Blueberry Banana Blintz Muffins

I will admit it - I am kind of obsessed with blueberry muffins.  We had a pretty chilly weekend here in Colorado Springs (14° F) and these seemed like the perfect way to warm us up.

I made a few changes to Ina Garten's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffin recipe in an effort to lighten it and to make things different from the usual blueberry muffin.  The cottage cheese and blueberries together reminded me of blintzes, and the banana adds a yummy sweetness that balances the cottage cheese flavor.

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 ripe banana, peeled

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup (about 8 oz) small curd cottage cheese

¼ cup milk

2 ½ cups unbleached flour (all-purpose is fine)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon sea salt (kosher or regular is fine)

1 pint frozen blueberries (fresh is fine, but this is not the season for that)

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.  Place cupcake liners in muffin pans.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
Add the eggs 1 at a time on low speed.  Add the banana, vanilla, cottage cheese, and milk.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until almost completely mixed.
Gently fold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.  (I actually just threw in the blueberries and let the
paddle keep going a few rotations.  This made the batter streaked with blue and purple juices,
which I thought looked kind of cool.  But if you don't like the batter to look "tainted," then make sure
you use the spatula to mix those berries).    

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup almost all the way.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
These muffins taste best when eaten shortly after coming out of the oven, as the cheese is still soft.
If you want to eat them later on, you may want to reheat them a little bit first.    

Shuga's - The Perfect Warm Cup of Soup on a Cold Day

Shuga's provides a cozy little retreat on a chilly day.  The tiny house has roughly 15 tables and offers tasty sandwiches, salads, and soups.  My favorite is the Spicy Brazilian Coconut Soup.  I'm not sure how Brazilian it is, but it does have wonderful savory and sweet flavors.  I also love their daily desserts, smart cocktails, and quiche specials.  This spot is perfect for having a cozy lunch or meeting your friends in the evening for some drinks, cheeseboards, and laughs.

Mmm...Spicy Brazilian Coconut Soup

Whimsical decorations abound

Chop Chop!

We all want to eat healthy in a fun way.  Chop Chop magazine actually targets children and shows kids cooking nutritious meals, playing games, and enjoying healthy foods!  $14.95 a year yields 4 issues a year.  The magazine features children of practically every ethnicity, vegan and non-vegan recipes, Muppets, and the website has a Spanish language section.  I can't imagine very many people (or monsters) who aren't included in some way.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to subscribe.  In the meantime, I'd recommend checking out the website for recipes, games and other fun ideas.  Happy New Year!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

The snow is really coming down out there.  For the first time in his young life, Little Man is having a Snow Day.  No School!!!

Perhaps it's a cliche, but traditions sometime weather the storm for a reason.  When one bakes cookies while it's snowing outside, the house gets even cozier.  The air smells like vanilla, sugar, butter and yummy-ness.

Martha Stewart's incredible team at Everyday Food has come up with this fantastic idea for holiday cookies.  Make your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe, separate the dough and dye each kind a different color.  Roll out the "main" dough into a sheet, add different colored dough on top (with dots, stripes, or whatever you'd like).  Roll again, use cookie cutters, and voila!  For some reason, this exact methodology is not posted on the Everyday Food website even though it was featured in their printed magazine (the last printed issue that's ever going to be published, apparently).  

Happy Baking and Happy Holidays!

It's Never Too Cold For Gelato

Many, many choices...

 In a mind-boggling tangle of chain restaurants and megastores at Colorado Springs' University Village (Panera, Chipotle, BJ's, Costco, Target, Loews, Kohl's, etc.) lies an unassuming gelato shop called Glacier.  This place has the ability to get me to eat dessert many more times than I normally would.  I think about stopping here every single time I go to Costco.  I don't, but I do often visit because I don't want these Boulder folks to regret opening up a Colorado Springs location.

It's so special that I feed this to my kids often, too!  I hate to sugar up the little ones, but this is just so darn tasty.  How could I deny my family the wonderful flavors of Nutella, Pistachio, Straciatella, Lemon Poppy Seed, Bittersweet Valrohna Chocolate, Hazelnut, Coffee, Colorado Peach, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato Pie, Vanilla Bean, or Caramel?

Glacier also sells pints to go which are reasonably priced at $3.99 each.  Enormous gelato and cookie sandwiches are $6.50.  They also have coffee drinks, too, although these are a bit weak for my taste.  But if you're into lots of milk and syrup and little espresso or coffee, then these hot numbers are for you.

If you stick with the ice cream or gelato, you will not be sorry.  It's worth a trip even when it's almost winter in the Rockies.

Slow and Easy Wins the Race

I did it!  I finally broke down and bought a slow cooker!  Then I checked out a bunch of cookbooks and found, much to my chagrin, that this is NOT one-pot cooking.  In fact, you dirty a lot more pots and pans, because you end up sauteeing everything first, then putting it all into the slow-cooker, then sometimes even sauteeing it all AGAIN!  So why do it?

Well, it is nice to be able to have a warm meal ready and waiting for you when you'd like it.  Sometimes you don't want to cook during that hour right before dinner.  And maybe your family has a particular weakness for very tender meat.

This recipe dirties one pot/pan (I traditionally use one of those Le Creuset dutch ovens for all my pre-slow-cooker cooking), one baking sheet, and then the slow cooker.  You have to cook the stuff again after the slow-cooker part, but I just used the same pan again.  If you line the baking sheet with parchment paper, then the baking sheet doesn't get too messy.  This dinner was a huge hit with everyone in the family and I got 2 dinners out of it!

slow -cooked teriyaki chicken - art of the slow cooker, by andrew schloss

1 T vegetable oil

4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8), bone-in (or you can mix thighs and drumsticks)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T finely grated gingerroot

1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 T water

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sherry or apple juice

1 T rice wine vinegar

2 T dark molasses

3 T honey

2 t cornstarch

1 t dark sesame oil

2 scallions, trimmed and cut into thin slices

heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. brown the chicken thighs in batches on both sides, about 3 minutes per side, then transfer to a 5 - 6 quart slow cooker. 

add the garlic and ginger to the skillet and cook over med-high heat until aromatic, about 30 seconds. add the 1/4 cup of water and scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet. add the soy sauce, sherry/apple juice, rice wine vinegar, molasses, and honey and stir to blend. pour over the chicken, cover the cooker, and cook on high for 2 -3 hours, until the chicken is cooked through. 

preheat the broiler to high.  remove the chicken to a rimmed baking tray lined with parchment paper and broil for 2 minutes on each side.  while the chicken is broiling, pour the liquid from the cooker into a skillet. bring to a boil over med-high heat. dissolve the cornstarch in the 1 1/2 T of water, add to the sauce in the skillet, and stir until the sauce is lightly thickened, about 1 minute. arrange the chicken on a platter and spoon the sauce over top. drizzle with sesame oil, and sprinkle with the scallions. 

Pumpkin Fun

Little Man has a near-Halloween birthday, so we tend to make a lot out of autumn-themed festivities.  One such activity is the carving of the Jack O Lantern.  This year I think we're still going with insect-themed luminaries.  We will unveil those soon along with a Pumpkin Gelato recipe that Major Obvious is making this afternoon.  In the meantime, here are some of our previous pumpkins and a link to the World Wildlife Federation's stencil page (the source of our butterfly jack o lantern this year).

Happy Carving!