If at first you don't succeed. . .

One of the reasons that I started my quest towards domestication was to discover recipes that were worth repeating.  While living in the dorms during the middle two years of my undergraduate degree, my friends and I would speak fondly of our favorite childhood foods while we ate in the dining halls together.  Most people don't know what makes the food they love special, but the common trend was that most of us preferred food that held the most memory power for us.  I have now been on my quest towards domestication for almost three full years.  That's a lot of recipes!  Thankfully, I have more than smudged cook books and a few burn marks to prove it; I have discovered a few special recipes that are worth frequenting my dinner table.

One such recipe I found while digging through recipe books at the Library.  Have you ever tried that?! If we're honest with ourselves, most of us don't use at least 50% of the recipes in our cook books, which leaves us flipping page after page to discover the recipe we're really after.  Sometimes that's part of the romance of using cook books, other times, it's a huge waste of time and space.  Anyway, despite the fact that I know how underutilized my cook books are, I still love looking through new ones whenever I wander into a book store.  When I was gathering recipes for the start of 'Crock-Pot Tuesday', I wasn't finding what I wanted on the internet and I didn't have the budget to buy myself another cookbook.   I decided to head to the Library on the off chance that they had any cook books waiting for me on the shelves.   Low and behold, I discovered a very, very large section of cook books dedicated to do-ahead meals.   I ended up neglecting my homework for days as I paged through the large stack of  cook books I was too tempted to leave on the shelf.  The recipes I inherited from this research project of mine are very diverse in nature and ingredients, but if you are in the mood for some Saturday morning muffins, this recipe is for you:

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated zuxxhini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
nonstick vegetable oil spray

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa power, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.  Whisk until blended.  Add the eggs, oil and vanilla and mix until well combined.
2. Add the zucchini, walnuts, and chocolate chips and mix again.  Cover and refrigeragte ivernight.

The next day:
3. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees.  Spray 16 muffin cups or 32 mini-muffin cups, or line with paper inserts.  Pour the batter into the cups, filling each about two-thirds full.  Bake mini-muffins for 12 minutes, standard muffins, 20 to 22 minutes.