Gluten free corn muffins with some chilies for heat

Gluten Free Corn Bread Muffins w/Chilies for Heat

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup corn meal

• 1 Cup gluten free flour

• 1 Tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 Cup milk

• ¼ Cup butter (4 tablespoons)

• 3 Eggs (or 1 egg and 1/3 cup pumpkin mix, not pie)

Reduce these next ingredients as desired:

• ¼ cup sugar

• ¼ cup honey or agave

• your choice of chilies

Heat comes from fresh cooked chilies. Choose your preferred ingredient from warm to very hot: 1 hatch pepper; or 2 jalapeño; or 1 habanero; or 1 habanero plus 1 jalapeño. I cut off the top, clean out the seeds and center ridges, then dice into small 1/4" pieces, except for the habanero which I make into tiny pieces. They go into a skillet with one half of the butter and cook for as long as it takes the oven to heat up to 400 degrees F (be sure not to let any smoke or steam from cooking the chilies get into your eyes). 

The empty muffin pan is placed into the 400 degree F oven, coated with your choice of Pam, olive oil, or your preferred method so that the muffins pop out after cooking.

Dry ingredients are stirred into a mixing bowl, corn meal, gluten free flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Wet ingredients go into another bowl, milk, eggs (pumpkin), honey or agave and half the melted butter. When ready, mix the dry and wet ingredients. The baking powder will start to react. Mix in the cooked chilies of choice with butter, then while continuing to stir pour complete mixture into the hot muffin pan which has been taken out of the oven and coated again if needed.

Place into oven for 10 to 15 minutes, rotate once (I live at 6,000 feet elevation and takes ~12 minutes). Makes 12 muffins. Some people like a little honey on top. After cooling you can keep the muffins in a Tupperware container for a few days. Clean your hands thoroughly after any contact with the chilies or muffins. And be sure to share with others who eat gluten free. 

Terratrike Idler Ripped Off and Inexpensive Solution

Terratrike Idler Ripped Off and Inexpensive Solution

by Joe McCabe Sept 2015

Picked up a used '08 Terratrike Tour in 2011 and put a few thousand miles on it.  Have been pleased with it as an addition to my road bike and hybrid bike for trails. Recently I was trying to power up over a curb and tore off the boom idler. Don't know if it was torn off due to bottoming out on the curb, or because I put so much tension on the chain that the idler was torqued off. Either way, it was sitting on the ground before the curb (See Photo:1). Moral of that part of the story is don't try to use a recumbent trike like a BMX bike, Doh!

Photo 1: Torn Off Idler on Floor Below Boom

I thought my jury-rigged solution might help someone who might find themselves in the same situation. Eventually I will need to try and re-weld the lugs back onto the boom. But for now, this PVC and hose clamp solution seems to be working. Below (Photo:2) is shown an image of the solution. I used a 1-1/4" with 1/2" tee PVC fitting, cut it in half and screwed an additional 1/2" threaded fitting into the tee for density. Cut the tee in half and placed it onto the boom in the exact location where the idler was ripped. The 1-1/4" diameter PVC seems a bit small for the boom, but it stretches out when the hose-clamps tighten down. This is important because that unit needs to be snug, tight, or the chain under tension will rip it off, twist it, and make this worthless. I used a wrench to tighten the stainless steel hose clamps down as much as possible without stripping. Drilled a hole in the 1/2" PVC fitting coming off the tee and the original bolt for the idler was inserted. I used one less red lug in the final assemble than the original on the recumbent so that the self-locking nut would have some threads to bite (PVC>Red Lug>Spacer>Sprocket Idler>Spacer>Return Idler>Self-Locking Nut).

Photo 2: Terratrike Idler with PVC and Hose-clamp Retrofit

Here is another blog on how to make and install a low cost fairing for the Terratrike. And here is a blog entry on the electrification of the recumbent. Hope these help someone. Feel free to comment.

Update photo, PVC didn't last long. Now there is a motorcycle exhaust clamp that is working.

Photo 3: Motorcycle Exhaust Clamp holding idler.