Pecan Pie muffins - please read!

I already told you of F’s love for pecan pie here and here.

I also already told you that getting pecans here is no easy task (they used to sell them shelled around Christmas and I would stock up; now, if I am lucky I find them with their shells on) and that shelling them is an atrocious task, something you may do once every couple of years out of sheer love.

Luckily family and friends have caught on and keep us as stocked up as possible. One friend sends them from a Commissary in Rome, another packs them into her suitcase whenever she travels across the ocean. A relative is sending me a care package from NY as I write and F's bestman has them brought over from the pecan trees in his aunt’s garden in Brazil.

Yes, that means we are lucky and have great friends. It also means I have lots of pecans stored in my freezer (and is the reason the ones I used as props in the pictures have that dusting of white on them, in case you were wondering).

Do you see the gooeyiness inside?

It was Father’s Day here in Italy last Monday and I wanted to make my husband the pie he loves  because I haven’t made one in ages. But life got in the way, as it so often does. I got home late from work and picking up the kids, then I spent a good part of the time I should have been baking mopping up water from the floor after my daughter accidentally knocked over my great grandmother's vase (after I had specifically asked the kids not to play a certain game in the living room). And changing diapers. And making dinner. And emptying out the dishwasher. And setting the table. And hanging and folding laundry. And preparing the kids’ stuff for school. And. And. And. By the time I was done, not only did I not have time to bake a pie, I also had no desire or energy to.

Then I remembered a recipe I had mentally bookmarked more than a year ago for pecan pie muffins. Every post, article, comment I have read raved about them. I was curious but didn’t really get how a muffin could be as good as a slice of pecan pie. I mean, muffins are pretty dry compared to the gooey delight that is the filling of a pecan pie. Sure, this was quicker and easier to bake, so I thought it just made the baker more forgiving. I mean, how could it really compare?

See how it gets caramelized and crunchy on top?

5 ingredients and about 5 minutes later, my batch was in the oven.

Yes, I wrote 5 ingredients and 5 minutes.

Five!

Can you believe it?

No wonder the bakers were all very forgiving.

We pulled them out just in time for dessert. They were warm, chunky, nutty, gooey in places, caramelized.

And… they were A.MA.ZING. They have become our new all time favorite muffin.*

More gooeyiness and caramelization on the bottom...

It was a struggle to save that last one to take a picture of it in daylight. I actually had to come home a few minutes early from work to quickly snap a few pictures before picking the kids up from school. That is the other reason why the pecan props have that white fuzz (ice) on them. I just didn't have time to let them thaw completely... but I know you forgive me because now you have this recipe.

So I am on the outlook for more pecans, because F is totally addicted. Keep 'em coming guys!

They are so easy, it may take me even longer to bake another pecan pie.

Also, I haven't tried it yet, but they are supposedly fabulous warmed up in the microwave and served with vanilla ice cream or a pat of butter.

Oh pecan pie muffin, I love thee so!

P.S. I don’t remember where I read about these muffins the first time and I have seen them in a myriad of other places since and sort of memorized the recipe, so I am not linking back to a specific one. If I left a comment on anyone’s blog saying I would bookmark it and try it, let me know. I am sorry I don’t remember and will gladly link back to you and be eternally grateful for this gift you have given me!

* I made these again and baked them just a minute or two less and they were even better, with an even more moist interior.

Salad with pan seared scallops, crispy pancetta and toasted corn muffin crumbs (with Thai-inspired dressing)

Don't ask me how my corn muffins turned into a mare e monti salad (the Italian equivalent of surf'n'turf), but they did. 

Oh, you want to know?

You sure?

Ok, you asked for it.

My son is in the "playing with food stage", which is extremely annoying for a variety of reasons:

a) I like table manners and civilized meals

b) he totally, completely and utterly ignores us when we tell him to stop demolishing everything on his plate or throwing morsels he doesn't like on the floor (or on our plates. Mr, keep that little piece of chewed up connective tissue on your plate, thank you very much!)

c) because his sticky, greasy little fingers dirty everything on and around (us) the table 

d) last but definitely not least, because I hate food waste.

Which means, I and F are the ones who usually ends up eating the leftover bits and pieces of his meal strewn across the whole kitchen.

Now, it is true that us moms do disgusting things like eat chewed and spit out morsels, food rolled-into-balls our children's leftovers.

And yes, we do clean what every orifice of their little bodies produce, sometimes with our bare hands - boogers/snot anyone?

Or how about when you are in the middle of the street and they decide they don't like that wasabi pea/nut/piece of licorice/... (insert any type of food that you are eating and that they insisted they wanted to try for about two hours non-stop) and spit it out into your hand?

Even if we do this kind of stuff, it doesn't mean we actually enjoy it.

But I digress.

You don't want to read this while thinking of a possible recipe. 

Back to food and waste.

The morning of the day I made this salad, my son demolished the last corn muffin and then decided he didn't want it anymore. And that is how it all started.

Do you still want to know about this salad?

Are you still in the mood for food?

If I promise you can use corn bread or muffin left overs (you can even freeze the crumbs so you have them handy when you need them the next time you bake some) that were not manipulated by dimply fingers, will you try this salad?

Was that a yes?

 Ok, then here goes.

This is a simple yet sophisticated salad you can make as an appetizer for a dinner party or for a weekend lunch. The thing that makes it interesting is the contrast between flavors (the sweetness of the scallops and the saltiness of the pork, the fresh greens), textures (the crisp salad, the tender seafood and the crunchy morsels of pancetta) and the colors.

I dressed it with a Thai-inspired vinaigrette, infusing olive oil with ginger, lemon grass and adding some fish sauce and lime juice. I also chopped up some coriander and mixed it in with the greens.

Last but not least, to add another layer of texture and flavor, I toasted some corn muffin crumbs and sprinkled them on top. Oh, but you knew that already.

It turned out pretty delicious, even my son didn't throw too much of it on the floor.

Of corn muffins and relationships

I woke up this morning and thought: I love my husband.

We have been married 12 years and been together almost 20, so you are probably thinking it doesn’t take a genius to get that. Or, if you are the cynical kind you are probably thinking: still?

Let’s just say that even if love is presumably the foundation of marriage, it is not always center stage. Life, we all know, gets in the way. Life is quite the diva, cherishing the spotlight, pushing and shoving its way to the front and relegating the true protagonist to the chorus line. Life is… well, larger than life, constantly changing costumes and starring in a variety of roles: work, finances, children, health.

You get the gist, you know what I mean. As much as you promise yourself things won’t change, they do, whether you have kids or not. Just more certainly and quicker if you have kids. And I am not implying they change for the worse, just that they are different.

There are still a lot of cuddles and horsing around, but it usually involves the children too. Kids are just incapable of watching/hearing you share a moment of laughter or tenderness without jumping right into the middle of it.

Your seemingly endless reserves of affection are more finite than you thought once your offspring, on which you reversed your supplies all day, are in bed. Instead of lying on the couch hand in hand, legs intertwined while watching a movie, you both lightly snore with your eyes half open, pretending to be awake.

Moments of intimacy are well planned and consumed behind locked doors in muffler mode. Gone are the days of spur-of-the-moment fun involving surfaces of your décor other than the bed.

I think we all at some point of a relationship (during a fight, when you reach an important milestone etc.) question how much of life together is routine, companionship or even the unthinkable, a very efficient way to rear a family or to share costs in an expensive metropolis. 

Sometimes it is so hard to see black and white, because contours have a tendency to grey with time. It is hard to tell the difference between a real feeling and the memory of it (like those childhood reminiscences you create in your mind through stories you have heard your parents tell over and over). It is hard to differentiate types of love when sex is no longer the driving factor of the equation.

But then Love, demoted to supporting role or even walk-on by the egotistic diva that is Life, has a way of creeping back when you least expect it. It waits quietly and patiently on the sidelines and then unexpectedly takes center stage for a solo that is so sweet and lovely that it is like watching your first  movie in color after owning a black and white TV.

That is how I felt this morning. Is it because he got back from a trip last night while I was asleep and waking up next to him this morning just made me happy? Is it because some sad news I heard from a friend set my mind racing, making me analyze every facet of my relationship? Is it because there has just been so much going on in our lives this winter that I realized having him with me along the way just makes it so much easier. The truth is it could be either of these reasons or all of them together or maybe none of them. I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know is that Love is the star today and that is all that matters.

Corn muffins are a little like marriage: they are every day food, not glamorous, but easily adaptable. They are a little sweet, slightly salty, moist and comforting yet with that unexpected grainy texture and bite.

The other day I brought some corn muffins to work and a couple of colleagues asked me for the recipe. I told them they could get it from the blog. As I was looking for the link to send them I realized I had never posted corn muffins! How did that happen?

I was very glad I still had a few at home to photograph.

I do not have my own special recipe for corn muffins and used this one because I didn’t have the buttermilk many recipes call for. I was actually also a little short on butter and used a couple of tablespoons of leftover coconut milk I had in the fridge. It worked fine as a substitute, and for those of you who don’t like coconut, there was not a hint of it once baked.