 325 degrees F (1h30 baking time and sometimes more) or until a skewer stick comes out clean.
(The books of Philip Delerm and Boucar Diouf are French works).
Love your story of creating tiny pleasures…..hugs to you! Oh….and that bread I will need to try this for sure! Thank you for always inspiring!
OOhh, Thank you so much dear Amy, for your visit! When we write a post for our blog, we don’t know if people read it, are interested by the article, are inspired by what we offer with our heart. We don’t know if others humans know that it is a real person who share her real things and insights! So, it takes people like you, to read, appreciate and say their appreciation! Stay an inspiring person as you are, a kind and supportive who always brings sun in other’s live! Have a wonderful day!