Exploding a Food Fad

In his very first cookbook, _Alan Hooker's New Approach to Cooking _(Pacific Coast Publishing, 1966), Hooker describes the long-ago invention of Atomic Muffins--still a Ranch House favorite: "Because it is known that at one time I was a very strict vegetarian, I am periodically besieged by one or another of the multitude of food faddists. I seem especially to attract every crackpot with a real food neurosis. One day, after a particularly deadly onslaught complete with reasons why I should eat in what they call the 'health way', with great glee I set out to make a concoction that I knew was going to be so horrible that even the most dedicated faddist could not stomach it. I put together everything I had ever heard of that would bring dynamic, vibrant, radiant, bubbling, creative, irritating good health, and then put this potential dynamite into a muffin tin and baked it. I have to report that those muffins turned out to have a marvelous flavor and gave a quite noticeable jolt of energy. But nobody is going to influence me, and I can resist their ideas by refusing to make these abundantly delicious bits of good health. However, there is no reason why you should not try them...."