Cooking Show: Fall Baking! Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins, Apple Bread with Caramel Icing

We recently filmed an episode of the cooking show with a "Fall Baking" theme.

I knew that I wanted to share my apple bread recipe.  As I was picking out apples in the supermarket, a fellow shopper started asking me if I was going to use the apples for the cooking show.  I told her yes, I am going to make apple bread and she said something like, "why don't you make something like caramel apples, something for people like me who don't cook?"

I kept a straight face and said, GREAT IDEA, while inside my head I was thinking hmmmm...if only she knew what a hassle it can be to make caramel apples.  The last time I made caramel apples was the last time (about twenty years ago) because it was such a messy ordeal.

My friends, Kerry and Kelly, joined me in my kitchen and we made Apple Bread with Caramel Icing, Cranberry Cream Cheese muffins and the aforementioned Caramel Apples.

Apple Bread with Caramel Icing

Just look at this bread!  Chunks of apples in the bread, completed with a perfect caramel icing on top.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

Made with fresh cranberries, these muffins are so good. The cream cheese adds a nice texture; dense, but not too heavy.

And here are our caramel apples.  Aren't they just, uh, beautiful?

They tasted absolutely fine.  We melted our caramel, melted our chocolate, dipped in caramel, drizzled with chocolate, sprinkled with an assortment of toppings and then sliced the apples into wedges because it is the least-messy way to indulge.

Kelly and Kerry had never made caramel apples before and the mood while we filmed sort of went from enthusiastic to OMG, WHY are we doing this?

The reason why we were doing this was because someone in the supermarket had suggested to me that caramel apples would be a good recipe for people who don't like to cook.  I took that suggestion and ran with it, if only to prove that sometimes cooking is easier than not cooking.

Kelly and Kerry both agreed that both the apple bread and the cranberry muffins were much easier to make than the caramel apples!

My final thoughts are 1. that an array of fun toppings and an assortment of tantalizingly decorated apples may make for a beautiful picture on Pinterest, but the reality of preparing those apples is an effort in futility, and 2. if you are craving a caramel apple, save yourself the frustration of making it
and simply buy one that's already made!

If you still feel that you may want to give it a try for yourself, click here for the printable recipe--a recipe that I reluctantly wrote and still did my best to dissuade whomever reads it from ever attempting to make these little fruits of frustration.

Even though we didn't prepare this recipe on-camera, if you watched the show you may have noticed that Kelly, Kerry and I were sipping on pumpkin martinis!  Click here to be taken to my blogpost where you can find the recipe.

Cooking Show: Oatmeal is NOT Boring!!

We recently filmed a cooking show with an oatmeal theme.  Good old-fashioned oats!

It seems like refrigerated oats have been an overnight sensation (see what I did there? tee-hee) for the past few years.

I simply can not reconcile cold, chalky refrigerated oats with the warm, creamy oats that I love. Don't even try to convert me. You may have managed to convince yourself that your overnight refrigerated oats are creamy, but if I truly want something cold and creamy I will reach for yogurt, thank you very much.

I've tried to embrace overnight refrigerated oats but I had to finally jump off of that bandwagon because one person's creamy is another person's chalky (hint: that other person is ME).  

Overnight oats in a slow-cooker, however?  Yes, please!!

Slow Cooker Apple/Cinnamon Steel-Cut Oats

Chop a couple of apples (no peeling necessary!), toss them into your slow cooker, measure in the remaining ingredients (no further prep work required) and stir.  Set your slow cooker to LOW and when you wake up your breakfast will be warm and waiting for you!  Give it another quick stir then add some nuts, raisins and a swirl of maple syrup.

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Spice Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Same minimal prep as the Apple/Cinnamon oats, but rather than chopping apples you need the special skill of opening up a can of pumpkin puree. Measure all of the ingredients into the slow cooker, stir, and let it cook while you sleep.

All that is required of you when you wake up is to stir it again...

...and add a few toppings.  Chopped nuts and raisins add nice texture!  Stir in a bit of brown sugar for sweetness, or add a swirl of maple syrup.

If you prefer your oats in the form of a muffin instead, we've got you covered!

If you're like me, you probably don't have time in the morning to bake a batch of muffins for breakfast.  I bake these muffins whenever my schedule allows and freeze them!  Pull them out of your freezer as needed, defrost them in your microwave (it only takes less than a minute), and now you have another quick (and warm!) breakfast item to add to your repertoire.

Chocolate-Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Packed with protein (thanks to peanut butter), these muffins get their sweetness from bananas and honey and are free of processed sugars. They can be gluten-free as well if you use gluten-free oats!

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

These are my favorite muffins!  Oats, applesauce, raisins...so much yumminess in one muffin.  Click here for the printable recipe.

Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins & Pecans

Now that September is here, I'm totally embracing everything pumpkin!!!

Bake a batch of these pumpkin muffins and you'll want to join me on the pumpkin bandwagon.  

Loaded with plump raisins, topped with crunchy chopped pecans...if only I had a way to make these muffins jump off the screen and onto a plate for you!

Today's Playlist

• "Teenagers"...My Chemical Romance
• "What I Like About You"...Romantics
• "Someday"...The Strokes
• "Seven Nation Army"...The White Stripes
• "Original Prankster"...The Offspring
• "Sick Of You"...Cake
• "Basket Case"...Green Day
• "Sweet Child O' Mine"...Guns N' Roses

Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins & Pecans (Makes 12 muffins)

Printable Recipe

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 generous (heaping) teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

optional: large crystal (sanding) sugar, for topping

Gather your ingredients.  Heat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.  Grease a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each addition until combined.

After the eggs have been combined, mix in the pumpkin puree and the vanilla extract.

Add your dry ingredients that you had previously whisked together, mixing just until combined.

Stir in the raisins by hand.

Fill your muffin cups.  I used paper liners and I fill them so that the batter is level with the top of the paper.

Top with the chopped pecans, and sprinkle with the sanding sugar.

Bake in your preheated 375-degree oven for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off after 10 minutes, reduce the temperature (without opening the oven) to 350 degrees and continue to bake for an additional 8 minutes, or until done.  They are done when you can stick them with a toothpick and the toothpick is dry or has a few moist crumbs when you remove it.  If there is still wet batter on the toothpick, bake them for an additional minute or two.

 Enjoy.

Chocolate Mini Muffins with Sugar Glaze

I made these mini muffins last week and I have been having an argument with myself ever since. 

To blog or not to blog?  That was the question.  

I was hoping to come up with a recipe that resembled the chocolate-glazed donut holes at our local donut shop.  The flavor that is my kids' favorite.  My husband's favorite.  I'm more of a butter crunch fan, but I digress.

I was hoping that I could come up with a mini-muffin that tasted like chocolate donuts, without all of the deep-fried calories.  Just like these Cinnamon/Sugar Mini Muffins remind me of the frozen Morton donuts I used to like in the '70's.  

I wasn't really sure that the chocolate mini-muffins duplicated the donut taste as I had hoped they would, however, so I decided not to blog about them.

That is, until Caitie said that she liked them, and then said something like, "They're a perfect little chocolate cake."

And then Mr. Terrific ate several of them, telling me between bites how much he liked them. 

That settled it.  Who am I, a butter crunch fan, to conclude that these little muffins aren't good enough to satisfy my chocolate donut-loving family?  I decided to listen to my family and blog about them, if only to have written testimony that this is a recipe that they like.

Maybe I'm just in a good mood because the snow is almost gone, tomorrow is going to be in the 60's and I feel like spring has finally arrived!

Will Clyde abandon his favorite niche by the back door to bask in the sun instead?

He doesn't quite fit there as well as he did when he was a puppy, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Every day, every walk we take, Clyde picks up a stick or a branch along the way.

Today, this one stopped him in his tracks.  He turned around and looked at me as if to say, "Yikes!"  Then he did an about-face and dragged me home.

We came home and he promptly took a nap so he could sleep off his trauma.

While he slept, I baked a batch of muffins.

  I wanted to take a picture of the muffins, and the best place for natural light is on this bench in my dining room.

Gus understands the meaning of "look but don't touch."  Clyde--not so much.  Good thing he was sleeping.

If you haven't yet entered the giveaway for the Whole Foods gift card, head on over to this post and leave a comment telling me what your favorite comfort food is.  The winner will be announced on March 31.  Good luck!

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

I started to make these muffins yesterday, and finished them today.  No, it was not my plan for this recipe to be a two-day process.

My gas oven, however, had other plans.  It didn't feel like heating up yesterday.  I was gathering my ingredients, snapping my blog pictures, starting to combine my ingredients, oblivious to the fact that my oven was not preheating.

Just before I combined the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients I realized that not only hadn't my oven beeped to let me know it was preheated, it hadn't even ignited (being gas, I can hear a "whoosh" when it ignites and then a soft purr from the flame).

I'd have to get my oven repaired.

What to do with all the ingredients?  I had the bowl of wet ingredients, the bowl of dry ingredients, the bowl with the berries tossed with flour, and the "buttermilk" that I made with milk and lemon juice.  I didn't want to toss everything.  But I was in a frustrated state of mind and wasn't thrilled at the thought of finishing the preparations, freezing the batter in the muffin tin to be thawed and baked at a later date when I had an oven that was operational.

So instead, I entered a state of denial and decided that if I covered and refrigerated everything and waited until the morning, I would have just-baked (instead of merely reheated) muffins for breakfast if my oven would only magically decide to work this morning.

And it did.

I'm still going to call my handy repairman tomorrow (who used to be a lot more at-hand when he lived around the corner; I didn't even have to pick up the phone to call him if I timed it right and caught him as he was walking his pugs, Dunkin' and Donut, past my house).  

Until it's repaired, I'm not going to plan on cooking anything that needs to be cooked in the oven.  I'm just grateful that I was able to get one last gasp from the dying ignition and finish baking these muffins!

Daily doggy photos:

Gus runs to the back door because he hears the gate on our deck open and close (it was windy).  He's excited because he thinks we have a visitor.  Clyde follows him, because he copies everything Gus does.

Gus gets tired waiting for the non-existent visitor to show up, so he lies down.  Clyde lies down as well, because he copies everything Gus does.  Then he notices that I am there, with something in my hand (the camera)...

and decides to investigate, ending the photo session.

Chocolate Chip Muffins.....and a guest post from Gus

Hi all!  It's me, Gus.  Also known as Goose, Guzman, Gustopher and Angus.  Used to be known as Goose-Poop and Gas, but I've put those days behind me.  (Pun intended, hehe.)

Today's my day to warm you up while Fran gets her playlist together.

In case you're wondering, I don't call her Fran to her face.  I don't call her anything at all, but I think of her as The Source Of Food.  Or TSOF, for short.  And since I'm an anagram-lover, let's go a little bit further and change TSOF into SOFT.

Yeah, she's soft in so many ways, but she's especially soft in the way she turns to putty in my paws and the way she melts when I gaze upon her with my puppy-dog eyes.

But enough of that, I've got a tutorial here for you today.  Do you remember last year when Fran posted a couple of videos of me catching a Frisbee?  Let me give you a step-by-step of how it's done.

How to Catch a Frisbee, By Gus

 Chase that Frisbee until it starts to hover.  It's gonna hover and hesitate right before it drops.  Get ready to grab it just as it starts to descend.

 Leap up and open wide!

 Land gracefully.

 Apply the brakes so you don't crash.

That's it in a nutshell.  I hope Caitie and Erin like this post.  They begged Fran not to let me take over her blog, they said it would be annoying.  

Hopefully, they don't find this too annoying and I'll get a chance to write another tutorial someday.  Actually, since I'm here now and I'm not really sure they're gonna allow me back anytime soon, I'm gonna give you another tutorial but it's gonna be really quick since Fran's almost done with her playlist.

How to Cross the Street, By Gus

Look to the right.

Look to the left.

If no cars are coming, proceed with a smile on your face.

See ya!

Gus

Strawberry Scones with Lemon Curd

It's been a few weeks since I made one of the gazillion recipes that I've been pinning on Pinterest.

Eenie-meanie-miney-moe...........for today's recipe I picked Strawberry Lemonade Scones by Munchkin Munchies.

The recipe says to drizzle them with prepared lemon curd.  I know, you're just. like. me.  You're thinking, "why used prepared lemon curd when I can make my own?"

I'm so glad that we think alike!

Make the lemon curd the day before you make the scones.  It's not difficult at all to make, but you need to give it time to chill before you use it, and chill time takes at least an hour.

Unless you like to get up at an ungodly hour so you can make your homemade lemon curd and give it an hour to chill and then make your homemade scones in time for breakfast.  In which case, we don't think alike at all.

Cinnamon/Sugar Doughnut Mini-Muffins

Do you remember the mini cinnamon/sugar doughnuts made by the Morton frozen food company?  You took them out of the freezer, popped them into the oven, and soon you had a tray of warm, fluffy-on-the-inside, crisp-on-the-outside little pieces of yumminess.

I can still see the little brown bag they were packaged in, with the orange and yellow lettering on it.  Or maybe I'm just imagining that's what the bag looked like.  Those were the colors of the seventies, weren't they?  Everything was brown, orange and gold. The Brady Bunch's kitchen.  My parents' basement...and kitchen...and bathroom.   I even had a pair of shoes that were brown, orange and gold.  As usual, I digress.  Back to the doughnuts....

This mini-muffin recipe reminds me of the Morton doughnuts; these muffins are good when they are fresh out of the oven, but they turn into something entirely other (a good kind of other) if you freeze the leftovers.  Pretend that the frozen leftovers are Morton mini-donuts as you reheat them.

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday, I replanted some of the amaryllis bulbs I've been growing in my basement.

Every year, I start growing them around November 1, keeping my fingers crossed that they will grow and be ready to bloom when I do my decorating.

Out of the six bulbs that I started, two of them have shot up and started to bloom already.  I replanted them side by side, surrounded by shiny little ornaments.

And I found a nice, sunny spot for them.

These three have barely started to grow.

I put them in a large planter and I'm hoping that moving them upstairs (instead of in the gloomy basement) will prompt them to grow.

If they're happier with their surroundings, will they grow faster? Surrounding them with shiny ornaments can't hurt, either.

Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

It has been much too long since my last post!

I wish I could say that I've studied the art of photography and the photos that I post will no longer look like they were taken in the dark.  Maybe someday.

It's not that I haven't been cooking dinner.  I just haven't cooked anything new that hasn't already been included in this blog!

This week I've made Chicken Pot Pie , Chicken Piccata , and Lemon-Marinated Chicken Sandwiches (the latter of which I'm happy to say has finally been edited to include pictures)!

I'll get my act together soon, I promise.

Erin's been baking.

Lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

There were plenty of strawberries left over, so I put them to good use and made muffins.

Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins

What's your favorite fruit?

I can't pick just one.  I can narrow it down to five:  watermelon, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, cherries (Golden Rainier cherries!).

But if I had to pick one fruit I could not live without?  It would have to be lemons. 

Think about it!  Drinks I can't live without:  ice cold water with a slice of lemon, or fresh-squeezed lemonade.

I need lemons to make scampi, piccata, and endless desserts.  Even though today's recipe only has lemon extract in it, I still count it as a lemon recipe!

Chocolate Oatmeal Muffins

I love weekend mornings when we have nothing on our schedule that forces us to get up at an ungodly hour.

Even more, I love it when I'm alert enough to get up while the rest of my family continues to sleep.  It gives me a chance to putter around in my kitchen, making breakfast while they sleep peacefully.

This morning was one of those mornings.....I was up and at 'em at 7:20, waaaaaay before anyone else.

I did not turn any music on, because I did not want grumpy, cranky people coming down the stairs complaining that I woke them up.  But I'll give you a suggested playlist, just in case you do your baking at a more reasonable hour! 

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Blogging is now "one more thing" on my daily to-do list.

And you've probably figured out that I don't always do what's on my to-do list.

This morning I logged on and decided to check my stats; boy, was I surprised to see that despite my meager following of three, there have been over 500 hits since I started this blog five weeks ago.

I went a step further and decided to check the page views by country:  though 99% of the views were from the U.S., Indonesia, Germany and Pakistan were also listed.

Wow.  Guess I should move this to a higher priority on the to-do list, somewhere below the main priorities like vacuuming and laundry yet above lower priorities like organizing cabinets and making new window treatments.

I solemnly swear from this point on to care for and nurture my blog so that it does not wither and die.

And I'm oh-so-happy that we had lovely temps in the 60's yesterday, not the 80 degree heat that was initially predicted, so my flowers did not wither and die of heat exhaustion as I had feared they might.

Today's recipe comes from a page I tore out of a magazine many, many years ago.  How long ago?  Well the description of the recipe says it's by baker Patti Jackson from Mad. 61, "one of New York City's hottest new restaurants."  I googled Mad. 61, from 1993-1996 it was a restaurant located in Barney's flagship store on the corner of Madison and 61st St. 

The "hot" restaurant has been closed since 1996, so I've been baking these muffins for at least 15 years.  They are my favorite muffins!  Freeze them, then defrost them in your microwave as needed.  They're perfect when you're in a pinch and need to grab something quick!