Something for everyone

Pasta with Bacon, Cheese, Lemon, and Pine Nuts is described in the New York Times Cooking pages as "a modular meal". With pasta as a base and a variety of garnishes to pass around, diners can add as much or as little of each ingredient as they like. I used fettuccini as the pasta which turned out to be a good choice. Toasted pine nuts, cooked bacon, chopped fresh mint, red pepper flakes, grated Parmesan, and lemon zest were placed on the table in their own vessels so each of us could take as much as we wanted. Both James and I used all the "add-ons" but we were each able to decide how much of each according to our own tastes. Note that my labels include both "bacon" and "vegetarian" which illustrate the versatility of this recipe.

A very good and satisfying meal. We will likely try it again in the summer.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

 The description of this New York Times recipe begins "Skillet cookies are perfect for lazy nights when everyone wants something sweet but no one wants to work that hard for it." This really was much easier and faster than making a batch of cookies. I will probably never make regular chocolate chip cookies again. I had everything I needed in the pantry, and the cookie baked beautifully in my indispensable cast-iron skillet. Some friends had invited me to dinner and I offered to bring dessert. This was well received, especially when topped with vanilla ice cream - after all it was National Ice Cream Day!

photo from New York Times Cooking Pages

One-Pot Vegan Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta

 

This recipe comes from The Ordinary Vegan  webpage. The print out I have is dated June 24, 2015. I found it stuffed between some other things on my cookbook shelf. I have no recollection of how I originally came across this recipe, but when it fell into my hands recently I realized I had everything I needed to make it, so I did. 

 

Although the recipe calls for linguine, I used some tri-colored bow-tie pasta we bought recently at a fancy-schmancy food store while we were traveling in the mid-west. The preparation was easy and quick. Just about everything went into the pot at the start, even the dry pasta. The pot was covered and the liquid was brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer. The only real prep work was slicing the onion and garlic cloves. The only thing that went in later was the spinach, which was added after seven minutes of cooking. Since this is a vegan dish it did not call for any cheese, but we like cheese so we added a bit of feta to each of our plates.

This had a very peppery flavor, which we both liked. From start to table was about 25 minutes. Easy, quick, delicious.

A pasta recipe I won't be making again

Ricotta cheese and penne pasta were the reasons for choosing this recipe from the 365 Ways to Cook Pasta Cookbook - not because we are particularly enamored of these two ingredients, but because we already had some open ricotta that we did not want to go to waste and, likewise, we had some penne pasta in the cupboard. The other ingredients include fresh basil and fresh tomato (both hard to come by in New England at this time of year) as well as garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper, and "fruity olive oil" - I used lemon olive oil. I will admit that I would have preferred basil and tomato in season, and I didn't use lemon zest, but rather a lemon pepper seasoning to substitute, but I don't think these reasons were why we decided that it was a once-in-a-lifetime meal. James' assessment that it was too "ricotta forward" is more in line with our thoughts. The recipe is similar to Pasta Fresca which is made with mozzarella and is one of our favorites - eat this; not that.

Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms in Miso Butter

When our adult child was visiting recently he made us a meal featuring noodles and miso sauce. We still had some of the miso paste so when this recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages showed up on my Facebook feed I put it on the schedule for this week's dinners.

 I halved the recipe for the mushrooms and scrambled only four eggs as only two of us were eating. This was quick and easy. I tried the method described for giving the eggs a "custardy finish" which worked well. James and I both liked the eggs prepared this way. We will never go back.

Pretty Easy Pasta

Sometimes the most important thing I'm looking for in a meal is what I can prepare without buying any additional ingredients. Yesterday was snowy and I had no desire to go out for any reason, but especially not shopping. 365 Ways to Cook Pasta to the rescue! We had a partial box of spaghetti so I flipped through some recipes and found Spaghetti with Walnuts and Parmesan which I was able to prepare in less than 15 minutes.

While the pasta cooked I coated the bottom of my indispensable cast-iron skillet with olive oil and minced and sautéed a garlic clove. After about a minute I added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and sautéed a few more minutes. Once the pasta was cooked and drained I mixed the contents of the skillet into the pasta and added shredded Parmesan cheese and some dried parsley. Simple, fast, and delicious. James and I were both impressed with the especially nutty flavor.

Pasta and Poppies

We had bought a large bag of spinach leaves at Costco last week in order to make a family favorite: Mashed Potato Casserole (which is detailed on this post) while our adult child was visiting. There was still an awful lot of spinach so we had been looking for ways to use it before it spoiled. I found this super simple recipe in our good ol' 365 Ways to Cook Pasta. 

There are only six ingredients in this one: butter, garlic, spinach, poppy seeds, fettuccini, and shredded Parmesan cheese. 

While the pasta cooked, I crushed a garlic clove and added it to 4 T of melted butter in the indispensable cast-iron skillet and sautéed. The spinach was went in next and cooked until wilted, then 1 T of poppy seeds was added. Once the pasta was cooked it was tossed in a bowl with the spinach mixture, topped with the Parmesan and served with some crusty bread. I imagine this would pair well with a buttery Chardonnay, but we had it with Malbec because...Malbec.

Photo added by James, who did nothing for this meal except shopping
and eating, but who wanted to give this post a bit of color.
Lacking a photo of the meal,   I found this other
poppy reference, with Miss Judy Garland.

Spinach Lasagna

Our only child came to visit for Christmas. Although he is not a vegetarian, he said he hadn't been feeling it for beef or poultry recently, so for our (otherwise landlocked) Chicagoan we planned a variety of seafood and vegetarian dishes for his visit (more recipes to follow).

Lasagna is a dish we've traditionally enjoyed for the holidays. I used to make the very time-consuming "Everyone's Favorite Lasagne" from 365 Ways to Cook Pasta on Christmas day before we started having Christmas dinner with friends, who also always made (vegetarian) lasagna. We had no idea at our Christmas dinner of 2019 what was to come in 2020. There were of course no get togethers the following Christmas, and the next year our hosts moved out of state. If we had known that there would be no more holiday gatherings at their home we might have done something special in 2019, but alas, here we are. In honor of Christmases past I made a spinach lasagna adapted from another recipe in the the 365 Ways Cookbook.

The recipe calls for spinach lasagna noodles, which I have never been able to find in my local stores, so I used regular egg lasagna noodles, and used actual spinach leaves between the layers. 

Additional ingredients include:

Olive oil

1 garlic clove

28 oz. can plum tomatoes (pureéd)

15 oz. ricotta cheese

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

a bit o' nutmeg

1 egg 

fresh basil 

1 lb. mozzarella (shredded)

While the noodles cooked I sliced and sautéed the garlic in the olive oil. When the garlic was browned it was discarded and the puréed tomatoes were added to the skillet and cooked down for about 20 minutes. Salt and pepper we added to taste.

The egg, nutmeg, Parmesan and ricotta were whisked together in a separate bowl.

The lasagna was assembled thus:

A small amount of the sauce was spread on the bottom of the lasagna pan and four noodles were placed on top. A quarter of the remaining sauce was spread over the noodles and they were sprinkled with basil leaves and a handful the fresh spinach leaves. Another layer of four noodles was placed on top and then layered with the ricotta mixture, some more basil, and another handful of spinach. Another layer of four noodles was topped with the mozzarella, more basil, and more spinach. A final layer of noodles was topped with the rest of the sauce. 

The lasagna baked in a 350 pre-heated oven for 45 minutes, then rested for 15 minutes before serving.

We all enjoyed this, especially our adult child who ate 2/3 of the leftovers for a midnight snack! The taste of the fresh basil came through along with the cheeses. The texture was perfect. Although a bit complicated it was less work than the "Favorite Lasagne" recipe which calls for a long-cook meat sauce. We will add this one to our family "comfort meal" repertoire. 

Yellow Squash Fritters

At the last Farmer's Market of the season James and I bought some yellow squash. Usually I make a yellow squash casserole with them, but I hadn't tried any new recipes in a long time so I went to the trusty New York Times Cooking Page and adapted the recipe for Summer Squash Fritters with Garlic Dipping Sauce. I actually followed the recipe pretty closely; I just didn't make the dipping sauce, and didn't use zucchini - only the yellow squash I bought. The recipe calls for beer in the batter, which really did enhance the taste. We topped them with sour cream in lieu of the dipping sauce. We liked these and will make them again.

Peaches in Red Wine

Yesterday was National Red Wine day, of course as avid Malbec fans virtually every day in Red Wine Day at our house, nevertheless, we decided to celebrate by stepping up our game with a red wine cocktail. I had saved the Peaches in Red Wine recipe from my Facebook feed earlier in the week. It was fortuitous that we had two chilled peaches already in our refrigerator. 

The recipe calls for two cups of red wine for serving 4-6 people. We both had a good laugh about that. Two cups serves two people at our house! I measured the wine into a mixing bowl and added 1/4 cup of sugar, a pinch of black pepper, a shake of nutmeg, and two shakes of ground ginger. I stirred everything together and chilled for an hour. Meanwhile I peeled the peaches and cut into wedges. After the wine chilled I put the cold peach wedges into wine glasses and then poured the wine over them. 

A cool treat for a beautiful day - enjoyed on our front porch.

A Birthday Celebration that created quite a lot of Dishes

A mid-week birthday during final exams means a low-key celebration for James as he enters his sixtieth year. James made his own birthday dinner of an old favorite: Puerto Rican Chicken Fajitas from the Well-Filled Tortilla cookbook. My role was to bake the birthday cake. When I asked James over the weekend what kind of cake he would like he said something with lemon and raspberries. The New York Times Cooking page had just what the (Ph.D.) doctor ordered! Lemon Sheet Cake with Raspberry Whipped Cream.

This recipe is a 12-step program, beginning with preparing the pan. The instructions call for use of a non-stick spray, but I used Crisco shortening. I did follow the instructions to coat the pan, then cover in parchment, and then coat the parchment, which seemed like overkill, but I must say that I have never had such an easy time removing a cake from a pan when it was time to serve. The recipe also calls for vegetable oil. I used lemon-infused olive oil, which really was the right thing to do.

The recipe also calls for an electric mixer in steps 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 11. Still don't have one, so a spoon, a whisk, and some strong arms were put to good use.

Lemons needed to be zested and juiced, and raspberries needed to macerate (a word I did not know before) and then strained. Cream needed to be whipped and flour sifted. We used every mixing bowl in our cabinet, one of which had to be rinsed out so it could be used again. We also used more of our utensils than we usually would with one recipe.

The result was a delicious yellow cake with a thick pink topping. This isn't very sweet, so the flavors of lemon and raspberry come through more than we expected, although neither is overwhelming. 

Photos show our sink after we'd already put round one of dishes into the dishwasher, and our "Julia Child" pegboard with lots of space as as all the utensils were being washed. Unfortunately the photograph of the cake turned out blurry, so I won't be posting it here.

So many dishes!

This is after I'd already washed the flour sifter and put it back in its place. We really did use a lot of utensils.

Cilantro Lime Rice and Beans

There's not a whole lot more to add to this post, once one reads the title. The recipe showed up on my  Facebook feed, posted by a friend. I remembered it on Friday when we were looking for an easy meal for dinner. Serendipitously, we had part of a lime, as well as some cilantro left over from a meal we prepared earlier in the week. Since the only other ingredients listed (besides rice and beans, of course) were water, salt, and olive oil we were good to go. I used the basil flavored olive oil we found at Fieldstone Farm Market (a great grocery store we recently discovered in Marion, MA). 

The recipe can be found here. I used my indispensable cast-iron skillet for this one-pot meal.

Food and Fellowship

Fellow Unitarian Universalists (along with many other church goers) are familiar with the coffee hour fellowship that follows Sunday services. This informal gathering is probably more important to some than is the formal service. Zoom church makes this difficult, and even our masked in-person meetings are happening without the "after" part, as we forgo eating and drinking together in the name of public health. Our first Sunday service of the new year (a "Zoom only" affair) sought to rectify this missing piece with "Breakfast Church". Since this had to be strictly BYOB we found a fun recipe to try with thanks to the New York Times Cooking Page. Although we had previously made Dutch Baby with Bacon and Runny Camembert, the simple Dutch Baby was, well, simpler. With just a few basic ingredients, a blender and a hot oven we had a tasty breakfast treat in about a half an hour - and it looked really cool, too. We sprinkled the puffy pancake with some powdered sugar, and added a few teaspoons of apricot jelly. We shared stories and enjoyed our respective meals via our online gathering. Breakfast at Casa Hayesboh is, of course, always paired with fresh roasted, fairly traded, organic coffee. For Breakfast Church we also imbibed some mimosas.

Dutch Baby hot out of the oven!

Vieja Black Bean Quesadilla Receta

I mentioned these quesadillas in two recent blog posts -- first when I posted about shrimp I made instead of these and next when I posted about the wine I prepared to serve with them. In the process, I realized that because we have been making this since before we started the blog, we never got around to post it. So herewith, a Vieja Receta we enjoy several times a year. (The recipe is old, not the beans or the quesadilla!)

The recipe came from a booklet -- long ago discarded except for this page -- of recipes from a honey company.

To prepare these, I heat a can of black beans in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. The original recipe calls for rinsing and draining the beans; I prefer to cook them a bit longer and reduce the liquid that way. We add a cup or so of commercial salsa, though home-made would be even better. I add a dollop of honey and mix thoroughly. Because salsa adds water, it is important to cook long enough for some reduction.

While it is cooking, I shred cheese -- usually a mix of cheddar for bite and Monterey jack for smoothness; queso fresco would also be terrific. I either put the cheese on one half of each large tortilla or covering a small tortilla. Recent supply-chain issues pushed me to the latter this time. 

I then forget to include the called-for jalapeños and cilantro, because I have not looked at recipe in a long time. I heat the indispensable cast-iron griddle (on the other side of the stove) and put a bit of oil on it. I then spoon the bean mixture onto the cheese and either fold over the tortilla or place a second tortilla on top, as appropriate. I carefully place each quesadilla onto the griddle when it has reached medium-high heat. I almost immediately reduce the heat and when one side is done, very carefully turn each quesadilla.

Getting the heat right takes some practice. The idea is to gently brown the tortilla without burning it, while giving the cheese enough time over heat to melt thoroughly. 

The result is Casa Hayes-Boh comfort food. I can prepare this in about the time it took to write these few paragraphs. This simple, vegetarian dish is always enjoyable and went very well with the Glüwein we had for our solstice dinner.

Sad Irony

Although I always picture the honeybee from the cover of the original booklet when I make this recipe, I forgot the honey this time -- remembering it only after eating a couple bites. It was still delicious, but differently so.

6.28 or Two Pies

We were happy this Thanksgiving to get back to our usual tradition of having dinner with our friends Lisa, Rob, and their children. Last year's Thanksgiving "lite" was better than not getting together at all, but for us spending the day together cooking and laughing is just as important as the enjoying the meal. 

As is often my role in this annual celebration, I made dessert. I like lots of kinds of pies, but my favorite is key lime. However, I discovered from Atlas Obscura that in fact Sour Orange Pie predates  key lime as Florida's favorite. I don't think I'd ever heard of Sour Orange Pie before, and I don't know where I would even find sour oranges, but luckily the recipe explains that equal parts orange juice and lemon juice can be substituted for the sour orange juice. The pie is much like a key lime pie, with a citrusy-custard filling and load of whipped cream on top. 

This calls for a graham cracker crust "either pre-baked or store bought". I of course made my own crust. Luckily James found that our local grocery store actually sold graham cracker crumbs for just such an occasion. Whenever I've made a graham cracker crust in the past I've had to crush the crackers myself, and always wound up with rather inconsistent crumbing.

The pie was sweet and tart. It turned out that I liked it as much as I do a good key lime.

The very first pie I remember liking was a chocolate pie. I think I had only had store-bought fruit pies up to that point in my then-short life, and they were nasty. Pies of all sorts can make me happy now, as long as they are not store-bought (even bakery pies rarely thrill me). I like mine homemade. As an adult I have always enjoyed pecan pie (even though it is often cloyingly sweet). When I saw a recipe from the New York Times for Chocolate Pecan Pie it seemed like a perfect celebratory dessert that brought together two of my favorite types of pie.

This one has a flaky crust. Crust making always feels like a major project to me, but must needs and all. This recipe calls for putting the crust ingredients in a food processor, which I do not own. So, I did what I always do in this situation, I used my blender. The crust ultimately turned out flakier than any other I've made, so I may follow this process in the future. And my resolve not to purchase a food processor remains in tact.

Image: shamelessly lifted by James
from Texas Smokehouse

The filling calls for bittersweet chocolate "to give depth to what is traditionally an achingly sweet pie". James went to the store on Monday before Thanksgiving to buy the ingredients we needed, which included bittersweet chocolate. He called me from the grocery to ask if chips would be okay, to which I responded that if he could find bittersweet chocolate chips that would be great. When I was ready to make the pie on Wednesday I noticed that there was a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and asked if he also bought bittersweet chocolate. No, he hadn't. Did it matter, he wanted to know. Of course it matters. We don't want our pie to be "achingly sweet" after all. Back to the store he went for the appropriately sweetened chocolate. The pie was very good not only because it wasn't too sweet, but the filling also included bourbon to give it a "grownup finish", plus more pecans than many recipes call for which gave it better texture as well as a better flavor.

Corny Corn

We picked up some corn at the local farmers' market yesterday and decided to cook it on the #BigGreenEgg. But how to do it? (Our usual approach is simply to bring a big pot of water to a boil before putting the husked ears in for exactly ten minutes.)

The EGGhead forum offered many options; we settled on a simple one. We removed the husks and soaked the corn, while heating up the Egg to about 400. (Since we were essentially using it for a quick, direct cooking, we did not worry too much about the exact temp.)

Then we put the ears directly on the grill, turning every five minutes with our indispensable kitchen tongs. Giving the corn a 5-minute head start, I then put some burgers on the griddle insert.

When the burgers were done (perfectly, I might add!), I could not tell if the corn was done. I asked Pam to look with me, and we agreed that we really had no way to know. So we took the burgers in for condimentage, which in our house is always a process. At this point, the corn had 20 minutes of regular turning over high heat, so we decided to declare victory.

Photo shamelessly stolen from EGGhead Forum
member bitslammer

And a victory was had! I did not think to try a photo until too late, but the corn looked a lot like the image above, taken from the forum. We were skeptical -- it looks tough and we like our corn-on-the-cob tender. Somehow, though, it was -- tender and delicious. I think the soaking must have played a big part in this. I applied nothing but Amish butter and a little black pepper to mine.

Lagniappe

This simple story is not a recipe story in the traditional sense, but it is a good example of what happens as we build cooking experience. Once we decided on a goal, Pam and I each consulted a wide variety of informed opinions. We did not follow any one of them as a script, but as a group, the other #BigGreenEgg users gave us key things to consider as we figured this out. 

Some of those ideas require considerably more time and effort; following this success, we might just revisit those and keep exploring the world of grilled corn. Local corn, that is, not the King Corn stuff.

Zucchini Banana Muffins

What does one do when one has some extra-ripe bananas and a zucchini on the edge? Look for something to bake that uses both ingredients of course! A simple Google search using the words yielded me plenty of results from which I selected this recipe for Zucchini Banana Muffins from "Baked by an Introvert". Except for the optional banana chips (which I did not use) I had everything I needed to make these super moist muffins in my pantry. Beyond the oil (I used lemon-infused olive oil) and the eggs the liquid mostly comes from the water in the zucchini, so there is no milk or water called for.

The only change I made to the recipe was to use 1/2 cup of brown sugar, rather than 3/4 cup. I almost always use a bit less sugar than what is called for, especially when baking with fruit. I find that the rest of the flavors are more likely to come through this way.

We will be enjoying these treats for a few more days.

There is just no end of stuff you can put in a frittata

This recipe fo Mushroom, Goat Cheese, and Herb Frittata showed up on my Facebook feed last week. I had some goat cheese leftover from making some goat cheese quesadillas (an old favorite) last month so I picked up some mushrooms the next time I went to the grocery store so I could make this tasty dish. The recipe calls for either fresh or dried herbs; I used dried. I also halved the recipe and used our smaller indispensable cast-iron skillet since I was only cooking for two. The other deviation I made from the recipe was that after I sautéed the onions, mushrooms, and herbs I left them in the pan and just added the egg/cheese mixture to it. I couldn't understand the reason for removing the veggies and adding them to the egg, wiping out the pan, adding more oil to it and then pouring everything back in. Maybe it would have been even better than it was if I had done it, but I'll never know.

Pilaf for MENA Awareness

This week is MENA Awareness Week at our university. That is to say, our Middle East and North Africa program sponsored a series of special events to bring awareness not only to the region but to our center that studies the region and our U.S. Department of Education grant that is enhancing those studies.

I was gratified to be invited to give a talk about coffee in MENA as part of the virtual festivities. (See Qahua to Coffee on my Coffee Maven blog for a recording of my presentation.) As we started planning the week's dinners, I therefore decided to check Yashim Cooks Istanbul for ideas.

The book fell open to page 78: Hazelnut and Lemon Pilaf (findikli ve limonlu pilav). I have never been quite sure what "pilaf" means, but I knew this meant rice-plus-something and decided to have a look. The combination of savory flavors and simple preparation were appealing, so I added it to the menu, and we added a few items to the grocery list.

Some of the key ingredients, plus a side of apricots.
On our cow cutting board from a favorite Wisconsin cousin.
As regular readers of this blog know, food does not
always photograph well, so I often snap shots
of ingredients, especially if they are colorful.

I do not always put the full ingredient list on a blog post, but it seems worthwhile this time. The list as published:

basmati rice, 250g/8oz, well rinsed 
salt, 1 teaspoon
olive oil, 1 tablespoon
butter or ghee, 1 tablespoon
corriander seeds, 1 teaspoon
cumin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon
lemon peel, sliced into 3 "julienne" strips
fresh red chile, sliced into thin strips, 1 teaspoon (I used one jalapeño)
blanched hazelnuts, 4 tablespoons
parsley, bunch, chopped

I did not attempt to measure any of these, except the rice and water. I used 1 cup of the rice since we don't have a food scale, and used 1-1/4 cups of water (following package directions) even though it called for an "equal amount" of water. 

The instructions on lemon peel were especially confusing for me -- all of the peel or three little strips? I used about half the peel, making a couple dozen little strips. I do not regret my choice. 

I made a few minor substitutions as well, and completely overlooked the parsley. I will include it next time. Of the spices, we had one in seed form and the other already ground; this was fine. When I could not find hazelnuts in the store, I did that thing we now do instead of asking a grocer: I used my phone to Google substitutions and found that walnuts would work. When I got home and mentioned this to Pam, she reminded me that we had not only walnuts but also pine nuts. I was sure that this was getting farther from the author's intention, but it sure sounded good to me. (Note: after I wrote this, I read the page after the recipe, assuming that it was something about the cultural context of the recipe. It was ore about possible substitutions, and these included both orange for lemon and pine nuts for hazelnuts.) 

I am glad I followed the somewhat unusual preparation steps. I measured the water and brought it to a boil in a kettle while rinsing the rise in a sieve. I placed the rice in a small saucepan and poured the water over it. I added salted, put the lid on and was able to bring it back to a boil immediately. I lowered the heat and set the timer for 10 minutes. (I had gotten white basmati; the brown "Tex-Mati" we usually use has a much longer cooking time.)

While the rice cooked, I melted butter and oil over medium-low heat in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. I then added the spices, followed in a couple minutes by the lemon peel, pepper, and nuts. I continued to sautée these gently while the rice cooked, stirring frequently. I then "tipped" the rice into the pan, stirred while scraping the bottom, and then returned it all to a bowl (should have been the pan, but I had managed to scorch some of the rice). I gently fluffed the entire mixture and covered it with a dish towel, followed by the pan lid. I let this sit for 10 more minutes so that the flavors would meld.

The result: savory rice with perfect texture. We topped with delicious plain yogurt (Stonyfield Greek), the lemon wedges as called for, some apricots, fresh mozzarella, and some delicious basil muffins Pam had made a few days earlier, and which I grilled for this meal. Later, I learned from the page-after material that the author recommends apricots, currants, or other fruits as possible amendments.

We found that a chilled Chardonnay in place of our usual Malbec was a perfect pairing for this meal.  

Mint Muffins

I was browsing through the Granny's Muffin House cookbook for something special to bake for Easter and was surprised to find a recipe for Mint Muffins. It had never occurred to me to bake mint into muffins. We had some fresh mint leftover from a meal we made the week before so I decided to use some to make this treat. As with most muffin recipes this was was pretty simple.

First I sifted together:

 2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c sugar

Next, I stirred in one egg, 1/3 c. melted butter, and 3/4 c. milk

In a separate bowl I mixed 1/4 c. vinegar with 1 c. chopped mint leaves and then added the mixture to the rest of the ingredients.

After the muffin tin was filled I baked at 400 for 20 minutes.

These are reminiscent of the butter mints that you sometimes find on your way out of restaurants.