Blueberry Almond Streusel Muffins

Aimee and  I  made a HUGE batch  of these muffins for a church brunch this weekend, and also made several loaves of banana bread (recipe coming soon). We quadrupled this recipe. I don't recommend it unless you are really cooking for a crowd. Quadrupled, it made about 60 muffins! We used frozen blueberries and it turned our muffins blue, which was kinda pretty,  but kinda weird.  It would be better with fresh blueberries, and actually you could use any kind of berry you want. Enjoy.

Streusel
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
Muffins
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups fresh berries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. 


Mix the streusel ingredients until crumbly.  I washed my hands and used my fingers, since it was easier to mix in the butter that way. Set aside. 
 
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.)  In another bowl, whisk  the wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, almond extract and melted butter).

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until just mixed and moistened.  Don't overmix, the mixture is supposed to be lumpy. Gently mix in the berries.


Line your muffin tin with paper muffin liners and fill about 3/4 full with batter  Top with the streusel topping. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick or fork comes out clean. 

Garlic and More Garlic Cold Quinoa Salad

As the name of this recipe suggests, it is very garlicky -- so if you don't like garlic, I suggest you don't bother with this recipe. I happen to looooove garlic, so it works for me quite well! Cold quinoa salads are great because you can throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand (I've made this with broccoli and red onion before). You could also use different types of cheese. The original recipe called for goat cheese, but I always have sharp cheddar, so I just used that and it was good.

Rant on grocery store tomatoes: I've decided that it's pretty much not worth buying tomatoes at the grocery store unless you buy cherry or grape. Unless maybe you have a really fancy grocery store with especially good tomatoes, in which case, buy a big tomato and chop it up for this recipe. If you grow your own or have access to a farmer's market, even better! Okay, end rant on grocery store tomatoes.

This makes about 4 servings--more, if you're making it as a small side dish. I like to make a big batch and have it for lunch several days during the week.

(Sidenote on the dressing: The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup balsamic vinegar, but that is just a lot of vinegar, so I use less. You may need to tweak some of the amounts on the dressing depending on how big your salad ends up being (if you add vegetables) and how strong you want the flavors. I suggest pouring on part of the dressing, tasting it, and then pouring on more if you want more flavor. Balsamic vinegar plus a ton of garlic gives it quite a kick.)

Salad

½ tsp crushed red pepper

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed

2 cups vegetable broth (to cook quinoa--can use 2 cups water instead)

2/3 cup spinach leaves, chopped

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

3/4 cup cubed sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Dressing

2 heads of roasted garlic

2 T olive oil (for roasting garlic)

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1T Dijon mustard

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the papery part of the garlic and cut top off the head.  Break into separate cloves.  Toss with olive oil and wrap in foil, and bake for one hour.  Cool and squeeze out garlic pulp. Mash with a fork. 
2. Bring vegetable broth to a boil.  Add quinoa and crushed red pepper and boil for 15 minutes.  Drain in a fine colander and put in refrigerator to cool.
3. While quinoa is cooking, combine spinach, tomato, and cheeses in a large bowl.  Toss gently.
4. Make dressing by combining vinegar, mustard, garlic and roasted garlic in a bowl. Mix well with a fork.  Add in olive oil in a fine stream.
5. When quinoa is cool, add to the spinach and cheese mixture.  Add dressing and toss.

Garlic Hummus

Another recipe inspired by Caitlin. For people who don't eat a lot of meat, chickpeas and tahini are both good sources of protein, and hummus has them both.  This makes a big batch, but if you don't want a lot, you could easily make half.

Ingredients:

2 cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), 1/2 the liquid reserved

4 (large) cloves garlic

8 TBSP lemon juice

4 TBSP tahini

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin

Notes:

You'll need a blender or a food processor. I've made hummus in my blender and it was fine though it doesn't get as smooth. However, my blender wasn't very happy with me for doing it, so I recommend a food processor. This is mine, which is both really old and brand new, depending on how you look at it.

(Brand new to me. Really old because in actually years, it's older than I am. But it's only been used 4 times according to my mom. It's a beast. Definitely got the job done.)

Tahini is sesame paste. It might be hard to fine. I found some at Safeway with the peanut butter. You could try a middle eastern grocery store or something if you can't find it. You can also totally make hummus without it. I don't think it tastes quite right, but some people don't like tahini anyway.

To make

Peel garlic and throw into blender or food processor (you might need to coarsely chop first, depending on your blender). Drain garbanzo beans and reserve the liquid from one can. Add chickpeas to food processor and blend with garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend some more. Add the reserved bean liquid in increments until hummus reaches desired consistency. When you serve, you can garnish with some olive oil and a sprig of parsely if desired.

Serve with vegetables, crackers, pita chips, or pita!

Vegetarian Crockpot Chili

This turned out a little more tomato-y and less spicy than I wanted. If I were going to make it again, I'd use less tomato paste.  I would probaby double the jalapeno. Or use a spicier pepper. Or add more chli powder and some cayenne pepper. Or maybe tabasco. Such possibilities...

Ingredients:

1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red  bell pepper
3 TBSP minced jalapeno
2 cloves garlic
1 diced tomato
1 can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans drained & rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can corn
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black papper
Cheddar cheese for garnish

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and garlick. Cook about 5 minutes or until tender.

Put vegetables and remaining ingredients (except cheese) into crock pot. Cook on low 4 to 5 hours.

Aimee's Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n Cheese

Now that I've made it for my family, it will become "Megan's Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n Cheese" for them.  Funny how recipes work like that. Originally, this is Anna's recipe (a food blogger that Aimee likes).

And since I basically didn't alter this recipe much at all, I will just link to the original blog. Although I will post pictures of MY finished product, which was tasty.

This is great if you like ultra-cheese, creamy, unhealthy goodness with a buffalo kick. 

http://www.sweetannas.com/2010/04/baked-buffalo-chicken-mac-and-cheese.html

 

My First Cheese Souffle

Aimee (my roommate) made cheese souffle for dinner the other night. I didn't actually eat it. I didn't actually see it. But the idea of it inspired me. All you really need is cheese, milk, and eggs. Okay and a few other things. And to be technical, I only made 1/2 of a cheese souffle and I ate the whole thing. It was THAT good. Here is the full (non half) recipe, but my slightly modified version (pretty close to the real version except that it called for cream of tartar. And who just HAS that on hand?)

Ingredients
Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups milk, hot
4 large egg yolks
About 1 cup sharp Cheddar
5 egg whites plus 1 tablespoon water

Digression: recipies never tell you the REAL order you should do things in. They just assume you do all your prep in advance like on cooking shows and work at lightning speed once you get going. (one Rachael Ray recipe I made said that it would take 30 minutes to prep. It took me 1.5 hours. Lesson: I am NOT Rachael Ray). So I'm going to give you the instructions step-by-step exactly as I did it because there is a bit of complexity here and it worked well for me. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence; I  have just personally made too many mistakes by not reading a full recipe and then realizing halfway through that something is whack. Okay, digression over.

1. Remove butter from refrigerator to bring to room temperature
2. Preheat oven to 375
3. Mix up flour, mustard, garlic powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Separate your egg whites into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Save the yolks and put them in another bowl.
5. Beat yolks with a fork until creamy. Add water to egg whites and beat with a hand mixer until fluffy and stiff.
6. Grease an 8-inch souffle mold or casserole dish with a bit of your now-room-temperature butter. Add the grated Parmesan and roll around the mold to cover the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for 5 minutes.(just keep a general eye on the time because I'M not going to tell you when to take it out)
7. Heat your milk in the microwave (1.5 minutes on high should do it). Put all of your ingredients at hand near the stove.
8. Melt 3 TBSP butter in a small sauce pan on low heat. Allow all of the water to cook out.

9. Whisk the flour mixture into the butter and cook for about 2 minutes, continuing to whisk and scraping the sides of the pan as necessary.
10. Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once it reaches a boil, remove from heat.
11. Whisk in the egg yolks. (keep whisking!).
12. Whisk in the cheese until smooth (yeah, whisk that sucker!)
13. Okay, STOP whisking. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites, one large spoonful at a time.
14. Awesome! Now pour the mixture into your souffle mold (did you remember to take it out of the freezer? You forgot, didn't you? Oh well, it should still work!)
15. Put it on a foil pie pan and bake for 35 minutes.

Voila! Cheese souffle! Okay, I didn't take a picture because I ate it all before I remembered. Oops.

Quinoa stuffed red bell peppers

So I've been lazy. I cook a lot, but I always forget to take pictures. And then I'm too lazy to blog about it. Mea culpa. I'm going to do better.

Thus far, I have kept my New Year's resolution to only buy organic meat--from whole foods or PCC because I trust them more. As a result I have been eating more vegetarian dishes, which has been delicious. My lovely friend Caitlin turned me on to quinoa, which is a miraculous and tasty little grain--a complete protein unto itself! Say it with me: "keen wa." Got it?

Sometime I will share the delicious garlicky quinoa salad recipe that I found. For now, I will just share what I made last night -- red bell peppers stuffed with quinoa. Healthy! Full of veggies! I slighly modified a recipe I found online because I didn't feel like buying celery or mushrooms and I couldn't find poblano peppers so I substituted a jalapeno. Really, you could make this with any number of different kinds of veggies--whatever you happen to have on hand.

Ingredients:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 TBSP cumin
3 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (drained, liquid reserved)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 1/2 cups grated pepper Jack cheese
4 large red bell peppers, halved lenghwise, ribs removed.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno and cook about 5 minutes. Add cumin and garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir in drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes until most liquid has evaporated.

Stir in quinoa carrots and 1 3/4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Add black beans and 1 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.

Fill each pepper half with heaping 3/4 cup quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle each pepper iwth 1 TBSP of remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more until tops are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Drizzle peppers with pan juices before serving.