Savory French Toast Breakfast

This is a nice brunch dish, and could also make a light lunch. Just soak thickly sliced sourdough bread in an egg, milk/sour cream/yogurt, cayenne pepper mixture. Then lightly fry, as you would french toast. Top with heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and arugula. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar & olive oil.

Bittman Baking: Easy Cornbread

As most of you know, I am not a baker. But I am a huge fan of Mark Bittman. I woke up this morning to his Cornbread  recipe of the day and just had to try it-- it helped that I had all the ingredients on hand, and even some bacon fat in the fridge for just this kind of culinary whim. (Note to the veggers: can be made with butter or olive oil instead.)

I followed the recipe you see in the link, but used 1/4c Turbinado (raw) sugar and bacon fat in a 7x10" glass baking dish. It was ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes. The fat seemed to be way too much, but it got absorbed and added a delicious savoriness to the bread.

Next time, I'll put a little more sugar to combat the slight bitterness of the bacon fat, and I'll add some jalapenos, which would be delicious with the corn. J thought this was a bit too dense; he prefers his cornbread made with corn flour instead of cornmeal, so you might see a new cornbread on this site sometime soon...

Apple Banana Breakfast Muffins

This is the only baking post you will ever see on this blog. I do not bake. It just doesn't work for me. There are too many... rules. I can't measure things like flour and baking soda. Most of the recipes on this blog are really approximate measurements, for that matter. Anyway, this recipe came about because I drink a smoothie every day, so I always have bananas on hand, and often two leftover that get too spotty to eat (I think they're too sweet, even for smoothies, when very ripe). I started throwing them into banana bread (my grandma's recipe), but an entire loaf was too intimidating, so I turned them into muffins, and threw in some apples for texture... and then decided to try to make them healthy, and added flax seed meal in varying amounts until I found a balance that still tasted good. Here is the result of many, many batches.

enjoy with earl gray tea with lavender

You'll need (makes 2 trays of muffins):

2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1/2c applesauce + 1T neutral-flavored oil (canola, grapeseed) OR 1/2c oil
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1t vanilla
a scant 1/3c buttermilk or yogurt

1 1/2c whole wheat flour
1/4c flax seed meal
1t baking soda
1t salt

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then mix them together. Spoon into baking cups (fill only halfway-- 1 heaping tablespoon per muffin). Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown (test doneness by sticking a thin sharp knife in the middle of a muffin. If it comes out dry, they're done).