Spiced Apple Butter Muffins

These muffins scream "fall", but they're equally delicious any other time of the year. I got the recipe in an email from RealAge.com, so you can be assured they're reasonably healthy, too. when I made them, I subbed honey for the molasses (I have this thing against molasses, mostly that I hate the way it smells) and I used half rice milk and half 2% milk because I didn't have any lowfat milk. Oh, and I threw in a couple of tablespoons of flaxseed at the end. They were really good- good enough that my two-year-old called them cupcakes.


SPICED APPLE BUTTER MUFFINS

1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup spiced apple butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar or 1/4 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons molasses
1 cup finely diced peeled apple


1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 12 standard 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with cooking spray. Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in bran.
3. Whisk egg, milk, apple butter, brown sugar (or Splenda), oil and molasses in a large bowl until blended. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Drain the raisins; add them and the diced apple to the bowl. Stir until just combined. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan (the cups will be very full).
4. Bake the muffins until the tops spring back when touched lightly, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges and turn the muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

TIP: Wrap leftover muffins individually in plastic wrap, place in a plastic storage container or ziplock bag and freeze for up to 1 month. To thaw, remove plastic wrap, wrap in a paper towel and microwave on Defrost for about 2 minutes.

It's time to Revolt

You know what makes me crazy? Drives me up the wall and fills me with the desire to storm restaurant kitchens and have words with the chef? Good, because I'm about to tell you.



I HATE IT when I am at a restaurant and see garlic bread on the menu, and thinking, "Yum, garlic and bread together is one of heaven's greatest gifts," order the garlic bread only to receive a basket of slices of french bread with a butter/garlic powder mixture on it. That is not garlic bread. That is bread with a garlicky butter on it. Putting garlic in some form on top of bread does not make the bread itself garlic bread. In fact, putting anything on top of bread does not change the type of bread that one has. You do not put peanut butter on bread and call it peanut butter bread. (ooooh! Peanut butter bread! Delightful! Hurry, someone go invent that and send it to me. And maybe to Sara Lee or something, too, because that stuff will be HUGE.) You do not put jam on bread and call it jam bread. (Although you do put butter and cinnamon and sugar on toast and call it cinnamon toast... odd.)



Garlic bread is bread that actually contains garlic. La Brea makes a wicked roasted garlic loaf that has beautiful, lovely chunks of roasted garlic in it. It is delightful with dinner and for making eggs in a basket the next morning. THAT is garlic bread, my friends. Not this french-bread-with-butter-and-garlic-powder passed off as garlic bread at restaurants and grocery stores and dinner tables nationwide. And I am not going to take it anymore. No siree, next time that happens to me I am SENDING IT BACK. And then probably leaving, because I don't want to eat a dinner that has been spat upon. But I will have made my point. Take THAT, lazy restaurateurs!

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Alright all you Utahns, the moment we've all been waiting for is upon us: Next Wednesday (July 2) Sunflower Market is opening in Murray (6284 South State Street)! The doors open at 7 am and the first 200 customers will receive a free reusable shopping bag filled with groceries valued at over $50 (note how it says customers- you do actually have to purchase something to get the free stuff, but trust me, once you're inside, you'll want to buy stuff). Now believe you me, I don't get out of bed before 7 am for ANYTHING, but if I could be in the area next Wednesday, I would be in line waiting for the doors to open with a big grin on my face. $50 in free groceries from Sunflower Market has that effect on me. SO, if you want to know why I love Sunflower Market as fervently as I do (Lovely cheap produce! All natural wheat mac & cheese that tastes like the blue box stuff! Ethnic food! Natural meats! Flatbread! Bulk bins!) and you want some free groceries to try out, get your bum out of bed and drag yourself down there in your pajamas if you have to and rejoice! Now you have the glory of a Sunflower Market near you!


P.S. No, they don't pay me, but they should, huh?

Yes, I DO Have Problems, Thanks for Noticing.

Yikes, sorry for not posting for so long, three loyal readers. This whole single-mommy act has been a bit draining lately, and blogging has been at the absolute bottom of my list. But tonight after cooking a real meal and not something from a box or the freezer, my tummy is full and my tastebuds are delighted (homemade guacamole does that to me), and I get back on the bloggy horse. And off we go.

I have to confess something. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it's a huge skeleton in my culinary closet. Yesterday, I was watching Sam the Cooking Guy- have you ever watched him? I love him. I used to watch him when he was on the public-access cable channel, and I can't tell you how happy I am that the folks at Discovery picked him up. Anyway, yesterday he was making guacamole (which very blatantly inspired my guacamole-making tonight), and the ingredients were very straightforward: avocados, tomatoes, onion, lime juice, cilantro, chipotles. It looked yummy. EXCEPT. Here's the thing...deep breath... I've never had chipotles... because I'm scared of them.


Stop laughing. Yes, I am scared of chipotles. I know that they are smoked jalapenos, and I am not scared of jalapenos nor smokiness, but I AM scared of chipotles. For some reason, I think they are going to taste suspiciously like mole sauce, which I think is vile. Chocolate is not meant for use in savory dishes no matter what the ancients say. And while I KNOW intellectually that mole and chipotle are nothing alike, and that there is no chocolate in chipotle, I can't bring myself to try it. I am afraid. Very afraid. And I know this really affects my culinary cred (what minuscule amount I hallucinate that I have) because chipotle is the biggest flavor trend since, I don't know, wasabi. I mean, there's an entire chain of restaurants called Chipotle. Have I been? No. Hear it's good, but uh, yeah, that whole chipotle thing kind of gets in the way.

Help.

Or Not.

Perhaps my last post about me being a gourmet and such was a wee bit premature. I recently went to visit my husband who has been away on business for a long enough span that I was compelled to go visit him. During my stay, the hubs asked me to make some oatmeal for him one morning. Despite the utter lack of measuring devices and all familiar kitchen accoutrements, I agreed, because I am a team player and I make oatmeal multiple times a week and have mastered it.

Or not.

What was intended to be a little stove-top-cooked pot of stick-to-your-ribs love turned out to be something else. Something solid and inedible with the ability to defy gravity. That's right, DEFY GRAVITY. When hubs saw the abomination that was supposed to be his breakfast, he grabbed the pot, turned it upside down, and NOTHING HAPPENED. Not even one little lump of gluey horrendousness fell to the floor. And then my husband proceeded to laugh at me. A lot. Very loudly.

And that is why perhaps my previous post may have been a teensy, tinsy, almost imperceptible bit premature.

I'm A Gourmet! And Other Exciting News

Okay, I'm not a gourmet in real, actual life. BUT. I did make a recipe from Gourmet magazine, which me five years ago would never have imagined because me five years ago wouldn't make a recipe that had more than four steps to it, so it's a huge sign that I've come a really, really long way. And maybe making a recipe from Gourmet magazine kind of sort of makes you almost a gourmet. Or at least solidly a wanna-be. And I can totally live with wanna-be. In case you were wondering, the recipe was for Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto. It was my first foray into the world of risotto, and I now fully understand its addictive powers. Shortly after, I made risotto with peas and fresh Parmesan cheese. Holy mama. This is so going to rain on my whole-grain parade.

The other exciting news is that I got linked! By someone who does not know me and thus feel obligated to humor me and my nutty obsession with food! Linked! Now, if you're, oh say, my sister, this would not be a huge deal since roughly 92,000 people read and love her blog. But if you're me? Reason to celebrate, my friends. Thanks for the link, Deb! You made my week.

I'm Not a Vegetarian, I Just Play One On TV

I realized something recently. I'm practically a vegetarian. I only eat meat a couple of times a week and I don't usually miss it. I probably could be an herbivore if I had some strong moral opposition to meat, if I thought eating meat was cruel to animals and a narcissitic show of dominion over other creatures and was somehow morally superior, but I don't. Which I guess makes me like a fence-sitting pseudo-vegetarian who's not committed to the cause, or a meat-and-potatoes girl gone horribly wrong. Just so we're clear: I love meat. Just not all the time. I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said "If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?" I still feel that way. Meat is good- beef, chicken, lamb, pork, deer, turkey, quail, veal... YUM. To all of it.

So why do I bring this up? Not to launch a discussion about vegetarianism vs. meat-eater-ism. No. I would find that boring, and since this is my blog, I choose not to be bored. Not even to discuss the reasons I find myself eating less meat now than I did a few years ago. Again, BORING. And quite frankly, generally speaking, I don't really care why you do or don't eat meat. If you do, give me your recipes. If you don't, give me yours, too, but spare me the lecture about how meat is going to kill me. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We all gotta die sometime, right?

SO. The reason I bring this up is because I wonder, on nights when people aren't eating meat and also aren't eating fish (which is not meat), what are they eating? I'm guessing for most people, it's pizza or pasta of some sort. Those were our only meat-free (and fish-free) meals for quite a while. But that got boring pretty fast, so I started looking around and I've discovered tons of really good vegetarian food and recipes. Several months ago I made soba noodle bowls, and stuffed portabello mushrooms before that. A couple of weeks ago I made egg drop soup and vegetable lo mein (though I'm looking for a better recipe), a couple of nights ago we had vegetarian stuffed peppers. I just found an insanely good recipe for a roasted vegetable sandwich that I can't wait to make, and this fall is going to be The Fall of Risotto- I plan to make it with nearly every variety of fall and winter squash available in order to find my favorite combination. So what about you? Do ever go meatless? And if you do, what do you eat? Have any favorite recipes?