Has there ever been a more absurd saying than someone who “wants to have their cake and eat it too?”  Who in the world wants a cake just to have it?  We all want to eat the cake for the love! I know it is supposed to mean you want two opposing things that can’t really coexist, but how did this saying come about? As I was pondering this statement this week, I decided to investigate it and thanks to good ole Wikipedia I discovered that it means you want to have eaten your cake, but then still possess it uneaten…Hmmmm.  Having your cake and eating it too sounds a lot like bottomless cake magic.  Sign me up!

This little investigation got me thinking about ways that you actually can have two opposing or contradictory things at the same time.  That is when I realized that you can do just that with a quick-bread.  I mean, we all wink and call them bread, but let’s be fair.  It is CAKE.  And the one I am highlighting this week, Chocolate Zucchini Bread, has vegetables in it people!  4 whole cups of zucchini.  It is practically a health “bread.”  And Ron Swanson’s feelings about veggie loaves aside, it is a wonderful dessert that you can eat for breakfast, lunch, tea time, dinner, etc with a mostly straight face.  Thus, you can have your cake if you call it bread, and eat it too because–vegetables.  This was definitely the bread I wanted to give away this week.

This week’s giveaway was to a wonderful old work colleague.  Not old as in age,  but old as in she was a colleague from my previous job.  She was always a joy to work with and has a lovely infectious laugh.  I felt she definitely had some bread love coming her way.  So with my loaf of contradiction (aka magic) bread under my arm, I met up with her.   We sat and we talked about what was going on in our lives, family responsibilities, and celebrity sightings, and I got to hear her laugh again.  I even got to hear a wonderful story about the time she and her best friend spotted a handsome man in a record store.  She told her friend she was going to walk over and ask him out but then ended up bailing out at the last minute because when she got closer she realized it was BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN…and frankly she was a little disappointed that it wasn’t just an average handsome guy she could have asked out on a date.  Can you imagine?  And we also talked about gratitude. She told me her daily ritual is to get in her car on her way to work and express her absolute gratitude for everything, from the blue sky to the green grass and everything in between.

I couldn’t help but smile.  On a Friday night when my friend was probably too tired to even think straight, she met me at a coffee shop and we talked and talked for a little while.   It wasn’t a terribly long time, not even a full hour, but it was such a welcome respite from a crazy hectic week of living life. A little human magic before I got home and made dinner and got back to my daily responsibilities. About then it dawned on me that I was having my cake and eating it too right then.  I was getting to sit with an amazing woman and connect in the middle of a modern crazy life.  It is like the chocolate chips in the middle of veggie bread–a wonderful contradiction and a welcome surprise that just works.