Happy St. Patrick’s Day, dear readers! As I may have mentioned before, I come from a very strong Irish bloodline, and March 17th is a day to celebrate. Tonight we celebrated our Irish heritage a few days early with wonderful friends and delicious food. I was in charge of the soda bread. I found a great recipe in a book I found recently at a book fair. It was a major crowd pleaser and an excellent accompaniment to our corned beef and cabbage!
Here is a fun mini-muffin recipe that I made with some more ripe bananas I wanted to use up. It is based on my Banana Cake recipe, but I’ve added nuts and spices to make a tender, hearty, cozy morning treat.
My husband, the cornbread expert. My husband, the cornbread purist. My husband, Mr. Southern Boy, told me tonight: “Baby, this cornbread is just beautiful.”
Now the receipt of this compliment is a remarkable accomplishment in my life for several reasons. But the primary reason is this: I actually made this cornbread.
. . . wait until you try this coffee cake! I wanted to use up some buttermilk that was going to expire, so I came up with this moist and fluffy morning treat. We cannot stop eating it – morning, noon, and night! The buttermilk adds just the lightest touch of tangy flavor to the delicate cake, and the toasty spiced nuts that make up the topping are just delicious.
These muffins are chock-full of some of my favorite ingredients. I combined about 5 recipes to come up with this one so that I could get all of my favorite things in one healthy muffin! Crispy on top, fluffy in the middle, and full of delicious flavor. You will never be able to tell that these are low in fat and high in fiber!
Today, February 5, 2009, is World Nutella Day! Check it out at the Ms Adventures in Italy, Bleeding Espresso, and World Nutella Day websites! People all around the world are celebrating this sweet treat today.
This is a hearty, lightly sweet muffin that is packed with flavor and goodness! Nothing beats the crispy tops and the moist insides, studded with bursts of sweet raisins. You can mix them up the night before, put the batter in the fridge, and bake them up fresh in the morning. They also freeze well. They are wonderful with a thin pad of butter and a drizzle of honey, too.
My mom gave me this wonderful book as a gift when I decided to go to college at a Jesuit university. For those of your who are in the dark here, Jesuits are a group of Catholic priests who are known for their involvement in missionary work and education. But little did I know that they were also excellent bread-makers!
No one, I said NO one, can make cornbread like a good ol’ southern boy. And I’m a pretty lucky gal because I’m MARRIED to one! No matter whose house we’re going to, no matter what event we are attending, everyone gets my husband to make the cornbread. It is the best (and only) food a southern bachelor learns to make, and my husband has mastered the art. Crispy crust on top, fluffy buttery center, and perfectly balanced flavor. He says the secret lies in his grandmother’s well-seasoned cast iron that he inherited. I say he puts LOVE in it!
My hubby’s favorite wedding gift that we received is our little fry daddy. It’s small – just the right size for making appetizers for our friends or making dinner for the two of us. When we’re feeling particularly indulgent, we’ll have a fish fry night: fried fish, fried potatoes, and hush puppies. Since we’re about to start our New Year’s diet, we wanted to splurge by having one last fish fry. Here is our recipe for hush puppies – they are delicious!!!
