Pumpkin Muffins

I am feeling a little under the weather today. So under the weather, in fact, that I didn't feel like making supper (Dan is making us Mac and Cheese with broccoli and extra cheese), however I did feel like making muffins. These muffins were my perfect fix. They were really easy to make, fairly seasonal in ingredients, and things you normally have on hand. Pumpkins are still sort of in season right? So, hear is another recipe I adapted from Smitten Kitchen (are you getting sick of them yet). They are very moist, the right amount of spice, and almost took me back to Christmas in the early days of March.

Pumpkin Muffins
adopted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes approximately 2 dozen medium muffins.

Ingredients
3/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour (or bleached is fine too)
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1t baking powder
1c canned pumpkin (from a 15oz can) I used organic
1/3 c. vegetable oil*
2 large eggs
1t pumpkin-pie spice (clove, ginger, nutmeg, cinnimon)
1 c. + 1T pure cane sugar
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
1t cinnamon

*I replaced 1/6c of the oil with yogurt, I would assume you could replace all of it with out a significant difference in taste or texture.

Directions
Set the oven at 350 degrees. 1. Mix the flours and baking powder. 2. Mix the next ingredients minus 1T sugar and the final 1t cinnamon. 3. Mix the flour mixture with the batter. 4. Fill muffin tins (with or without the paper cups- the ones I didn't use the paper cups with turned out better) about 3/4ths full. 5. Mix remaining 1T sugar and 1t cinnamon together and sprinkle over the muffins. 6. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 mins. at 350 degrees.

Learning the Art of Poached Eggs

Last weekend my roommate Jenna taught me how to poach an egg without a poacher! I have never attempted nor tried a poached egg. It always sounded so fancy and I just assumed that meant very very difficult to make with fancy equipment. But I learned that it is actually really really easy and doesn't require hardly any equipment. Just the stuff you more-than-likely already have in your kitchen cupboards: a frying pan, eggs (of course), bread, and a splash of vinegar, spoon/measuring cup, a ladle or spatula. The vinegar is supposed to keep the egg white together.

Directions
1. In a medium sized frying pan simmer water and a splash of vinegar enough liquid to reach 1 1/2 to the bottom (or about 1/2 of an inch from the top lip). 2. Put your egg in a measuring cup or spoon and gently set it into the middle of the simmering water. I am told that you can push on "the white" to keep it close to the yolk (however I haven't tried this yet). 3. The egg should be done after 3-5 mins. Take it out of the water gently. I used a ladle to do this. I can imagine you could also use a spatula. 4. Set the egg on a piece of toast (or by itself) and chow down! It breaks really easy and it doesn't have a ton of grease all over it.
I am feeling really redundant, but Smitten Kitchen also has a really great "how to poach an egg" recipe (I swear she doesn't pay me to advertise!). How do you poach your egg? Any advice on mine??

Top'o the Mornin'

I love breakfast. So, my crazy recipe searching typically is densely geared towards breakfast/brunch. Here is a breakfast that is one of my new favorites! I didn't have flax seed, but it still tasted great. It has such a rich but smooth flavor. The combination of the banana and the vanilla soy milk really bring the whole drink together into a sweet (but not-to-sweet) breakfast drink! If you want it to be more bitter add more cherries! This recipe would work with any fruit! Try it out for yourself.






Cherry Vanilla Flax Smoothie

From Kashi

Makes 2 servings.
Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons organic flax seeds
1 cup organic low-fat vanilla soymilk
¼ cup frozen organic dark tart cherries, defrosted (use fresh when available)
½ medium organic banana
3 ice cubes

Directions

Using a coffee grinder, grind flax seeds to a fine powder. Pour the flax powder into a blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Nutrition Facts

Number of servings: 2 servings. Serving size: 1 cup, Calories 139, Calories from Fat 47, Total Fat 5.2g, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 65mg, Total Carbohydrate 18.8g, Dietary Fiber 3.7g, Sugars 10.5g, Protein 5.8g, Vitamin A 1%, Vitamin C 6%, Calcium 5%, Iron 7%

Cinnamon&Sugar Biscotti

For my first upload into my "journalBlog" I am starting with a Biscotti. I have always wanted to learn how to make a biscotti and I have heard that they are very easy to make and I feel that they would be easy to modify!

Diving on to Epicurious I found this recipe for Cinnamon & Sugar Biscotti's. They were delightful. I made these tasties last night and I was too busy figuring out how to blog.. (I know I'm in my early twenties and still don't really know how to blog. Sad.)

(Reminder: I am still an amateur food photographer!)

The original Epicurious recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I changed this recipe a bit due to the repeating comments on Epicurious. I cut the sugar to about 3/4ths cups because I thought 1 full cup would be a bit much. Many of the reviews also said to add another egg. So I did!

Over all the recipe was easy to make and worked really well. The texture of the biscotti was a little more moist than biscotti's should be so next time instead of adding an additional whole egg. I might try just adding another egg yolk to see if that helps. This recipe would be an easy one to make sweet or savory! For savory I will try to toss some fresh rosemary and some olive oil (perhaps as the egg substitute!) in the next batch!