The Joy of Cooking: 4 weeks of recipes from one of the most beloved cookbooks of all time

There is at least one good reason print books should never be retired: cookbooks. When you walk into someone's kitchen, you can tell the great cookbooks. They are the ones with the food stuck to them, the stains, the pages stuck together or falling out. Dropping my Kindle into a bowl of cake batter won't work out well for anyone.

So this month I'll be bringing you recipes from "The Joy" 75th anniversary edition which I happened upon last year for $9 on Groupon (plus free shipping!).  It is a journey through time - a story that builds from a desperate and enduring woman's heartbreak during the great depression to a nine-times revised bestseller referenced by chef's everywhere. Another story about a woman who took her reckoning, and transformed it into something incredible.

Here you can learn skills like how to skin and carve a rabbit (who knows when that might actually come in handy).  Or learn how to make Kentucky Burgoo, apparently a long-time, catch-all of southern cooking (...something about feeding a single town from one very large pot).  You can also learn the finer points of place setting, brining, making coffee, table decor, and menus for occasions from afternoon tea to formal dining to backpacking. Since my only claim to fame in those categories is making a mean cup of coffee, you can see how this might be useful for me. Or anyone not growing up with home-ec.

Today I will be bringing you (my take) on whole wheat muffins. Today I was out and about at the Main St. Cafe in Stockbridge (my choice cafe in Southern Berkshire County, so far) and they had some real-delicious looking muffins. But I try not to get too decadent over lunch. So here I am, eating muffins for dinner. But they're whole wheat, so that's legit...right?

Strawberry-Pecan Whole Wheat Muffins

Reading about muffins, you'll learn that you're never intended to mix the batter smooth - which you would never quite guess from $.50 box of Jiffy (which I also love). You can add about anything to muffins...including Pineapple, which had never occurred to me before. Guess I'll have to try this. There is also a section that states, you can add more nutritional value to about any flour based recipe by adding 1 TBS wheat germ, 1 TBS soy flour, and 1 TBS dry milk powder to the bottom of your measuring cup before measuring. Don't tell Ethan. He hates when I add wheat germ to things.

 What will you need?
1 2/3 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 TBS wheat germ (optional)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. honey (or molasses)
2 TBS softened butter
1 c. chopped strawberries (optional)
1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)
2 TBS flax seeds

 Mix dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt) together in a boil, set aside. In a large bowl, combine egg, milk, honey and butter. Mix dry ingredients in to wet ingredients "in a few swift strokes". Before the dry ingredients are all combined, add strawberries and pecans.

 Fill well-greased muffin tins 2/3 to all-the-way full. Bake at 400˚F for ~20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I made mine quite large and my recipe made 15 muffins.