Tuesday, February 07, 2006

"Real corn makes it special."

For dinner tonight we had beef stew. When I was a kid, Mom always served corn muffins with beef stew. So it's sort of a requirement that I do the same. Otherwise, the stew will just not be as good.

I got a few free pouches of Betty Crocker corn muffin mix with my coupons a while ago (Big Daddy is waiting for the day that Shop Rite kicks me out for having too many coupons....) and we've tried this muffin mix already, and concluded that it's "missing something."

I figured an experiment wouldn't hurt, so I mixed the batter as directed and added a couple of tablespoons of real maple syrup. Amazingly, no one else was in the vicinity of the kitchen, so no one saw what I added.

At the table I announced that we'd be having a contest to see who could figure out the Secret Ingredient in the corn muffins. Of course, this led to the immediate answer, "CORN!" So I had to review what the Normal Ingredients for Corn Muffins would be, and tell the Studio Audience that the Secret Ingredient is something else besides those.

Ultimately, the Big Kids were seen ignoring their dinners as they rummaged through all my cabinets, naming every herb, spice or possible ingredient (parsley? cayenne? baking powder?) that they could see in the front. Big Brother was heard to observe that the muffins kind of tasted like pancake mix: he came the closest.

Obviously, next time I will have to stress that the Contest Rules require that no contestant leaves his or her chair in pursuit of the Secret Ingredient.

The verdict: all the muffins got eaten. It was good!

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Sounds great, were having beef stew tonight but not with corn muffins.

Glad you extra ingredient turned out. Nice when "experiments" turn out great. :)

Amy Giglio said...

one of my favorite experiments was adding a bit of vanilla and cinnamon to my Aunt Jemima Pancake batter. It's not much, but it sure makes a huge difference.

Laura The Crazy Mama said...

Fun in the kitchen is great! One time the hubbs and I had a "tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich" contest for the kids. They were the "testers". It turns out, it was a tie. The kids chose my sandwiches (because I don't burn them haha) and hubbs' soup (because he uses milk and I use water, I guess) but it was a blast! Next is a taco filling contest!