Summer Squash Bread

It's 105 degrees outside, so naturally I thought today would be a good day to fire up the oven. Smart. But this bread is worth it, trust me. I've made zucchini bread a few times this summer and figured I could substitute summer squash since they're from the same family. Luckily, I was right - it doesn't hurt that there's chocolate, either. I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I like that it adds a little sweetness to what's otherwise a fairly savory bread. I used this recipe, but took the baking time down by a lot because my oven gets very, very hot.

Total time to cook: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 vegetable oil

1 cup light brown sugar

1.5 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can use just nutmeg if you've got it)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 cup shredded summer squash

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Steps:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan (I used some margarine wrappers that we save for greasing, you can use a spray or a small piece of margarine.)

- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine margarine, vegetable oil and sugar.

- In another bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and baking powder.

- In the wet ingredients bowl, mix in the egg.

- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, going 1/2 cup at a time until it's all mixed together.

- Fold in the summer squash.

- Mix in the chocolate chips.

- Pour into the loaf pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out cleanly.

- Cool and serve.