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Rainy day treats that taste of fall: Sweet potato muffins

Recipe: Nutrient-rich, they're good anytime

Muffins on a blue plate
Bake these on a rainy day. (Photos: Debbie Arrington


Rainy days are made for baking. That’s when I pull out the muffin tin.

Muffins are a handy treat good for anytime snacking, on-the-go breakfast or after dinner with coffee. When they include high-nutrient vegetables or fruit, they might even be healthy.

With dark red skin and orange flesh, garnet sweet potatoes are packed with vitamins and antioxidants. And right now, they’re available in abundance. Other varieties also work in this quick and easy recipe.

Two small sweet potatoes or one medium will yield ½ cup pulp. To cook quickly, trim ends and prick with a sharp knife in several places. Wrap sweet potatoes in a paper towel and zap them for 4 minutes on High in the microwave until fork-tender. The flesh will slip right out of the skin. After mashing, a little orange juice keeps the color bright.

Leftover mashed sweet potatoes also work in this recipe.

3 sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are packed with vitamins.

Sweet potato muffins

Makes 1 dozen 2-inch muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ cup mashed sweet potatoes, cooled

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

½ cup raisins or dried cranberries

2 tablespoons Demerara sugar or white sugar

Instructions:

Muffin batter in orange, blue and yellow liners
Silicone liners make for easy pan cleanup.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients.

In another bowl, mix together mashed sweet potatoes and orange juice. Add beaten egg and milk. Fold in melted butter.

Add sweet potato mixture to dry ingredients with big strokes, just until blended. Fold in raisins.

Prepare muffin tin; grease cups or line with paper or silicone liners.

Fill cups about two-thirds full of batter. Sprinkle tops with Demerara or white sugar.

""
Muffins are great any time of day.
Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Garden Checklist for week of April 20

Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

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