"CornMuffins" news and stories

How close to "from scratch" are you willing to go? Would you, say, grind your own corn for cornmeal? Buy some artisanal stone-ground meal? Or make these corn-and-pepper muffins starting with a box of muffin mix and add some jalapeño chiles and red and green peppers? One is no more noble than the other; it's the simple act of baking them and handing them to people you like that's the thing.

Someone, somewhere is going to grind that corn, though, and if you decide you want to go back to the essentials, you may want to arm yourself with a Vita-Mix blender or a good coffee mill, according to this how-to story in Mother Earth News. A coarse grind will give you plenty of texture, medium is great for breads, and a fine grind is better for dusting baking pans.

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Warm corn-bread muffins with butter and raspberry preserves -- breakfast doesn't get much better than this. Mini or grande makes no difference. Blogger my_amii went the small route, and serves them straight up (here's her recipe). But feel free to give your muffins some playmates. Marcus Samuelsson lays on the jalapeños in this recipe. Or try this cranberry-pistacho combo. In Kitchen Daily contributor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez's recipe, she gets right to the heart of my corn-muffin cravings by stuffing them with preserves.

And after reading about high-fructose corn syrup and corn for ethanol and how our farmland is turning into one big cornfield to feed cattle, isn't it a relief to get back to talking about corn as just plain corn?

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Sloppy Joe. Photo: gezellig-girl.com, Flickr

• Aww... Sloppy Joe loses its spotlight to a cousin -- the salsa-infused Sloppy Jose.
• Avocados can be whipped into more than just guacamole -- try some Avocado Fries.
• Peppers are hitting farm stands, including the tiny and tasty Yum Yum peppers.
• Mushroom lovers rejoice -- it's National Mushroom Month. Get your 'shroom on with Mini Quiche Caps.
• Houston writer Greg Morago says, "Don't be sheepish about eating lamb."
• Meijer makes Moose Tracks mint-flavored.
• Picking out the right ears and dishing up Corn-Corn Muffins.
• Good Stuff finds a green-onion recall, food events and funky dishes.