Nurturing Corn and Sausage Muffins-They are POSSIBLE!

What's for Dinner on the Fourth?

Ooooooooh, its basil season friends, and in our home, it goes in everything!

 (Yes, even corn dog batter)

Today, we returned from a few days with family near Beaver Creek, Montana, and we were suffering from our lack of our "normal" food. The time with extended family was lovely, but meals of premade donuts, chips, and other things unnatural hurt some tummies. Most notably, my four year old, a normally sweet, chipper and charming little man grew quickly exhausted in the heat, ate nothing but chips and before you could say "oops" was vomiting everywhere.

We knew this would happen, but there is still a part of me that wants our kids to be able to experiment with their food choices, even if it means getting sick. Needless to say, when we left Beaver Creek and arrived at our next "base"-my parents house-we gleaned their garden and quickly gorged on garlic scapes, fresh strawberries, hot foccacia bread and roasted red potatoes. After a good meal and 13 hours sleep, our little guy was right as rain.

After all of the turmoil, today I made the mistake of asking my boys what they wanted to fourth of July dinner. My six year old adamantly responded in favor of corn dogs. Those things, I dislike, muchly. Not that I hate the concept, but I hate the gas station memories of them in college. Like all other gross foods, I decided to modify, and without a fryer (or corn meal-oops), we came up with the most delicious alternative.

  

Corn Muffins with Sausages, Spring onions and Basil 

Ingredients: *-denotes a local ingredient

Makes 8 heaping Muffins (for us 1 a person with a large salad was plenty)

1 cup all purpose but unbleached flour *

3/4 cup whole wheat flour *

1/2 cup crushed corn flakes (I was out of corn meal and while these were not deal, they were organic and turned out to be a fab addition!) 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup cooked corn kernals *

1/4 cup chopped greens of spring onions *

6-7 basil leaves, minced *

1 pastured egg *

1 cup whole milk *

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tablespoons of butter *

4 good quality sausages, tonight it was beer brautwurst from the Montana City meats man *

Turn your oven on to 400 degrees and put your sausages in a pan to precook them a bit, just to be safe, while you ready your other ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. In a second bowl, beat the egg with a fork, add the milk and oil, and then combine your wet group with the dry ingredients, mixing until combined.

Use your butter to grease 8 muffin tins. Remove your sausages from the oven and cut them into quarters. Put a spoon of batter down in each muffin cup, put two sausage pieces on top, then another spoon of muffin batter. It should stay contained for the most part, but in baking will spill out a bit as it rises and puffs.

Bake your muffins at 400 degrees for 18 minutes, watching them so they do not get to looking burned. They will puff over the tins, remember. Let them sit a bit and then pop them out with a fork on the bottom.

My kids loved eating them dipped in some ketchup, holding them in their hands. We served them alongside a huge salad of turnips, radishes, and romaine lettuce under a peanut sauce dressing. It was prefect!