Throw that Green Stuff in The Batter!

If you’ve been following the blog, you may remember that I do quite a lot of cooking and baking. Love to cook, whether I’m indoors or out; It keeps me fed and out of mischief as that saying goes.

For whatever reason, I haven’t baked much lately. Today I was in the mood to put a couple of hours of effort into kitchen stuff so I went with a combo I whip up pretty often: a yummy Tofu Chili with a pan of scratch Cornbread.

I’ve done that one about a thousand times and — like always — I was pleased with the result.

That said, I did things differently this time. Part of what was different today was not intentional at all; I couldn’t find my trusty 9×9 pan and so I opted for corn muffins this time. A “Plan B” kind of situation.

The other part of what I did differently was quite intentional: I wanted kick up the flavor a notch or two by baking my first pan of Jalapeno Cornbread. And so I did.

One of my Twitter friends who also likes to bake had tweeted a photo of a pan of Jalapeno cornbread he had whipped up on Tuesday to compliment his lunch for that day.

I realized that I had never done anything other than plain cornbread and decided to give it a try.

I didn’t bother to find a recipe or anything elaborate. I just made a batch just like I’ve done for the last five years but added 2 tsp of diced jalapenos to the batter just before pouring it into the muffin tin.

And — although I’m pleased with the result — I think I’ll go heavier with the diced jalapeno next time. I’ll kick it up a notch or two the next time around; I’m thinking about a third of a cup or so.

Like so many of us, I can get stuck in a rut pretty easily. And whether we’re talking about kitchen adventures or the way we live our lives in general, it’s a good thing to get out of that rut from time-to-time!

“Baker Ben” Basile

© 2021 Benjamin Lawrence Basile