Muffin thief!

Last night, Big I and I made these muffins. (By the way, they are only muffins in shape. The texture is something between pumpkin pie and french toast with all those eggs in there.)

I went to take a shower this morning after Daddy left and come out to find this on the counter:


Someone has been eating my muffins.

For the record, he gets this from his father who would take one bite of each cookie to 'claim' it. He has 3 older siblings, I guess it was pure survival on Craig's part.

But Big I has no older siblings. He just wanted the chocolate chips.

Muffins!

Been baking and freezing the heck out of this new recipe I found for Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins.

We've made lots of variations and haven't had a bad one yet:

• strawberry and banana
• mango
• using regular milk (with some apple cider to curdle it)
• using coconut oil
• replacing the AP flour for coconut flour

Banana Cupcakes...

...with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting.

Why yes, they are as good as they sound.

I dared not post about them early on Ash Wednesday in order not to tease those of you who were fasting.

But today there's nothing stopping you.

Best buds

Look where I found Big I this evening.


Gives new meaning to the term 'snuggle bunny'.


(No worries, Big I's wet bottom is from a damp sandbox.)

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Big I worked really hard the other day to help make and decorate some Valentine's Day cookies. He did a good job, didn't he?


Sampling was a part of a process, of course.


I put them on my lovely new Fiesta platter I got for Christmas and they looked so cheerful. But when we came back from a walk the demon dogs had pulled the table cloth until the platter came crashing down.

No more cookies. No more very nice platter. :(

Good thing I took pictures.

New recipes

No interest in blogging still, but I did try three new recipes this week and they were all delicious so I thought I'd pass them on. (I think the family is grateful the first trimester food-aversions are over.) Two recipes are vegetarian which are always keepers with the price of meat going up lately and with Lent coming soon.

1. Moroccan Meatloaf - I actually made no changes to this recipe and it was very easy and tasty as well as somewhat unusual. I bet it would freeze well. Big I liked the raisins.

2. Eggplant Parmesan Heros - I added some mozzarella to the buns to melt while they were briefly toasting in the oven. Don't bother with croutons, just use the pre-done Italian breadcrumbs from the store. Also, a medium eggplant makes quite a bit, so choose a smaller eggplant unless you have a crowd. I doubt the eggplant would keep well for leftovers.

3. Sweet Potato Burritos - I realized too late that I was almost out of cumin and never did have coriander. I improvised some other spices: chili powder mostly, I think. They were still yummy, so I can't wait to try again with the correct ingredients. I also intended to use only 2 potatoes and put an extra the freezer for Sweet Potato Biscuits* later. However, I spaced out when making dinner and used all three. There's now plenty of left over burritos in the freezer! Hopefully they'll reheat well.


* If you've tried making that biscuit recipe and found them too tough or crumbly, try using half and half of the whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. You may have better luck with the texture.

Beer, Pizza and Pretzels

You would think by the title we were entertaining a bunch of frat boys at the house, but it was actually just dinner tonight. I made some pizza using this recipe for beer dough from Penzey's.

Note, when the recipe says it makes a big batch, they are not kidding.


I made up two pizzas, which hardly made a dent in the dough supply. They were pretty good, but one was overbaked and Craig commented that it was more like a pretzel on the edges than pizza crust.

'Pretzels' you say?? Coming right up!


We used this recipe for the boiling/baking parameters.


15 minutes later, they turned out very nicely!


It should be noted, I still have enough of that dough in the freezer for at least three more pizzas.

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I finished a hat for Big I for this winter. Of course, I didn't think to try on last year's hat to see how it fit until after I finished the new one. Yes, the old one still fits fine. (Fortunately so does his coat.)


Anyway, doesn't he look like his cousin B-man in this picture?

Swiss Chard

Just look at this 'Bright Lights' Swiss Chard. It's growing like crazy right now.


Did you see those colors?


Saute with some olive oil, onions and garlic...mmmm. It's even toddler approved.

Mmm, beer....

...bread.


I've made this Beer Bread recipe twice now. The first time with 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and a Shiner Bock. The second, pictured here, with 1/2 cup Asiago cheese (I knew putting that stuff in the freezer would pay off!) and a Sierra Nevada Stout.

Both very, very good. And it makes the house smell bread-y and beer-y at the same time. Yum.

I've also added some new recipes to the side bar. Check them out...the giant bunny wants you to!

Moo, Moo, Boo!

Here are a few pics of Big I in his Halloween costume. We didn't bother getting any candy, but he enjoyed walking around and seeing other folks out and about. Last weekend we went to a city Halloween event with some friends and even though there were ten bazillion people there, he was just interested in the rocks. Well, and the fire trucks. And the mini cars.






Craig suggested we put a 'Eat Mor Chikn' sign on him.

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With the cooler weather, I've been baking a lot lately. Big I has learned that he can lick the mixer or spoon. So now he either pushes the chair over and declares "Up!" or he hangs around with his tongue hanging out waiting for a taste. Silly guy.

Seriously Good Cake

The Dallas Morning News frequently has excellent recipes in their Your Life section. I've found many good keepers in the past few years there. I found the one below this week and it may now rank as one of my very favorite desserts ever...but there are so many from which to choose.

Unfortunately, I can't find it listed on their website, so here it is re-typed. Hope they don't mind.


Pumpkin-Cranberry Spice Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole what flour
• 1 T cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 tsp grated orange zest
• 2 T orange juice
• 2 T water
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a large Bundt pan with cooking spray or brush with oil Add a small amount of granulated sugar and turn the pan to coat. Discard excess.

In a medium bowl, stir together both flours, the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on high until the mixture is thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin, orange zest, orange juice and water. Beat on low until smooth.

Sift the dry ingredients on top of the pumpkin mixture and stir just until combined. Stir in the cranberries.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape the better into the prepared pan, smoothingthe top. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with powered sugar before serving. Makes 16 servings.

YUM!

This is the reason...

...you make sure your pie dough is COLD when you put it in the oven.

I was in a hurry to get another apple pie in before Big I woke up and didn't think about chilling it for a few minutes first. Gah! Failure, complete failure.



Instead of flaky, puffy yumminess it became oozy, flat, meltiness. COLD people. The dough has to be COLD.


In contrast, here's the one from this past weekend. It's a bad picture, but trust me, it was everything a crust should be.


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Poor Big I had a bad tumble tonight. Every now and again he tries going a little faster than he should and face-plants on the sidewalk. Tonight I saw it from front and center and he got the whole thing right on his mouth. BIG fat lip, blood, the whole shebang.


He seems to have recovered (yet another reason to be thankful for extended nursing...instant comfort and antibacterial breastmilk right where it was needed) and enjoyed his nice cold cantaloupe (wouldn't take a popsicle or ice). I think one of his teeth is crooked now, but Craig thinks I'm crazy. If his teeth are ruined for life we'll know why.

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Big I got a new rocking horse the other day. We're still working on mounting and dismounting. He may be quite the equestrian yet.




He was also practicing with the camera again today, unbeknownst to me. Maybe he has a future in cinematography. What do you think?

Another give-away

This one isn't mine. Check out Lisa's BEA-ut-ti-ful necklace here. I have a bit of a jewelry problem when it's hand-made. I feel I should support folks who are trying to earn a little something extra and darn it they're pretty and shiny!

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And just to brag, I made the most perfect apple pie this weekend. It was a perfect flaky crust and not too-sweet filling. Gotta love The Best Recipe.

It still wasn't as good as Grandma Gross'.

Some yummies

Made these the other night. Yum. And who doesn't love a good, easy crock pot recipe?

To go with them, I sliced some plums, nectarines, and peaches in half and chunked up some banana. I put the fruit on a skewer in a sort of kebab and cooked them on my cast-iron griddle until they were soft and had black marks. It would work well on the grill outside too. Drizzle with honey...oooohhh yeah.

A quick recipe

This one is from our friend Sarah. It's not super healthy but it's quick and tasty.

Cheese Enchiladas

• flour tortillas- about 8 (I use whole wheat/multi-grain)
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 small can chopped black olives
• 1 small can diced green chiles (look for this in the Tex-Mex section. Took me forever to find them.)
• shredded cheese (2-4 cups)

Mix together all ingredients except tortillas. Spread about 2 T of sauce in tortillas. Don't over fill! Roll and place in 9 x 13" pan. Spread remaining sauce on top. Top with cheese. Refrigerate overnight (optional). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Yum!

May the Schwartz be with you

Today we're talking about Yogurt.


No, no, not that Yogurt. Although, Spaceballs was on tv the other day. What a wacked-out movie. I hadn't remembered most of it from when I was a kid. Very strange. But I'm talking the stuff you eat. I made some last week. Homemade yogurt. And it was good.

Here's the short version:

Homemade Yogurt

• One quart (that's 4 cups for the conversion-challenged) whole milk, plus a couple tablespoons more
• 1/2 cup cream if you want it richer.
• 1-2 tablespoons active plain yogurt (Yes, you need yogurt to make yogurt. It's the 'live and active cultures' part that you need. And no, they don't sell plain yogurt in the little containers. You'll have a lot of yogurt for a while.)
  

Heat your milk to boiling while stirring, reduce heat and simmer ten minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

When just warm (about 110 degrees for those with a thermometer), remove a couple of tablespoons of the milk and mix with 1-2 tablespoons of the yogurt to liquefy. Stir it back into the pot.

Pour into a clean container, cover, and leave it in warm place overnight. Put in fridge to chill and enjoy.


The more detailed version:

I put 4 cups of whole milk to boil and didn't stir it enough, so I got some sticking and browning. When I reduced the heat, I did constantly stir for 10 minutes. After it was cool enough, I used only about 1 tablespoon of yogurt as it was supposed to make a thicker product than if you use 2 tablespoons. I poured it into a reused yogurt container through a sieve to remove the sticky bits. (The stuff left over in the sieve was really good on its own by the way.)

I wrapped the container in a towel and put it into a small cooler with a jar of very warm water. In the morning, viola! Perfect yogurt. Better than store-bought I think. Next time I'll experiment with sweetener and flavors.

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I also got two new recipes from the yogurt container that were good. Since they're free to see on the container, I suppose I can post them here without the yogurt company minding. I did make a few modifications for clarity.


Melt-in-your-mouth Strawberry Muffins

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Stonyfield Farm yogurt (Plain in my case. Vanilla might be good too.)
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking soda. In a second bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture to coat. Next, pour yogurt mixture into flour mixutre and stir. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields: 12 muffins.


Melissa asked about hummus a while back. I've always made it from a box but when I found this one, I liked it much better.

Yogurt Hummus

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
• 1 - 15oz. can garbanzo beans - drained (or do you call them chick peas?)
• 1/2 cup Stonyfield Farm Organic Plain Yogurt
• 3 tablespoons tahini (seasame seed paste) (I omitted this.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Place garlic and parsley in a food processor and chop until finely diced. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Serve with pita chips, bagel chips, tortillas or fresh veggies. Yields: 10 servings

Saving some for later

So many things going on I could tell you about, but I'll keep it practical.

My 'farmers market' had yellow squash and the hilariously billed "Italian Squash" (aka: zucchini) on sale the other week. (Actually, the store is a retail chain, but it's funny that they call it a 'farmers market' since everything's imported. My town's actual farmer's market doesn't start until May for heaven's sake. And then they don't have much in the way of fresh and local...for example, one guy sells frozen salmon. I'll pass, thanks.) Anyway, I bought a bunch so I could freeze it. I'm hoping my squash will produce enough this summer that I'll laugh at having bought some to store now, but I'm not gonna count on it.

So, freezing squashes is great because you don't have to blanch them. Blanching kills the enzymes that lead to spoilage. There's a lot of science involved that I'll skip. The point here is, you don' t need to for summer squashes unless you want.

For now, just wash...


slice or grate...


and lay-out flat on a baking sheet.


Laying them out flat is optional, but it's nice since it helps avoid having one giant frozen mound of squash. You can just pour out what you need like from a store-bough bag.

Notice, I also pre-bag mine. I do this mostly because I'm lazy and I will forget to come back after 30 minutes or so to bag up the slices. If I don't, I'll open up the freezer hours later and curse beause I have trays of loose veggies that I forgot about and now I have to stop what I was really doing and fumble around with a bunch of hard, roly discs that skitter across my kitchen floor. Pre-bagging is just easier.

But be sure label the bags BEFORE putting the veggies in.


Now press out the air...


and place flat in the freezer...


(Have I mentioned how much I love my bottom-freezer with the pull-out drawer?)

Once they're frozen more or less, just slide the trays out and you're good to go. Cook these as you would any frozen veggie. They won't be super crisp like fresh, but they're still great in soups or sauted if you don't mind them a bit soft.

(In case you're interested, you probably can get fairly crisp veggies if you freeze these fast enough. It's the ice crystals that break down the cell walls and make plants mushy. The slower something freezes, the bigger the crystals. If you used, say, dry ice for super-fast freezing and then put them in the bottom of a deep-freeze, you might have a chance. Good luck with that.)

A few tips for the shredded stuff:

1. if you have one, use a measuring spoon with rounded edges on the bottom, it makes nice mounds that don't cling to any crevices inside the cup. If yours leads a double life living on the floor as a baby toy, be sure to wash it well first.
   
   
2. pre-bag on a cookie sheet (see above). Be sure to leave some space between the mounds but gently press out as much air as you can around them.
   
   
3. check your recipe to see how much you need. For zucchini bread, I know that I'll need 2 1/2 cups of zucchini, so I made 5 half-cup mounds.
   
   
4. these will take longer to freeze than the slices, so leave them undisturbed a few hours before taking them off the cookie sheet.
   
   
5. when you're ready to use, just pull them out to thaw. You could probably thaw them in the microwave but I've never tried it.

Yum!

A hot cup of...chocolate cake?

Seriously.

Chocolate Cake. In a cup. From the microwave.

From "Yorkie's" friend in Scotland (my comments in italics and Yorkie is someone's online moniker from a message board where I saw this, don't actually know her personally):

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
Most dangerous cake recipe in the world

4 tablespoons SR* flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) - but why would you want to omit?
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using)
and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. (I put my 1100 watt microwave down to 90%)
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT!
(this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous)

This recipe is the most dangerous in the world because it means we're only ever 5 minutes away from chocolate cake.

* Self-Rising flour. Made my own by adding some baking powder and a pinch of salt to the flour. A real mixture from the discussion thread was 1c. AP flour, 1/4 tsp. baking powder and a pinch of salt. It was also suggested that AP flour alone would be fine but may not rise as much. Mine rose and then fell several times.

Mine turned out slightly dry, so for Craig's I added a tiny bit more milk and reduced the cooking time to 2:45. I also used Andes chips. It's not like it is from the oven, but it is warm and gooey and chocolaty. Great fun for kids to watch rise in the microwave too.

Oo la la. Only missing some ice cream.

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Speaking of good things from a cup, Big I is in love with his new sippy cup. Too bad he hasn't figured out how to tip it up and actually get liquid from it yet.

Presents for baby, Lenten recipes and Big I's in the Box

I finished a couple of little projects to give to my friends Dorie and James who are expecting next month.

First a Socktopus, which has been road tested by Big I:



Also, a little nursing bracelet for Dorie to use. It helps keep track of which side to start on each time you sit down to feed the little one.





















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I've made a couple of good vegetarian recipes lately, just in time for the second half of Lent.

Check out how pretty the Butternut Squash and White Bean Soup is.

I chopped the spinach into smaller pieces than called for (Craig didn't like long ribbons) and I added a can of vegetable broth as part of the water. Sometimes Real Simple's recipes are too simple and there's not enough flavor, so the broth helps. For those in veggie-adverse households, there's just no way to slide this one in unnoticed.

(And why yes, those are yet more Sweet Potato Biscuits. I like them, okay?!)

Also, I made some excellent Fish Tacos last night. I bought the tomatillo salsa to save on time. I'd like to make the salsa myself next time, though.

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We got two big convertable car seats for Big I the other day. (Thank you Woot!) I think he was more interested in the box.


Wonder where he gets it from? This is me circa March 1981 (just about the same or a bit older than his age now).

Notice the box in the background?