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i make muffins every other Sunday for me to eat for my breakfast at the start of an early shift, they've never been inedible, some weeks they're better than on others, but i'm totally impressed with this week's batch, here's a bad quality pic of them..


the recipe says to use milk in them, and i always have in the past, until this week when i realised that i didn't have enough stressed so i drained a can of fruit cocktail and used the juice from that instead, what a difference it made!
i make these with wholemeal flour as i want them to be filling and that can make them a little dry sometimes, but with the juice they're lovely and light! i substituted an ounce of the flour for oats too and it's fresh(defrosted) blackcurrants in there so they're pretty healthy 3nodding

This must be a pretty basic muffin recipe:~

makes 6, double up for 12

5oz flour (self raising)
1.5oz sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 fluid oz melted butter or oil
4-5 fluid oz milk or other liquid(depending on the flour you use, wholemeal(wholewheat) soaks up more liquid
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt if you want
*6oz(minimum) of whatever fruit/nuts etc you want to add
plus any spices you feel like adding


*i've gone up to 9oz of fruit and they've coped fine, the more the merrier i say!

also, you can substitute 1oz of flour for either ground almonds, for moistness, or oatmeal which seems to make them lighter too, that's what i did with this batch 3nodding

oven temperature/cooking times is a bit of an experiment with these 190C for 20-23 minutes does me, my Mum cooks hers at 180C for 17 minutes, depends on your oven

recipe says...200C/400F for 30 minutes...

anyway, sieve the flour twice, this is meant to help as you don't mix them too extensively. stir in the sugar

mix the wet ingredients in a jug, then pour over the flour/sugar, give it a mix with a spatula, add your fruit and so on, mix it up again.

just stir it up until there's no lumps of dry flour, don't need to beat it or anything, it wants to look quite wet, add a splash more fluid it looks too lumpy, fill your muffin cases to the top! and stick them in the oven, turning after 15 minutes is good if your oven is nasty like mine and likes to burn things on one side evil

whip them out when they're golden brown and leave them in the tin for 5 minutes, them cool them on a rack, don't forget they're in the tin or the bottom of the cases get condensation on them and go soggy mad

have fun with them!
make inventive flavours, the best i've come up with is pear and stem ginger, yummy!
tinned fruit works beautifully in muffins, keeps them lovely and moist, yoghurt as part of the fluid, coffee in chocolate ones... domokun


does anyone have any nummy flavour combinations to share? i'm always keen to try new varieties 3nodding

Silly Creations

I shopped for some random vegetables that I felt like earlier this week and came up with a few strange creations which turned out pretty good!

First, I made a Penne (tube) pasta dish along with a sun-dried tomato sauce packet I found in the sauce-packet aisle (just add water and a T of olive oil and boil!), and I added a half a large turnip that I diced and fried, and I threw in 2 mushrooms (sliced) when my turnip was almost done, so they were lightly fried, and I threw in a handful of fresh snap peas into the boiling pasta when it had a few minutes left, so those were lightly boiled (but still crispy.) We topped it with some parmesan cheese, and it was good!

Then just now for lunch I used my extra vegetables (the other half of the large turnip, another handful of snap peas, 2 more mushrooms, AND 2 farmer's market tomatoes I picked up yesterday) and made a salad. I diced and boiled the turnip for a few minutes, sliced the mushrooms, wedged the tomatoes, and made my own salad dressing using olive oil, red wine vinegar (leftover from Potato's green bean/red potato dish!), lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar. I just threw together whatever amounts felt right, but I admit I made too much dressing total, but it was still good! lol

makes me hungry>>>>

Although my potatoes and green beans were cooked more than they were the first time (a little overdone), I got the flavoring just right using Jaz's 3 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar mixed separately method. I did 1T red wine vinegar and 3T olive oil, and a few splashes of lemon juice from a bottle. (I actually started out with half T's, but it wasn't enough, so I did it again!) And I put the salt and pepper directly on the veggies, mixed, and tasted as I went. I put more salt and pepper this time than last, and I think it made a difference!

It was really good with the cilantro, and Jason loved it. I boiled the onions for 2 minutes when I was about to take the green beans off, oh! and I chopped 2 carrots I had leftover that I needed to use, stuck those in with the potatoes when they were partially boiled, and it was really good with those in there too!

One problem I noticed (last time too) was the plunging in ice water thing because after I drain those again, I have to sift through and pull out all the undissolved ice cubes (which was much harder this time with all the onions in there already too!) And patting the green beans dry with paper towels was more difficult this time too because the onions kept sticking to the paper towels.

I think this is the third time I've had this dish; the second being when I was pregnant and didn't know it yet! Having some sort of meat main dish (like a roast!) would have been great with it, but I didn't think of that enough ahead of time to buy the stuff. I haven't attempted Jaz's never fail potroast recipe yet, but want to if I can find a small enough roast!

Yum!! I just tried a new simple recipe I printed off foodnetwork dot com after watching the food channel a few months ago.



Rigatoni with Red Pepper, Almonds, and Bread Crumbs

1 pound rigatoni pasta
2 cups purchased garlic-flavored croutons (about 5 ounces)
1/4 cup slivered almonds (about 1 ounce), toasted
1 cup julienned roasted red bell peppers
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl.

Place the croutons and the almonds in a food processor. Pulse until it becomes the texture of bread crumbs. Add the crouton and almond mixture to the hot pasta. Add the peppers and the olive oil. Toss to combine and serve.



This is the first time I've used my baby food processor I've had for 6 years! lol And I toasted the almonds in a dry skillet until they browned a little, and then did the same with the julienned red peppers. They smelled like fresh roasted green chili! *drools*


EDIT- I like this dish so much for its ease and its texture and its taste, it's going to become one of my common favorite dishes I rotate with, including the green chili chicken enchiladas, spinach alfredo lasagna, and red chili beef enchiladas! I tried 2 other new recipes this week, but don't like either of them nearly as much! Oh, and! I think I'm going to try bringing this one to potlucks sometimes too. 3nodding

Question about the Ahi, is it just cubed pieces of raw fish in a bowl mixed with the other stuff? Or is it laid out in slices like nigiri? Or.. ? Do you get a bowl of it? Or on a plate? I'm trying imagine what the finished product looks like.

I find I'm getting clumsier in pregnancy and am spilling a lot of stuff on the stove and countertops (and my shirt front) and I sometimes have to wear my apron to eat! And today was the first time I made a good chop to my finger with my Cutco kitchen knife while trying to chop potatoes. It seems to have sealed up well now, but for a few minutes I was wondering if it might need stitches! And then I slipped twice after that and nearly cut myself again. rolleyes

EDIT - Oh loooook!! I searched foodnetwork dot com for that recipe and found an image to go with it!!! 4laugh (2 posts up)

fawN that pasta looks to die for!

i haven't eaten yet this evening and i'm thinking it's going to be pasta now! domokun