TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

YUMMY!

Love ginger.  Loooove chocolate.  Loooooooooove the combo.

Mine came out a bit dry, but the bits of chocolate gave it a nice texture of fudgy-ness here and there.  It was a HUGE success at the office.

Contrary to Dorie's footnote, I used an 8x8 pan and the entire batter filled up less than two-thirds of the pan.  

Thank you to Heather of Sherry Trifle for this week's selection.

(I apologize for the short and curt entry this week.  I'm falling apart at the seams due to the stress caused by the mountain of work waiting for me.  It's glaring at me even as I type this. I'll be more eloquent next week...well, maybe not eloquent, but I promise I'll be more wordy.)

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

I love cornbread and have made it, I’m sure, hundreds of times…well, maybe not hundreds but close enough. The point is that I’ve made repeatedly and never once did I even think to add cilantro or chili pepper. I’ve usually made it plain adding just corn kernels. As I was making this week’s TWD recipe (selected by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake), I realized that while I am an adventuresome diner, I am not as adventuresome as a cook. Strange, that.

It isn’t a conscious choice. I guess it just doesn’t occur to me to go wild with a recipe. Oh, I’ve tweaked recipes here and there but overall, I think I’m pretty traditional and tend to color within the lines when cooking. This realization is rather a sad one. I mean, think about all the wonderful accidental discoveries I am missing. Even the not-so-wonderful accidents would be a shame to miss.

So, while I vowed not to make a new year’s resolution, I find I must make an exception…my new year’s resolution is to color outside the lines with one recipe out of every five I make. As Dories suggests in her book, I will “play around” when cooking.

BTW, these corn muffins were DEE-licious! It became one of my favorites at the first bite. And, they were very quick and so easy to make.