This morning in an effort to get my diabetic husband to make better food choices I decided to make a blueberry muffin recipe I found on the internet. This is how it went:
First of all, a couple of days ago I bought what I thought was a butternut squash which the recipe calls for at the local Wal-Mart grocery store. I looked at the label on the bin and all I saw was “butternut squash” and the price per pound. So I picked one up. When I got home I had to look up how to cook butternut squash because I never have. This is when I discovered the squash I had was a spaghetti squash and for the first time I noticed there was a big gold label on it that said “Spaghetti Squash.” Hmmm. I took off for the nearby Publix to purchase a butternut squash. Luckily I found one and hope it is big enough to yield one cup cooked and mashed.
In both stores I searched for and didn’t find buckwheat flour. I don’t even know what buckwheat flour is or how it differs from regular whole wheat flour which is what I bought.
I am fairly certain I have all of the other necessary ingredients on hand. Prior to consuming coffee this morning (I should know better) I begin the baking process. I stab the poor butternut squash skin numerous times with a sharp knife as directed and microwave it. It looks very much like a sweet potato when it’s done. Already I’m thinking could I just use sweet potatoes in this recipe? No seeds to scrape out. Much less work.
I can’t read the amount needed for the baking powder. Somehow the numbers are all smushed together. It’s either 1 1/3, 1 1/2 or 1 1/32 of a teaspoon. I cross my fingers and go with 1 1/2 teaspoons. Visions of gigantic, puffed up, exploding muffins fill my head.
I measure and add and mix and fold until I do believe my muffin batter is ready to bake. Oven preheated. Check. Muffin tin sprayed with non-stick spray. Check. I slide those babies into the oven feeling quite proud of myself. I realize after a few minutes I forgot to set the timer, so I guesstimate how much longer is needed.
Fifteen minutes later I pull my muffins out of the oven. They look okay. They look done. I decide I might have a success on my hands. For once.
I take a couple out of the pan. Cut into one. Taste it and congratulate myself. I have just spent an entire hour creating a dozen muffins that have absolutely no flavor whatsoever. They are bland beyond belief. My husband comments he can’t even taste the blueberries.
I suggest to him that perhaps a little orange marmalade on top would give them a bit of flavor. He thinks this is an excellent idea even though I remind him that defeats the purpose of consuming a muffin created for a diabetic.
Then I admit that the recipe called for a quarter teaspoon of orange peel but I wasn’t about to purchase an entire orange just to get a quarter teaspoon of peel. But that gives me a great idea. The next time I make these, I will just add a little bit of orange marmalade since there is orange peel already in it.
I review the recipe and realize I forgot something, so make a note to myself to also add that teaspoon of cinnamon the next time.
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If you have read A FOREVER KIND OF GUY now you know where Hayley gets her non-existent cooking skills and why it’s sort of a running gag throughout the book.
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