Monday's Menu

As most of you know, I am one of the three people in the world who doesn't like strawberries. I do, however, love the people I live with so I am quite willing to work with strawberries if necessary.

Strawberries are pretty inexpensive right now. The Rugrat seems to love those parfaits that various places serve and they almost always (and a few exclusively) contain strawberries. So I picked some up to add to her the gallons of yogurt she would eat if given the chance. A pound of strawberries, however, is more than I had thought. And Hubby didn't really have a chance to help eat them (he prefers pie anyway).

So, I began to fear last week that they might not have long for this world. I tried out this recipe for strawberry muffins as a result. They have been a hit. Even the Rugrat likes them. I just chopped up the fresh strawberries and mixed them in. It says you can also use frozen ones if you prefer. The only issue I came across was that the berries were quite moist and caused some mushy spots. So I think next time, I'll follow the advice of one of the original reviewers and allow my chopped strawberries to air dry on my cutting board for a while before mixing up the muffins. In fact, I usually don't make home made blueberry muffins for the same reason. The berries make mushy spots in the muffins that I don't care for. So I may try this trick for the those as well.

One cool thing about most muffin batters is that you can also make a small loaf of quick bread with the same recipe. I have done this with both chocolate chip and lemon poppyseed. One of the reviewers had also commented that she had done it with this recipe too. I always like having options.



Strawberry Muffins

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 generous cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin. Combine oil, egg, milk and vanilla in small bowl. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, mix flour, salt baking powder, sugars, and cinnamon. Mix in strawberries, coating with flour. Pour in milk mixture and stir until combined.
Fill muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes or until done.