Raspberry Almond Mini Muffins

This recipe first came to me from my friend Karen, and it's been a family favorite for the last decade. Thanks Karen! You might as well take the leap and make a double batch, because they disappear FAST.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups Flour
2/3 Cup Sugar
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Butter, melted
2/3 Cup Milk
1 Egg
1.5 Teaspoons Almond Extract
1/2 Cup Raspberry Preserves

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Salt, and Cinnamon together in medium bowl.
Melt Butter in microwave.
Stir together the dry ingredients, melted Butter, Milk, Egg, and Almond Extract. Mix well.
Spray mini-muffin tin with vegetable oil spray.
Fill muffin cups. Press 1 Teaspoon Raspberry Preserves into top of muffin batter. Gently fold the batter over most of the Preserves.
Bake 12-14 minutes until light golden brown.
Cool in pan 5 minutes before carefully removing.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 24 mini-muffins.

Et tu, Cadbury?

Apologies for the rant but I've had it. As both a parent and a consumer I've had it with Chinese food production safety issues. It isn't enough that Mars' brand M&Ms and Snickers -- Snickers! -- are made in China, where recent product shipped to Indonesia contained melamine. No, I now come to learn that Cadbury, the venerable English chocolatier with a near-200-year history as a company, is pimping out production to a Chinese firm which cannot kick a melamine habit. And I'm reasonably certain these reports are just the tip of a food safety iceberg that's on a collision course with a U.S. food industry rushing headlong to China's shores to save a buck or billion.


But the worst part is that I have no easy way of knowing where much of my packaged and "fresh" food comes from. Where it's grown and processed. Sure, I'd like to buy nothing but locally-grown foods but that isn't realistic for the vast majority of Americans, no matter the current popularity of farmers' markets in California and elsewhere. In digging a little I was amazed to learn how lax our country is in terms of "Country Of Origin Labeling" (COOL) for foods, how little is required and how many exemptions are in place. Dammit, we label our toys with country of manufacture; I see no reason why we can't require the same for our food, inarguably the more important of the two imports for which to have this information.

So, rather than just rant passionately if ineffectually in this blog I decided to do something about the issue. I created an online petition which I plan to send to Congress if I get more than a few signatures, and I'm asking you, dear reader, to read and sign that petition:

Require Country of Origin Labels on all U.S. Foods
...

Better, faster, cheaper takeout?

Yahoo! Food's Maggie Nemser wrote an interesting article about preparing your own fast food at home, entitled "Better and Faster Than Takeout." Lots of good recipes and the fare is certainly a bit healthier than your average Chinese takeout, to boot.