Who you callin' googootz?

Any Sopranos fans out there?  Remember when Tony referred to AJ as "googootz"?  At the time, I had no clue what it meant and immediately ran to google, which I'm guessing some of you may have just done yourselves.  I hated being stumped by an Italian slang word or term of endearment...I thought I knew them all!

Well, this is what he was talking about.

Below is a part of a cucuzza (aka "googootz"), between a pen (to give you a point of reference for size) and part of a zucchini.  I'd already used half of each of them...they were HUGE.

Googootz is slang for zucchini in Italian, and can be used interchangeably with the more common variety.  They're big suckers that just grow, and grow, and grow....

I took part of each of these and threw them in my food processor to make these delicious muffins.  I thought it was a bit ironic that although the recipe yielded 24 muffins, I ended up with 32 :)  This stuff just won't go away!

For those into "hiding" veggies for their kids, these are worth a shot.  It wasn't my intent when I made them, but afterwards, I figured it would be a nice way to get a little green into Bella...I mean, the kid never turns down chocolate. Unfortunately, she wasn't fooled.  Smartie.

I subbed no-sugar-added applesauce for half of the oil in the original recipe for a more healthy version.  Good stuff!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
adapted from Allrecipes


3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in sugar and oil. Add the cocoa, vanilla and zucchini and stir well.

Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. Mix until just moist.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling 2/3 of the way. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. Store loosely covered.

Linked to:  Mangia Mondays