Recipe: Berries and lemon muffins

Getting some inspiration back, even if it's just one recipe at a time.

My beans turned out ok - my concern was that they wouldn't be soft enough, but as it turns out they softened quite a bit while in the slow cooker (so much so that they were a little bit more on the mushy side). Next attempt, I'll shorten the soaking time and ease up on the boiling/simmering time.

Today, I tried out a modification of a Martha Stewart muffin recipe to use up the last of my berries. I had to do some modifications based on what was in my pantry, but they turned out surprisingly moist for a low-fat option. 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt (I had vanilla yogurt in my fridge, so I used that)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
• 2 eggs
• 10 ounces fresh raspberries and blueberries 
• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together brown sugar, yogurt, oil, and eggs in another large bowl. Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture and gently mix until just combined. Fold in berries with a rubber spatula.
2. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. Transfer muffins to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Next time, I may try slightly reducing the amount of berries to the recommended 8oz; additionally (and this is hard for me to do, especially when I'm keen to try out the finished product), make sure that the muffins are cool before you try to remove the muffin paper - not to mention the fact that the lemon flavour is more noticeable once the muffin is cooled.

This week: soupe aux pois, or split pea soup. A facelift for a curbside night-table score. Purging and de-cluttering that final stretch that's been lingering since we moved in here -- Apartment Therapy's Small Cool contest is always an inspiration that helps me get my butt in gear!

Slow cooker pulled pork on garlic toast

I made pulled pork in my slow cooker on Friday and it was the best thing I've cooked in my kitchen in a long while.

As per usual, I MacGuyvered a favourite recipe from my sister. I was feeling particularly saucy, so I figured I'd like to play around with what she's got to see what else I could do with it. 

(But then again, it's pulled pork. You don't want to mess with a good thing too much.)

Spoiler alert: when I do this with my cooking, I don't measure things. I measure in pinches and shakes. Consider yourself forewarned.

You'll need:

• Half of a spanish onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 pork tenderloin (You can also substitute with pork shoulder)
• 4 strips of bacon
• Your favourite smokey BBQ sauce (I used a mix of 3 parts Diana's Gourmet Western Smokehouse and 1 part Canadian Club Hickory Bold)
• 1 can of root beer
• 5 drops of liquid hickory smoke
• A few shakes of smoked paprika
• A few pinches of freshly ground black pepper
• A few shakes of sea salt
• Approximately 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• Your favourite buns (I used whole wheat kaisers)
• Freshly chopped garlic
• Mushrooms (if you like them)
• Your favourite cheese (I used Havarti but an old, strong cheddar would also be awesome)

1. Sautée chopped onions with butter; slice the bacon into small pieces and add it into the pan. Once it's started to brown, scrape the contents into the slow cooker; set it to medium. 
2. Add the pork tenderloin, ensuring that it's surrounded with onions and bacon. 
3. Add the BBQ sauce, root beer, hickory smoke, paprika, black pepper, salt, brown sugar, cayenne pepper into the slow cooker. Ensure that the pork is entirely covered (if it's not, add more BBQ sauce).
4. Let it cook for 4 hours on medium. You'll know it's done when the pork pulls apart easily with a fork.
5. Once you can pull the pork apart, drain almost all of the root beer from the cooker; add more BBQ sauce, salt, or pepper to taste. 

Once the pork is ready:  

1. Sautée mushrooms. 
2. Mix chopped garlic with butter and spread it on the buns; put them in the oven with the broiler on until golden brown.  
3. Pile on pulled pork.  
4. Stack with cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and enjoy. 

Bon appetit!

whirlwind + peanut butter cup brownies

four more days til the conference, then i'll be back to a regular blogging schedule after that. promise.

until then, i came across this recipe for peanut butter cup brownies and think it sounds absolutely fantastic. it might be the first thing i do after the conference is finished on the 15th.

or maybe it'll be the second thing, after having a big long nap.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• kosher salt
• 8 large peanut butter cups, cut into pieces

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400° F.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat.
3. Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Lower speed and pour in the melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix in the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Fold in the peanut butter cups.
4. Scrape into a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bake until the tip of a knife comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

enjoy. and please, if it's before sunday, eat an extra one for me.

ps - i managed to do a little 25-minute belly photoshoot with jess this weekend. it felt a little bit rushed, so i'm going to see how they look after a bit of photoshopping. will keep you posted.

recipe and image from here

mighty + mini

it seems as though a lil baking is just what the doctor ordered.

after i left work yesterday, i was super wound up and just couldn't shake it ... so i decided to bake some lil treats to bring into the office today for our weekly snack in the back. (ok, and to snack on last night while i watched a lot like love for the eighty-fifth time. i love that movie.). in honour of thanksgiving this weekend, i baked some mini apple pies and pumpkin pies and brought them into work today with some french vanilla ice cream - to pair with the apple pies - and some whipped cream for the pumpkin.

aside from awesome snacks at work, i'm taking the day off tomorrow to unwind and feel a bit more like myself, so you can expect a post a bit later in the day instead of my usual early-bird post .. you know, after i sleep in, go out for breakfast with jess, and get a massage.

hello four-day weekend filled with awesome plans, tons of food and relaxing; i'm ready to take you on.

shyeah - it's gonna be a good day, i can feel it.

pickles + jam

since having visited the farmers market a few days ago (i finally went berry picking!) i picked up some pickling cucumbers and now have six jars of my first-ever homemade dill pickles. they look delicious, all sitting there on the counter all ready to be eaten.

now i just have to wait six weeks.

yep - sunday was a productive day. i made tons of raspberry jam in little gift-sized containers, froze the remainder of the berries, and learned how to make pickles. i would have made pickled beets, too, if they had been ready to be harvested.

soon, my pets - soon. i'll go back in another week or two and will get a huge bag. i've got a pickling date with my mom and liz, our neighbour.

i'll have beet juice all over my apron and it'll apparently take all day but heck - it'll be delicious. and then i'll be able to say that i'm officially an experienced pickler. sort of.

i just need to get some of the timing down around when the sanitized jars & lids are ready to go on, and i'll be ready to rock. for my pickling expedition last weekend, i ran my jars through the dishwasher and left them in there after the heat-dry cycle had completed, taking them out one by one as i needed them. i kept the lids in a boiling pot of water next to my "filling station", taking them out one at a time when i was ready to seal up each jar, using tongs. it seemed to work pretty well - i just had to time it properly so that everything was ready around the time the dishwasher was finished. i'd messed it up when i was making my jam - the dishwasher was still running and the pectin, sugar and berries were all ready to go into the jars, which caused for a moment or two of momentary panic - but it all worked out well in the end.

as it turns out, jam doesn't set very quickly. phew.

to make some deliciously easy dill pickles of your own, clean off the cucumbers with a rough brush and leave them in ice water overnight. in the morning, slice them into halves or quarters, depending on the size of the jar then just combine:

6 cups of water
6 cups of white vinegar
1/2 cup coarse salt

in a pot, and bring to a boil until the salt dissolves. after that, drop a sprig of fresh dill into each freshly-sanitized hot jar along with half a clove of garlic. pack the container with cucumber spears and ladle the still-boiling vinegar mixture into the jar. put another sprig of dill in, if you'd like, then - being careful not to touch the sanitized lid by placing it on the jar opening with some tongs, close up the jar and set aside for 4-6 weeks.

now the only tricky part is airing out the kitchen so it doesn't smell like dilly vinegar for a day afterwards.

sweetness + rain

oh - hello monday!

t-minus two days until i take off for a few days for a girls getaway in quebec city - and it couldn't be more perfectly timed! i haven't been back there since i worked there as a tour guide seven years ago (seven! i can hardly believe it!) and i miss it like you wouldn't believe.

i've never been to europe, so quebec city is my little taste of the trips to come (sooner or later, i'll make it over there - mark my words).

this weekend: seemed to whiz by in a flash. i went for my first-ever professional massage, which was absolutely lovely. i tried my best to relax but i find some days i have too many things that i can't block out of my head, but it was great nonetheless. i'll definitely be going back and next time, i'm just gonna be sure to enjoy it. no work-related thoughts of any kind. true story. the upside is, is that later on that afternoon i got some artwork done, which i find pretty relaxing - sketches of paige's house that i'll hopefully have painted within the week. sweet.

liam and i hung out for a lil bit and watched some of the incredibles (that is, i watched it and liam was up and down and up and down and up again to pat the dog, visit his mom, look out the window, play with a few toys, and back again. he's the best three-year-old multitasker that i know.

i also tried out martha's recipe for vanilla-roasted peaches with raspberries and vanilla ice cream. it was pretty good, although i couldn't quite shake the feeling that there needed to be some sort of crumble or crust with it. also, some spices - maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg or something. i'm gonna give it another whirl for sure with a few alterations.

crumble or no crumble, it was still a sweet little change-up from our traditional dessert fare of fudgee-o's or brownie sundaes, so i'd recommend it to anyone who's got a craving for something sweet but who isn't looking for chocolate.

this week: aside from our quebec trip, one of these days, it'll stop raining and i'll actually be able to go berry picking. then i'm gonna make some jam. does anyone have a great recipe for raspberry jam or jelly?

a little cake love

thanks to one of the super-talented students that i know and her delicious blog, i've been feeling the itch more and more to flex my baking muscles lately.

i still haven't cracked open the little cakes from the whimsical bakehouse cookbook that my sister got me a little while ago (i'm not even going to get into how long i've had it - it's appalling actually), so i'm going to have to get on that right quick.

these oh-so-gorgeous masterpieces are by martha stewart - the edible flowers kind of fascinate me in a strange way. and tiramisu cupcakes? yes please!

edible flower cupcakes, boston cream pie cupcakes, chrysanthemum cupcakes,
tiramisu cupcakes, huckleberry cupcakes with sweet cream,

finito

h'ohhhh yeah. friday.

i finally dyed jess's hair last night, and managed to cook a pretty sweet salad too. (yes, cook. it's a spinach salad with sauteed veggies and chicken topped with warm balsamic vinagrette. i find that eating salad that's made entirely out of cold things makes me feel a little bit rabbity at some times. i need something warm to feel like it's a meal instead of a snack!)

The recipe was super easy - chop up onions, mushrooms and bell peppers; slice boneless skinless chicken breast. sautee (separately) with some extra-virgin olive oil and a little bit of garlic and pepper.

For the dressing, heat some more olive oil and garlic in a small pan over moderate heat. Simmer garlic in oil to infuse the flavor; remove the garlic from the oil and transfer it to a small bowl. Wipe the pan and return to heat. Add balsamic vinegar. Raise heat to high and reduce vinegar by 1/2, 30 seconds. Stream the oil into saucepan and whisk to combine with vinegar.

Put the sauteed veggies and chicken on a bed of spinach; drizzle dressing over the salad and season the greens with salt and pepper to taste. I've seen this recipe with goat cheese added - I didn't have any on hand so I didn't use any, but it'd be a nice touch too, I think!

today: i'm babysitting liam, who is one super cool two-year-old that happens to be my second cousin. we're gonna kick it while his mom gets some her-time and like are gonna play on his backyard swingset so that he gets nice and tired out.

this weekend: mike and i found a 100-house garage sale so that should keep us occupied for a few hours at least. after that, we're gonna hit up the markham ribfest (which i'd mistakenly thought was last weekend) with our friends rob and justyna, and then play the rest by ear. my mom mentioned wanting to take a drive down to st jacobs for the farmers markets, which would most definitely be something i'm also up for.

what are your plans for the weekend?

i heart muffins

we do this little thing at work every thursday called 'snack in the back', where each person takes a turn bringing in lil goodies for the office to share.

the funny thing is, is that there's not really a back in which to snack. i'd say it's more of a snack-in-the-galley-kitchen-spilling-into-the-hallway-and-sometimes-into-courtneys-cubicle.

either way, i like to come up with a lil something homemade whenever it's my week. and today happens to be my snack day, so i've made one of my favourites - orange chocolate-chip muffins.

ingredients
1 whole medium-sized orange
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup white sugar

1. preheat the oven to 375F.
   
2. cut the orange into pieces and remove the seeds.
   
3. put the pieces in a blender (vintage model as pictured above optional) with orange juice and whirl (yes, that's what it actually says in my recipe book. whirl.) until finely chopped.
4. drop in the egg and softened butter. whirl it again. yep - whirl it good.
   
5. stir together the dry ingredients. if it tickles your fancy, sifting everything together but the sugar makes it a lil nicer - but is by no means absolutely necessary. whatever floats your boat.
6. pour the orange mixture over the dry ingredients and add in the chocolate chips. Stir only until moistened.
7. at this point, if i'm feelin saucy, i like to add some more chocolate chips.
8. fill muffin cups halfway full with batter; bake for 15-20 mins at 375F.

the original recipe used dates, but i switched them out for chocolate chips. if you'd like to use dates or even raisins, just use a half cup and no chocolate chips.

makes 12 muffins, so you may want to make extras because they'll go quickly.

a word to the wise, though - this recipe tends to work best as a single batch. if you need to make more, don't just double the ingredients on a wing and a prayer ... do it in separate bowls for best results.

i love ridiculously simple.

good morning tuesday! i made this over the weekend, and it's quite possibly the most ridiculously fantastic and easy recipe i've ever encountered. ever. (drumroll, please)

chicken and broccoli and carrot and cauliflower and zucchini divan. (deeee-lish!)

ingredients:

half a zucchini
1/2 cup cauliflower
1/2 cup broccoli
1 large carrot, sliced and quartered
three chicken breasts, cubed
1 can of low-fat cream of broccoli soup
1/3 cup milk (i use skim)
low-fat cheddar cheese to taste
whole wheat bread crumbs to taste

as is generally the case with my recipes, i use whatever vegetables i feel like tossing in. this time round ( in case you couldn't tell by the name), i used cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and zucchini. i also don't really use any specific amounts - so please don't quote me on the measurements above. i just take a bunch and chop it up - i figure if i don't use it all at once, i'll put it in the fridge and use it in my thai chicken wraps, once i add some red peppers.

anyhow - for this particular ditty;

1. preheat the oven to 425F (i always forget this step and then end up having to wait for the oven to heat while i've got the dish waiting impatiently on the counter.)
2. chop up all of the veggies and sautee them in a pan.
3. ditto the chicken.
4. put both chicken and veggies into a 2-quart casserole dish.

5. in a separate bowl, stir together the entire can of broccoli soup with 1/3 cup milk.
6. pour over the veggies and chicken.

7. sprinkle some cheddar cheese and bread crumbs over the top. the bread crumbs are my favourite part.
8. bake it, uncovered, for 20-25 mins until the cheese is bubbly and the bread crumbs are golden-brown.

makes about 4 servings.

yum.

delish

i'm having thai chicken wraps for dinner tonight, and it's gonna be fantastic. i love this recipe cause it's so simple and quick.

they're going to rock your world. seriously. unless i'm really pressed for time, the only tweak i make to this recipe is to chop up fresh veggies - generally whatever happens to be in the fridge. (my favourite combination includes bean sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, carrots, snow peas, and red peppers, but i always tell people to sub in any veggies they like better.)

this peanut sauce isn't spicy at all.. but it's a really nice touch so i'd highly recommend it. anyone that i've served this to has absolutely loved it - and because it's so flexible, it's pretty kid-friendly to boot (provided the kid doesn't have any nut allergies.)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
• 6, 8- to 10-inch spinach, red pepper, or whole-wheat tortillas
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast strips for stir-frying
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 4 cups packaged shredded broccoli (broccoli slaw mix)
• 1 medium red onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Directions

1. For peanut sauce, in a small saucepan combine sugar, peanut butter, soy sauce, water, the 2 tablespoons cooking oil, and the garlic. Heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently. Set aside.

2. Wrap tortillas in foil. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 10 minutes or until heated and softened. Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl combine garlic salt and pepper. Add chicken, tossing to coat evenly.

3. In a large skillet heat the 1 tablespoon oil. Cook and stir seasoned chicken in hot oil over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm. Add broccoli, onion, and ginger to skillet. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender-crisp. Remove from heat.

4. To assemble, spread each tortilla with about 1 tablespoon of the peanut sauce. Top with chicken strips and vegetable mixture. Roll up each tortilla, securing with a wooden toothpick. Serve immediately with remaining sauce. Makes 6 servings.

six hours til dinnertime. YUM!