Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Muffin or Biscuit?

Travis has really started taking an interest in cooking lately.  Saturday it was our dinner (which I'll blog about later) and yesterday it was these muffins.

Last week I got a few new cookbooks from Costco including this one:  Muffins Galore by Catherine Atkinson.  There's several cookbooks in the series including Cookies Galore and Cupcakes Galore both of which I also own.  I like them because they have fabulous photographs and because they're published in the UK give a little different spin to desserts than those we usually find here in the US.

The recipe Travis chose looked simple:  Vanilla Chocolate Chip Muffins.  Just 8 ingredients and 4 steps ... easy, right?  Um, mostly.  The recipe has you cut the butter into the flour like you're making biscuits -- and then combining it all with the wet ingredients.  And yes, they did come out with a biscuity taste to them -- but that's not a bad thing -- just unexpected.  Guess if he makes them again I'll have to go to the garage and find my pastry blender.

Chicken with Peppers

I know there are many out there that don't care for Rachael Ray and her persona, but I really think she comes up with some great recipes at times (and other times, not so much).  My only issue with her 30-minute meal concept is that a great majority of her recipes take much longer than the 30 minutes she states.  And while I don't mind spending upwards of an hour cooking dinner at times, don't advertise it'll be ready in 30 when it won't.

This recipe for grilled chicken and mashed potatoes is one of those recipes.  This time I opted for chicken breasts instead of thighs (I am not a fan of chicken thighs), small mushrooms instead of portobellos, and making the mashed potatoes "plain" by only adding some milk and butter and it was ready in about 50 minutes.

No matter, it was still a delicious meal and one that I'll repeat again.  You wouldn't think a quick sit in balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire and some spices would produce much more than a mess of flavors but they actually work.  And best yet you don't have to add much more than a salad for this meal to be complete.

Blueberry Tart

Looking for a light fruit dessert for the summer?  Look no farther than Eating Well's Blueberry Tart with Walnut Crust.

It was the final recipe I tried from my Saturday cooking spree out of the magazine and we all loved it.  (Well, except Liam and he doesn't care for much.)  It wasn't too sweet and there was just enough of everything to make it great.  (Not only that but it makes a great presentation.)

Two More Picnic Recipes

Yesterday I shared with you the Bean & Tomato salad (yum!) and today I'll let you know what else we had for our dinner (and dessert too.. but I think I'll save that for tomorrow ...)

The protein of the dinner was Maple-Mustard Baked Chicken which I thought was just "okay" (everyone ate it though so it wasn't bad).  I'm not going to post the recipe, but if you're interested, click on the link above.

Basically it's chicken that you marinate in a Dijon mustard/maple syrup/thyme marinade, coat with fresh bread crumbs and then bake.  I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts whereas the recipe calls for bone-in chicken but I can't imagine that would make that big of a difference.  Oh, and that cup of orange next to the chicken?  Liam got a cookbook for his birthday that uses silicone cupcake cups to make different things -- one of the recipes was to make baked risotto and he decided we had to have that too.  Came out pretty good for baked rice.

The other recipe that I tried was for Country Potato Salad and it was a winner.  I was very leary of using buttermilk to coat the potatoes as the dressing but honestly it worked out great.  (In fact I made my brother taste it before I poured the buttermilk over the potatoes -- he declared it edible so we were safe.)  He took some of the leftovers home and said it tasted even better the next day (whereas he thought the bean and tomato salad really didn't).

Perfect Picnic Salad

Last week my August issue of Eating Well magazine came in the mail and like usual I set it aside to look at later.  Most of the time I don't find recipes to make out of magazines because either (1) what I would like, I know no one else in the house would eat or (2) the recipes are too time consuming and ingredient laden for the perceived results.  This month's issues, however, caught my eye on several recipes.  Saturday, when my brother came over, I made 3 of them and I think this one was my (and my brother's) favorite (I'll share the other 2 recipes with you tomorrow).

The article the recipe came from is all about eating locally and celebrating the bounty of the harvest.  Unfortunately living in the desert we have little bounty but for a little while we could pretend to be elsewhere where we might see something else grow besides cactus.  (In all fairness a few things grow here -- mainly apples -- but I'd really love to live close enough to enjoy local produce.)

The title of the recipe is Bean and Tomato Salad with Honey Vinaigrette.  I think next time I would add more green beans but otherwise it was great.  My brother said he thought that without the fresh basil it would just be "okay" but with it it pushes it over the edge to "great".  Leftovers the next day I added some tuna and it made a wonderful light lunch.

New Cookies - Good but not Great

In my request last time for more cookie recipes, Amy suggested this M&M cookie recipe as one she loves. I'm happy to say  that it was a good recipe (stayed soft!  a little crisp on the outside!) but they spread way too much.  <sigh>  I think it has to be my oven that's doing it.

I did use milk chocolate chips instead of the M&Ms (didn't have any in the house) but otherwise, they were a little on the sweet side and did I mention soft?  :-)  So, thanks, Amy for the suggestion but I'll still go back to trying recipes (once these are gone).  Anyone else out there with a good recipe?

I want COOKIES!

The last couple of times I've made cookies I've been so disappointed.  I like my cookies soft and chewy and every recipe I've tried lately have hardened into the crispy, crunchy sort.  Bleh.

These are the latest Liam and I tried ... they came from a recipe in one of the cookbooks that he picked out at the library (no, I don't remember which, sorry!).  Travis told me he thought they were bought cookies and was surprised to learn that we baked them.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Um, honestly I'm not sure at all.

I think we'll try another recipe today or tomorrow and hopefully come up with something good.  Anyone have a good soft cookie recipe they can share?  (By the way, I do have one that we like but you know I like to try different things all the time.)

How Was Your Weekend?

Did you have a nice weekend?  Ours was really pretty quiet.  Yesterday for Father's Day the kids got Don a new hard drive (500 gig) and a new computer chair.  He knew about the drive (I didn't want to buy the wrong one) but the chair was a surprise.  We had kept the box in Adrienne's room and Don saw it on Saturday but thought it was for Adrienne.  He was shocked when Adrienne came down with it yesterday morning -- and felt kind of silly for not realizing it was his.  :)  Btw, it's comfy and he's happy with it.

When deciding what do have for dinner last night I went with one of Don's favorite foods - hot dogs.  Yes, yes, I know, not the most gourmet of dinners (and honestly not one I enjoy), but it makes him happy when we have them so that's what counts.  I opted to search on Food Network's website in hopes of finding something a little different to do with them besides boil and bun.  I came across this recipe from Bobby Flay and man, it made them worth eating.

First you start with a homemade barbecue sauce.  When I first started putting this together I wasn't too sure about it -- didn't know if all the flavors would blend well but boy, they did and they were great.  I used 3 chipotle peppers and that was just the right heat level for us.  The basic idea is to grill the hot dogs (I used Hebrew National) and then the buns -- spread with the barbecue sauce, add a pickle and top with homemade cole slaw.  Delicious!  Served with cantaloupe it was another great summery meal.

I have lots of leftover barbecue sauce so I think I'll use it to make barbecue chicken later this week.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Polish Sausage & 'Kraut

I've said this before but one of the things I like about warmer weather is I can get away with simple dinners.  Last week when I made the baked beans, we had enough leftover for the next night's dinner as well so I opted to grill some Polish sausage, stick it on some rye bread with some sauerkraut and sliced onions and we were good to go.

Usually I'll just throw the kraut on whatever we're having it for but I decided to try a recipe I found on All Recipe's site:  Sauerkraut Hot Dog Topping.  How was it?  Not bad but I don't think it added anything more than "plain" sauerkraut would.

This sandwich reminded me of one they serve at Wienerschnitzel - same kind of deal, Polish sausage, mustard on rye bread though with theirs it's served with pickles instead of kraut.  I honestly can't even remember the last time I ate there (we don't do a whole lot of fast food) but it was fun to have some kind of food memory.  Is there something that you remember eating years ago that would be fun to recreate?

(BTW, how do you like the new blog look?  The black was way too hard on my eyes so I'm hoping this will be slightly easier to read.)

Happy Birthday, Adrienne!

Today my sweet girl turns 12!  She had her birthday party this past weekend but we celebrated today with another cake (the one above is from her party this past weekend), her BFF came over last night and spent the night and all day with us and they're now at the park running around.  May you have many more of the happiest birthdays!