Saturday, January 28, 2012

After 10 hours of cooking....







Ridiculously buttery and melt-in-your mouth blackberry muffins....



Fresh paneer....



A spiced applesauce cake....



And a whole mess of peppers, onions, and garlic.

My friends are coming to visit today. We're going to play League of Legends, board games, and feast until we're too full to move. In the interests of that last goal, I've made them a feast. The menu includes:
  • Homemade chips and hummus
  • Minced lamb and peas
  • Palak paneer (although my paneer didn't turn out. So I picked up some peynir instead.)
  • Homemade naan
  • Blackberry muffins (if I'm nice enough to share!)
  • Spiced applesauce cake with cinnamon frosting

    Yeah, I know you wish you were my friend. Birds do like cooking.
  • Sunday, December 25, 2011

    Christmas Baking



    Four dozen cookies, two pounds of candied almonds, and about ten dozen muffins, all baked in two days. The complete list:

  • Candied Almonds
  • Green Tea Cookies
  • Modified these into Chocolate Blackberry Cookies
  • Russian Tea Cookies
  • Carrot Cake Cookies
  • Blueberry Muffins
  • Strawberry Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
  • White Amaretto Muffins
  • Rainbow Cupcakes
  • Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Butterscotch Muffins (which are possibly my favorite)
  • Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

    It took hours and would not have been possible without a lot of help, but they all came together, and I think everyone liked everything.

    Merry Christmas, everyone!
  • Saturday, June 11, 2011

    "These are the best muffins you've ever made."

    I made these muffins a while ago, using apricot jam that I had leftover from making thumbprint cookies. I had a whole second jar of jam, so I brought it to my friend's house to use up more and to leave it with them.

    I made the muffins while they were working on dinner, which was a delicious fish of swordfish steaks, crab cakes, and green beans with garlic and onion. The meal was fantastic, but I won't go into details about it because I did nothing to help prepare it, and it seems unfair to take their credit.

    Around 4:30, I decided I was too hungry to wait for dinner. So was Kendo Bird. So I decided to make the muffins I had promised Darth Bird, while they worked on making the crab cakes and the swordfish.

    They came out of the oven around 4:40.



    Except for the second one that I spent a while resisting, they were all gone by 4:46.



    Everyone ate two muffins, while they were still steaming from the oven. I had almost burned my hands getting them out as quickly as I could. And they were instantly destroyed.

    They're also delicious in the mornings, microwaved to the point where the jam is once again hot and bubbly. They're light and, dare I say it, fluffy, with a slight hint of cinnamon in the dough. We've used six different jams now: apricot, black cherry, red plum, peaches, raspberry, and blackberry. I've only eaten the apricot and red plum. We played muffin roulette. Made two dozen muffin, with four of each, put them all on a giant plate, and spun it around. I got red plum, but my diet stopped me from taking two or three more, like I really wanted to.

    These are certainly a new favorite. I can see making these for parties, although I'd love to find a way to make them look prettier...



    I dunno, they look pretty good on their own.

    Cinnamon Jam Roulette Muffins
    (Makes 12 muffins, with 126 calories and $0.21 per muffins)
  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup jam
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1. Preheat oven to 375.
    2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
    3. Combine yogurt, butter, milk, and egg in separate bowl.
    4. Add wet ingredients to dry, just combining.
    5. Spoon one tablespoon batter into each liner.
    6. Top each with 1 teaspoon jam, and then top with remaining batter.
    7. Combine extra tablespoon sugar with extra cinnamon, and sprinkle over batter.
    8. Bake for 15 minutes.
    Today's lessons learned:
    • My friends really, really like muffins.
    • Six varieties of jam, and no one can decide which was best....