Cheesy Cornbread Muffins

I started with the recipe on the back of the cornmeal bag and started tweaking it. The
original recipe had ¼ cup sugar, no cheese, and oil instead of butter.

1 cup (5 oz) stone-ground cornmeal

1 cup (5 oz) all-purpose flour

1 tb baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

4 tb (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted

½ cup (2 oz) grated cheddar cheese

1. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until completely blended together.
3. Combine the milk, egg, butter, and cheese in a smaller bowl, and mix until well-combined.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir gently until just combined. (A dry streak of flour or two is ok.)
5. Divide the mixture evenly into 12 muffin cups and bake until the tops are starting to brown and a toothpick comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Turn out immediately onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

Emergency Chocolate Cake

Adapted from: Cooks Illustrated March/April 2009

You may substitute 1 cup (8 oz) of hot coffee for the instant coffee and hot water.

½ cup (2 oz) Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 oz bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped fine

1 heaping tsp instant coffee

1 cup (8 oz) boiling water

1 ½ cups (7 ½ oz) AP flour

1 cup (7 oz) granulated sugar

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp table salt

⅔ cup (3 ⅝ oz) mayonnaise

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350℉.
2. Mix the cocoa powder, chocolate, and instant coffee. Add the boiling water and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to mix evenly.
4. Add the mayonnaise, egg, and vanilla extract to the chocolate mixture. Whisk until smooth.
5. Combine the flour mixture and the chocolate mixture.
6. Pour the batter into a greased 8” square baking dish.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with only a few crumbs.
8. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 1-2 hours. Serve dusted with confectioner’s sugar or whipped cream.

Multigrain Muffins

1 cup (5 ½ - 6 oz) multigrain hot cereal mix

1 ½ cups (12 oz) water

1 cup (5 oz) AP flour

4 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp salt

1 tsp pie spice

1 egg

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup (1 ¾ oz) brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tb demerara or turbinado sugar (for topping)

1. Mix the multigrain cereal mix with 1 ½ cups boiling water and let sit for one hour to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 425℉.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pie spice.
4. Beat the egg and mix with the oil and sugar. Add to cereal.
5. Pour the cereal mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and top with the turbinado sugar.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Turn out onto rack to cool.

Makes 12 muffins.

OK, let's take a step back

Obviously, my previous idea of providing simple, fast, tasty, and relatively healthy recipes every week didn't work. I'm just not that much of a writer, nor do I work well on a schedule. On the other hand, I still have a bunch of recipes that I like and am happy to share. So I will keep this, as a repository and a place to share new ones. Happy 2019!

CSA Week 1

Bunches of radishes, spinach, kale, and red mustard greens, a head of bok choy, a cucumber, and a few stalks of rhubarb. A little less than I was expecting, but it's early in the season.

Sorry for the lack of posting

When I started a few weeks ago, I'd hoped to post at least twice a week - an opinion on Tuesday, and a recipe on Friday. Opinions are harder to write than I thought. I'll keep the recipes flowing as long as I can, though. Hopefully I'll feel more motivated when I start getting food from the CSA in a few weeks.

Italian Wedding Soup

This soup is nice for when you don't have much time to cook or shop. Everything here is from the pantry or freezer. And it only needs one pot! I use dehydrated onions and garlic to save time, but you can use fresh (or powdered) as appropriate. The spinach goes in at the last minute to avoid overcooking it.

Italian Wedding Soup

• 1 48-oz can chicken broth
• 2 tb dehydrated minced onions (1 medium onion equivalent)
• 1/2 tsp dehydrated minced garlic (2 cloves equivalent)
• 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tb Italian seasoning
• 1/2 box (6-8 oz) of small pasta (ditalini, elbows, small shells, etc)
• 16-20 small frozen meatballs
• 1 16-oz package frozen chopped spinach

1. Bring chicken broth to boil. Add onions, garlic, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and pasta. Set timer as directed for pasta.
2. Prepare frozen meatballs as directed in microwave (usually ~5 minutes). Drain if necessary and add to soup pot.
3. Prepare spinach as directed in microwave. When pasta is done cooking, add spinach to soup. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.