Corn Muffins

Saturday mornings have a special magic, don't they?  I vividly remember sitting on the living room floor as a little girl, eating cereal and watching Jem and the Holograms.  Truly truly truly outrageous! Oh, and Pee Wee's Playhouse-- the fabulous Miss Yvonne rocked my 10-year old heart with her poofy skirts and poofier hair. But my all-time favorite treat actually came in between the shows, in the form of Schoolhouse Rock.  Conjunction Junction may deserve the credit and/or blame for making me an English major.

But even without grammar cartoons, Saturday morning remains for me that perfect time when the rest of the weekend seems endless. You can lounge around for as long as you want, knowing that Sunday will be there to pick up the slack.  Have two cups of coffee.  Read an actual book.

And for me and BB, this Saturday included a ragtag bunch of corn muffins, looking extra happy thanks to the super bright version of yellow cornmeal sold here, farinha de milho.

It was pitifully easy to roll out of bed, pull things from the cupboard and have hot muffins on the table in under 30 minutes.  I got a heady feeling of superiority by achieving home cooking before 9 am-- despite the lack of hard work involved and the haphazard heights of our muffins (thanks to my sleepy and uneven batter-dosing).

I then felt entitled to wear pajamas until noon and accomplish nothing besides searching the web for 80s cartoon clips.  It was totally awesome.

So have a lazy Saturday morning and wax nostalgic with a dose of these muffins.  Big hair optional (but recommended).

Corn Muffins
makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo muffins
slightly adapted from How to Cook

1/2 cup greek yogurt
3/4 cup buttermilk (or soured milk, see below)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).  If you, like me, never have buttermilk laying around, at this point measure out your milk and let it warm in the microwave for about a minute.  Add a teaspoon of white vinegar, and let it sit while you measure and mix the dry ingredients.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Stir in the egg, yogurt, melted butter, and milk.  (Be careful not to stir too much!  This will toughen the muffins.)

3. Place cupcake liners into a 12-cup muffin tin.  Pour batter up to 3/4 of the liner, and bake for 15-25 minutes.  Small muffins will take less time, jumbo will take more.

4. Serve warm with butter, good coffee, and pajamas.