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The Midlife Second Wife ™

~ The Real and True Adventures of Remarriage at Life's Midpoint

The Midlife Second Wife ™

Monthly Archives: July 2013

Enter to Win a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor!

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in Giveaways, Product Reviews, What's the Buzz?

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Cooking, Cuisinart, Food, Food processor, giveaway, KitchenAid, product reviews, Viewpoints

The Midlife Second Wife, Marci Rich, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

Can’t you just picture this beautiful food processor in your kitchen?

This contest is closed. Watch this space for the announcement of the winner!

I’m thrilled to partner with Viewpoints, a leading product ratings website, on an exclusive giveaway. We are inviting you to try your hand at winning a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor—just like the one that I’ve reviewed for Viewpoints. With a suggested retail price of $599, this is by far the biggest, most valuable giveaway I’ve ever hosted on the blog. Yowza!

Viewpoints helps consumers make smart purchase decisions through the use of honest reviews. And as regular readers of the blog know, I’m a member of Viewpoints’ Blogger Reviews Panel. (You can read some of my other reviews here.)

Viewpoints sent me the KitchenAid Model KFP1642 (pictured above) to test for about six weeks, after which I wrote my review for Viewpoints’ website. Comparing KitchenAid’s Pro Line Dicing Food Processor to my trusty Cuisinart really wasn’t much of a contest; the Cuisinart came up short in more ways than one.

The Midlife Second Wife, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

In this case, size does matter. The KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor, on the right—as big as a MINI Cooper—dwarfs my old Cuisinart, seen in the left corner. The KitchenAid food processor, along with the accessories shown in the center and the two additional work bowls, are included in what you’ll win.

My review addresses the pros (and a con or two) of the KitchenAid. You can read the full review here. (Viewpoints is giving the food processor that I tested to me in return for my six-week-long test and impartial review. The one you’ll receive is brand spanking new!)

The Midlife Second Wife, Viewpoints, KitchenAid

Revolutionize your kitchen! Enter to win this!

How to Enter:
If you’ve ever fallen in love with a product (or wondered how something inferior ever made its way to market), Viewpoints wants to hear from you. This is your chance to tell the world what you think—your opinion is your entry card! Here’s what you do:

  1. Sign in and register for a free Viewpoints account. Just head over to the  Viewpoints website and set yourself up with a username and password.
  2. Write two qualifying reviews on Viewpoints by Tuesday, August 6 in the Refrigerator, Freezer, Dishwasher, Microwave, Espresso Machine, Washing Machine, Dryer, Air Conditioner, Fan or eCommerce Website categories. Want to write more than two? Go for it! Each review is an entry, so the more you review, the greater your chance to win. Ya gotta write at least two, though.
  3. What qualifies as a qualifying review? Each of your two reviews must be at least 700 characters long to qualify. The character counter at the bottom of the review form shows your review length before publishing. Viewpoints is a stickler for quality, so write engaging reviews—as though you’re talking to a friend or a family member. Write about what you liked, what you didn’t like, and whether or not you’d recommend the product.
  4. Comment on this post (see the section for comments at the end of this article) with the links to your reviews and your Viewpoints username. If you’ve never commented on my blog before, please take a moment and register by adding your name and email address in the fields after you’ve written your comment with your review links and Viewpoints username.
  5. For good giveaway karma, be sure to like Viewpoints and The Midlife Second Wife on Facebook.

The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, August 13.

Here’s a short-hand checklist so you’ll remember what to do:

REGISTER on Viewpoints
REVIEW on Viewpoints
REPEAT on The Midlife Second Wife by posting links to your reviews, including your Viewpoints username, in the “Comments” section at the end of this post.

Got questions? Email support@viewpoints.com with Giveaway as the subject line. One of the gracious Viewpoints staff members will get back to you!

The Fine Print
As with any sweepstakes giveaway, there are a few rules and regulations. I strongly suggest that you read the Official Rules found on the Viewpoints website, noting the restrictions on eligibility. In a nutshell:

Employees of Viewpoints, its affiliates, agents (including Blogger Reviews panel members), and its advertising and promotion agencies, and their respective immediate family members (spouse, children, parents and siblings) and those living in the same household of each (whether or not related), are not eligible to enter.

Now go forth and go for it, friends! I can’t wait to see which one of you will be the lucky winner!

Good luck!

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Do DROIDS Dream of Electric Sheep?

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in Product Reviews, Technology

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Blade Runner, Droid, iPhone, Motorola, Philip K. Dick, product reviews, smartphones, technology, Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless

Marci Rich, DROID, Verizon, Motorola, The Midlife Second Wife

The DROID RAZR MAXX HD. Photo taken with the my iPhone’s camera.

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Boomer Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.

Here’s what came to mind the first time I powered on Motorola’s DROID RAZR MAXX HD, a smart phone that I’m testing as a member of Verizon’s Boomer Voices program: the science-fiction thriller Blade Runner, directed 30 years ago by Ridley Scott. It wasn’t so much the resonance with the product name and the title of the film’s source material, Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as it was the vision that appeared on the screen and the sound emanating from the device.

The first to appear on the touch-screen was Motorola’s red, Batman-like logo, followed by the voice of the DROID—robotic and synthesized—saying (by way of introduction, I guess): “Droid.” Then, immediately after, a lightening-laced, fractured vision that could have been a split-second scene from Blade Runner. After all that, finally, a flickering-red-power-star-encased-in-a-diamond image came into view, signaling that your smart phone is ready to receive you now.

I’ve used an iPhone for years. Turning it on has never been this much fun. Score one for the DROID.

But is fun enough? I’ve been paying close attention to the similarities, differences, pros, and cons ever since returning from Chicago at the end of June, where Verizon Wireless hosted my program colleagues and me to a day-and-a-half of training on this device and related products. Here are a few of my loves and—since hate is too strong a word—dis-loves when it comes to the DROID RAZR MAXX HD:

Voice-Recognition Software
This is, by far, my favorite feature of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. After unlocking the phone, all I have to do is swoop my finger from the bottom of the screen to the top and Google appears, ready to search at my command. I click the microphone and ask it do to my bidding. For example, I asked Gigi (for that’s what I’ve named this miraculous feature, deciding it made a fine derivative of Google): “Call the Rocky River Public Library.”

“Calling now,” she replied. And just like that, I was connected.

Oh yes, I know all about Siri. I have an iPhone 5, after all. But it’s been my experience that Siri pops up when I least expect her, and when I do need her she’s difficult to find. Google’s voice-recognition software on the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is easier to use. Her tone is slightly more pleasant and human-sounding than Siri’s, too. You can almost hear the smile in her voice.

Again, shades of Blade Runner.

I’ve also had more success with the DROID’s voice-activation in getting to websites than I have with my iPhone.

Google Now
While we’re on the subject of Google, let me just say that I love the “smart cards” that appear beneath the search field when I do that upward swoop thingie. Yes, you do have to allow Google certain permissions for these actions to work, but I’m over that. I like being able to see what’s on my calendar for the day, what the weather is like, and some of my most recent Google searches. If the screen gets too crowded I can simply swipe them away.

For those unfamiliar with smart phones and their operating systems, I should take this opportunity to point out that Google owns Android, which is a Linux-based operating system. Unlike Apple’s operating system, Android is open-source, which means that other developers can create software for it, yielding myriad choices in apps. Apple is an organic entity unto itself—it’s apples to apples all the way. I’m not saying that its closed-system philosophy is a negative—quite the opposite, actually. I’ve been a loyal Mac user ever since purchasing my first desktop back in the late 1980s. But it has been fun to experiment with a different operating system. (Fun. There’s that word again.) We’ll come back to that.

High-Definition Screen, Color, and Instant Photo Uploads
The high-definition screen of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is a thing of beauty. If you’re reading this review on a DROID RAZR MAXX HD, ask Gigi—er, I mean Google—to pull up a website showing the color spectrum. What do you think?

I actually wonder, however, if the colors I’m seeing are true-to-life. Here’s why. Schopenhauer and color theory notwithstanding, when I use the DROID camera, the image I’m about to shoot doesn’t appear as real—as true-to-life—compared to the camera of my iPhone; the colors seem off. That’s when I look through the viewer, but I’ve noticed it on some of the resulting photos as well. Here’s a picture I took of my iPhone with the DROID. Contrast this with the photo I took of the DROID with the iPhone above. I set each shot the same way, with the same background. I auto-adjusted the color, as I always do, in Photoshop before saving the final image. The backdrop of the iPhone shown below is closer to real-life, and this shot was taken with the DROID. That said, the colors of the iPhone itself are way off. This could be because I’m taking a picture of something with a lit background—even though I cut the brightness of the iPhone’s screen back.

The DROID’s screen in the picture above, taken with my iPhone, is closer to what my eye sees. I hope I haven’t confused you too much. (Can we get a philosopher to weigh in on this?!)

iPhone, The Midlife Second Wife

A picture of my iPhone 5, taken with the camera of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD

I have to wonder if I’m willing to sacrifice visual veracity for ease and speed in uploading. When we were in Chicago, one of the tech trainers set up my DROID so it would automatically upload the photos taken with it to my Google+ account. Talk about magic! This feature saves me the trouble of having to email my iPhone photo to myself, or of having to attach the iPhone to my laptop in order to download images to iPhoto, which I then have to save again to a designated file on my laptop. Once the DROID picture appears on my Google+ page, all I have to do is download it. That’s all. I absolutely love the time this saves me.

I haven’t even begun to tell you other important things, such as the size and shape of the DROID versus the iPhone, the network speed, the battery life, and overall ease of use. I’ll be back again to share more of my thoughts on the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. For now, I’d like to ask your opinion on this:

I’ve often thought there are are two kinds of people in the world, and that they can be summed up in three categories:

  1. Those who prefer Coke over Pepsi
  2. Those who like coffee more than tea
  3. Those who are passionately pro-Mac versus those who are PC

What do you think? And if you are a devoted Apple fan, would you ever change sides? Even for one product? Let me know in the comments below!

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…And Now a Word from Murad About Those Pores…

19 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in Product Reviews, The Beautiful Life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beauty, Cosmetics, Facebook, Health, Murad, Sephora, Skin Care, Vitalic

3rk594Regular readers of The Midlife Second Wife know that I’m a huge fan of Murad skin care products. I’m writing this quick post to update you on an important development. A number of you have written to me to say, basically, that “I’ll have what she’s having.” Here’s a note a follower wrote me on Facebook:

About a month ago, Marci Rich recommended Murad’s Age Reform Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for Eyes. I bought it. Several times since, I’ve gotten that strange, puzzled squint from someone…’What’s different about you? You look really nice” which I choose to take as a compliment. So, Face Queen Marci [I love that!], thank you. What do you do for the rest of your face?

I wrote back, referring the Facebook correspondent to my first Murad post featuring the company’s Vitalic skin care line. These products have been my go-to regimen for keeping my Mediterranean skin clear and smooth for nearly a year. I love them. For my money, they are the second-best thing—after my husband’s kiss—to ever touch my face.

I can’t send you to Sephora, however, in search of something you might not find, which is what has happened to me the last couple of times I’ve tried to buy the T-Zone Pore Refining Gel. So here’s the new development: The product line is still around—thank God!—but it has a new name. What once was Vitalic is now the Pore Reform line. Makes perfect sense, because my own pores have been completely rehabilitated.

The new Pore Reform Line features two products in the second-step phase (the first is my beloved Daily Cleansing Foam):

T-Zone Pore Refining Serum (the new name for my old T-Zone Pore Refining Gel)
This targeted serum lifts away dull, dry skin cells to even skin texture and tone and dissolves surface skin-clogging impurities to refine pores. T-Zone Pore Refining Serum is a Step 2 treatment product that normalizes oil production and keeps pores clear to maintain healthy, glowing skin.
(2.0 FL. OZ., $42.00)

Blackhead & Pore Clearing Duo
This fast-acting, two-step treatment, consisting of Blackhead Remover and Pore Refining Sealer, helps reduce blackheads and provides pores with lasting protection against impurities. Blackhead & Pore Clearing Duo extracts stubborn debris from deep within the pores and is clinically proven to reduce the formation of blackheads by an average of 58%*.
(2.0 FL. OZ., $49.50)

For the third, moisturizing step, I turn to the phenomenal eye cream that my Facebook friend raved about.

I cannot wait to try the blackhead and pore clearing product in the new Pore Reform line. I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve had a chance to let it work its magic.

Gotta go wash my face now!

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Of Robert Redford, London, and the Transformative Power of Travel

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in The Cultured Life, The Musical Life, Transitions, Travel

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Generation Fabulous, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Jean Christophe Novelli, London, Robert Redford, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Rattle, travel, Vanessa Redgrave

Before I was the Midlife Second Wife, in London's Underground

Before I was the Midlife Second Wife, in London’s Underground

I could have sworn that the blond man sitting near the front of the Gloucester Pub in London’s Knightsbridge district was Robert Redford. You don’t forget a chiseled face like his, nor do you forget that trademark orb of yellow hair. I’d been half in love with Redford since seeing the film that inspired me to major in journalism: All the President’s Men. (For most women it’s The Way We Were. Go figure.) If I hadn’t been with two friends, or so utterly gobsmacked by my first (and only) trip across the pond, I might have lingered to make sure that the flesh-and-blood visage sitting several tables away matched up with the celluloid version. But my friends and I, famished and travel-weary after our trans-Atlantic flight, were eager for nourishment before checking into the Chelsea Hotel* on the other side of Sloane Street.

And, truth be told, shyness and a sense of decorum prevented me from intruding on a celebrity’s luncheon.

I ordered the Cottage Pie because, you know, when in London…

The food was good but the coffee was bad.

Exiting the pub, we saw we were surrounded by designer boutiques. I noted three of them: Armani, Chanel, and a shop called À la Mode. And of course there was Harrods.

Princess Diana had died only a few months before—the city was still reeling from her loss—and we were in the heart of her territory. With her friends, when she was merely Lady Di, the area was their shopping stomping ground. As such, they were nicknamed after the fashionable street: they were the “Sloane Rangers.”

Walking towards our hotel, I saw more people using cellular phones (for that’s what they called them then) than I’d ever seen in one place before. Entering the sleek, contemporary lobby, the delicate fragrance of lemon verbena seemed to permeate the air. This is from the travel journal I kept for part of my trip:

There is a pervasive … citrus-y scent to the air in London—in our room, noticed it in the Rolls, even catch wafts of it on the street. This is a dream city, unreal, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

I had been transported into a land of luxury.

How did I ever get here? The farthest I’d been from my home in Ohio was California. I felt as though I were living a dream I never knew I had.

My supremely talented friend was to thank for all of this. An award-winning classical violinist, she had snagged the performance plum of a lifetime: a bill on the program for a joint celebration concert: the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 50th birthday of Elton John. The gala event would benefit John’s AIDS Foundation. My friend had invited me to attend as her guest, along with her conservatory teacher, and another woman who would become my friend as well. We had only to provide the cost of our airfare and meals.

I started my journal on the plane. Since I was reading Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being at the time, I began the diary with a quote from the book:

17 December 1997
Sunday 11:45 a.m.

‘There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time.’

On the tarmac, reflecting on the route that would take me from Cleveland to Chicago to Toronto, then south of Newfoundland to Ireland, South Wales, and finally London, I wrote:

Imagine: When we do touch down, it will only be 15 minutes later! [I’m] moving backward in time…

Plucked from the rituals of my satisfying but ordinary life, I was time’s fugitive, granted six days to witness and experience sights and sounds (and fragrances, like the lemon verbena that haunts me still) that I never expected to encounter. Nor have I ever encountered anything like them again. Here are some highlights from my itinerary:

Monday Evening, December 15, 1997
A Rolls Royce picks us up at the Chelsea to deliver us to Mayfair, where the impresario who arranged my friend’s performance hosts us to a five-course meal at Les Saveurs:

  • chickpea soup with blood pudding
  • mushrooms in pancake timbale
  • sweet sea bass on aubergine with cherry tomatoes
  • lamb with risotto
  • chocolate mousse timbale with creme

On our way out, the chef, Jean Christophe Novelli, stops us to say he had taken particular care with our orders. I tell him the food was exquisite, and he seems genuinely touched. He asks where I am from, and when I tell him he says that a New York writer is dining at the restaurant that evening.

Tuesday, December 16, 1997
Christmas shopping at Harrods…saw a shrine to Diana and Dodi al Fayed [his father owned Harrods]—quite moving…beautiful portraits of them both.

To the Barbican Centre for L’s rehearsal, followed by a quick pilgrimage to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama next door. Afterwards, high tea at the Hyde Park Hotel, in a private area off the lobby.

HighTeainHydePark

Another quick pilgrimage—to Westminster Abbey—follows high tea, then a rushed trip on the Underground back to the hotel to prepare for a concert in the Purcell Room at the Royal Festival Hall given by another violinist, a friend of my travel companions.

The next evening, a Wednesday, was the reason for our trip: the gala performance at the Royal Albert Hall, with Vanessa Redgrave serving as master of ceremonies. L, resplendent in a red Armani gown, performed Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. (Who conducted? Was it Sir Simon Rattle? I cannot remember and I cannot find my program. This bothers me to no end.)

My two travel companions and I left London for Paris by way of the Channel Tunnel. In four days I would be back home. A whirlwind escapade in every sense of the word.

I’ve not been overseas since that trip, but it transformed me in ways that are still revealing themselves to me. (And I’m not thinking only about my sudden immersion into a heretofore unknown world of luxury.) I realize that because of that journey, I finally abandoned my fear of the new and unfamiliar. (I think I would even say hello to Robert Redford now, were I to spot him in a pub. Although I’d still maintain my decorum by being polite and mercifully brief.) I didn’t flinch when, 13 years later, I moved from the region where I’d spent my entire life to begin a new one with my new husband in Virginia.

Time, they say, waits for no one, but I made time wait for me while I settled into a new life.

“Time,” I wrote then in my journal, “is caught in fierce snatches…. No opportunity for extended reflection, so necessary in trying to capture the details of all we’re experiencing. Many entries—such as this one—recorded days later. Memory will have to shoulder the burden…”

Memory…and the scent of lemon verbena.

*The Chelsea Hotel is now the Millenium Hotel.

 

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How to Help the Cleveland Kidnapping Survivors

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in Current Events, Transitions

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Amanda Berry, Cleveland Courage Fund, Cleveland Kidnapping, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight

This post has been updated to include new information.

Imagine losing 10 years of your life. What, exactly, do you lose? If the question is theoretical, the answers come quickly:

Time with your loved ones.

Your youth.

The chance to learn and laugh and love.

The chance to live a normal life.

But what if the question is not theoretical? Imagine, for example, the magnitude of loss for the three young women in Cleveland, kidnapped a decade ago at the ages of 14, 16, and 21, and held captive in a ramshackle house owned by a man who allegedly snatched them from the natural course of their lives, subjecting them to unimaginable horrors.

By now everyone in the world knows his name. On August 1 a judge sentenced Ariel Castro to life in prison without parole, plus 1,000 years, has been indicted on more than 300 charges, after Castro pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty; he had also been charged with aggravated murder for beating one of the women after she became pregnant, forcing her to miscarry.

Imagine conceiving—and then losing—a child in that way.

One of the women did give birth; her daughter, now six-years-old, was born in captivity, and in captivity she lived, until the group’s dramatic release in May.

Imagine what these women have lost. Take your time reading the inventory:

Time with their loved ones. And, for one of them, a last goodbye and a chance to grieve for the mother who died in her absence.

Their youth.

Their innocence.

The chance to learn and laugh and love.

The chance to live a normal life.

For Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, the last 10 years were spent, not in a waking dream, like a coma patient, but in a waking nightmare of unspeakable hell.

Imagine the courage it must take to survive such torment.

Imagine their future. Can you?

Video statements posted recently on YouTube provided the women with the chance to speak publicly for the first time about their ordeal. The video also provided the world with the chance to replace the faces of their youth, seen on missing children posters and in news reports, with the faces they grew into: lovely young women, poised, on the brink of new lives, and very much in continued need for privacy as they heal and recover.

As for courage, here’s what Michelle Knight had to say in her prepared statement, included in a transcript of all three videos provided by newsnet5.com:

I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and with my head held high and my feet firmly on the ground.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/transcript-cleveland-kidnapping-victims-say-thank-for-support#ixzz2YeghQaWI

According to published news reports, the women released their public statements so that they might thank their countless supporters, including people who have, to date, donated more than $1 million to a fund established by the Cleveland Foundation.

It is called, appropriately, the Courage Fund.

On the one hand, it seems as though there’s not enough money in the world to give back to these women what they have lost. On the other hand, with 10 years of their lives vanished, they have much work to do to begin building their futures—an education to acquire, skills to learn, and a reorientation into a world that is considerably different than it was 10 years ago.

Not to mention the healing.

I’ve made a modest donation to the Courage Fund. Would you consider doing so as well?

If you would like to contribute to the future of these young women, please make your donation through the Cleveland Courage Fund at clevelandfoundation.org\courage or by mail at Cleveland Courage Fund , c/o the Cleveland Foundation, 1422 Euclid Ave., Suite 1300, Cleveland, Ohio 44115.

Thank you.

Related article:

“Freed Captives in Cleveland Issue Messages of Resolve,” The New York Times

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Chocolate Zucchini Cake

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by themidlifesecondwife in Food for Thought

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Desserts, recipes, Zucchini

CompletedCakecrp

Remember that old commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Two people—one eating chocolate, the other eating peanut butter—bump into each other. The chocolate gets knocked into the peanut butter, yielding a joyous discovery: the marriage of two perfect flavors. Well, whoever it was who decided that a marriage of chocolate to zucchini would be a wondrous thing had an equally excellent idea (although the creative soul probably didn’t earn a similar windfall).

It’s not that zucchini has much flavor to add to a chocolate cake. No, its contribution derives from the moistness it imparts, along with an intriguing hint of texture. I’m sure there are health benefits, too. At least, that’s how I justify a second helping. I’ve had this recipe in my collection since the 1970s. I know because it’s typed (TYPED!) on an index card yellowed with age and splattered with a dash of calcified chocolate batter. I most likely clipped the original recipe from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

I share this with you now because summer is the perfect time to bake this cake, when farmers’ markets are brimming with fresh zucchini.  Enjoy!

ChocZukeCakemiseenplacecrp1Chocolate Zucchini Cake

—Serves 12

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 tablespoons cocoa*
3 zucchini, approximately six-inches long
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces*

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, and oil.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk, and stir well to mix. Sift together all the dry ingredients and then sift them into the mixing bowl. Grate the zucchini, skin and all, into the bowl and stir until blended.

GratedZucchiniPour into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan. Sprinkle the top with chocolate pieces and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Serve the cake plain, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

* My baking chocolate of choice is Ghirardelli Chocolate.

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