Category Archives: recipes

Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Mini-muffin modifications added below on October 29, 2012. Enjoy!

I don’t remember what precipitated the discussion, but somehow it came to my attention via dh that dd really wanted to have chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. We’ve taken to keeping the Entemann’s Chocolate Chip Mini-Muffins in the house, mostly because they’re easy to whip out if you need a quick breakfast on-the-go, and ds has taken to them like a fish to water. But dd hasn’t really fallen in love with them, and she wanted a WHOLE muffin that she could eat…well, whole…rather than four small muffins that had more the appearance of a snack than a single baked good.

Poking around in our cookbooks, I noted the distinct lack of a specific “chocolate chip muffin” recipe, although I did find a banana chocolate chip one that would’ve worked great – had dd not turned her nose up just the other day when presented with a banana chocolate chip muffin purchased from the farmstand. Fine. I’ll bake them myself. On a really hot day. Don’t go handing me a “Mother of the Year” award just yet; we have central air conditioning. On second thought, go for it: I followed baking these with whipping up a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (because I’m a good wife sometimes, too).

Chocolate Chip Muffins

SO. INCREDIBLY. GOOD.

A note: this recipe was inspired by a recipe that I found in a cookbook. If you want the full cookbook, please, by all means, go buy it. It’s awesome. I will be attempting further mods on this recipe sometime soon, with fewer chocolate chips (because dh thinks there were too many – and I think that’s just NUTS) and using some vegan mods, like darker chocolate, applesauce for at least one of the eggs and margarine for the butter. When I get around to testing the other mods, I’ll post if it all works out nicely.

Prep Time: 15-20 min

Cooking Time: 30 min

Serves: 12 (1 muffin per person)

Ingredients

1 stick butter (should be 4 oz)

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup skim milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/8 cup mini chocolate chips

Make it Happen

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. In a mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla.

3. Add the eggs singly, beating well after each is added to the bowl.

4. While the mixer is going on low speed, add the baking powder, and then alternate adding 1/3 of the flour and 1/3 of the milk until all the flour and milk have been added to the bowl.

5. Turn off the mixer, then add the semi-sweet (regular size) chocolate chips to the bowl. Stir well to combine.

6. Put a muffin liner into each of 12 cups in a muffin pan, then scoop the batter into each of the muffin liners. You should have enough to fill each one fairly full (and it’s okay if it’s all the way up to the top).

7. Garnish each muffin with a sprinkling of the mini chocolate chips, then put the muffins into the oven.

8. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center two muffins comes out clean.

9. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and place on a cooling rack to complete the cooling process.

 

New! MINI-MUFFIN MODIFICATIONS!

 

Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

JOY in bite-sized form factor!

 

Using the same set of ingredients, you can make 48 mini-muffins. In theory, it still makes about 12 servings of 4 mini-muffins each. How you observe this serving size in reality…I leave up to you.

To make these as mini-muffins, follow instructions 1-5 (above) and then fill 48 mini-muffin cups with the batter. If not using mini-muffin liners, just spray the pans with a baking spray before filling the cups.

Bake for 20 minutes. If you have two 24-mini-muffin pans, as I do, put them on separate racks and swap them halfway through cooking time.

No need to cool these in the pan before moving them to the cooling rack; simply turn them out onto a cooling rack, let them cool a bit and then try not to eat them all in single bites.

It’s very, very hard not to eat these in single bites. Really.

 

Short thoughts on shell peas

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Shell peas had been given nearly-mythic status in my mind thanks to the ravings of my BIL, who swears that freshly shelled peas from my sister’s garden is one of his favorite summer foods. So, it was with great joy that I saw the CSA box would have shell peas (aka “English peas”) this past week. I was never much of a pea person until dh and I started dating and he would get me into canned peas as a decent side dish at dinnertime. After we had kids, we more firmly transitioned to frozen peas – typically, the 2lb bag with the grocery store brand label.

And then there’s shell peas. They’re going to be fantastic. Mythic. EPIC.

My verdict: They’re yummy, but they’re more trouble than they need to be worth. That’s not to say that I didn’t like them. I did – really, I did! But they didn’t blow me away enough to make me think that this is THE PEA FOR ME FOR NOW AND FOREVER.

First off, there’s some effort required in taking them from in-the-pod to not-in-the-pod. For the bag of approximately 2lbs of shell peas, I spent a little more than a half-hour to shell the lot of them, and I yielded just about 13oz of peas. Half of them were prepared last night, and the other half went back into the fridge to be prepared later in the week. Everything I’ve read about shell peas said that you should eat them pretty soon after they’re picked, so we’re trying to be good about getting through them.

Once you get past the shelling process, the cooking process is super-easy. For about 6-7oz peas, just boil some water in a saucepan, add the peas and cook them for about 1-2 minutes, until they’re a pretty green. Turn off the heat, strain them to get rid of the water, and then stir in about 1/2Tb butter or margarine. Some people put salt in the water or salt the peas after. Some bypass all that and just eat them raw. Peas are, as always, a “whatever works for you” kind of vegetable.

Everybody liked the peas, but it was clear that the reception was only somewhat better than what we get for the frozen ones heated up in the microwave. For the price difference and the work required, that relegates shell peas firmly to weekend-duty, on an irregular basis. Shell peas may be a treat, but I think I’ve seen now that the myth was more in my head than in the pod.

CSA Vegetable Chicken Stir-fry

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I’ll admit that I’m not the wok-master of the house. DH makes some great stir-fry, and when we got this week’s veggie box, I knew that he was going to have a fun assignment. The funny part was trying to convince him of what needed to go in the wok.Throw in the peas! And carrots! And OMG slice the kale thinly and it’ll be awesome! I’m such a backseat chef sometimes.

Needless to say, he made this fantastic stir-fry and the instant reaction was that it was a total winner. We used the sugar snap peas, carrots, green onions and kale from this week’s CSA box, and it was all just heavenly. Better still, after two adult portions (and small amounts siphoned off by the kiddos), we had two nice lunch portions.

And before anybody gets crabby about this being on white rice, I’ll have you know that dh made sushi rice in the Zojirushi, and OMG was that awesome, too. It was just one of those dinners where it all came together perfectly, and the only thing we were wishing we could do differently is not have eaten all day so we could just stuff completely. Another positive side-effect of loading up on the CSA veg is that it enabled us to be completely full from just under 4oz chicken each. That totally works, too. Not that I don’t love my poultry and all, but there was something insanely fun about just piling the veg high on the counter and watching dh go to town with the wok.

Note: if you don’t have a wok, I recommend that you try this type of recipe in a large, high-sided skillet. The wok is still the best starting place, but a large skillet that allows you to stir a serious quantity of food without spilling will work in a pinch.

Note, pt. 2: don’t feel compelled to make this with chicken. Make it vegan by ditching the chicken and either upping the veg or throwing some firm tofu in there. Just remember that the tofu shouldn’t need anywhere near the same cook time as the chicken. The point is that veg + wok = heaven.

Note, pt. 3: also, don’t feel compelled to use canned mushrooms. This was a nod to “it’s a weeknight and the kids are chafing at being in the grocery store when they’re hungry and I need to get them home so dinner can be made and BLARGHWHERETHE$*%&ISACANOFSHROOMSSOICANGOALREADY?!”

 

CSA Vegetable Chicken Stir-Fry

JUST. SO. GOOD.

 

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut in 3/4″ cubes)

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

2 Tb canola oil

2/3 lb snow peas, washed, stemmed and stringed

1/2 lb carrots, washed and cut into 1/4″ rounds

15 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained

8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

1/4 cup green onions, washed and chopped

4 oz kale, washed, stems removed, and cut into 1/4-1/2″ strips

1 Tb cornstarch

2 Tb water

 

Make it Happen

1. Heat the canola oil in a wok over high heat until the oil smokes.

2. Add the chicken and hoisin sauce; stir frequently until the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

3. Simultaneously, steam sugar snap peas and carrots. Steam for 3-5 minutes, until they just start to lose their crispness.

4. Once the chicken is cooked, add to the wok the mushrooms, water chestnuts, the steamed sugar snap peas and carrots, and teriyaki sauce. Stir to combine.

5. Cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes, then add green onions and kale; stir to combine.

6. In a small bowl, mix together cornstarch and water. Stir until the cornstarch is fully dissolved, then add this mixture to the wok and stir to combine thoroughly. Remove from heat and serve immediately.