Blueberry Muffins

Since we had a lot of blueberries I thought it appropriate to post a blueberry recipe.   Blueberry pancakes are pretty obvious (just add blueberries after you pour the batter on the griddle), but I wanted to make blueberry muffins with a struesel topping.  I'm out of walnut and pecans right now, but this one was great.  I reduced the topping recipe by a lot.  The recipe shows what I usually do.  The recipe as is makes 12 regular muffins, or 8 large muffins.  I often double it.

Blueberry muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping

• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp butter, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together sugar,  flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Oven Roasted Asparagus

 We got some fresh asparagus at a produce stand, and so I searched for a good recipe.  I found one here, and it was delicious!  I didn't do the lemon juice, but everything else was great!  Simple, and fast.  A perfect veggie side dish!

• 1 bunch thin asparagus spears, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

1. Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Place the asparagus into a mixing bowl, and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to coat the spears, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. Arrange the asparagus onto a baking sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until just tender, 12 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. Sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving.

Danish Potato Soup

 I made this with the leftover ham bone from Easter.  It was so good!  I used 4 potatoes, and I only had a couple of green onions, and only dried parsley.  I have heavy whipping cream, so I diluted it with milk.  It was really easy, and delicious.  Lots of veggies!
Danish Potato Soup

• 1 ham bone
• water
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 6 green onions, sliced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 cups chopped cabbage
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup light cream
• ground nutmeg

In a soup kettle, bring ham bone and 2 quarts water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or until meat pulls away from the bone. Remove ham bone. When cool enough to handle, trim any meat and dice. Discard bone. Return ham to kettle along with potatoes, onions, celery, parsley, cabbage and carrots; cook 40 minutes. Stir together flour and 1/4 cup cold water. Slowly pour into the soup, stirring constantly. Bring soup to a boil; cook 2 minutes. Reduce heat; stir in cream. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle a dash of nutmeg on each bowlful just before serving. 

Vegetable Quesadillas

I made these on Thursday night.  I didn't have any peppers or yellow squash, but it was so good.  I can't wait to try it with the full recipe!  Granted I used full fat cheese, and white flour tortillas, but mmmm!!!
Vegetable Quesadillas

• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow squash
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• cooking spray
• 6 (9 inch) whole wheat tortillas
• 1 1/4 cups shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese

1. In a large nonstick pan, cook red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, and mushrooms in olive oil over medium to medium-high heat for about 7 minutes, or until just tender. Remove vegetables from pan.
2. Coat the same pan with cooking spray, and place one tortilla in pan. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese evenly over tortilla, and layer 3/4 cup of the vegetable mixture over the cheese. Sprinkle another 1/8 cup of cheese on the vegetables, and top with a second tortilla. Cook until golden on both sides, for approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove quesadilla from pan, and repeat with remaining ingredients. Cut each quesadilla into 8 triangles with a pizza cutter. Serve hot.

Cream Cheese Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

I found this recipe on Jamie's blog. She has so many great recipes! I brought this to a garden get together. I really like fudgy brownies, so maybe next time I would use 3 eggs. I used a completely different frosting recipe because I didn't have enough cocoa powder. I thought they were delicious. My marbling didn't turn out well, I mixed it too much. But it still tasted great. for awesome step by step pictures check out Jamie's post.

Cream Cheese Brownies with Chocolate Frosting
BROWNIE BATTER:

1 C butter, softened

2 C sugar

4 eggs

8 T cocoa powder

1 1/2 C flour

dash salt

CREAM CHEESE BATTER:

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1/2 C sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

dash salt

FROSTING:

1/4 C butter

1/2 C cocoa

4-6 T milk

1 1/2 t vanilla

3-4 C powdered sugar

1. To make the brownie batter, beat the butter, sugar and eggs until creamed together nicely. Should take about 3-4 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa and dash of salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and mix until all is well combined.
3. Spray an 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Spread about 2/3 of your Brownie Batter into the pan.
4. Let's make the Cream Cheese Batter! Beat your cream cheese until nice and smooth. Add the other ingredients and beat for about 3 minutes.
5. Pour it right on top of your Brownie Batter.
6. Spread it all around.
7. Take the rest of your Brownie Batter and spoon it onto your Cream Cheese Batter.
8. Spread the top layer of Brownie Batter around just a bit. You don't want to mix the two batters up too much. They just need to be marbled a bit.
If you stick your knife strait up into the air you can make pretty patterns like this. But seriously...it doesn't matter much. They just need to be marbled together.
9. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean out of the center.
10. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
11. To make the frosting melt your butter in a glass measuring cup.
Pour the cocoa into the melted butter and stir well to make a thick paste.
12. Pour just 2 T of the milk into the chocolate paste and stir until smooth.
13. In a large mixing bowl combine 3 C powdered sugar, the chocolate paste, vanilla and 2 more T milk. Beat the frosting. As it begins to come together add more milk until it is smooth and glossy. If it's too runny add more powdered sugar and beat well.
14. Spread the frosting over the top of your cooled brownies.

Enjoy!

Herbed Pork Roast

I had defrosted a pork loin to make this fabulous meal, but then realized I didn't have any beans. So I went in search of another recipe. I found this one on Allrecipes.com. I didn't have a 5 lb roast - it was just under 3 lbs. I still used about the same amount of rub. It was so good and moist. Although I put it in a baking dish and covered it with foil while it sat in the fridge, and then I didn't take the foil off. I wish I had made potatoes to go with it because there were some great drippings to make a gravy. Because my roast was smaller It didn't need 2 1/2 hours to cook I baked it at 350 for 1 hr and 45 minutes. So delicious! Some reviewers suggested adding garlic to the rub. It would have been good, but I think it was great as is.

Herbed Pork Roast

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried marjoram
• 2 teaspoons rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (5 pound) boneless pork loin roast

Directions

1. Combine the first seven ingredients; rub over roast. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Place roast on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 2-1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160-170 degrees. Let stand for 15 minutes before slicing. Refrigerate or freeze remaining pork (may be frozen for up to 3 months).

Pita Bread

I've been wanting to make pita bread for a while now. I finally did last night. some recipes said to let the bread rise after rolling out, and some said bake it immediately. I compromised and let it rise for about 15 minutes. It turned out fine. 3 of the 8 didn't get puffy in the middle, but the rest did. I don't know what made the difference. The original recipe called for the use of a bread maker. Since I don't have one I changed the directions. I also substituted 1 cup of flour with whole wheat flour - so good!

Peppy's Pita Bread

• 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt oil and half of the flour. Mix well. Add remaining flour and knead (by hand or with dough hook in mixer) until smooth and elastic and not sticky. Place in bowl coated with cooking spray, cover with towel. Let rise until double (about 45 minutes).
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack.* Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

* I put a cookie sheet in the oven as it preheated. I cooked them 2 at a time on the cookie sheet - a pizza stone would work as well.