White Asparagus - Bad; Zucchini Muffins - Good; the rest was In-Between...

The Good:

These zucchini, chocolate chip, and roasted salted sunflower seed muffins I made were a nice surprise. I was going to buy raw seeds like I usually do and at the last minute I threw in the roasted salted version.  Good choice it gave the muffins a little salt kick finish.

Zucchini, Chocolate Chip, Sunflower Seed Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup zucchini, unpeeled and grated

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

Zest from one lemon

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup roasted salted sunflower seeds

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, sugar, zucchini, oil, egg, lemon zest, and chocolate chips in a bowl and stir until combined.

Spray a mini muffin pan generously with no-stick spray and divide the batter between the 24 cups, sprinkle each muffin with some of the sunflower seeds.

Bake 12-15 minutes.

Adapted from my ancient Better Homes Cookbook.

The Bad:
White asparagus have been on my must try list forever it seems.  I've seen dazzling dishes with them on the internet.  While I do enjoy reading some of these recipes, I somehow end up feeling like I'm the only one of the planet that doesn't consume 5-star meals every night performed in French precision.

I spotted bundles of white asparagus at my market the other day and my eyes popped out of my head, "yesss", was all I could think.  Some brussel sprouts were sitting in the adjacent bin giving me a little wave, "Take me, take me - I'll be good."

I washed the white asparagus and prepped them as I would green asparagus, except I used a peeler and took off a bit of the outer peel.  Placed them in my steamer for about 7 minutes and fixed the topping while they were steaming.

I had 8 brussel sprouts; I cut them in half starting at their stem and cutting down.  Then I sliced off the tender part of the leaves.  I turned the fire on and heated up my skillet and tossed in 2 ounces of diced pancetta, after the pancetta browned I added a couple of tablespoons of white wine and then I tossed in the shredded brussel sprouts, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper and a couple of minutes later I plated the white asparagus and poured the brussel sprouts over the top.

Long story short, the topping was delish, both me and my hubs looked at each other and said the white asparagus were not so good, downright bland and a touch bitter to be more exact.  I'm going to chalk this up to the overhyped category.

The In-Between:
We buried another family member this week; he was only 1 year older than me.  He went to sleep and didn't wake up.  There is nothing worse in life than attending the funeral of a child who has gone before their parents; it's just not fair.

The homecoming game and dance is this weekend.  My daughter has invited everyone over for pictures and basically room and board for the weekend.  I'm sure food will be involved; teenagers can literally eat you out of house and home.  So I'm trying to get my energy back up.

Gina