Jalapeño corn muffins

By Barbara Shark Redstone Review

run wild in my garden. We have a salad made with these delicious greens for lunch most days often accompanied by a loaf of Moxie bread or these corn muffins.

Shark

LYONS – The wild plum trees on Apple Valley Road once again perfume the air with their intoxicating aroma. One of my favorite scents. If only I could find a soap that captures that smell. Or perhaps the fleeting nature of the seasons makes them more precious, to be enjoyed in the moment.

We’re still in the pre-spring vegetable season with asparagus, herbs, and salad greens about the only local or garden veggies available. We eat a lot of asparagus and I relish the hardy arugula and red orach that self-seed and

Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup unbleached flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, (use three teaspoons at a lower altitude than here in Lyons), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup brown sugar. Add 1 large egg, 1 cup of milk and 6 tablespoons safflower (or canola) oil. Stir in 1 large chopped pickled jalapeño (or 12 pieces of nacho jalapeño slices, chopped) or other chilé. Sometimes I include 1/2 cup of little cubes of cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese. Pour batter into a well-buttered or paper-lined muffin tin. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. This makes 10 to 12 muffins.

Barbara Shark is an artist and author of How I Learned to Cook, an Artist’s Life. She lives near Lyons, Colorado. For more recipes, read her blog www.howilearnedtocookanartistslife.blog.

Crunchy Amish salad – indulge your Midwestern veggie cravings

By Catherine Metzger Redstone Review

LYONS – Last month we brought you Ann Ripley’s potato salad. Our son Antoni admonished me for cutting back on the butter in mom’s original recipe. I stand accused: bump up the melted butter if you feel you need to.

Returning to the salad theme this month, and to restore my salad reputation, we will remind you of the broccoli salad made popular by the Amish.

This simple recipe has been around a lot longer than I have and appears at many summer barbecues. Its delicious crunchy tang bears creating and eating at least once in your lifetime. If not twice. Or three times. I’ve lost count.

This Americana mainstay from the Midwest will add vitamins, minerals and lots of brassica fiber and pizzazz as a salad or side dish to your spring table.

Amish Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

1 head broccoli, chopped

1 head cauliflower, chopped

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup stevia or monk fruit or 1/4 cup maple syrup or 1/2 cup maple sugar)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound bacon, fried and crumbled

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

• Cut bacon into lardons and cook until crispy. Drain and set aside.

• Wash and chop broccoli and cauliflower into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cheddar cheese until well mixed.

• In a small bowl, mix the mayo, sour cream, maple sugar and salt until well combined.

• Mix the mayonnaise sauce into the cauliflower-broccoli mix and thoroughly stir in the bacon until fully incorporated.

• Chill and serve cold.

Catherine Ripley Metzger has been cooking professionally and privately since 1979. She was a French cuisine journeyman at the celebrated Henri d’Afrique restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Today she is the proprietor of the food blog www.foodfortheages.com and cooks with curiosity from the ground up in her log cabin home on the Western Slope of Colorado.