blueberry muffin tops

I'm not always a fan of muffins for breakfast, but there's something about coffee and a muffin that makes sitting through a morning class a lot more bearable.  I found myself buying quite a few blueberry muffins this semester, but after a few purchases, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands.

I almost always only eat the tops of muffins, because -- let's face it -- that's the only part REALLY worth eating.  Plus, I'm not a fan of a muffin top on myself.  Eating only part of the muffin is a decent compromise, health-wise, but it's not great.  First, it's a waste of food.  Second, it's a waste of money.  Third, even just the top of a store-bought muffin is far from healthy.  Finally, I had bought two muffin-top pans (on sale; I think for something like $3/pan) from Sur La Table last year when I was visiting my sister, and had yet to use them.  My sister thought I was hilarious for buying a pan for muffin tops (she may be in good company, hence the pans being on sale), but I was too excited to listen to her.  Finally, here was an opportunity to redeem myself!

Anyway, I found a recipe for blueberry muffin tops online, and I've followed it a few times, tweaking steps here and there until the muffins became healthier (still not a HEALTH food option, but not bad for a muffin) and tastier.

Makes about 9 muffin tops, although original recipe says it makes 12.  If you don't have muffin-top pans, you could also use this recipe for regular muffins, probably about 5-6 of them.  

Ingredients:

For Batter
- 6 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1/3 cup whole milk (I used skim and they were fine)
- 1 whole large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- zest of one orange
- juice of 1/2 orange
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract (or you can do 3/4 of both, if you like both flavors)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (more or less is fine, to taste)
- 2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed (I use one small supermarket-sized plastic container)

For Topping
- 3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (to taste)
- 3 1/2 Tablespoons light brown sugar

Directions:

1. Rub together the butter cubes, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour for the topping.  The mixture should be crumbly, not too fine and not too even.  Stick the mixture in the refrigerator while you mix the muffin tops.  
2. Grease the muffin top pans/muffin pans with butter or oil. 
3. Put oven rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Note: we recently installed a pizza stone in our oven and it appears to have made the oven more efficient; if your oven is particularly efficient, I'd recommend sticking to 350 degrees F and taking the muffins out after about 10-11 minutes tops.
4. Whisk together egg, egg yolk, extract, milk, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and oil in a bowl.
5. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and mix until just combined. 
6. Add the blueberries and fold them in gently but evenly.
7. Divide the batter evenly amongst the cups, spreading as evenly as possible and making sure there's an even distribution of blueberries.  
8. Take the topping mixture out of the refrigerator and sprinkle evenly over the batter in the pans.  I like to use a teaspoon for this task.
9. Bake the muffins for about 12-15 minutes, turning the pans when half the time has elapsed.  Make sure you don't over bake; in my oven, they get done at about 10.5 minutes.  They are done when a toothpick inserted diagonally into the center of each muffin top comes out clean.  
10. Cool in pans on a rack for about 10-15 minutes, and serve the muffin tops warm (or reheat in a toaster oven for best results).

Recipe modified from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Blueberry-Muffin-Tops-108529

banana bread

My mother makes the best banana bread that I've tasted.  However, when I tried to use her recipe, mine turned out dry and not very good at all.  For the past month or so, I've been getting into that autumnal banana and pumpkin bread mood.  Since I've been feeling unwell this week and found myself with a batch of so-brown-they're-almost-rotten bananas, I decided to try out a recipe I had put aside for a rainy day (appropriately, it's raining today!).

I didn't have all the ingredients I needed on hand, but I had decent substitutes, so here's what I did and it turned out to be really quite delicious.

Makes one loaf pan's worth (9x3).  

Ingredients:

• 3-4 very ripe bananas, smashed up
• 1/3 cup melted salted butter (I used unsalted)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar.  
• A note about the sugar: this amount does NOT make for a very sweet bread.  I really wanted the banana flavor to shine through and I don't like to over-sweeten things.  If you're looking for a flavor profile more like one you'd find at a bakery, increase to 3/4 or even 1 cup of sugar.  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• I didn't have all-purpose, so I used 1 cup cake flour and 1/2 cup bread flour.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 ounces sweetened applesauce 
• I used sweetened, though unsweetened would probably be fine
• 1 Tablespoon bourbon (optional; I unfortunately didn't have this or even whiskey, but I want to try it next time for sure)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• Pinch of salt (since I used unsalted butter, I was generous with my pinch)
• Pinch of espresso powder (finely ground coffee powder, basically -- if you don't have this, just put in a tablespoon of brewed coffee)
• Pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mix everything together in a large bowl using a wooden spoon.  Don't over-mix.  Ideally, you should add the baking soda and flour last, so as to minimize over-mixing -- I didn't and it turned out fine, but I think I did get close to over-mixing the gluten.  
• Bake for 50 minutes to an hour (test it after about 45 minutes -- it's done when a tester comes out clean).
• Cool on a rack.
• Slice to serve.

Notes:

• You could easily add mix-ins to this recipe -- toasted pecans or walnuts, for example, or good chocolate chips (in which case I would reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup, unless you like it to be quite sweet).  I wanted to keep it simple but I think that mix-ins would be quite delicious too.  
• If you use smaller pans or make muffins instead, the baking time will be much lower.  Adjust accordingly -- start checking muffins at the 20-minute mark.
• I would choose 3 or 4 bananas depending on size and level of ripeness.  Mine were almost rotting, they were so ripe, so I used only 3.  However, if they're not as ripe you'll want to add one more just to get as much banana flavor in there as possible.  

good night milk

Winter seems to be fast approaching, and tonight I was craving a really good cup of hot milk.  I decided to do a variation of a milk my mother always gave me when I felt unwell as a child, with haldi (turmeric) and honey.

Makes 1 serving. 

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces milk (any kind you like - I use 1% milk)
• 1 cinnamon stick (preferable), or 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 3 cloves
• 2 cardamom pods (preferable), or a pinch of ground cardamom 
• 1/3 of a nutmeg (preferable), or about 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch of ground ginger
• Pinch of turmeric powder
• 2 tsp honey (or more, to taste)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 tsp Bailey's Irish Cream liquor, whiskey, bourbon, dark rum (whatever strikes your fancy, and this is optional but definitely delicious)

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a small saucepan and set your stove on very low heat.
2. Add all ingredients except the turmeric, honey, vanilla, and alcohol (if using).
3. Once the milk has started to heat, but before it starts to boil, add the turmeric and the honey.  Don't add too much honey at first -- you can always add more at the end, but you don't want this to be overly sweet.
4. As you see the first very small bubbles begin to form, add the vanilla.
5. Once milk has started to froth but before it reaches a rolling boil, turn off the heat.
6. Add the alcohol (if using).
7. Put a strainer over a mug, and pour the milk into the mug.
8. Toss all the whole spices -- unless you want to keep the cinnamon stick in the milk as you drink it, as garnish -- and have a "good night"!

granola obsession

One of my first posts was a granola bar recipe, and I happen to believe that all granola recipes are fairly similar.  This makes sense, because good granola is really just as simple as a base of oats, some dried fruit, and some sticky stuff to hold it all together.  However, I've made granola three times in the last two weeks using this recipe, and so I thought it was worth posting in its own right, because it's really delicious.  And addictive.

Makes about 16 2x2 inch bars.  

Ingredients:

- 2 cups oats
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseeds (if you don't have this, just increase the amount of oats to 2 1/2 cups or you could substitute with wheat germ)

- 1/2 cup raw pecan halves (if you don't have pecans, use walnuts -- but I highly recommend the pecans)

- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut chips (these are large dried coconut flakes - if you can't find them, regular dried coconut flakes are fine.  If you can't find unsweetened, decrease the honey/maple syrup by a tablespoon)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (I use Ghirardelli 60% and highly recommend using a similar, good quality dark chocolate -- less sugar and more delicious)
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup dried cherries, or other dried fruit like cranberries or raisins
- 1 tsp. fine or kosher salt
- 4-5 Tbsp. peanut butter.  If you're allergic, try substituting with almond butter, cashew butter, or tahini.
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)

- 1/2 tsp. fine coffee powder (optional)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
- 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter or canola/corn oil, or olive oil (I have successfully used all three, and will probably use butter only on more decadent special occasions going forward.  The olive oil does have a taste to it, which I like: a slightly salty depth.  But if you don't like that, stick with canola/corn)
- 5 Tbsp. honey (Edit: I have been substituting this with maple syrup and it is delicious.  When I use maple syrup, I use less peanut butter - about 2-3 Tbsp.).  

- 3 Tbsp. water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Make sure that the butter (if using) is at room temperature.  If the butter isn't at room temperature, put it in a large mixing bowl and microwave it for about 40 seconds at high.  
3. Take a small baking tray or, if you are like me and prefer to use as few dishes as possible, an 8-inch square baking pan.  
4. Spread out the nuts and coconut chips on the baking tray/bottom of baking pan and heat until you can just start to smell the nuts, about 3-5 minutes.  Careful not to let them burn!  As soon as the coconut starts to brown, take it out.  
5. Place the nuts and coconut in the large mixing bowl with the butter/oil.  
6. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan (it's fine to use the same one you just used to heat the nuts and coconut). Cut a rectangle of parchment paper to line the bottom and two sides of the dish, leaving a little overhang.  Press the parchment paper into the dish. 
7. Add all the remaining ingredients except for the honey and water to the large mixing bowl.  Mix thoroughly.
8. At this point, taste the mixture and gauge how much honey you want to add -- this can be very sweet with the chocolate, peanut butter and dried fruit already.  
9. Add the honey, and mix again.  Taste again (with a clean spoon!)
10. Add the water, to make sure the mixture isn't too dry.  The entire mixture should be evenly moistened and quite sticky. 
11. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan, pressing it down firmly to ensure that it molds to the shape of the pan. 
12. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until brown around the edges and just beginning to turn golden brown on top as well.  Don't keep baking in the hopes that it will "firm up" -- the mixture will still seem soft and almost under-baked if you press on it, but it’ll set as it cools.  I personally like my bars to be "well done", so I bake almost to the point of burning the outside edges.  I don't recommend doing this the first time, though; you should get familiar with the flavors before you decide how caramelized you want them to taste.
13. Transfer the pan to a rack, and allow the bars to cool completely in the pan.  
14. Once cooled, refrigerate the pan for about 30 minutes so that the bars will set completely before cutting.
15. Run a sharp knife along the edges of the pan; then pull up on the parchment paper to lift the sheet of bars out of the pan.  Cut the bars into squares.  

Note: I like to store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator -- I think they taste better slightly cold.  However, they should be fine if stored at room temperature in an airtight container for a few days as long as it's not too hot outside.  I usually add one bar to some greek yogurt with fresh berries as a delicious breakfast, but they also taste great alone.  

Modified from: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/02/thick-chewy-granola-bars/

kitchen sink salad

I know -- it's a little ridiculous to post a recipe for a salad.  However, this is my "kitchen sink" salad; the one that I truly love, and to which I return time and again, so I thought I might as well share how I make it.  I actually used to hate salads until one magical summer when I first visited my sister in Southern California and realized how delicious fresh vegetables really can be (I think I also had simply outgrown my blanket policy of avoiding anything healthy at all costs).  This is basically a variation of what she made, although she usually added sprouts and would NEVER add raisins/apple.

The ingredients below are what I put into one salad; usually, I will buy enough to make salad for lunch every day that week.

Serves 1 person.  

Ingredients:
- handful of spinach leaves or another dark green
- 3 Tbsp. corn (fresh is great; frozen and thawed or canned and drained is also fine)
- 1/2 carrot, or about 5 baby carrots, diced
- 1/2 red beet
- 1/2 an avocado
- 1 Tbsp. crumbled feta cheese
- 1 stem (or stick) of heart of palm (my favorite ones are sold by Trader Joe's), diced
- 1/4 a tomato, or about 5 grape/cherry tomatoes, diced
- 1 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
- 1 Tbsp. black raisins, or 1/4 of an apple, diced
- salt and pepper
- really good quality extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar (note: "really good" doesn't have to be expensive - I buy both of these at Trader Joe's, and the balsamic really ages well if you buy the large bottle ... it gets a little richer and sweeter over time)
- lemon juice

Directions:

1. Take the red beets you've bought for the week, wash them, dry them, and brush them with olive oil.  Wrap them in aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet.  
2. Bake the beets at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes to an hour, until you can insert a fork into the beet with very little resistance (remove them from the oven before they get mushy, however). 
3. Cool the beets, then peel them and dice them.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  
4. Wash the avocado and cut it in half, lengthwise.  The side that has the seed left in it will remain fresh for longer; drizzle this very lightly with lemon juice, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and store in the fridge.  
5. Take the remaining half of the avocado and dice it.
6. Add corn, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, beet, heart of palm, feta cheese, sunflower seeds, and raisins/apple to a bowl.  Mix well.  
7. Add olive oil and vinegar to a small bowl/tupperware, and whisk or shake well to combine them - use sparingly, about 1 Tbsp. of each is more than enough.  Pour this mixture into the salad bowl.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste (note: the vinegar will have already added saltiness and flavor, so be cautious with the salt).  
9. Take a handful of greens, roll them up, and chop into ribbons.  Add to the bowl.
10. Toss the salad again.  Enjoy with a small piece of multigrain bread, if desired.  If you have hummus to spread on the bread, all the better!

scottish shortbread

Today, I found myself really craving shortbread.  I have very fond memories of eating Walker's shortbread biscuits as a child -- the rich, buttery goodness of those biscuits was pretty spectacular.  You can still buy them, although I do think the quality has gone down over the years.

Anyway, I didn't have much time and wanted to throw something together quickly.  Fortunately, I found a very well-rated recipe that looked incredibly simple to make.

I made a quarter-batch of this recipe, with just a few additions.  From other reviewers' comments, it seems like a pretty adaptable recipe (one reviewer mentioned using spelt flour!).  Although some reviewers do mention success with margarine, I actually think that margarine is even more unhealthy than butter.

[Note: In a second round, I added mini-chocolate chips and they were a delicious addition; add them once most of the kneading has been done, if you decide to try this out].

Anyway, here goes:

Makes approximately 4 dozen biscuits/cookies. 

Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line baking sheet or shallow pan with parchment paper, and grease lightly.  
3. Cream butter and sugar with a stand or hand-held mixer.
4. Add vanilla or almond extract.
5. Add about 3 3/4 cups of the flour, and mix well.
6. Sprinkle a board with the remaining flour, and knead for 5 minutes, adding flour if needed.  
7. Flatten dough out onto a baking sheet or shallow pan.
8. Prick the dough with a fork to create a "pinprick" pattern.  
9. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes (or until golden brown on the top).

Adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scottish-shortbread-iv/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=scottish%20shortbread&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

kung pao chicken

I've made this many times, and it has turned out remarkably well each time.  This must mean it's fairly foolproof -- however, I definitely do recommend cutting the chicken pieces as small as possible (1 inch or smaller).  Keeping the size uniform is key to even cooking.  I like this recipe a lot because you don't use much oil and still get a delicious dish.

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:
- 1lb boneless-skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” pieces)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons green onions (chopped)
- 1 red bell pepper (chopped into 1" pieces)
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon powdered ginger
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts
- 2 cups white rice, cooked

Directions:

1. Combine chicken and cornstarch in a small bowl and toss to coat. 
2. Heat sesame oil in wok over medium heat, add chicken and bell pepper and stir-fry 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink inside. 
3. Remove chicken and bell pepper from wok.
4. Add green onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and powdered ginger to the wok and stir fry for 15 seconds.
5. Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix well and add the sauce to the wok.
6. Return chicken and bell pepper to the wok and coat with sauce. 
7. Stir in roasted peanuts. Heat thoroughly. 
8. Top with additional green onions if desired and serve over white rice.

Modified from: http://blogchef.net/kung-pao-

chicken-recipe/