We've made it. We have survived a government shutdown, we barely avoided going through a government default and we are on our way to prevent sinking back in a recession. Even though some of us didn't feel the direct effects of this political crisis, we all have suffered from all the nonsense going on in Washington, one way or another. I won't really get into a political discussion, but I will say one thing: If you are willing to push fellow citizens around and jeopardize their livelyhood for the sake of politics, there is something really wrong with you.
Enough of Washington. Let's talk about Paris now. The French are getting seriously worried by one of the biggest crises France has seen since World War II: there's a decline in bread consumption by the French youth. It may sound funny, but the bread is an essential (and I agree) element of French culture and their lifestyle. Apparently the younger generations have been buying wonder-bread like bread more and more, at the expense of the more traditional baguette. A counterattack has been launched, via a public advertising campaign to urge people to go out and buy a fresh baguette (which ideally should be bought twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the mid-afternoon) so the traditional French lifestyle can survive and be preserved for generations to come.
I know very well how they might be feeling. For the last 30+ years my father has religiously woken up at 5:30 AM to go and buy fresh bread every morning. God, how I miss my daily fresh - still hot- bread. Honestly, few pleasures compare to that of eating fresh off the oven bread (especially Puerto Rican bread). However, I also understand how for many of us it isn't convinient to go out and buy bread every day. I buy "sandwich bread" once or twice a week, and maybe an afternoon baguette every so often.
Occasionally I bake my own bread. However, it is time consuming especially if you want it to be whole wheat. Sometimes I wake up wanting to eat some eggs and I realize I don't have bread (gasp) and I don't really feel like going to the bakery to buy some. So my solution is to bake a batch of whole wheat muffins that taste like whole wheat bread. I found the recipe a while back on food.com, and had successfully baked them many times. I eat these muffins as bread with eggs, I use them as a substitute for "dinner rolls", and sometimes I crumble them and top them with homemade vanilla ice cream and a teaspoon of honey. They really are versatile little muffins, and I would love to share them with you. A word of caution though: they do taste like good whole wheat bread but you may not want to eat them as a "regular muffin"; you may feel a bit neglected if you eat them just by themselves. If you plan to do so, you may have to consider adding fruits or nuts to the batter, or plan on adding some sort of frosting or topping to satisfy your muffin cravings. They are quite easy and good for you!
On the road shortcut:
Nutritional info per serving (1 muffin; recipe makes 12 muffins):
120 calories, 19 g carbs, 4 g fat, 4 g protein
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 beaten eggs
1 cup 2% milk
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
Pre-heat oven to 375F. Stir together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir together the liquid ingredients. Combine both sets of ingredients, mixing only until the dry ingredients are moist. Bake in greased or papered muffin tins for 20 minutes.
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