March 21: Sausage Corn Bread Muffins

I have a breakfast problem.

Junk food has lost most of its appeal to me, really; I'd rather go home and make myself a turkey sandwich with dill havarti cheese with dijon mustard and arugula and a paper-thin slice of red onion than go through the drive through at McDonald's for a quarter-pounder with cheese. Now that I watch what I eat a little more closely, I really want what I eat to taste good.

That's not the problem. The problem is breakfast. My fast food moratorium does not extend to breakfast, especially not the sausage breakfast burrito from McDonald's, or, God help me, the sausage croissant'wich from Burger King.

That's part of the problem, but the underlying problem is, I don't like most breakfast food: I don't like syrup, I don't like cereal except for Cheerios (don't ask), and I only like fruit in small amounts. I like bacon just fine, of course, because who the hell doesn't like bacon, it's bacon, but a plate of bacon is apparently not an appropriate breakfast. Especially not for a diabetic, whose arteries are prone to clogging and other bad things, things I have tried very hard not to pay a whole lot of attention to until now. Sheesh.

Well then. My breakfast problem is that I have strict requirements for breakfast: it ought to be portable, reasonably healthy, and contain some sort of pork product, because, you know, I'm kind of a stubborn asshole as it turns out.

I like the looks of this bad boy, I have to say. It's from Everyday Food, which I bought yesterday in the grocery store line because I am a sucker for an impulse buy, especially an impulse buy involving a food or cooking magazine of some kind. I have no interest in imitation sausage veggie patties, so I am telling you right now that I have replaced that with real honest to God sausage. Okay, so come on, it's half a pound of sausage in a dozen muffins. That works out to less than an ounce of sausage each, and this probably won't kill me, as long as I don't do what I am concerned that I might do and sit down and eat all twelve of them at once.

Oh, and I'd just like to add the following: I found two typos in this recipe as printed. I have omitted them, because I find typos in a presumably-professionally edited document nearly as offensive as I find imitation sausage, but should anybody be looking to hire a copy editor in the D.C. area, my current job is kicking me to the pavement and laughing while I cry lately, and I might be willing to entertain some offers.

Sausage Corn Bread Muffins

8 oz. hot breakfast sausage
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
3/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Line 12 muffin pan cups with muffin liners.

In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook sausage, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned. Let cool.

Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, set aside. Whisk together buttermilk, egg, and butter in a medium bowl. Mix buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in sausage, corn, and cheese.

Divide the batter into the muffin pan cups. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve warm.

Can be refrigerated up to 3 days, or frozen.