Banana Muffins

You know how sad you get when you find a piece of fruit that has seen better days? It's got a nasty, brown spot or perhaps even (and this never happens in my house, I assure you...OK, maybe not) a little furry spot. And you see that little spot, and you get so sad. Your mind starts to race with thoughts of what a waste of money it was, how you should have eaten that delicious apple instead of the three (OK...five) chocolate chip cookies. 

Why is it that you never feel that way when you come upon a darkening banana? I'm thrilled when my bananas finally cross the threshold into baking territory. Sometimes, I even throw them in the freezer to speed up that process. Come to think of it, there's a couple bananas browning away in my freezer right at this moment. 

Well, I came upon some browned bananas last week and decided it was time for some banana muffins. I love this recipe. It is the perfect blend of banana flavor. Oh, by the way, I'm not a huge banana lover but I love banana bread, but not when it's TOO banana-y. This is perfect. If you wanted a little crunch, toss in some walnuts or pecans. Or if you want a little extra sweetness, toss in some chocolate chips. As for me, I think the next time I whip them up, I might put a little cream cheese frosting on top.

Banana Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

1/4 c. butter

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2-3 large, ripe bananas

1/2 c. water

1 t. vanilla 

1 t. soda

1 t. baking powder

1/8 t. salt 

2 1/2 c. flour

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat slightly. Add other ingredients. Fold in nuts or chocolate chips, if you are adding some. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes. ENJOY!

By the way, a lot of banana bread recipes call for mashing the banana before tossing it into your mixing bowl. I NEVER do this. If the bananas is browning already, I just toss the banana into my mixing bowl and call it good. Also, I've been known to toss a little banana baby food (AKA: banana puree) in when I didn't have enough or any bananas. It works fantastic! 

For the Hostess Who Wants To Be The Most-ess

Let me start this post by saying that I certainly do not consider myself to be "The Hostess with the Most-ess." In fact, quite the opposite.

About four months ago my mom and three of her sisters came to stay with me and Mr. C for a night before we all headed to a conference. I was SO excited to have them all come stay!  I always have grand ideas of being the perfect hostess offering the most comfortable beds, delicious warm cookies for snacks, and a breakfast that makes my guests feel as if they are on vacation at a resort. Then reality clubs me on the head--HARD!  The reality of my accommodations is that I can't offer overly comfortable beds. In fact, my mom and one of her sisters had to sleep on air mattresses in my craft room. I didn't serve warm cookies as a snack either since we'd eaten ourselves silly at a family party that day.  Breakfast, however, I had a little more control over. I don't really have the funds, nor did we all have the time, for a resort style breakfast, but I did get up early to make fresh muffins to serve alongside some fresh fruit. That, my friends, is where this post takes us...to muffinland.  But first, a little flashback.

Eight or so years ago my good friend Cheryl bought a muffin cookbook with cover art that matched her kitchen decor perfectly.  Year after year I looked at that book sitting happily on it's little kitchen display shelf hoping someday I'd find a copy to add to my (ever growing) collection.  It must have been meant to be!  About a year ago I was wandering around a local thrift store perusing the cookbook shelves of the book area--my most favorite thing to do there.  As my eyes went back and forth along the shelves looking at all the titles (wondering how so many copies of Cooking the Costco Way could possibly be donated to one store), there it was in all it's glory!  The muffin book I had been wanting for YEARS was just waiting for someone to take it home.  It was in perfect condition.  In fact, I could have sworn it was a brand new book that had never even been cracked open.  Want to know what the best part was?  The 2.00 price tag on the front!  You can bet that book went home with me that day and is living happily ever after on one of my cookbook shelves.

Now, back to the present...or the recent past.  You know what I mean.

When I knew that I wanted to make my visiting family members a nice breakfast to help them start their day off right (shoppers need good nourishment in the mornings!), I turned to my muffin book.  I wanted something hearty...breakfast in a muffin.  I also wanted flavors that were different than something my guests could have found at a local bakery or convenience store.  As I flipped through the pages of my thrift store treasure, I decided "Ham and Cheese" muffins fit the bill perfectly.  Just to make sure the recipe was going to suit my guests, I made a test pan a few days before their arrival and subjected Mr. C to a taste test.

Want to know how good they were?  Let me just say that the one dozen muffins I made were gone by the end of the day.  (I'd like to say Mr. C ate most of them, but I'd be lying.  I'd be thinner, but I'd be lying.)

So, just in case you haven't come across this book at your local thrift store, here is the recipe to tide you over until you do.  (Incidentally, as I type this blog, Amazon currently has used copies as cheap as 3 cents.  GO BUY IT!  It has chapters like "For Chocolate Lovers," "Variations on a Cake," and "Garden Variety."  There is even a recipe for Peanut Butter Bacon Muffins!)  As usual, on the flip side I'll tell you about two changes I've made to the recipe and something I have discovered after making this recipe a few times.   

Ham and Cheese Muffins (makes 12)

1 egg

2 T sugar

1 c sour cream

1 T oil

1 t prepared mustard (see my note below)

1 1/3 c flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 c diced cooked ham

1/2 c shredded Swiss cheese (see my note below)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg.  Add the sugar, sour cream, oil, and mustard.  Mix well.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Gently stir in the ham and cheese.  Fill greased muffin tins.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are brown.

OK, now for my changes.  They aren't big ones, but they've made a big difference in the taste of the muffins at our house.  First, the mustard.  One teaspoon just isn't enough in my opinion.  The first time I made the recipe for Mr. C to taste test, we couldn't even tell the mustard was in there.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not so in love with mustard that I need to feel like I'm eating a hot dog or a pretzel, but the flavor is a nice compliment to the ham and cheese so I like having a hint of it.  To remedy that, I put in a full tablespoon (and sometimes even a bit more) rather than a teaspoon.  If you do that, I don't think you'll be disappointed...or even be assaulted my mustard flavor.  My second change is the cheese.  I don't use Swiss and I don't use half a cup.  For me, Swiss does not have a strong enough flavor to use in this recipe.  I ALWAYS use cheddar cheese (mild, not sharp, but use sharp of you like it). Also, half a cup isn't enough to taste either.  I ALWAYS use a full cup.

Remember when I said I have discovered something after making these muffins a few times?  Well, this is it: these muffins do not stay fresh for a super long time.  In fact, not even for a little bit of a long time.  Mr. C and I have found that we prefer these muffins when they are still warm out of the oven.  If you can't have them that way (which we sometimes cannot), I would suggest not making them more than a day in advance of when you are going to eat them.  By day two, they are on the fast track to stale-ville.  If you have to make them more than a day, pop them in your freezer and keep them fresh that way.  That's what I do when I make them for Mr. C to take to work for breakfast.

When all was said and done I didn't end up feeling like the "Hostess with the Most-ess." Although, one of my aunts asked for the muffin recipe and another said, "I'm coming back to this hotel!"  I hope that means they enjoyed themselves.  I was delighted to have them here and it gave me a great excuse to try out a new recipe.  We'll see if they want to check back in to Hotel C again next year!

Strawberry Sauce

Little R is a strange eater. One day she loves something, the next day she won't go near it. One of those foods she is most fickle with is strawberries. One day she will eat two or three whole ones the next day she won't even touch them.

And so came the dilemma of having a huge pound of strawberries that were not getting eaten. I was really worried they were going to go bad so I started scouring every cookbook I owned attempting to find a recipe I could throw them in. I found a great one in the Our Best Bites cookbook, which is based off the Our Best Bites website.

My dear sister, Jackie, bought me this cookbook earlier this year as a "Welcome to Utah!" gift when I came to visit her. I was so excited when I went upstairs and saw it sitting on my bed. I have followed the Our Best Bites website for a long time and I love all of their recipes. This is one of the greatest cookbooks I own. This cookbook, the Pioneer Woman cookbook, and our family's cookbook is the most used cookbooks in my tiny, but not so tiny, collection of cookbooks. I recommend this cookbook to EVERYONE. It will be one of the greatest investments you make in your kitchen. The recipes are so simple and easy, but delicious! I have made so many things in it and everyone of them has turned out PERFECT. I HIGHLY recommend everyone going out and getting this book. (P.S. I'm not getting paid for saying that!)

So, Our Best Bites had a great recipe for Strawberry Sauce that looked perfect. I decided to pair it with Double Chocolate Waffles from the same cookbook, a recipe Jackie will be posting later. They write in the cookbook that this sauce is great drizzled over ice cream, waffles, pancakes, cheesecake or blended with ice cream to make milkshakes. I love this sauce. It is lick-the-spoon delicious.

Strawberry Sauce

From: Our Best Bites

1 Pint strawberries, washed, hulled and roughly chopped

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 t. almond or vanilla extract

Combine strawberries, sugar, and vanilla in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer of over medium heat. Cook for five minutes. The cookbook says to stir constantly and break the strawberries up but I really didn't do that. I stirred occasionally and just tried to push on the strawberries. After five minutes, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring into a blender or food processor. Pulse until the consistency you want is reached.

Sauce can be refrigerated for one month and frozen for up to three months.

I put it on Little R's waffles this morning...P.S. she didn't touch them. I'm so shocked.

Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

My sister has informed me that it has been nine months since my last post... I could have birthed a baby since my last post. Unfortunately, I did not but I'm going to try really hard to get more up.

Today I have DELICIOUS blueberry muffins! I found the recipe in the July/August 2011 issue of Cooking with Paula. There is a whole section in the magazine that use blueberries and this is only the first of many that I plan on making!

I love blueberry muffins. Especially when they have a crumble top but when I saw the recipe for these I got really excited, even if they lacked the crumble top. What really got me excited was the orange zest in it. I love how blueberries and citrus taste together.

What REALLY made these muffins incredible was the oatmeal. I'm not an "oatmeal-in-my-baked-goods" kinda girl. I don't care for oatmeal in my cookies or muffins so I was a little skeptical. But this recipe has you soak one cup of oatmeal in one cup of 2% milk for ten minutes which I think was the best thing that I could have ever done. The muffins were so moist and I really attribute it to the oatmeal soak.

I hope you enjoy these more than my husband. This was our exchange:

Husband: (takes bite) Hmm..

Me: Yes?

Husband: Does this have orange in it?

Me: Just some orange zest, only a tablespoon.

Husband: Hmm..

Me: ...Do...you..not like it?

Husband: They don't taste like how I would expect them to taste.

Me: What did you expect?

Husband: Costco blueberry muffins.

Me: Dear, those aren't muffins. They are little blueberry cakes.

So, to wrap up...if you only like your muffins to taste like the giant muffins/little cakes at Costco, you won't like these. But I LOVE THEM!

Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

From: Cooking with Paula July/August 2011

1 c. old-fashioned oatmeal (I used quick oats and it was fine)

1 c. 2% reduced-fat milk (I actually used whole since I have it for the baby who won't drink it)

1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 T. orange zest

1 egg

1 c. AP flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. cinnamon (who measures cinnamon? i sure don't.)

1/2 c. chopped pecans (DELICIOUS! They add an incredible crunch!)

1 1/2 c. frozen blueberries (I think you could easily use fresh or thawed blueberries, but I would recommend tossing them in flour before adding them to the mix so they don't bleed too much in your batter)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, stir together oats and milk, let stand for 10 minutes. Add sugar, oil, orange zest, and egg, and stir well.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, powder, soda and cinnamon. Add pecans, tossing well. Add flour mixture into oatmeal mixture, stirring just until combined. Gently, but quickly, fold in ONLY 1 cup of the blueberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with remaining 1/2 c. blueberries.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

banana stuffed french toast with blueberry compote

every april and october, our church has a general conference where we have the opportunity to hear from our church leaders. i love it for many reasons, one of them being it's a perfect opportunity to watch church in your pajamas. ever since being married, i've always tried to make it a tradition to make two new, fun breakfast items for saturday and sunday. this year, sunday was banana stuffed french toast with blueberry compote.

we first saw this made on diners, drive ins, and dives on food network. it was from a restaurant in florida and when mr. e saw it he began to drool and said to me..."let's make that.....pul-eeze?" however, when i printed the recipe it came with the disclaimer that the recipe had been reduced down from a bulk recipe and had not been tested by the food network kitchens so...good luck, basically. as i read through the recipe i decided to make a few changes. one, the original recipe calls for bananas cooked in butter and brown sugar but i'm not really a fan of cooked bananas, so i decided to just cut them up and put the in between the bread slices. also, the original recipe called for challah bread. well, if you can find challah bread--be my guest. i ended up using some soft french bread. also, i skipped mixing the cooked bananas in with the cream cheese--but that was only because i didn't have any. darn, that would have tasted good.

also, the original recipe called for 1 gallon of eggs. um, did you know that is 128 ounces? well, i was cutting the recipe in half anyway, but still! that is 64 ounces of eggs! you know, 5 eggs worked JUST FINE. sheesh food network, do you think i have all the money in the world to go buy 6 dozen eggs...WELL, I DON'T!

my modifications were few but this recipe was incredible. especially the blueberry compote. it makes a TON of compote, and i mean a TON. we will probably have it for weeks to come. i don't care. i plan to put it on oatmeal, ice cream, hamburgers, tuna sandwiches. anything. it's delicious.

without further ado, here's the recipe.

banana stuffed french toast with blueberry compote

based on this recipe

2 bananas, cut into 1/2 in. slices

fresh challah bread, or soft french bread, cut into 1 inch slices

5 eggs (or 1 gallon if you are crazy)

1/2 c. half and half

about 1 t. of nutmeg

about 1 t. of cinnamon

1/2 c. sugar

16 oz. frozen blueberries

1/2 c. water

1 c. brown sugar (now you know it's good)

1/2 c. water + 1/4 c. cornstarch

16 oz. frozen strawberries

put a couple slices of banana onto a piece of bread and then sandwich with another piece of bread. push it down a little bit to get the banana to kind of soak into the bread. mix the eggs, half and half, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl. heat a large skillet, sprayed with nonstick spray or use butter, over medium heat. squish the sandwiches one more time and then dunk in the batter. pan fry on all sides. keep warm.

(i really recommend having everything for the compote ready to go before you start cooking your french toast. since the blueberries have been frozen they are going to take a long time to get to a boil. so, start your compote at the same time as you start frying your french toast.)

blueberry strawberry compote

put the blueberries, water and brown sugar in a saute pan (i used a sauce pan) over medium heat. bring to a boil and add the cornstarch/water slurry mix. cook until the sauce becomes thick and coats the back of a spoon (fyi, that won't take long. once it is super thick, you are going to want to swim in it. refrain. it will be REALLY hot.) add the strawberries and cook for 1 minute.

once your french toast is cooked, put on a plate and spoon compote over the top of your bread. then sprinkle some powdered sugar. enjoy!

It's a Miracle...Pancake

Mr. C is a delightful man. He's sweet, giving, and my perfect hubby. When it comes to cooking, he is always excited to eat whatever I've decided to make. He's pretty much game for anything (even my current attempt to feed him a 50% vegetarian meal plan). Well, almost anything. He hates pancakes. I mean absolutely despises them. He NEVER eats them. He complains that they are heavy and sit in his stomach for hours.

Imagine his surprise when he woke up one cold morning in January and I announced that we were having pancakes for breakfast. I told him I'd been looking through The Pioneer Woman's cookbook and found an ol' cowboy recipe for sour cream pancakes that I really wanted to try.

I asked him to give me one shot at the recipe. If he didn't like them, I'd never make them ever again. He nervously agreed.

The recipe is super simple and comes together very quickly. The batter is very light and fluffy. It's made with a full cup of sour cream and very little flour. PW says to cook the pancakes on a buttered griddle. I'm always a non-stick spray type of girl, but I decided to throw cholesterol to the wind on this one and butter the griddle right up.

PW also says to cook the pancakes over med-low heat. If you do nothing else according to the recipe, obey this direction. The pancakes cook SUPER fast, only 60-90 seconds per side, at the low heat.

If you attempt to cook them on a higher heat, like I did with my first batch, they will burn. Like I said, if you do nothing else, obey the heat advisory.

Look how fluffy those little beauties are!

I served Mr. C a small stack with some syrup.

He ate one bite...then another...and another. We had a pancake miracle!

He loved them. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them!

Since Mr. C's brave venture in to pancake land back in January, we've had sour cream pancakes almost every weekend since. He even takes the leftovers to work for breakfast...if there are any left. I also served them to my mom and sis when they were visiting. They both loved them too--and my mom is not a breakfast eater. There is no other way to say it, these pancakes are just plain light, fluffy, and yummy.

I suggest you try them for breakfast as soon as possible.

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
1 c sour cream
7 T flour
1 T sugar
1 t baking soda
1/2 salt
2 large eggs
1/2 t vanilla (although I use more)
butter
Place an iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. You want to get it nice and hot. Place the sour cream in a medium bowl. Dump in the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir together very, very gently. Stop short of totally combining the mixture. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Pour the egg mixture into the sour cream/flour mixture. Stir together gently. Don't worry about the mixture being totally combined, a little white and yellow swirl is fine. Melt about a tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Pour the batter into the skillet, 1/4 c. at a time. Cooke for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, then flip. Cook for another 45 seconds and remove to a plate. Makes about 12 4-inch pancakes.

My side note: I have found that 1/4 c. of batter per pancake is WAY too much. Because these pancakes are so light and fluffy, they can be tough to flip. I measure my pancakes using a 2 T. measuring spoon. This makes a perfect size pancake and makes flipping more manageable...although they are still tougher to flip than a regular pancake. I get 12 pancakes exactly using the 2 T. measurement. Also, I always use fat free sour cream and it works great.

To say that we are buying sour cream in massive amounts is an understatement. When it goes on sale for 77 cents for a 16 ounce container, I buy at least 4 or 5. Next time I'm in the dairy aisle, I'll look for you. Once you try this recipe, you'll be there as often as I am!