I don't know about you, but I have a half dozen enormous zucchini on my kitchen table, and they keep multiplying. In shades of yellow and green, they're too big to use up in one dinner dish, and so after carving off as much as I want to use, I wind up grating the rest into muffins. Zucchini adds plenty of moisture to muffins – I keep them simple, spiked with cinnamon and maybe a handful of raisins. But you could go the chocolate chip route, or spice them up with nutmeg and ginger. I'm always a sucker for the smell of baking in the morning – especially when it's chilly out and the house smells like warm spices.

Also – if you want to preserve your harvest, grated raw zucchini can be frozen, then thawed and stirred into muffin batter when you need it.

Zucchini Muffins

2/3 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup plain yogurt

3 cups (1 large, but not too large) coarsely grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F.

In a large bowl, beat the oil, sugar and eggs until light. Beat in the vanilla. In a smaller bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add a third to the sugar mixture, then half the yogurt, followed by another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the yogurt and the rest of the flour mixture, stirring or beating on low after each. Stir in the zucchini and nuts.

Divide between paper-lined muffin tins, filling them to the rim, and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden, domed and springy to the touch. Makes 1 1/2 dozen muffins.