muffins

 

I have a couple of go-to muffin recipes I bake several times a month. This one is a basic muffin recipe that I added a pint of raspberries too. I generally am not a raspberry fan, but in muffins, they add just the right amount of fruity tartness to begin your day. I use this recipe from Baked by an Introvert, and full disclosure, I use oil instead of butter because butter is getting a bit too spendy. I also use turbinado sugar on the top. These work really well plain, served with jam and clotted or barely sweetened cream. You can also add frozen berries but they may need a little more baking time. Use a toothpick to check. 

fortunes where we find them

 I woke up from a nap in the mood for chocolate and sweet. I seem to have a grip on my allergies at the moment but not nearly as strong a grip as I would like. The past few days has had me a bit on the groggy side which usually means that some pesky pollen has snuck in. In comes the grog, out goes the sniffer. It's a good thing I have learned to roll with it. I might not roll silently but I roll all the same.

The grogginess combined with the summer heat that has finally hit our little town had me down for the count. The early-afternoon light sneaking in through the blinds along with the soft-soft thrifted duvet I just picked up from my favorite thrift had me snoozing along with the hum of the sewing machine as mister stitched up a pair of ukulele straps.

I woke up just as mister came in to tell me he was heading out for a project. I slippy-slipped my way to the tiny kicthen with one thing in mind. Chocolate! In all honesty, I have kind of been neglectful when it comes to chocolate. I think that with the sniffer gone, my sweet tooth finds its happiness in cakey bits and such. This day however, I wanted chocolate!

After digging around the collection of bars in the drawer (I pick up fancy bars for baking) I grabbed what was a left of a New Tree Lavender Milk chocolate bar and popped it atop a square of graham cracker. After a waltz or two in the microwave and a nice covering of mini marshmallows I had myself a s'more.

After documenting its pretty, I brought that square of sticky goodness to my mouth and caught the most delectable whiff of lavender. It was a perfect moment. I could smell the chocolate, the lavender and the vanilla in the marshmallows. How sweet it is when the sniffer works!

when life gives you defrosted blueberries...

You make muffins!

As I mentioned before in a previous post, the mama a-go-go's fridge threw a tantrum and turned itself off. We didn't fully notice until most of the freezer was defrosted and so had to work creatively on using up those ingredients for all sorts of meals. There was a cup of once-fresh blueberries i nthe mix and so I made muffins.

I mostly used this recipe but substituted coconut milk for regular milk and I brown sugar for the topping instead of white. Oh, and only two tablespoons of unsalted butter as that is all I had on hand. The recipe is for six jumbo muffins. I do not have a jumbo muffin pan and so I made twelve smaller muffins.

I really like this recipe, it all comes together super quick and like I said, it is a super dense muffin full of flavor. I completely forgot to add baking powder, maybe that is why they were so dense?  They also did not brown up too much but the flavor does more than compensate. I baked them to take with us on our mini road trip but they didn't last that long as they got gobbled up by many of us a-go-gos. I need to get more berries...fast!

summer baking: peanut butter banana bread {with mini peanut butter cups}

 There has (have?) been a very sad and sorry bunch of bananas working on their rotting ripening in the fridge for so long I cannot remember when I brought the surly bunch home.  Mister will not, absoutely will NOT partake of ooey brown and spotted bananas so it was up to me to use them in my smoothies. Unfortunately, I have been on a yogurt and fruit kick, so that sad and sorry bunch of bananas kept inching their way further and further into the depths that is the top shelf of our refrigerator. The shelf is high enough that unless you stoop, you cannot really see what snacky bits hang out there, so those sad and sorry bananas just kept growing more sad and sorry. I did manage to sneak one into an afternoon smoothie when the mister was home so there is that.

When one has a sad and sorry bunch of bananas one has two choices. One is to peel, chop and freeze and the other, my favorite, is to make banana bread. After my most recent encounter with those sad and sorry bananas I decided it was fine time to make bread. I was about to bake up my usual batch when I noticed a slightly melty carton of mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's that I bought to experiment with so I suppose NOW was the time. After an assessment of ingredients, I made up this recipe. If you like a not-too-sweet quick bread for breakfast then this is a tasty choice. If you prefer a sweeter bread I think you could increase the sugar to one cup...perhaps use a granulated white or turbinado sugar, I used brown sugar here. Before you start baking prep yourself a pitcher or pot of iced coffee (or, if it is winter where you are, HOT coffee), it makes for a perfect pairing.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

*2 cups flour

*1 tsp baking soda

*1/4 tsp baking powder

*1 tsp ground cinnamon

*a couple of cranks of black pepper

*pinch of salt

*1/4 cup ground flax seeds/flax meal

*1/2 cup packed brown sugar

*1/4 cup oil (canola or veggie)

*heaping spoon of peanut butter (about 1/4-1/2 cup) 

*2 eggs

*3 sad and sorry spotty bananas

*1/2 cup+ mini peanut butter cups 

*1/2 cup granola (optional)

 

 Mix yer dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl. I used a fork and whisked it all up until the mixture looked uniform in color. A note about using the baking powder AND baking soda. I like my banana bread to be dark and speckled. I started using other recipes that would come out light with nary a speck in sight and felt dismayed. After an internet search (I have no idea how I found it) I found a post about the chemical workings of using both baking powder and soda to produce a speckled loaf so now I make sure to add both. When I tried to look it up for you all I could find were references to using spotty and dark bananas which I think doesn't matter one whit for color but a lot for flavor.

 

 Peel and toss your sad and sorry bananas into bowl and mash em up with a fork or potato masher. If you have kiddos around, have them mash 'em up, kiddos love it and you can work on mixing up the oil and sugar while they're at it.

In a separate bowl, dump yer sugar and oil and mix using a hand mixer or wooden spoon. I lack both counter space and funds for a fancy stand mixer so all my recipes use good old fashioned stirring or beatering. Next add your peanut butter (I used SKIPPY) then your eggs. Beat for one full minute then add your sad and sorry bananas.

 

Unplug your mixer and pop the messy beaters into your banana bowl or sink, whichever is closest. Grab a wooden spoon and incorporate the dry ingredients using good old fashioned elbow grease. Mix in your mini peanut butter cups (or chips) and set aside. If you find your batter to be too thick, add a smidge of milk, one tablespoon at a time to thin.

 

Grease your baking dish of choice, I used both a shallow 9" cake round and a skinny loaf pan. pour your batter into your chosen baking dish(es) and toss a handful or two of granola on top. I used this nifty mix. If you managed not to eat up the rest of your peanut butter cups, add a few to the top of your batter as well.

Bake it all up in a hot 350F oven for 20-50 minutes depending on the depth of your pan/dish. The cake round pan baked up in 20 minutes while the loaf pan took about 40. Do the toothpick test to make sure but don't overbake.

Allow to cool. I find that banana bread tastes best at room temperature and even better the next day. This recipe makes a hearty (hippy dippy and scone like) loaf that is only slightly sweet save for the burst of chocolate and peanut butter from the mini cups.

I like it best with an unsweetened creamy iced coffee. mister scarfed down one third of the round pan in one evening. Not all at the same time but still...

then i made pie pops

 

 

 

 

 

 with strawberry or cherry jam...the cherry jam was/is divine! what else can i make with it?

lovely love: make shortbread bites

 Shortbread cookies are a specialty of mine. I enjoy baking them and my friends enjoy eating them. When I first began baking up shortbread, I went the traditional route and attempted to roll the sugary dough into Martha Stewart-worthy logs with little success. The cookies tasted lovely but looked a little less than. One day, in my haste and frustration, I heaped all the dough onto the cookie sheet into a mound that I squared off with a sharp knife once the cookies were out of the oven. I began calling them shortbread bites and merrily went on my way. This past month, I have been seeing recipes for shortbread bites popping up all over the place. Here are a few pointers I will offer.

Your basic shortbread dough is equal parts butter, flour and sugar....give or take a smidge here or there. I use a little less sugar. The dough is so simple to make and comes together so easily you can whip a batch up with a worn wooden spoon. No mixers needed. Use confectioners/powdered sugar, it adds no grain to the dough. Add a pinch of salt, or better yet, sprinkle a little salt on top. When adding vanilla, forget a measuring spoon, simply add a cap full, that's what my mamos taught me. If you wish to add sprinkles or lavender buds, use your hands and then add a smattering to the top. Make a double batch of dough to store in the freezer. Form one part into a log so you can have instant slice and bake goodness for those gray mornings that need a pick me up. Remove the dough from the oven a minute or two even before the timer goes off. An underbaked shortbread cookie will have a dazzling bit of chew and it changes the whole cookie eating experience. 

When making shortbread bites, you can use a knife to square off edges (don't throw them away, they are just as tasty) and slice through the dough while it is still warm to cut dozens of small bite-sized piece. You can also use an assortment of your smallest cookie cutters. They have a certain charm that enhances the sweetness of the cookie. Most of all, make sure to share the wealth. A small bit of baked goodness can usual brighten the dreariest of days! Happy almost-Febraury!

my go to quick bread recipe*

*3 mashed bananas

*1/4 cup oil

*1/2 cup brown sugar

*1/2 cup sugar

*2 eggs

*2 cups flour

*1 tsp baking soda

*1/4 tsp baking powder

*1-2 tsp cinnamon

*1/4 cup flax meal

*1/2 cup chopped pecans

*a whole lotta chocolate chips

Blend well, bake at 350 (in a greased/floured pan) until toothpick comes clean (around 45 minutes or so) and enjoy warm with a cuppa tea.

I made this bread on Thursday. I really needed to feel productive and there were three very sorry looking bananas camping out on top of the microwave. The casa was chilly and so I mashed away and stirred and poured and then while it baked I called a friend and enjoyed a happy phone call. I am so not a phone person. I enjoyed a slice fresh from the oven and then chopped up the rest for our mini road trip. The mister has already devoured three slices. Good thing I hid the box for the car. Enjoy!

**sometimes I use canned pumpkin instead of bananas and sometimes I steam and mash up a sweet potato. I always add cinnamon. It is so good!

making lemonade {cake}

Last week was not of the hottest kind. I was out of whack and out of sorts thus not feeling too well. I tend to do that. Get physically ill when I am stressed out and I'm pretty good at stressing myself out. In an effort to cheer myself up, I picked up this magazine.** What? I know, see I told you I was old. Some gals go for Cosmo or People when they feel like sticking their heads in the sand. Me? I like to pick up recipes and crafty bits and sometimes even a new lipstick though lately I'm not feeling like I can pull off lipstick anymore.

So yesterday, I baked a cake. A lemonade cake, though this one was more of a pink lemonade cake as I happened to have frozen lemonade of the pink variety purchased a while back for some sort of pink project I wanted to do but didn't (the story of my life). We had some buttermilk that needed using up and summer is here so a lemonade cake it was.

The cake baked up nice and pretty and then I whomped up the frosting. I'm not really a frosting person but I still had a lot of frozen lemonade to use up and the recipe called for a whipped butter frosting using the frozen goodness so I thought, why not? I think the butter was too soft and the concentrate too melty. I had a whipped pink mess of curdledness that was so very not pretty. It was however mighty tasty and light on the tongue so I decided to ice up the cake anyway. It probably would have been less of a mess had I given the cake another hour to cool down. I didn't. What, me? Impatient? So I ended up with a not-very-pretty pink mess of a cake that was tastier than tasty, if not photo-worthy. I took pictures anyway after I had a hissy fit when everyone in the homestead started pestering me to slice it up. Baking with people around really irks up the photo-mojo and makes me feel rushed. I can't relish the time to take pics in different light and locations as the baked goodness tends to disappear the moment I wander out of the room. It's not a bad thing at all, being around people you enjoy. It just takes some getting used to.

So there ya have it, the life motto passed down from my mamos through an ill-gained gift plaque of utter tackiness*. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade {cake}.

**I also may have eaten more than three bowls of Lucky Charms (or, rather...Marshmallow Mateys) this week and watched far too many Netflix discs. We're talking seven episodes of True Blood, an entire disc from How I Met Your Mother and maybe a romantic comedy that I enjoyed far more than the critics or other public. Oh and I napped. A lot. but I also joined the family for a hike that had just enough ups and downs and wandered out after dark with the mister for a telescope date. Yeah, we're cool like that. I hope everyone has a delightful rest of the weekend and if yer in the states, Happy Fourth!

*I had thought I explained that story but I couldn't find it so it will have to be for another day. It's pretty twisted.

cake therapy

well folks, today i woke up feeling much better than the day before and proceeded to do all sorts of craftiness. probably a bit too much as i dashed about painting here and stitching there...taking pictures of this, taking pictures of that. i even climbed atop a rickety chair for a bench monday picture (which left me out of breath and whoozy). it's not even 5pm and i am pooped with a capital P. sheesh! methinks i should have just stuck with the cake baking. cake baking? what cake baking you ask?well, you know you must be feeling better when you manage to wrestle an assortment of ingredients into the oven to create something sweet and delicious. you know you must be feeling even slightly better than better when you manage to do so sans coughing fits and using up interesting ingredients. the best part though...the bestest of the best part is discovering you have wonky ingredients that will bake up a nifty cake, a bundt cake no less on National Bundt Cake Day!**so here you go my friends, happy bundt cake day!
**though for some reason, my bundt cake looks more like a giant donut...but shhh....it was still baked in a bundt pan so it counts!

mondays are more manageable when cake is involved

playing doctor with a cake mix...

super trooper

For a quick second back in the dawn of the eighties, I was a Girl Scout. I wasn't your average Girl Scout, nor was our troop. Our leader unfortunately only lasted a few months and the troop disbanded after her breakdown. My favorite part of the Girl Scouts really was my uniform. Growing up, my family had very little money and so I was forced to wear a vintage Girl Scout uniform . It was that wonderful gray green dress with a collar and buttons and so many pleasing details. I was in love with my dress and was equally delighted when in high school, I realized that though I was not a Girl Scout or a tiny eleven year old for that matter, I could still wear the dress...as a top...over jeans...and so I did.

I had no clue as to how the Girl Scouts worked and looking back as an adult I feel saddened that I didn't. What a neat organization chock-full of industry, spunk and craftiness, you know, save for the semi-exclusiveness of some of the troops. Though I wasn't an honest to goodness Girl Scout, I never earned a badge, we didn't have any time for it, I dabbled in the troopy arts. In first grade I was a Pixie and in Sixth, a Campfire Girl. I guess I had enough of the idea of the scouts in me that I tucked it all away in my heart and believed I would always be a scout. While my career as a scout of any kind wasn't long or productive, my mother was a troop leader or helper or something when my sister was a young one, and my sister was at the very least a brownie and when we were reunited many years after her disappearance she taught me the best thing she remembered...Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

I have vague memories of my seventeen year old self dipping something into melted butter and cinnamon. I remember there were marshmallows involved and that it was very, very tasty. I remember my sister and I flattening and tossing and laughing and baking all to the merry soundtrack of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It was a great summer and it was the first time my sister and I got to know each other. Years later when I tried to reproduce that tasty treat, I got the order of everything all mixed up and ended up with a marshmallow something that to me was even tastier...hop on over to scrumdilly-do to see what kind of tasty mess I made.

pretty in pink-puff pastry

Near the tiny casa but not in the same 'hood, there is an institution of baked goodness called Porto's. I am embarrassed to admit that I came to know Porto's quite late, just a few years now so I am making up for lost time. There is always a line, a long one but it moves quickly and before you know it, your order of potato balls, meat pies and cheese rolls is gripped tightly in your hands and torn open on the way to your car. They are not exactly vegetarian friendly by way of hot food but oh my goodness, the pastries are delightful. Their most popular is the cheese roll which is only sixty-five cents and I think I would take one of these over a cupcake any day. The problem is they are too good. Addicting is the word. Even mister a-go-go gets a gleam in his eyes when I arrive with a bag of cheese rolls from Porto's. One day, after demolishing two in one go, I realized I could make these. Easy-peasy even. And then I did.

All you need is puff pastry, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. I also add a bit of orange zest and juice, a dash of black pepper and a sprinkle fest of sparkling sugar.

Let the cream cheese soften so that it is easy to whip up with a mixer. Add powdered sugar to taste and if you like a squeeze of fresh citrus. I used blood orange.

You can use any kind of puff pastry. I live in Little Armenia which has plenty of small family owned markets. These little markets carry four inch squares of puff pastry that I adore. I can pull out one or two and make a single serving of something yummy. I love it! Set out your squares of puff pastry, cut your sheet if you need to.

Slather on the cream cheese mixture to your preference. Fold over squares to form triangles. You can of course fold it any way you like but do fold so that you can make a little tart of sorts.

Use a fork to crimp your edges closed and then cut into the fold with a pair of scissors.

Brush on a bit of melted butter or margarine and sprinkle with your topping. Pop it into a 350 oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes, checking to make sure they don't brown too much. Wait until cool before you devour them all. The inside filling will be HOT! Enjoy with a cup of tea and pace yourself. You can't say I didn't warn you!