Warm Apple Pecan Crumb Muffins!
Fresh from the oven! Julie just finished baking some apple pecan crumb muffins from Ken Haedrich's book,
"Country Breakfasts -- Four Seasons of Cozy Morning Meals." This book isn't in in print any longer but is available used from Amazon. I really like Ken's books. They're written for the home cook, by a home cook, and aren't pretentious and don't call for unobtainable ingredients or equipment. This book is from before the beginning of the 'Chef's are Rock Stars' period, which is probably my favorite food era. After interest in good food, locally sourced ingredients and craftsmanship had really picked up, but before the 'every show on TV is a cooking contest' mania. Early to mid-90s... I used to love arriving home from work and knowing that it was the right time of the month to expect my copies of Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Choclatier, Chile Pepper Magazine, Saveur... good times.
"Country Breakfasts -- Four Seasons of Cozy Morning Meals." This book isn't in in print any longer but is available used from Amazon. I really like Ken's books. They're written for the home cook, by a home cook, and aren't pretentious and don't call for unobtainable ingredients or equipment. This book is from before the beginning of the 'Chef's are Rock Stars' period, which is probably my favorite food era. After interest in good food, locally sourced ingredients and craftsmanship had really picked up, but before the 'every show on TV is a cooking contest' mania. Early to mid-90s... I used to love arriving home from work and knowing that it was the right time of the month to expect my copies of Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Choclatier, Chile Pepper Magazine, Saveur... good times.
Anyhow, these muffins are quite yummy. Yes, we had to sample a small bit to make sure they were worthy of being blogged about on CCC. The hardest part was not finishing the sample!
To wrap up this post, I'll quote from the introduction of Ken's book. This snippet conveys the true spirit of the book and makes me sad that for most people, breakfasts like this are distant memories or never happened. Nobody has, or takes, the time. The family meal, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner is a lost art.
"Almost from the moment I began telling folks I was working on a breakfast book, I started to hear echoes of my own voice confirming a suspicion that I have held for a number of years: that for many of us breakfast is still the most important -- and beloved -- meal of the day. We may have grown accustomed to frozen waffles and instant coffee or count Dunkin' Donuts on our list of early morning rituals. But in spite of all that, we still long for the personal touch of an egg cooked just so, freshly brewed coffee, and the warm cozy feelings we get sitting down to eat real, fresh food with our family and friends."
Well said, Ken, well said.
No comments:
Post a Comment