If I eat one more zoodle (zucchini noodles, for those not in the know) or one more sautéed round, I'm going to jump into the Long Island Sound and hope for sharks.

I'm not a pretty baker (I do crumbles, sundaes, and no-bake cookies like a pro), so have been avoiding zucchini cake.

So that's my zucchini situation. Unsolvable, I thought.

Then, last weekend, my husband and I took the ferry to Shelter Island for a little staycation (it's a three-minute ride). I had zucchini on the brain the whole time. At dinner, instead of enjoying the ceviche, I was tallying the number of green ones and yellow ones I'd picked up from my farm's all-you-can-take pile because I couldn't help it, and thinking, drearily, of the zoodles that lay ahead.

The next morning: salvation in the form of breakfast. We stayed at The Chequit, which is newly-renovated and gets all the details right, including their parfaits in mason jars with (cue: cartoon light bulb above head) chunks of zucchini muffin at the bottom.

This recipe really covers all the bases. Use up your zucchini, avoid the spiralizer and the garlic, and even if your muffins typically resemble shrunken, sunken hats, you'll be just fine. Top with yogurt, pistachios, dried cherries and toasted coconut, et voilà. Zucchini situation: solved.

Get the recipe for Zucchini Bread »

Jessica Soffer is a novelist whose work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue and on NPR's Selected Shorts. She teaches fiction and food writing, and doesn't eat red meat or French onion soup.