I enjoy a nice muffin – not the oversize, oversweet muffins that you’d buy at the store or a coffeehouse, but a good home-baked muffin – made in a regular-sized muffin tin.

My grandmother would often serve a blueberry muffin with dinner, in lieu of a dinner roll. My mom continued this tradition. As a grown up, I now realize this is kind of weird — but also kind of fun. And since the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin is wildly popular at my house, the tradition continues. Much to the delight of my two-year-old (and his stuffed moose, who always joins us at the table when I serve muffins.)

This muffin is not too sweet, has some whole wheat flour in it, and is a great way to use up some seasonal produce. If you don’t have zucchini, I’m sure a carrot would be nice. If you don’t have sour cherries, fresh cranberries (or even dried) would be good too.

Zucchini Cherry Muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup fresh or frozen sour cherries, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flours, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.

2) In separate bowl, add eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

3) Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir until just combined. Stir in zucchini, and gently fold in sour cherries.

4) Grease a standard size muffin tin, or use papers. Fill each cup almost full. It only makes 11 muffins – sorry. If that bugs you, fill them a little less full and stretch it for a full dozen.

5) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick stuck into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Serve with dinner – seriously!