I should be writing. Instead, drifting…toward chocolate cake.

1. Raise your hand if:

• you’ve ever left a measuring cup in the bag of flour or sugar.
• you’ve intentionally left a measuring cup in the bag of flour or sugar for the next baking venture.
• you skipped the ‘firmly pack the brown sugar’ step and instead just poured in an extra tablespoon or two of the stuff.
• you would consider breaking off a hunk of this cake rather than resorting to a [pinkies up!] utensil. Recipe below…Note: Feel free to overdo both the chocolate chips and the cocoa.

2. Best way to get rid of the redolent odor of wildfire smoke in your kitchen? Four batches of roasted tomatoes, with generous supplies of garlic chunks, rosemary sprigs, etc. [It ain’t pretty here in Oregon right now…]

3. And then there’s this: Do you think dogs lying peacefully on the floor know the difference between our giving them half our attention [one hand scratching their chin and one hand clicking links or entering a passcode] vs. our full attention? Do we send out a ‘semi-distracted’ vibe when we are, in fact, semi-distracted?

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

**

• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

**

• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 4 TBLSP cocoa

**

• 3 six-inch long zucchini

• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream first four ingredients together in large bowl.
2. Add next three ingredients and stir well to mix.
3. Measure next six ingredients into sifter; then sift into bowl of other ingredients.
4. Finely grate zucchini into bowl; stir until blended. 
5. Fold in half of the chocolate chips to mixture.
6. Pour into greased 9″ x 13″ pan –or- two 9″ cake pans.
7. Sprinkle rest of chocolate chips on top of batter.
8. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. [Check it about the 37-minute mark. Hey, different ovens, right?]

*Cutting the oil in half barely changes the final result.