blueberry muffins redux

the blueberry muffins I made over the weekend were good, but not great. I still had a half a bag left of frozen blueberries in the freezer, so today i decided to try another recipe, this time from the 300 cupcakes book.

Big mistake. these muffins totally suck. well, Trapper will eat them, but then again, Trapper also occasionally eats his own poop.

Why did I mess with a recipe that was halfway decent? i wasted time and flour on a recipe that was terrible. I did forget to put a half a stick of butter in, but I really don't think that would've made much of a difference.

I am on a new quest; a quest for the perfect blueberry muffin.....

blueberry muffins

I've made many different muffin recipes from my Williams-Sonoma muffin cookbook, but had yet to try blueberry. Maybe I was waiting for fresh blueberres. In any case, I picked up some frozen blueberries last weekend and decided to give them a shot.

My mom and I thought they were okay, but the chef proclaimed them "delicious" and "the best muffins you've ever made." Better even than the famous raspberry almond muffins. Hmm. I didn't think they were all that and was ready to try a different recipe for the remaining batch of frozen strawberries. What to do, what to do...

duh, salt!

The chicken sate I made tonight was just okay. The bossy little girl ate it (with lots of peanut sauce), but the red haired boy didn't touch it. He decided instead to eat a whole bunch of strawberries and bread. healthy!

anyway, i was trying to figure out why the chicken was just so-so tonight and it dawned on me that I FORGOT TO PUT SALT ON THE CHICKEN! I remembered to marinate it in soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, honey and peanut butter, with perhaps the soy being the "salt", but it wasn't nearly enough. I think a touch of actual salt would've brought all the flavors together.

god help me if I ever am diagnosed with high blood pressure and have to give up salt. that would be a sad life indeed.

buttermilk bread

I must once again sing the praises of the bread in a 5-minutes-a-day book. I haven't bought sandwich bread in awhile now, since I really can't stand that Ezekiel bread that Leone likes. I've made baguettes and bagels, so I thought I'd try making just a regular loaf of sandwich bread. I made two loaves of the buttermilk bread with a recipe from the 5-minute people and it turned out EXCELLENT! the kids love it, the chef loves it and it gives me deep pleasure to know that there are no preservatives, strange chemicals and no high fructose sugar in my bread. Hurrah!

Now if someone could only do something about the rise of wheat prices!

popovers!

I woke up early today, so I took advantage of the early start and made popovers. The little red haired boy had his plain, while the bossy little girl had hers with strawberry jam, fresh strawberries and powdered sugar. Yummy! I had one with strawberry jam. The chef, upon arising early and seeing the popovers exclaimed "yea!"

Which is always a nice compliment!

the perfect mommy cookbook

I found it!
the perfect mommy cookbook.

the family vegetarian cookbook was a bust. Despite the great reviews, the Dorie Greenspan baking cookbook was mediocre. i tried three recipes from each and returned both cookbooks.

and then I discovered Annabel Karmel's book for lunchboxes. I guess she wrote a bunch of best selling cookbooks for making baby food and such. this particular book is packed with creative ideas for lunchboxes and snacks. it is brilliant! and I'm not just saying that because she is british.

so far I have tried the breakfast bars which were a HUGE hit with the Chef and the bossy little girl. The little red haired boy didn't care for them, but how could you not like brown sugar, corn flakes, oatmeal, raisins, an entire stick of butter and a touch of corn syrup? I threw in some flaxseed for good measure and no one noticed-whew! the bars didn't even make it 24 hours, which is always a good sign and a compliment.

i also made, on a whim, a honey cream cheese spread. This is what I particularly like about this cookbook; I never would've thought to mix a touch of honey into cream cheese, spread it on a tortilla and then add in some thinly sliced banana. It took seconds to make, the kids LOVED it and it is outrageously healthy. Well, especially if you put it on a whole wheat tortilla. I've done the whole peanut butter on a tortilla bit, but I never, ever would've thought to put honey in cream cheese. So far, Annabel Karmel's recipes are 2 for 2 and I am relieved. I was tired of going to borders every week.

new cookbook

So the vegetarian cookbook was a bust. The banana fritters were AWFUL, the shepherd's pie was bland, and the cinnamon raisin bread was mediocre, at best. Going with the strategy of 3 strikes and you are out, I decided to return the cookbook. In its place I brought home Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. She is a favorite of Lynn Rosetto Kasper (always a good sign) and I have picked three recipes to try out: cocoa-nana bread (banana bread with chocolate), lemon poppyseed muffins and one other TBA.

I made the cocoa-nana bread tonight. The timing was completely off (and I followed the recipe to a tee), so I think in trying to figure out the ultimate baking time, I may have overcooked it a bit. it's still good, however, the kids really liked it. I can't really taste the banana, though, and that's not good. without the banana, the bread is just a bit too rich. I will be curious to see what the chef thinks.

Tomorrow I will try the lemon poppyseed muffins. If I am feeling really ambitious, I may even whip up some lemon curd to put inside. Hmmmm