Baking isn’t about rules, it’s about CHEMISTRY. As a good scientist, you know that you just have to know HOW things work, and THEN you can play around with the recipe.

I grew up with a mom who had decided she couldn’t bake, so our cakes were from a box and biscuits were from a can. She’s 90! now and never would try again to bake.

Don’t limit yourself! Just figure out the chemistry, which is all about PROPORTIONS of wet/dry/leavening/load to lift and you’ll be set.

My mom’s decision that she “couldn’t bake” seemed dumb and self-defeating to me, and I wasn’t about to get stuck in that box. So, I started with bundt cakes, and moved on to bread - by myself - when I was 16. I bought a book and pans with my allowance, and I was on a mission! I had my share of bird food… don’t throw those muffins out - feed them to the birds and squirrels! (Maybe not with cayenne…)

The most important thing I learned about baking was to change just ONE THING at a time in a new recipe. (oh yeah, and always crack the eggs into a separate bowl… that CRUNCHY birthday cake I had begged to make for my aunt when I was 9 will follow me forever!)

It’s been 39 yrs (wow does time fly) since those first attempts at bread, and now I have more confidence to change things, but I’m still (kind of) conservative with the changes in baking.

Just recently learned to put BEANS and COTTAGE CHEESE in the same loaf of bread in order to get the protein up - credit to Laurel’s Kitchen (you would love her approach to nurturing family) and SourdoughHome.com. This guy is your neighbor - teaching bread classes at 7,700 feet!

He mentions the Colorado State U Extension Service ext.colostate.edu/menu_nutrition.html for general cooking info. I bet they could help you with high altitude quick breads - I’m gonna be NO HELP! I live 60 miles east of the Big Pond at 200′…

I’d love to try that savory muffin recipe (I’m working hard to stay out of sugar too… and lost 30! pounds for my effort) - but it looks like you’re short on eggs… for that volume of flour and extra weighty stuff the batter has to lift, it’s GOTTA have more than 1 egg to help the baking powder and “solda,” girlfriend! Please tell me “1 large eggs” is a typo…

So, some ideas for you - and don’t give up your experiments! You follow recipes like I do - like a blueprint for a building… just a place to start changing things It’s just that with baking, you need to keep your wet/dry and leavening power equivalent.

If you’ll send me a version of the recipe with the right amount of eggs, I’ll fiddle with it and see what I can come up with that’s got whole grain flour. Do you NOT EAT ham? Most of your One Pot meals have meat… haven’t you ever had a Ham n Cheese Croissant?

Re your experiments: the zucchini is WAY wetter than the peppers, unless you soaked the water off in paper towels first, and boring to taste anyway. The buttermilk is going to react with the soda to help the mess rise - without it the soda can’t do much. You can make your own “buttermilk” by adding 1T lemon juice or vinegar to 1C milk. If you put in just one egg like you sent out the recipe, that alone would cause flat muffins… And from what I’ve heard, if you don’t adjust for altitude in the Rockies, you may as well throw away your ingredients before you bake, and save on electricity!

There’s 4 reasons I see that may have doomed your muffins to bird food… If you solve one at a time, and with the help of your extension service and/or the very neat and VERY EXPERIENCED guy at SourdoughHome, I bet you’ll have a GREAT batch of muffins!

Just one other change I’d make in the 2nd batch, is to skip the cayenne and use pepper jack cheese - cayenne is SOOO strong! And the world’s BEST Pepper Jack is from Tillamook - it’s on the Oregon Coast just about 125 miles NW of me. I bet you can even buy it in your town - they’re nationwide now!!

Elizabeth - never say die. Keep on, and you’ll figure it out! Baking IS art - Emeril just hasn’t figured it out yet either. Don’t listen to him about baking!!!

And thanks for the lasagna recipe - I do that with dry noodles in a regular casserole, but it hadn’t occurred to me to try it in a One Pot.

Love your blog!

Nanette in Eugene