Blueberry love

When you want a treat for breakfast but don't want to stand at the stove making pancakes, try coffee cake.

I made mine with ground oatmeal instead of white flour, yogurt for most of the fat, and with the blueberry bottom, you don't need much sugar. Satisfying without the guilt.

Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake

1½ Cup	oatmeal flour
½ Cup	white sugar
1 tsp	baking powder
½ tsp	baking soda
1	egg
1 Cup	plain yogurt
½ Cup	lemon juice
¼ Cup	vegetable oil
	grated rind of 1 lemon
~1 Cup	blueberries - either fresh or frozen

Note: For the oatmeal flour, I measure out rolled or quick oats and grind them in a coffee grinder. If you don't want to use oatmeal, you can substitute white or whole wheat flour. You'll need ¼ Cup less yogurt. Also, whole wheat flour has a stronger flavour that you'll notice.

1. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients: white flour through baking soda.
2. In a smaller bowl, beat the egg. Add the yogurt, lemon juice, vegetable oil and lemon rind.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Cover the bottom of an 8x8 pan with blueberries. I tossed them with a TBSP of flour.
5. Turn on oven to 350°.  When the oven is up to temperature, spoon batter over blueberries. Bake for 25-30 minutes until browned on top and baked through.

Blueberry lemon muffins

To celebrate the sunny morning, I baked blueberry lemon muffins. Yumm!

 

 

Not too sweet, these are a great way to start your day and they go great with coffee. Now I'm off to sew some more...

 

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

  

¾ Cup	white flour
¾ Cup	whole wheat flour
1 Cup	ground oatmeal
2⁄3 Cup	sugar
¾ tsp	baking soda
1	egg
¾ Cup	plain yogurt
½ Cup	lemon juice
¼ Cup	melted margarine or butter
	grated rind of 1 lemon
1 Cup	blueberries - either fresh or frozen

 

Note: For the ground oatmeal, I measure out rolled or quick oats and grind them in a coffee grinder. If you want to skip this step, use quick oats. If you use rolled oats, you'll have more texture to the muffins.

1. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients: white flour through baking soda.
2. In a smaller bowl, beat the egg. Add the yogurt, lemon juice melted margarine and lemon rind.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Gently fold in blueberries.
5. Turn on oven to 425°.  When the oven is up to temperature, spoon muffin batter into oiled or lined muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned on top and baked through.
6. Enjoy!

Your wait will be rewarded

The day began with such good intentions.

I was at the sewing machine by 9am. Straight into fixing the side seams of the sleeveless top I'm making. Pin and measure. Try on and pin some more. Stitch. Got it right.

Then...well it's certainly not a bag anymore but it needs some structure or definition. I decide to use bias tape to finish the neck and armholes. But I don't have any.

Wait. Fabricland is having a members 50% off sale. Oh right - it's tomorrow.

Okay. So I move on to my neglected apron. (Yes, it's not strictly a priority considering the dresses I need to make but...) It's all cut out, pretty much ready to go. I figure out the neckline and start contruction. No fancy facings here, just serge/fold over/stitch the edges and hem. Add some trim the the wrap neckline. Get the pocket ready. Now how am I going to do the neck and waist ties? Decide to use D-rings and black twill tape. But I don't have the right size D-rings or the right colour tape.

Wait. Fabricland is having a members 50% off sale. Oh right - it's tomorrow.

So here I am, having stolen a cookie or two from the freezer to console my frustration. They're the Auntie Mary's I told you about. The good news is that Shauna says it's okay to share the recipe. My gift (and Shauna's) to you for your patience with my rant.

Auntie Mary's

2 Cups	flour
½ tsp	baking powder
¼ tsp	salt
½ Cup	butter
1 package	125gr cream cheese
½ Cup	brown sugar
¼ Cup	white sugar
1	egg
1 tsp	vanilla
Filling
4 oz	semi-sweet chocolate
2⁄3 Cup	Eagle brand condensed milk
½ Cup	finely chopped walnuts
	icing sugar

Cream the butter and cream cheese.
Add sugars and beat unitl light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg and beat well.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Divide into 4 balls and chill 2 hours.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate.
Stir in Eagle Brand condensed milk and walnuts.

Working with one ball at a time, roll dough into 10"x6" rectangles.
Spread chocolate mixture ¼" thick over the centre third and fold sides over chocolate. Your rectangle should now measure ~3.5"x6".

Bake seam side down at 350° for ~13 minutes, just until bottom turns golden.

Milk chocolate pudding cake

Yesterday was rainy, gray and cold. Yuck. So, we pretended it wasn't.

My man did ribs on the BBQ and I made coleslaw and oven fries. Just in case that didn't work, I made milk chocolate pudding cake. Warm, chocolate comfort that will make anyone feel better - even the boy with the never-ending cough.

The recipe is from the Milk Calendar. It's a keeper but whenever I make it in an 8x8 pan, it boils over and messes up the oven. This time I made it in a 3L oval with higher sides. No mess.

So by now you may have figured out that

1. I bake. A lot. I don't promise that it always turns out but practice makes perfect.
2. My favourite food is chocolate.
3. I also like lemon.
4. I need to get better at taking pictures. In fact, if my pic doesn't whet your appetite, you should really just see the image on the Milk Calendar website. Far more appealing.

Stick with me. I do plan on reading the manual for the camera. Even better, we do spring for a digital SLR (we covet one), I promise to practise and read the manual. And work on composition. Really just another process I need to learn to love...

Banana chocolate chip muffins

Instead of buying granola bars or other packaged snacks for the kids, I often bake muffins. Banana chocolate chip muffins are one of their favourites.

Banana chocolate chip muffins

2	eggs
2	mashed ripe bananas
½ Cup	milk
¼ Cup	vegetable oil
1½ Cup	flour
1 Cup	quick oatmeal
1 Tbsp	baking powder
½ Cup	brown sugar
½ Cup	mini chocolate chips

Note: I don't add salt as I'm trying to reduce it in my diet. You could add ½ tsp. if you want.

Beat the wet ingredients together.
If you're a purist, you should mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add the wet to the dry. When almost combined, add the chocolate chips. Spoon into grease muffins tins - or tins lined with paper muffin cups - and bake until browned at 425°, ~20 minutes.

Me, I'm lazy. I just stir the sugar and oatmeal into the wet ingredients and then shake the flour and baking powder over the mixture. I then stir until almost combined then add the chocolate chips.

A couple things to remember with muffins:

• Never over mix the batter. The batter should be somewhat lumpy, like pancake batter.
• If you're using whole grains, letting the batter sit for 10 to 15 minutes before baking helps keep the muffins light in texture.

The recipe above is adapted from The Muffin Baker's Guide by Bruce Koffler.

Lemon squares = Spring

Lemons squares taste like Spring.
Spring is about renewal.
Renewal is just what I did with my good friend Christina.

She came for lunch today. We hadn't seen each other since well before Christmas. We had lots to catch up on: new and old houses, weddings, age spots (even though we are NOT old), keeping fit, what our kids are up to...all the things girl friends share.

Besides a good chat, we had good food. Broccoli/bacon/cheese salad, corn bread, fruit salad and lemon squares. Yum!

Lemon Squares

1 Cup	flour
½ Cup	butter
¼	sugar
1 pinch	salt

Cream butter and sugar.
Blend in flour and salt.
Press into a 9x9 inch pan.
Bake at 350° for 30 min.

1 Cup	sugar
2 Tbsp	flour
juice of 1 lemon
finely grated lemon rind
2	beaten eggs

Whisk ingredients together and pour over base.
Bake at 350° for 25 min.

Sift icing sugar over top while lemon squares are warm.

So here's to Spring and lunch with my good friend Christina.

Spiced Butternut Cranberry Squares?

I was reading Inside Storey blog today and saw a post by Amy Cotler for Spiced Butternut Cranberry Squares made with local ingredients. They sounded delicious so I had to try.

I knew I didn't have a butternut squash but figured I'd use pumpkin from the freezer - and hey, it was local. So were my eggs.

Wouldn't you know I was just about out of white sugar! Well I often use less than called for so instead of 2 C of white, I used ½C white and ½C brown sugar.

End result is maybe not as sweet but...loaded with tart cranberries, sweet apple and loads of spicy flavour.  The kids loved it and the recipe is a keeper!


If you're going to try, you may want to use a 9x9 pan. Mine was so light it rose well above the edge of the 8x8 pan.

No-fail Chocolate Cake

Best friends & family, a birthday and chocolate cake - what could be better? Our daughter made the cake! She is quite the baker and we had fun together in the kitchen.

This is my go-to recipe when I need a cake and don't have time to fuss. There is no separate beating and folding of egg whites here. And I always have the ingredients in the pantry. If I'm missing butter, I can use margarine. Low on milk? I've used yogurt or sour cream. It always turns out.

Light, moist and chocolaty. And it works with whatever icing you like: chocolate, orange, German chocolate cake topping, or one of my favourites, cherries and whipped cream.

The recipe has been my family's birthday cake for close to 50 years. Here it is, my birthday present to you.

Birthday Chocolate Cake     

350degrees, 30 minutes

makes 2 9" layers or 2 8" layers and 12 cupcakes

1 Cup	butter or margarine
2 Cups	sugar
2	eggs
10 Tbsp	cocoa
2 tsp	vanilla
2 Cups	milk
3 Cups	flour
2 tsp	baking soda

Cream butter and sugar until light.
Beat in eggs.
Add cocoa.
Stir vanilla into milk.
Mix flour and baking soda together.
Alternate adding milk mixture and flour to butter/sugar/eggs/cocoa mixture.
Beat until smooth.
Pour into greased and/or lined pans.
Bake until cake tester comes out clean ~30mins.

Enjoy the praise!

Best cookies yet

Chocolate chip cookies - yummy - and even better when someone else does the work! My 9-year-old  made these treats all by herself. She measured, she mixed, she shaped and she baked. She is wonderful.

Of course she's been working with me in the kitchen since her toddler days but this is the first batch she has done from beginning to end all on her own. (Apologies to her batch of peanut butter last Friday but she got bored before she finished baking all the dough.)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

350 degrees, 8-10 minutes until lightly browned

1 C      butter

1¹/₄ C   light brown sugar

1Tbsp  vanilla

2          eggs

2¹/₄C   flour

1tsp      baking soda

¹/₂tsp   salt

1¹/₄C   chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Add dry to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Mix in chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by spoonfuls (whatever size you like but the bigger they are the longer they will take) onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake until light brown on bottom and just golden on top.

We've used this recipe for years and I believe it was modified from the Crisco "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe. They are soft, chewy and, yes, they are yummy!