Or: why spinners need their own special calendar
Old hippies have their own special calendar (so they can
find out on what day "A Whiter Shade of Pale" hit the top of the charts). Mathematicians have their own calendar (in case they need a
reminder to celebrate Pi Day—3.14). Well, we spinners deserve one, too.
We need to be getting ready for Roc Day (or Rock Day), and
for St. Blaise Day (when it is suggested that anyone who spins should have her
spindle set on fire). We need to know when to head for Cedarville, Illinois,
for the Stephenson County Fiber Arts Festival, or any of the other twenty or so
special fiber events that have been planned for our pleasure in 2010. We need
to get our knitting needles out on July 14 for Bastille Day. We need to plan ahead!
That's why the Spin·Off
staff has made a calendar, just for us. It's printed on matte paper so
it's easy to write on. It has photographs in the manner of those early
childhood educational illustrations (how many spinning objects can you find in
this picture?). And it has poetry—little haiku for each month, written by our
fellow-spinners.*
What it doesn't have is recipes. Well, it could have had—maybe
next year. Meanwhile, since this is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your
Neighbor's Front Porch Month (I am not kidding!), I offer you this recipe,
perfect for your spinning guild's first fall meeting.
Good Neighbor
Zucchini Bread
1 ½ cup
all-purpose flour
1 ½
teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon
cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
2 beaten
eggs
½ cup
vegetable oil
1 teaspoon
vanilla
½ teaspoon
salt
1 ½ cups
grated zucchini, patted dry with paper towels
1 ½ cup
chopped walnuts
There are
other things to do with zucchinis besides make bread. But, for this recipe, heat oven to
350˚F. Sift first three ingredients together. Add sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla,
and salt. Fold in zucchini and nuts. Bake in a greased 5x9-inch loaf pan for
about an hour. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out of a rack to finish cooling.
It will take a lot of these loaves to use up very much zucchini. Sort of like
spinning a whole fleece.
*Unfortunately, we left off one very important day: Mohandas
K. Gandhi's birthday on October 2. If you come to own one of these calendars, we
suggest that you pencil in that date yourself, and plan to celebrate with some
cotton candy.