Is there chicken in these muffins?
– Columns –
I like food and I’m not afraid to shy away from trying something new. I really do fit in great with this office.
Since I am avoiding going out in public as much as possible, including to go grocery shopping, I’m slightly concerned about what food combinations I’ll come up with. That is kind of a concern for me anyway, even on a normal day, when I could find pretty much any ingredient I need at any given time.
So far, I’ve discovered that coconut oil works great as a butter substitute in beer bread. The bread was sweet and delicious. It’s also convenient, because I don’t have yeast. I’ve also figured out that peanut butter and raisins don’t just taste good on top of celery, it is also pretty good on graham crackers.
The food struggle reminded me of one of my family’s quirks. My brother, Bill, is a bit of a picky eater and it was worse when he was younger. During a trip to the grocery store, my mom saw a box mix for double chocolate muffins. She thought they sounded pretty good and decided to give them a try.
Of course, when my mom made the muffins, my brother, who was probably about five at the time, eyed them suspiciously and asked what was in them. Mom did have a habit of hiding greens in stuff, but that’s because Bill wouldn’t eat anything remotely healthy.
My dad looked unimpressed with my brother, because, seriously, they’re muffins. What is not to love with them?
Anyway, my dad told Bill the muffins had chicken in them. Bill fell for it.
Bill didn’t think chicken sounded great in chocolate muffi ns. I agreed. However, the muffins, which did not contain chicken, smelled and tasted really good. Bill wouldn’t even try them.
He also wouldn’t try the chicken muffins the second, third or fourth time my mom made the recipe, or when there was caramel drizzled across the top. After a few times, Bill asked, “Is there really chicken in these?”
No. No, there is not chicken in the chocolate muffins.
What do you know? Bill could polish off half the batch once he tried them. We still call them chicken muffins though, because it is funny and we can.
Humourously enough, I did essentially eat chicken with a bit of carb-loaded chocolate not terribly long ago. It turns out, pumpernickel bread not only looks like the chocolate version of bread (according to my boyfriend), it actually has a little bit of cocoa in it. I always just attributed the dark color a darker flour in it. The internet can be helpful sometimes. The pumpernickel chicken sandwich was also good.
Chicken and muffins might not be the worst combination after all. Considering sweet beer bread seems to be my best bet at bread right now, sweet carbs laden in protein might happen on a regular basis during the coming weeks. I’m very much OK with that.
There’s a reason sweet and salty combination foods are having a moment, in terms of food trends. If I come up with a good combination, I’ll let you guys know.
