Beautiful Virginia and Zucchini Bread

Wow, what a wonderful day! Blake is in Idaho visiting his family so I planned many social events to fill my long Memorial Day Weekend. Kate and I met for breakfast at Bluegrass Grill and a trip to the Charlottesville City Market. Baby Gracie is due next weekend and Kate looks absolutely stunning (I can say without a doubt that she is the most beautiful mom-to-be that I have ever seen)! It was such a special treat to spend the morning with her and I am counting the days until I can meet the newest member of our Charlottesville family.

After filling my cooler with nature's bounty (strawberries, squash, zucchini, asparagus, baby red potatoes, salad greens, and raw honey), I met Sean, Pepin, Emily, Kelly, and some new friends for lunch and an afternoon at the vineyard. Sean (and Everette) have raved about the Batesville Store located in you guessed it, Batesville, a very small town 30-minutes from Charlottesville through the beautiful Virginia countryside. We sat outside in perfect 70 degree weather and enjoyed our phenomenal lunch. They are known for their down home cooking (mac and cheese, jambalaya, pork barbecue) and I treated myself to four kinds of salad beautifully assembled on bibb lettuce leaves. I enjoyed a sampling of their wild rice salad, lentil salad, cauliflower and apricot salad, and tuscany bean salad.  After lunch, we enjoyed a few hours of sunshine at Veritas Winery sampling sparkling Moussex, sweet Viognier, and dry Rose. It was a perfect day in Virginia!

After sampling delicious local fare throughout the day, I was inspired to bake succulent Zucchini Bread.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups raw sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cups pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)

Beat together eggs, sugar, zucchini, oil, and vanilla.
In separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
Add dry ingredients, pecans and raisins (if using) to wet ingredients and combine.
Bake in two bread loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Enjoy!