My Man's Belly » Delicious Recipes and Food Ideas – My Man’s Belly

A Sweet Cornbread Muffin by Another Name Would Taste as Sweet

Pamela — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:39:00 +0000

Cornbread is one of those classic food items that people seem to have a bond with. They either grew up munching on the drier more savory cornbread slathered with butter or the sweet cake-like cornbread drizzled with honey or, in Craig's case, Karo syrup (I kid you not). I grew up with the dry cornbread that my mom made in an old cast iron pan with the bread poured into corncob shapes. Very cute, but the dry version just wasn't quite my cup of tea. I later discovered those little boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix and swooned. Of course it helped that you could buy them four for dollar when on sale. (They're still only about fifty cents when not on sale.) I'd whip up the batter and pour it into my cast iron pan to make it look like the more traditional skillet cornbread. Then, when I really got confident and wanted to show off a bit, I'd add corn and chopped jalepeño peppers. Now I usually make cornbread muffins (aesthetically they just look so cute and there's a bit more portion control) from scratch. It's almost as easy as ripping open that Jiffy cornbread box and I can better control what's going into it. I picked up this recipe from Dreamy Dish and tweaked it a bit to make it a low fat cornbread (since we usually eat cornbread with bbq or chili I thought it would be a great way to sneak out some fat and it wouldn't be missed with all the other flavors going on - in fact, eating these alone you'll be hard pressed to determine that you're even eating low fat cornbread, they're just that good). Craig had no idea that these were low fat and gobbled up half of them before I could stop him and tell him that they were supposed to go with the pulled chicken bbq that I had made for dinner. Aaargh!

Relationship Advice

Synonym - A word or expression accepted as another name for something. What does the word and definition of synonym have to do with relationship advice you ask? Well, I'm bringing this up because I have yet to see someone compile a list of words that are acceptable and unacceptable synonyms for the sexy parts of the opposite sex. This can be a really important piece of knowledge in some relationships. Trust me, call your boo's sexy place the wrong thing and not only could the mood be ruined...the relationship could be over too. Muffin: Vagina - Acceptable if said by man or woman to a woman. This term has been around so long that it has multiple positive connotations. Monkey Mounds: Breasts - Unacceptable. If said within earshot of a woman you will have no chance in hell of even having your existence acknowledged by that woman. Say it to her directly and you'll probably be cleaning blood out of your shirt and having to get your broken nose reset at the hospital. Love Muscle: Penis - Unacceptable. If a guy refers to his penis with this moniker to a woman, she'll give an over exaggerated eye roll and will turn and show her backside quicker than if you had said something really flattering to her. If you talk about your junk using this term to other guys, they'll laugh it off but will really think that you're a douche bag. The Situation: Abs or penis - Unacceptable - in either case. Referring to yourself, or your member, in the third person is a major turnoff anyway, but bogarting a self-imposed nickname from a cast member of The Jersey Shore to refer to yourself in the third person displays such a lack of creativity men or women could only imagine that your refrigerator contains nothing but a six pack of Budweiser, an aerosol can full of cheese and an unidentifiable green blob in your crisper drawer. (It's going to be another night of internet porn for you buddy.) Guns: Arm muscles - Acceptable. Anyone who has worked hard enough to develop muscular arms would be beyond flattered to have his/her arms referred to as guns by a member of the opposite sex. Let the sexy times ensue. Makes 12 cornbread muffins Adapted from Dreamy Dish

Ingredients

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Cornmeal
1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Buttermilk*
1 Large Egg (lightly beaten)
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1/3 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Spray muffin tin with oil or lightly coat with butter. In a medium size bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. (Stir together for at least 1 minute.) In a large measuring cup (cuts down on the number of dirty dishes) combine the buttermilk* and egg (lightly beat the egg in the milk). Then add the applesauce to the mixture and stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the shredded cheese. Stir to combine thoroughly. This won't be doughy, it will be more like a batter. Fill each muffin cup with enough batter to be 3/4 full. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes. The edges will brown a bit and the tops will have fine cracks in them. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 - 10 minutes and serve. Or let cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to 2 days. *If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can make a perfectly good substitute. In 1 cup of milk, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. Stir together and let sit for 5 minutes before adding to the recipe.

Tiramisu My Darling

Pamela — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:44:42 +0000

It seems like everyone loves tiramisu...except for me. I love how it looks. When it's prepared properly all of those different textures and layers and their similar colors work together to make something much bigger than the sum of its parts...it just looks sexy. It oozes confidence on the plate. (It knows it's hot!) But with all of its sexiness, the smooth and creamy mascarpone filling and the buzzed up coffee and booze infused lady fingers, it doesn't lend itself to the human body looking very sexy if tiramisu becomes your go to dessert. I got a request from Jinnie to create some healthy desserts, so I started working on it right away. Fruit desserts are the obvious choice for healthy/lo-cal desserts, but sometimes you just need something a little more traditional. That's how this tiramisu came about. The thing that I really like about this dessert recipe is that now you can have tiramisu in the warmer months. Traditionally, tiramisu is pretty heavy...but this one keeps things light. Plus there's a nice contrast in textures that you don't usually get in tiramisu. The crunchy coffee flavored meringues are a great foil to the creamy ricotta center and the light drizzle of chocolate satisfies your desire for chocolate. I will admit that I devoured all of the little tiramisu fingers you see in the photos and am now addicted. Relationship Advice Can't figure out why that other woman is getting so much attention when she looks pretty ordinary and may be heavier than you are? It's probably because she oozes self confidence. It's not always about who's a size 2, carries the most expensive purse or who has the biggest boobs. Men, and other women, like talking to a woman who feels confident in who she is. If you're self conscious about how you look, believe it or not people can sense that. Humans are kind of like dogs in that arena (and no, I am not calling men dogs.) Dogs can sense fear in people, so they tend to act more aggressive towards those people, because they know they can. Humans can sense others insecurities. People naturally want to be around other confident/strong people and gravitate towards them. So if you want to be more successful meeting other people stop focusing so much on yourself and your negative qualities and start focusing on others. This will draw your attention outwards and make you more approachable. Makes approximately 24 meringue fingers for 12 completed tiramisu Ingredients Coffee Meringue Fingers Recipe

4 Egg Whites (room temperature)
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 Cup Superfine Sugar
2 1/2 Teaspoons Espresso Powder

Ricotta Cheese Filling Recipe

1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon White Rum

Chocolate Sauce Recipe

3/4 Cup Half and Half
8 Ounces Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate (chopped fine)

Directions Coffee Meringue Fingers Preheat oven to 225 degrees Farenheit. Separate eggs when they are cold and leave whites out so that they can come to room temperature (30 – 60 minutes) and save yolks for another use. You can buy superfine sugar, or make your own. Measure out 1 cup of regular white sugar and add to your food processor. Just process until the grains are smaller than when you started. This does not take long. You don’t need to process the sugar into powdered sugar. If you are making your own superfine sugar, add the espresso powder to the sugar before processing. If you aren't making your own superfine sugar, add the espresso powder to the store bought superfine sugar. Add room temperature egg whites to a metal or glass bowl. Begin beating the eggs until they start to thicken. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating the eggs until soft peaks form. Gradually begin to add the sugar to the egg whites (while still beating). DO NOT DO THIS ALL AT ONCE. Make sure that each addition of sugar is incorporated before adding the next bit of sugar. Continue beating the mixture until it is glossy and stiff peaks form (you'll need to beat the mixture on a high speed at this point). You can check to make sure that the sugar is fully incorporated by running some of the meringue between 2 fingers and making sure that you don’t feel any sugar grains. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. To keep the paper from sliding around, dab a bit of the meringue in each of the corners and a spot in the middle before laying the paper on it. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag with a large round tip (or like I do, spoon it into a plastic bag and snip the tip off). Begin to pipe a wide finger approximately 1" - 1 1/2" wide x 4" long. Leave 1/2″ – 3/4″ spacing between each finger. Wet your fingertip and tap down any points that may have been left at the end of the strips. Bake for 2 hours. DO NOT open the door during the baking process. Turn off the oven and let them stay inside the oven until the oven completely cools down. Ricotta Filling In a small bowl combine ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and rum. Stir to thoroughly combine all ingredients, cover and cool in refrigerator. Chocolate Sauce Place cream in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Once half and half begins to boil, remove from heat and stir in chopped chocolate. Keep stirring until chocolate is melted and combined. Assembly Put these together just before serving because the moisture will melt the meringue. Coat one of the meringue fingers, on the flat side, with a generous amount of ricotta cheese filling (approximately 2 tablespoons). Top ricotta with another meringue finger. Lay tiramisu on serving plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Serve