Pennsylvania Potpie, Zucchini Bread and Love

Is there anything better than going back to your hometown and eating the comfort foods of your childhood? I've had the freshest sushi possible in Tokyo, Peking duck in one of Beijing's finest dives (where they serve you every part of the bird but the quack), shark steak right out of the ocean in Thailand's Koh Samui....but do they really compare to my mom's Pennsylvania Deutch chicken potpie?
Well, kinda, yeah, on a hot summer's day maybe, but in the dead of winter there's nothing like mom's homemade wide noodles smothered in thick tasty gravy and big chunks of tender chicken. Too bad it's still August and we're in the midst DC's summer swamp, mom made it for me anyway on her latest visit and I ate every steaming bite, sweating mightily and swallowing like a champ. She makes it for me everytime we get together and I worship her for it. Despite her crazy conservative politics and a passion for Nascar, mom's a sweetheart who understands the healing power of food cooked with love. Guaranteed, whatever she cooks for us makes us stronger and better, as if she's slipped us a potion for robust good health into that shimmering gravy. Despite a life of occasional wanton decadence, I almost never get sick...and mom knows why, making sure my sister's and I get the good stuff whenever we come by.

But I digress....in fact, I want to share the glory of my sister's incredible zucchini bread, made with zucchini grown in her backyard garden in central Pennsylvania, where the veg grows to be nearly as long as my arm. This will have to come in a later post, as her recipe has to be included. Should you want to feel the sublime power of chocolate chip encrusted, moist, rich, delicious zucchini bread as it melts on the tongue, well you'll just have to wait until she gives up the recipe in her next e-mail. I still have a thick slice of the latest loaf in my fridge, and I feel it calling me away from the computer....