Monthly Archives: June 2012

Cheddar Corn Muffins

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For anyone who loves cornbread, this recipe is for you. These quick and easy corn muffins are the perfect dish to bring along to your Fourth of July Barbeque, and you won’t waste too much of your sunny holiday in the kitchen. I started with a box of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix, and with a few extra ingredients, this salty sweet snack was born. Whole corn kernals and grated cheddar cheese take the classic Jiffy mix to a whole new level. And might I suggest pairing them with these Brown Sugar Baby Back Ribs and this utterly summery Lemon Cake? Your Fourth of July menu is ready to go….now go enjoy that sunshine.

Ingredients: Makes 12 muffins

  • 1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 1 cup whole corn kernals
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling on top of muffin

Preparation:

  1.  In a large bowl, place Jiffy cornbread mix and paprika and mix well
  2. Separate egg, placing egg white in a separate bowl and egg yolk in cornbread & paprika mixture
  3. Beat egg white with electric mixer until light & fluffy, set aside
  4. Add corn kernals & buttermilk to cornbread mixture and mix well
  5. Lightly fold egg white into cornbread mixture
  6. Fold in in shredded cheddar
  7. Divide batter into 12 muffin liners and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheddar cheese
  8. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes

Caramel Pretzel Brownies

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As I mentioned once before, I met Eric on Halloween three years ago. But the funny thing about our first meeting is that I had actually heard of this elusive “Eric” character quite a few times before. But all the stories I heard about my now boyfriend weren’t just “Eric” stories…they were always “Eric and Tom” stories. At the time, I didn’t know either of these boys, but I did know that they were best friends. Any stories told by the mutual friends Eric and I shared prior to our meeting often involved Eric and Tom. So when I finally did meet Eric that Halloween night, he was decked out in a flight suit, channeling Top Gun’s “Goose.” And even though Tom wasn’t there that night, it made total sense that he was at another Halloween party, dressed as Maverick. Together or apart, these boys were quite the pair.

And a few months later, it was Tom who nudged Eric along in asking me out. And although Tom gave Eric some decent advice, Eric didn’t exactly follow it. I heard later on that their conversation went a bit like this: “Whatever you do, Eric, don’t just ask her to be your girlfriend. Be more casual. We aren’t in middle school.” Fast forward two days and Eric was ever so awkwardly asking me “If I wanted a boyfriend…namely him.” Well, Tom, at least you tried.

I’m pretty thankful for Tom not only for pushing Eric along, but also for letting me share his best friend. And Tom’s a pretty hilarious guy to be around, so that’s pretty cool as well. So when I heard he was coming back into town for a few days, I decided “welcome home” baked goods were a necessity. Because baked goods are pretty much always a necessity in my book. When deciding what to make, I figured brownies would probably be a safe bet. But rather than typical fudge brownies, I decided to up the ante with a few more decadent ingredients. This recipe is incredibly easy, as it starts with a packaged brownie mix. And with the addition of crushed pretzals  & caramel topping, it’s safe to say they will be devoured quickly. Boy and best friend approved.

Ingredients:

  • 1 package brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup pretzels, crushed
  • 1/4 cup caramel topping
  • 1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Preparations:

  1. Place brownie mix in a large bowl and add eggs, water & oil and mix until well incorporated
  2. Stir in chocolate chips
  3. Pour brownie batter into a greased 13×9 inch baking pan
  4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes
  5. After brownies have baked for 20 minutes, sprinkle crushed pretzels evenly over the top of the brownies and return to the oven for 8-10 minutes of additional baking time
  6. After brownies are baked through, remove from oven and let cool.
  7. Drizzle caramel topping & chocolate syrup over top of brownies before cutting into 24 even squares

Whole Wheat Nectarine Muffins

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Lately I’ve been digging the taste and texture of baking with whole wheat flour. It’s nutty, and slightly sweet and it reminds me of my first business venture. That’s right. I once owned a small business. Impressed? You shouldn’t be. I was 9 and after reading an inspiring issue of American Girl magazine I decided it was about time I started making my own money. To buy important things like Lisa Frank stickers. And candy. Lots of candy. And seeing as my Train sisters were also very pro-candy…I enlisted them in the start up of my brilliant business idea. And what was my incredibly innovative and well thought out small business? Selling homemade dog treats.  We made tiny whole wheat dog snacks and named ourselves “The Barkery.” Cute name, right? Yeah well…I stole it from a tv show. And I also stole the recipes from that American Girl magazine. So maybe innovation and creativity were not yet the name of my game. The Train sisters and I went door to door toting our bags of homemade dog treats offering them to our dog loving neighbors, and then set up Lemonade stand style on the corner of our street. We made a grand total of $0 on our first day of business. The next day we gave up and went back to playing dress-up and religiously reading Little House on the Prairie. But even though my first bout with entrepreneurship wasn’t exactly a success, I still love baking with whole wheat flour. And this recipe is far superior to any of those pathetic little dog treats. These muffins are lightly spiced and incredibly moist and tender. I used some healthy baking substitutes like mashed banana and egg whites to cut back on fat, so these muffins would be a great healthy breakfast to start the day. And the juicy pieces of fresh nectarine lend an unexpected sweetness to the batter. I wonder if we would yield some better  business results if I grabbed the girls and went door to door with these muffins. On second thought….I think I’ll just enjoy them myself.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 very ripe banana, mashed
  • 1 tablespoon light agave nectar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 nectarine, chopped into bite sized pieces

Preparation

  1. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & brown sugar together
  2. In a separate bowl, mash banana, and stir in agave nectar, vanilla, oil & egg white
  3. Add wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined
  4. Stir in chopped nectarine
  5. Divide batter into 8 muffin cups and bake at 350 for 15 minutes

Vegetarian Linguine

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Nothing quite says “indulgence” like a heaping bowl of fresh pasta. Yet those oversized portions that we often find in our favorite Italian eateries don’t always fit very well into healthy lifestyles. So what do we do when we’re craving an oversized bowl of noodles but don’t want to sacrifice our healthy eating? We make this dish. This vegetarian “pasta” dish is bursting with the flavors and textures that will satisfy your pasta craving, yet pasta is actually missing from the ingredient list. I recently discovered Pasta Slim Linguine, which is made from fresh spinach. It has the same texture and flavor of traditional linguine, yet only contains about 30 calories per serving. Add this incredibly healthy “pasta” to a mixture of sauteed vegetables and fresh parmesan cheese and you have yourself a deliciously healthy dinner. So go ahead and have as big a bowl as you’d like.

Ingredients: Makes Four 1 cup servings

  • 2 (7 oz) bags of PastaSlim Spinach Linguine (found at Better Health Stores, but regular linguine works fine as well)
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup diced red onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
  • 4 tablespoons Italian Breadcrumbs
  • 2-3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped finely

Preparation:

  1. Prepare PastaSlim according to package instructions (or substitute regular pasta if desired)
  2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat
  3. Add garlic and onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until onions are soft, stirring occasionally
  4. Add cherry tomatoes to pan and saute for 5 minutes, until tomatoes are soft and juicy
  5. Add zucchini and saute for an additional 5 minutes, until zucchini is tender
  6. Stir parmesan and breadcrumbs into vegetable mixture, add an additional 1 tablespoon of oil if desired
  7. Toss pasta into pan and stir until well combined
  8. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve

Bumpy Cake Cupcakes

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People always say that a girl’s relationship with her dad will shape her in a special way. Because dads are the first person a little girl turns to with that first scraped knee and dads are the model by which girls will judge all the other men in her life. And if she’s lucky, few people will ever quite measure up to a girl’s dad. And I’m happy to say I’m one of those lucky few. You can’t get much better than my dad. So in honor of Father’s Day I’m going to share a few of my favorite lessons that I’ve learned from my “Pa”

  1. Family comes first. I don’t think I realized until I started working myself, just how hard my dad has always worked. He worked long hours and went on quite a few business trips when I was growing up, yet I never remember him not being around. In grade school, he was at every single soccer game. In fact, he was even at every soccer practice, seeing as he was my soccer coach for 10 years straight. And in high school, he attended every choir concert, cheering the loudest after every one of my solos. Even after the one that I panicked on stage, forgot all the words, and cried the entire car ride home. But he was there afterwards to make me laugh, and remind me that it was perfectly alright to mess up now and then. Because even though he had two businesses to run and friends to play golf with, he was there for us through everything.
  2. Finding and losing friends is a natural part of life. I remember dreading moving away to college. I couldn’t imagine leaving my friends behind and I lamented to my dad about the horrible possibility of losing touch with people. And rather than telling me that it would never happen, he told me the truth. It probably would. I was crushed. But he also told me, that the true friendships I’d made thus far would continue into the future, and that college would probably provide me with a few more best friends. At the time, I thought it was impossible, the friends I’d made in high school were the only friends I’d ever need. But of course, my dad was right. Some of those friendships faded away, the true friendships lasted, and I met even more lifelong friends in college. And thank goodness for that..because where would I be without Leona and Eric?
  3. Jimmy Buffet music is a way of life, Broadway music is more than just jazz hands and sparkles, and artists who actually write their own lyrics can teach you a lot more than pop singers who lip synch. My dad loves all genres of music, and he made sure I was well versed in them as well. It was pretty much a requirement that we know the majority of Jimmy Buffet’s albums growing up and that we understood the idea of “island time.” And when I was 12, my dad took me to see Les Miserables, showing me that Broadway musicals could be beautiful works of art, and not just a bunch of people dancing around in feather boas. And as I grew older he introduced me to Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro and I discovered the wonderful world of singer song writers who seem to paint pictures about life with their words. And soon “Both Sides Now” was on repeat rather than some of those ridiculous 90s pop songs. Thanks, Pa.
  4. If it is nearly impossible to embarrass your children, you’ve probably done a pretty good job with the whole parenting thing. Whether he was dancing in the grocery store aisles or singing while walking down the street, he just never really managed to embarrass us. Lord knows he tried, but even in the peak of my angsty teenager stage, my dad was never a source of embarrassment…he was just funny. He taught us how to make fun of ourselves and that it was actually pretty enjoyable to look stupid. So when most fifteen year olds would hide behind the cheese display when their father cracked out the dance moves in Kroger..I always just joined in. Life is just more fun that way.
  5. Enjoy every day and never stop having fun. From the moment he wakes up in the morning to the seconds before he falls asleep, my dad is as peppy and as cheery as can be. Of course we have mocked him throughout the years for his constantly chipper demeanor, but its an attitude towards life that I strive to adopt as well. Everyone who knows him, knows he likes to have fun. He always led the “night before Halloween” tradition of ding-dong-ditching our neighbors, and he has transformed people watching into a sport. My dad is a guy who has always been surrounded by good friends and is one of those people where good times just follow. And honestly, if my 60th birthday party is as rockin as his was, I think I’ll consider my life a life well lived.

And these bumpy cake cupcakes is a nod to my dad’s ever-chipper temperament. He recently had some oral surgery which has temporarily wiped some food groups from his diet. But rather than complain about the absence of some of his favorite dishes…he merely replaced those hard to eat foods with Bumpy Cake. He started picking up a Sander’s Bumpy Cake once a week and eating it piece by piece. So because of this new “When in doubt, eat cake” theory that he has put in place, I thought I would make him a batch inspired by his new favorite food group. So go ahead and make these for your dad, because if you are as lucky as I am, he has probably taught you quite a bit over the years. Happy Father’s Day Pa!

Ingredients: Makes 24 cupcakes (from Foodbuzz.com)

For the “Bumps”

  • 8 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Ganache

  • 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 2 tablespoons + 4 teaspoons water
  • 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:

  1. Prepare cupcakes according to package instructions, let cool completely
  2. For the butter cream “bumps” place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light & fluffy
  3. Slowly beat vanilla & heavy cream into butter mixture until well incorporated
  4. Place buttercream in a piping bag and pipe two thick stripes on top of each cupcake, place cupcakes in freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes
  1. For the ganache, place first 4 ingredients (cocoa through corn syrup) in a saucepan over medium high heat and stir until mixture is hot
  2. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar
  3. After cupcakes have frozen, dip them into ganache and set on a cooling rack for chocolate to set completely

Strawberry Lime Breakfast Bread

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Everyone tells you that you to never skip breakfast. And I wholeheartedly agree. Mostly because I absolutely love breakfast foods and can’t imagine a morning without my daily Greek yogurt or peanut butter on toast.  But not everyone wakes up … Continue reading →

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Nothing quite stirs up the nostalgia of childhood summers like that first chilly bite into a sweet, ice cream cookie sandwich. I can remember running down the street after the ice cream truck to claim the delicious prize of creamy … Continue reading →

Date Night at BaconFest Michigan

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A few months back, Eric and I thought it would be a fun idea to take turns planning a surprise date night for each other once a month. We decided to take turns each month planning the surprise date for the other, and I claimed the month of June. All I needed was a fun event to bring Eric to…and before long I had discovered the perfect event for my bacon loving beau…BaconFest Michigan. This special food festival took place at the Royal Oak Farmer’s market and featured food from over 40 local restaurants centered around one very special ingredient: bacon. It was put together by the writers and creators of Eat Live Detroit, a food blog focused on the wonderful cuisine of Metro Detroit. And let me tell you…this event was absolutely awesome. And I don’t even really like bacon all that much. (Please don’t hate me). The event started off with the mayor of Royal Oak cutting the ceremonial ribbon…which, of course was shaped like a strip of bacon. Naturally.

And then the foodie feast began. Originally Eric and I thought we would stroll around and take a look at each vendor to see which food samples we wanted to tackle. But that method went out the window very quickly, as everything looked absolutely delicious. We started off with a Turkey, Cheddar & Bacon Panini from the Panini Press in Berkley.

It was pretty darn delicious, but didn’t hold a candle to our favorite dish of the night. Barbeque Chicken Pizza with a Barbeque Bacon Skewer from the Green Lantern in Royal Oak. The barbeque bacon was spicy and delicious. Eric may have gone back for seconds.

Another favorite of the night was the Corn Cookies with Canadian Bacon & Cheddar from Lily’s Seafood in Royal Oak. I always love cornbread inspired dishes and the salty sweet combination of this dish was awesome

Another standout was the Bacon Jam from Grange Kitchen & Bar in Ann Arbor. It was served on crispy crostini with goat cheese. The chef told us they usually spread this delicious jam on their sandwiches, specifically their burgers. We decided we may need to visit Grange to try one of these burgers ourselves.

It was really interesting to see what each restaurant brought to the event, especially since everyone seemed to create a completely unique bacon dish. The only repeat we saw was Bacon Mac n Cheese. But there was a clear winner between the two similar dishes: Cafe Muse’s Three Cheese Bacon Mac n Cheese with Fontina, Havarti, Mozzarella, a Honey Scented Gratin and Bacon (of course)

By this point we were both pretty full, but couldn’t quite resist the allure of the bacon inspired desserts:

Corn Muffins from Toasted Oak Grill & Market

And Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting…and more bacon from Cliff Bell’s in Detroit

All in all, this was a really fun event. And from someone who isn’t a huge bacon fan to begin with, I think that’s saying a lot. It was great to see so many local restaurants contributing to this event and it was clear that Metro Detroit has an amazing food scene. But after consuming my weight in bacon…I may need to go on a little bacon detox for a while. So don’t be surprised if you start seeing some more vegetarian recipes in the next few days!