Whole Wheat Apple Muffins – taken from Smitten Kitchen who adapted them from King Arthur Flour

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Ethiopian Side Dish

Corrine brought this to a family party in the early 2010s. In spite of sounding uninspiring it actually tastes great and I'm not the only one who requested the recipe. I make it about once a month in winter. It makes a huge amount. I served fit last night with leftover browned polish sausage slices on top. This dish is quite forgiving in cooking time (15 or 20 minutes one way or the other and it still tastes good.) 

I made it during the Great Hunkering Down of 2020 and discovered it does not freeze well. It already didn't look too good, since I used red cabbage. Post-freezing, I recommend not looking at it while eating. It lost something in texture, alas.  After an initial bite, however, I sprinkled on some toasted Pepitas and stirred in some parm and it tasted quite nice for lunch.

Made it again at Mark's request. I'm entertained by figuring out the weight of substitutions. I had mini carrots and little, two-bite potatoes. I look up the weight of the original size carrot and potato, multiply to get the total weight I need, then switch between grams and ounces. My super-cool kitchen scale weighs my container, resets to zero, then weighs the items I put in. I also speed things along by chopping onion and slicing carrots in the food processor. I tried shredding the cabbage with food processor and the results taste fine but texture is different from rough chop with sharp knife. The tidiness of one pot to wash and one food processor bowl-plus-lid to clean is very nice. Plus, quantity lasts for three days.

BTW, it tastes fine with unpeeled tiny yellow skins. It is tough to cut a tiny sphere into a one-inch cube.



Ingredients
1/2 c olive oil
4 carrots, thinly sliced
1onin, thinly sliced
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
5 potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes. (|I use Yukon Gold)

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Cook carrots and onion in hot oil about 5 minutes Stir in the salt, pepper, cumin, tumeric and cabbage and cook another 15 to 20 minutes.  Add the potatoes, cover. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until potatoes are soft, about 20 to 30 minutes.