Eggs/Toast hot at same time:In sm skillet:Grill cut in half buttered bread; flip; add eggs, s+p; flick with water. Cover til done.
I’m an egg lover and indulge in one or two in some fashion nearly every day. That said, there is simply nothing like fresh bread or pastries for breakfast. Am I right? Biscuits and honey with sour cream (try it), cinnamon rolls, banana bread, Danish, croissants, English muffins, scones, slices off a warm whole wheat loaf slathered with butter and jam, crumpets, and — of course — muffins. I rarely bake in summer but when a cool morning finally arrives, there’s little to stop me from mixing up some certain special something (Why not a muffin starring our famous Colorado peaches?!) and scarfing it down quite warm, right out of the pan. Well, truth told, it’s husband and best sous Dave who’s more the scarfer. The man can eat; thank you, thank you. I’ll have one muffin with my coffee and call it quits. While Dave…well, you get the picture.
In the late ’80s — a few years after my mom had crossed the river –my dad, then in his early 80s, began to date his school sweetheart. While it felt just a wee bit odd, I wasn’t unhappy about it; the company was good for him and he seemed much happier. Maudell was a talented traditional southern Louisiana cook who was content to stir up bayou favorites but had no trouble jumping on the convenience food wagon as necessary. As my dad was also quite a cook (though you never knew what was in that soup pot), they sometimes each cooked a dish and ate together; that worked out well for them. When I’d visit, though, it was up to me to feed all of us and let the “old folks” have a break from the kitchen. One meal, when I’d thrown a pan of Jiffy cornbread (Lord) in the oven to round out the menu, Maudell was quick to ask me, “Why didn’t you make broccoli cornbread?” I’d never heard of broccoli cornbread but she, sparing no detail about the deliciousness of said bread, promptly wrote the recipe down for me, since she had it memorized! I did, for quite a while, then make broccoli cornbread many times. Who wouldn’t? It was good. It was fast. Easily stirred together with lots of butter, cottage cheese, and eggs, broccoli cornbread wasn’t as healthy as it sounds but there was never any left either. It’s been a minute or two since I opened up a box of Jiffy cornbread mix or made broccoli cornbread but I thought about it often as I worked on the recipe for ZUCCHINI CORN MUFFINS these last couple of weeks. Vegetables in bread; it’s a tasty thought!
I added a little extra fruit right on top just before baking this batch. Pretty-AND we know it’s blueberries and peaches!Jump to Recipe
Strawberry-Blueberry Scones: this recipe,just using half strawberries
If I haven’t a clue what’s for breakfast but know my husband and best sous Dave would like something fresh, warm, and sweet when he comes home from the morning dog walk, I will usually throw together a mess of muffins. Occasionally there are scones or biscuits or a coffee cake instead, depending on my mood and what else might be on the menu. I can gather the ingredients for muffins, however, without much thought; get them into the oven; and have them piping hot on the rack–or nearly so– when he comes through the front door exactly 30 minutes after he leaves. But before I stir them up and bake them, I’ve got to check what’s available in the fruit, nut, or even occasionally chocolate department. When I’m muffin dreaming, as long as I have a cup of fruit or a bit more, there will soon be muffins no matter what. And if there isn’t enough fruit, I’ll probably make them anyway, perhaps adding nuts, coconut, or dried fruit. And if there are none of those things at all, there’s simply nothing wrong with the plain muffin I’d bake –or even a corn one. Especially served with butter and jam. A baker will bake, you see. Breakfast will be had.
I do nearly always have fresh blueberries and, if not, there’s a bag of frozen ones in the freezer waiting my measuring cup. (When they’re the best and the cheapest and come from the Pacific Northwest, I freeze a bunch.) The other day, I had Palisades peaches (known to the rest of the country as “Colorado peaches”) over-ripening in my south window and not too awfully many blueberries. There was, I thought, just enough fruit for 12 muffins if I combined the two. And what if I stirred in a little fresh ginger for spicy interest? Turned out to be a perfect match made right here on the mesa in Colorado Springs.
First Congregational Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Each spring, my friend Chris Hall — who’s in charge of the Healthy Living cooking classes at our fine downtown church — emails me about choosing a date and topic for my yearly class. I like to teach individually or in small groups but make the exception for this fun and laughing, engaged group of loving cooks who can number anywhere from 20-40! Some years I even teach two times, depending on my schedule and Chris’ needs. Our 150-year old green church kitchen (no AC and difficult-to-reach windows) is hot anytime of year so I choose spring or fall and avoid summer like the plague it is. Chris usually wants to have a title for my class and having to settle on something so early leads me to choose a rather general topic that I can fudge as needed. This year, I was ready for her: It was going to be Whole Meal Soups with Dessert Pairings. While I haven’t gotten the corresponding dessert figured, the first soup will certainly be one of my new Friday Fish favorites, Shrimp-Tortellini Chowder, featured right here today.
Need other Thanksgiving dishes? Click on THANKSGIVING in the word cloud or click on/type into the search box individual words like TURKEY, BROCCOLI, PIE, SOUPS AND STEWS, PUMPKIN, etc.
Thanksgiving breakfast gets short shrift in our world but it doesn’t mean it should. I mean, people are hungry on Thanksgiving morning, aren’t they? Or is it just a sad human bean thing to hold on for hours on holidays with nothing but coffee sloshing around in our tummies until mid-afternoon feasting? Surely we don’t need huge egg and cheese casseroles or piles of pumpkin pancakes with butter, syrup, and pork sausages (or maybe we do), but a small something like a perfectly perfecto muffin would, I think, go over a treat. Ginger Cranberry-Blueberry Muffins, based on my best blueberry muffin, can be prepped the night before by kids (or adults) — see below MUFFIN TIPS — and quickly baked long before it’s time to slide the pies, rolls, and your sweet turkey bird into the hot oven. If you’re the planning sort, they could be baked and frozen this weekend and taken out to thaw on the counter next to the big butter dish and a pile of cute napkins on Wednesday night. A little Greek yogurt with a honey drizzle would round out such a simple meal and, I think, keep you from dreaded coffee tummy. I mean, who wants that?
Just in case you want choices, I’ll include a few other muffins for you.
What makes you feel rich? Ok, well, money would work for us all; I know. But for each of us there’s a little something or a big something (maybe more than one) that creates enough comfort in our heart to make us sigh and feel as though we need nothing more at all. Could be that once in a blue moon moment when all the wash is done and folded or perhaps after the fall garden cleanup is completed and the tulip bulbs are planted. A night after a long work project ends successfully. Close friends coming to stay for a few days. The day your afghan (or toychest) is finished, washed, and mailed. A night alone with your favorite movie of all time. (Mine is: “It Happened One Night.” That or “Michael.”) A lunchtime when the whole family is together. Might also be a full freezer. Walking a 5K; you’ll note that doesn’t say run. A case of canned tomatoes stored away for winter spaghetti sauce. For me, it’s also when there’s a slow cooker full of lusciousness bubbling all day long, promising an all-you-can-eat dinner and giving me a free day. (Hello, sleazy novel!) I feel even richer if I’ve time to bake a little something to go alongside that happy pot of goodness. A bread, simple or not, made especially to go with one particular meal. That’s really rich. This week’s jalapeño-studded peach cornmeal muffins are just such a bread. Even more so as they’re not your typical muffin. With their sweet-savory profile, they’re kind of on the special side despite their easy preparation and basically simple nature. If you’re on your toes, they’re made and baked and on the table in under 45 minutes, including preheating the oven — a must for big, round-domed muffins.
Looking for a few bakers away from altitude (I’m at 6,800 ft.) to test drive this recipe and let me know how it did by commenting at the bottom of the post. Altitude bakers are welcome, too, of course–but I mostly need folks at sea level or not too far above. American east or west coasts, south, midwest –all fine. Countries abroad at sea level, you know who you are. Thanks!!
My mom, born and raised near McComb, Mississippi, was the cornbread maker in our family. Black as coal on the outside and yellow like salty sunshine on the inside, her no-recipe cornbread — hot or cold — gave shape to our days. The cast iron pan graced the table at a tomatoes and green beans summer suppertime and then you could sneak into the kitchen of a morning and cut yourself a little piece for breakfast to keep from getting coffee tummy. If you were lucky, there might be an afternoon snack of cornbread topped with sour cream and honey. (And if there wasn’t cornbread, you’d do the same with biscuits.) In the evening, my dad would crumble a big slice into a glass and then fill the glass with buttermilk, eating the whole kit and caboodle with a big spoon.
Before moving to Colorado, I don’t remember eating pepitas, but I certainly got to them as fast as I could upon arrival. The tiny, full of health “pumpkin seeds” we eat for snacks, add to salads, tacos, omelets, or granola, and what I put on my muffins (above), aren’t like the pumpkin seeds you remove with all of the gloppy mess inside the typical Halloween jack-o-lantern. I mean, you could open up those big fat seeds (which have their own happy uses–see below at MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO READ) and try to get at the little inner seed, but that’s not where pepitas come from. Read on:
While Thanksgiving seems like a lot to plan and execute, perhaps it’s the day we should, instead, plan on sharing the work and the fun. Someone brings only wine, but offers to help clean up or play a board game with the kids after dinner. Another spends all week baking grandma’s favorite pies and does nothing that afternoon but pour New Mexican sparkling wine–namely, Gruet. (No French Champagne on Thanksgiving, please!) There’s also the real possibility of skipping the pig-out buffet and planning a curated — and maybe more healthful — meal. Making it somewhat more dinner party-ish, we could think in terms of one vegetable instead of 4, two pies rather than 10 desserts, a single perfect potato dish, and maybe someone’s favorite aunt’s cranberries. Ok, you have to have stuffing. Would it still be Thanksgiving without twenty casseroles? You bet your little tom turkey it would. And could we talk a little less in the way of dishes and leftovers here? But of course!
The blog, Dave, and I are going on vacation for the rest of September. Â If I can, I’ll post photos, but I’m concentrating on tasting and walking France – YES YES YES- and will catch you up after we return. See you later!
                                  photo courtesy Beaune tourism
