Dad's Chocolate Chip Muffins

A staple breakfast food in Big Steve's kitchen. Amazing with a bowl of cereal for a sweet ending to breakfast (sweet tooth runs in the family). Great with hot tea after dinner too. Every visit home involves this tasty treat.  Thanks Pa!


Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup regular flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients. Add in eggs, oil and milk and mix all together only until everything is wetted out. Stir in chips. Fill greased muffin cups ~2/3 full. Bake 350F for 10-12 minutes and then ~2 minutes at 375-400F to just get them to brown up on the top. You'll have to play around with your times depending upon the oven.

Chocolate Coffee Birthday Cake

Erin's Birthday came a week early, so we celebrated with cake. Really, everyday of the year is worth celebrating with cake. Birthdays, half birthdays, Fridays, paydays, lawn mowing day, Mondays...etc. 


Recipe by Craving Chronicles

Cake Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with baking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk to combine. Add coffee and whisk just until combined. Batter will be thin and runny.

Divide batter evenly among prepared cake pans and bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 30 minutes, then flip out onto a rack to cool completely.   


Icing Ingredients


1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa
3-4 cups confectioners sugar

Summertime Mango-slaw

Makes for a perfect barbecue side dish. Easy and delicious.  Recipe from Fat Girl Trapped In A Skinny Body (phenomenal blog name btw)


Serves 6-8 
Ingredients:

• 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted and julienned 
• 1/2 a head of green cabbage, very thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, julienned
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• juice from two fresh limes
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil (evoo works too)
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger (or dried if you have none fresh)
• 1 tbsp agave (or honey)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or more if you're a cilantro freak like me)

Assembly:
Toss mangoes, cabbage, red pepper and red onion in a large bowl. Whisk lime juice, vinegar, sesame oil, salt agave, and ginger in a smaller bowl and pour over slaw. Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving. Before serving, toss in the cilantro.

Homemade Orange Rhubarb Pop-tarts

All this week I've been craving pop-tarts like a 9 year old jazzed up on pixie sticks. Here's a yummy alternative to the store bought pop-tarts (plus an opportunity to try some unconventional flavors). Recipe from The Arugula Files.


The tart is just a simple pie crust recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water

1 Combine flour, salt, and sugar; mix. Add butter and cut with two butter knives until

mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, stir until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water.

2 Place dough in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

3 Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. 

4 Using a large knife cut dough into little rectangles, roughly 5 X 8 inches. 

Filling:

• large bundle rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces

• juice of one orange; zest of half an orange 
• 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar 
• 2/3 cup water
• A few tablespoons turbinado sugar (for sprinkling on top)
• 1 egg for egg wash (whisk the egg)

1 In a large sauce pan add the ingredients, bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low.  Cook until the mixture reduces and resembles jam filling. 

2 Add a spoonful of filling onto your pockets. Brush edges with egg wash. Close pocket and seal with a fork. 

3 Brush pop-tarts with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar

4 Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes

Icing:

1 egg white

1 cup confectioner sugar

1 TBSP freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tsp orange zest

Whisk together; drizzle on tarts; enjoy!

Grilled Pizza

Got the idea for this experiment after reading a recipe for a sweet potato and sausage pizza on the grill from the newspaper this week. It seems a little risky to put a sheet of thin dough directly onto a blazing grill but it worked extremely well--makes pizza just like the brick oven. The crust only needs a few minutes on the grill so you want to fry up all your veggy and meat toppings before throwing it all together on the grill. I used Bobby Flay's pizza crust recipe and picked up whatever looked good at the market for toppings.

Pizza Dough:

• 2/3 cup lukewarm water (105 degrees F to 115 degrees F)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for oiling bowl
• 1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt

1. In a large bowl stir together 1/3 cup water, yeast, and sugar and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 3/4 cups flour, cornmeal, and salt andblend until the mixture forms a dough. Knead dough on a floured surface, incorporating as much of remaining 1/4 cup flour, as necessary, to prevent dough from sticking, until smooth about 5 to 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball.
2. Lightly oil the sides and bottom of a large bowl with oil, add the dough, turn to coat in the oil, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Gently punch the dough down and divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle that is 1/8-inch thick. Brush off excess flour and transfer the dough to a baking sheet, cover each circle of dough with plastic wrap and continue stacking rolled out pieces on top of each other. Wrap well with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to grill. (I got two medium size pizza crusts from this recipe)

Sauce:

tomato paste

garlic powder

dired oregano, basil, thyme


Assembly:

I brushed one side of the crust with olive oil and tossed it onto the grill on low heat for about 2-3 minutes with the lid down. It's really easy to burn the crust so check often and be careful your grill isn't too hot. After flipping, load up the pie with sauce or oil and all your toppings. Cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Toppings:

Pie I:

tomato sauce

onions

mushrooms

kobasa sausage

mozzarella 

black olives

Pie II:

(white pizza)

additional olive oil

garlic powder

poblano peppers

onions

mushrooms

anchovies

goat cheese

my jealous friends