Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites

Since my last post in May, I have moved to a new apartment and a new kitchen. I now live in a decent sized studio apartment with a minuscule kitchen. In Texas, I come from a two dishwasher household. That's right, two dishwashers flank the sink in my mother's kitchen. In a household with two Latin males, a second dishwasher is often a more reliable helper than one of the men, especially when your only daughter moves across the country to go to college. Due to my history with dishwashers, when I began searching for my apartment finding a studio with a dishwasher was a top priority. The good news is that I found a lovely apartment with a dishwasher, however because of the dishwasher I have a bar sink instead of a full sized sink. This means my biggest pans do not fit in my sink and washing them is a dance that I am perfecting. As I write this, I still have not attempted to rinse the muffin pan which effectively dwarfs the sink....

But fear not dear readers, a small kitchen is the badge of honor for every struggling food blogger, and I'm back again with my kitchen's inaugural post and a new cookbook for July. This month I will feature Giada de Laurentiis' book Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites.

At first I was ashamed of choosing the cookbook of a Food Network star. However I can't help it--I'm blinded by Giada's halo of olive oil and Parmesan. As a child of the Food Network, I fell in love with Giada at an early age and now I'm pleased to be cooking from one of her books. I chose the book because it has an extensive vegetable section and the appetizers and pastas feature many fresh vegetables and herbs--perfect for summer and the farmer's market.







Garlic and Sun-dried tomato corn muffins (adapted from Giada's Kitchen)

2 packages of corn muffin mix ie Jiffy (see note 1)
2/3 cup of diced sun-dried tomatoes from a jar
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
3 garlic cloves, minced
2/3 cup butter milk (see note 2)
2/3 cup sour cream
2 large eggs beaten

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 °F. Insert muffin liners into the muffin pan or grease the cups.

2. In a large bowl combine the corn muffin mix, the corn, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic. Then mix in the buttermilk, sour cream, and beaten eggs. Stir until just combined. Be careful not to over stir as this can result in chewy muffins.

3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins. Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and while still hot slide a knife around the edges of the muffins so they do not stick to the muffin pan.

Makes 16 muffins.

Note 1: I did not buy Jiffy Muffin mix instead I used the dry ingredients of this Jiffy brand copy cat recipe
Note 2: I could not find buttermilk in my grocery store, so I mixed 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar into milk as a substitute.

These muffins are tasty and moist, but the sun-dried tomatoes are overshadowed by the two cups of corn and I could not taste the garlic. The second time around I would probably increase the sun-dried tomato to a cup instead of 2/3 cup and perhaps add a few more cloves of garlic. (Disclaimer: I am addicted to garlic) Perhaps Giada did not want the muffin to be overwhelmed by garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, but if an ingredient is in the title of a recipe, then I expect to taste it clearly. Aside from those gripes, I would make this recipe again in place of plain corn muffins or corn bread especially with chili or a tomato based soup.