>Kitchen sink muffins!
>The theme ingredient at Daisy’ house is rhubarb. Amigo requested Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, so I’ll make that next weekend when he’s home. This stewed rhubarb is similar to applesauce, made with rhubarb instead.
>Rhubarb! I have rhubarb! In fact, I spent time last night looking through my new go-to books for canning, wondering if I could can some of this bountiful harvest. Since it was too cold to plant tomatoes until recently, I focused on rhubarb.
>Recipe Lion’s monthly Blog Hop for May features picnic recipes. It’s in the 50s today, drizzling, and we even gave in and turned on the heat again, so it’s hard to think of outdoor picnics right now. A few days ago the weather was so hot and muggy stores turned on their air conditioning! Well, that’s Wisconsin weather: if you don’t like it, wait a day.
Heat oven to 325F, lightly butter and flour two 8″x4″x3″ loaf pans Combine the brown sugar, veggie oil and the egg.
Combine the buttermilk (sour milk), baking soda, salt& vanilla.
Add the milk mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the flour, beating well after each addition
Fold in the rhubarb& the nuts.
Turn batter into the two loaf pans.
Sprinkle with the melted butter and sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes or until done.
Let cool. Serve warm or cool, with butter or plain.
>The first spring in our home, many long years ago, we discovered all kinds of fun things growing. We’d moved in late enough in the fall that everything except the grass was brown, and nothing was blooming. We enjoyed the show as daffodils, tulips, daylilies, and even a beautiful bleeding heart bush made their appearances on the stage. Tucked into the backyard next to the garage we found rhubarb.
Backyard Rhubarb Muffins
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce or 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 large egg or ¼ cup egg substitute
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh rhubarb, cut in ½ inch dice
Topping:
1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
1/8 cup chopped walnuts
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with non-stick spray. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil (applesauce), egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the rhubarb. Scoop batter into the muffin cups.
Topping; Combine the brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over the tops of the muffins, dividing equally.
Bake for 20 to 23 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean and dry. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Makes twelve muffins.
Alternate topping: After cooling, drizzle with a simple powdered sugar icing.
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This is a standard in my mom’s repertoire. I remember it being delicious on poppyseed cake, but it’ll work on others, too. The last line of the haiku refers to her source for this recipe: Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two Cookbook, published 1958.
>Before I even post the recipe, I’ll note for you: be flexible with the herbs. This recipe is likely to still be delicious if you run out of parsley and have to use fresh spinach. Guess what – that’s what happened here! I have lots of fresh oregano, though, and that was the main herb. I added onion, too. Here goes:
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>We made a large ham for Easter. Half of it served the family (our basic family of four and our parents) on Sunday night. The rest of this delicious smoked ham became leftovers – or planned overs, since we planned it that way. Chuck sliced some of the meat in sandwich- sized slices and cut up the rest, the awkward pieces, in smaller chunks for soup or stew. He left quite a bit on the bone.
>I gather many recipes online. Some come from other blogs, some from recipe sites, some from email newsletters. I copy them into work documents and save to a file named “Recipes.” Ah, you guessed it; I don’t always change the name of the recipe, making it a challenge to find later. Just for fun (and for La Petite’s amusement), here are a few examples.