Blueberry Muffins

I've used this recipe a long time ago, but now I'm going back to it because blueberries were on sale at Adonis ^0^~

The reason why this recipe is special is because there's the addition of sweet "crumblies" on top of each muffins. Don't forget to use a plate every time you eat one. The crumbs get everywhere, but it's worth every muffin ^^~

Recipe: To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Tweaks:

- I've added 1/4 cup 12 grain cereals into the dry ingredients.

    <Dry ingredients>

    <Blueberries added into the batter>

                              <Batter added into the liners>

    <"Crumblies!">

                              <"Crumblies" set on top of the muffin batter>

                             <Muffins are ready! I leave them for 5 minutes in the pan for them to set>

    <Ready to be eaten! ^^)

I rate this recipe 5 x YUMS! ^^~ (out of 5 YUMS!)

Lemon Meringue Pie!

It's one of Joey's favourite pies, so I decided to give it a try.

Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie

Unfortunately I made it WAY TOO lemony.. because I replaced lemon zest with lemon grind. I will attempt this recipe again next time, I must conquer it!!

But for now, I really do want to share the beautiful pictures I took ^^

    <Cooking the custard filling>

    <All of the sudden, the mixture got really thick!!!> <mix mix mix~>

    <Pour the lemon filling into prepared BAKED pie crust>

    <Build your meringue!>

    <Ready for consumption!>

    <A slice!>

I will rate this recipe when the pie is done properly next time! ^^;

Pie Crust!

Oh, I love making pies. They are super tedious but the end-product is always so rewarding, i.e. PIE.

So, I have used this recipe many many times before to make the pie crust:

French Pastry Pie Crust

I have done lattice work using this pastry recipe. This recipe can make 2 bottom crusts and 1 top crust.

Here are some of my pictures:
    <Ball of dough ready to be rolled>

    <Forked and ready for delicious filling!>

I rate this recipe 5 x YUMS!! ^^~ (out of 5 YUMS!)

Lemon Butterfly Cakes

This is a recipe where I actually have all the ingredients, so I was like, Why Not.

I got this recipe from the same book I mentioned on the post before - Baking; page 76.

I've also found this awesome website for substitutions: Substituting Ingredients - For Dummies.

The recipe makes 6 regular-sized muffins.

MUFFIN

3/4 cup of all purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder (OR 3/4 cup self-rising flour)

1/2 tsp baking powder

8 tbsp soft margarine

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar + some for dusting

2 eggs, lightly beaten

finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

2 tbsp milk

1. Set the oven at 375F/ 190C.

2. Put 6 muffin liners in a muffin pan.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl; mix well.

4. Mix margarine, sugar, eggs, lemon rind and milk in a separate bowl using an electric hand whisk.

5. Once the liquid mixture is properly mixed, add flour into it; beat until smooth 

<NOTE: don't over-mix the ingredients as it will affect the rising effect of the muffins>

6. Spoon the batter into the muffin liners, and bake the cupcakes for 15-20 mins until well-risen and golden brown. 

7. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

LEMON FILLING

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 cup of confectioners' sugar + some for dusting

3/4 tbsp lemon juice

1. Put the butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Sift the confectioners' sugar, add lemon juice and beat until smooth and creamy.

2. When the cupcakes have cooled, use a serrated knife to cut a circle from the top of each cupcake and then cut each circle in half. Spread/ pipe the buttercream filling into the centre of each cupcake; Press 2 semi-circular halves into it at an angle to resemble butterfly wings. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Now, enjoy some images of my little treats ^^~

    <Muffin's wet ingredients>

    <Wet ingredients mixed into the dry ones>

    <Batter spooned into the liners>

    <Lemon filling ready!>

    <Cupcakes fresh from the oven - waiting to cool>

  <Dusted! I find that it's best served cold - so put them in the fridge for half hour before enjoying them!>

I rate this recipe 3.5 x YUMS! ^^~ (out of 5 YUMS!)

Pizza from scratch!

We made a trip to Burlington, VT just early this week, and I found a cook book (on sale!) with nice recipes - it's called:


Baking - Love Food - an imprint of Parragon Books.

I used the recipe: Cheese & Tomato Pizza (Page 188) + I of course have tweaked the recipe based on the ingredients I already have at home ^^;

The recipe makes 2 8" pizza.

DOUGH
1.5 cups all-purpose flour + extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast OR 1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp canola oil + extra for oiling
6 tbsp lukewarm water


1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the yeast. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and water. Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the liquid using your hands (the book suggests that if you want, you can use a wooden spoon, but I fond that it took FOREVER....)
2. Set the oven to the lowest temperature. when it's reached the temperature, turn it off.
3. Knead the dough on lightly floured counter for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Return to clean bowl, cover with clean damp kitchen towel (the book suggests using lightly oiled plastic wrap, but I don't want it to interact with the dough..). Set aside to rise in the oven for about 1 hour, or until double in size.
4. Knock down the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Knead briefly, then cut in half and roll out each piece into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer to a lightly oiled cookie sheet and push up the edges with your fingers to form a small rim.

TOPPING
2 tomatoes, sliced thinly.
175 g mozzarella cheese, grated
100 g steak or ham or mushroom, sliced
1/3 fresh onion, diced
salt and pepper
2 tsp dry basil (or fresh shredded basil leaves)
2 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp garlic, minced and dried
2 tsp canola oil

1. Set the oven at 450F/ 230 C.
2. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese to cover the dough, and arrange the tomato slices prettily ^^. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle the other herbs  and your protein (the book suggest that you can also drizzle with oil, but I find the pizza has a nice not-so-oily texture to it without the oil drizzle).
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the crust is crisp and the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.

Now, enjoy my pictures ^^

    <Ingredients + dough>

    <Ready to be baked!>

    <Almost there!!>

    Voila!

I rate this delicious pizza 5 x YUMS!(out of 5 YUMS!) ^^~

Marinated Beef Flank Steak

We've always bought pre-marinated beef flanks from Akhavan, and they always taste soooooo good.

At the butcher's, they were having a good price on 1.5 lb of the meat for only a little over $8.

I used this awesome recipe:

Marinated Flank Steak


    Instead of using a baking pan to marinate, I used a large Ziploc bag.

    I usually substitute grilling with cooking on the stove, especially because it's winter.

    But the meat was on the rare side, so what I did was: after letting the meat rest for 2-3 minutes after it
    was cooked on the stove -> I slice the flank 1 inch thick -> and cooked the sides on the hot saucepan

   And Voila! I rate this recipe 5 x YUMS! ^^~

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I've changed my Blog title, because I admit I don't always cook 100% healthy foods. I do find joy in making desserts that I never imagined I will ever make; or sometimes just trying out recipes that seem like a challenge to make - that may or may not be fatty ^^;

Anyhoo, I'm still having fun with my blog, and I hope you're having fun reading it too! ^^~

Breaded Chicken with Spinach Mashed Potato

The usual reason we buy skinless boneless chicken breast is to make this recipe (over and over and over and over.... because it's so delicious! ^^)

I made fresh bread crumbs using the ends of the loaf of bread. I put them in the toaster oven at 400C for 8 minutes. Make sure that the slices of bread are crisp! Tear the toasts into a blender/food processor and blend until you get nice crumbs; crumbs that are not too fine is actually good just because it'll create nice crunchy effect ^^~

Breaded Chicken:

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 egg, blended

bread crumbs

1/2 tspn garlic powder

1/2 tspn onion flakes 

1 tspn parsley, dried

1/2 tspn black pepper

1/2 tspn sweet basil, dried

<mix these>

    (First, put saran wrap over the chicken, and flatten the meat with a kitchen hammer)

                              (Dip the flattened chicken into egg -> cover with breadcrumb mixture)

    (Breaded chicken ready for 350C -> 20 minutes -> flip and bake again for another 10 minutes)

Mashed potato:

Ingredients:

3 large + 1 medium potatoes 

<cut each into 4 and put into boiling water for 25 minutes -> mash>

1/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup of butter

1/2 tspn black pepper

1/2 tspn chicken broth, powdered

<boil the mixture above -> remove when boiling>

1 cup of shredded spinach

<add into the hot mixture>

When the spinach has wilted, pour the mixture into the mashed potato -> mix -> serve! ^0^~

I rate this meal 5 x YUMS! ^^~  (out of 5 YUMS!)

Healthy chocolate chip cookies!

It's been awhile since I updated the blog. We've been busy with Chinese New Year and eating the leftovers. I made sweet and sour chicken, black pepper beef, broccoli, fried flat noodles, chinese broccoli and steamed fish. There were enough leftovers for 2 days after! ^^~

So, snacks were running out, and the last time I made cookies was in November last year. It's time to make some delicious cookies!!

The recipe I'm using is:

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Tweaks:

- 1 1/4 cup All purpose flour -> 1 cup All purpose flour + 1/4 cup 9 grains whole wheat flour + 1/4 cup 12 grains cereal

- 1 cup walnuts -> 1/2 cup mixed nuts (that's all I have left ^^;)

    (Premix of butter + brown&white sugars)

    (Eggs added into the blended mix)

    (Addition of flour mix)

    (Adding oatmeal mix)

                             (Dollops all lined up and ready to be baked!)

                             (Fresh off the oven!)

Yummy yum yum!

I rate this recipe 5 x YUMS! (out of 5 YUMS!)

Yummy Pork Chops!

The grocery stores always have pork chops on sale once in a while - at a great great price! ^0^~

So, I used half the ingredients from this recipe:

Honeyed Pork Chops

Tweaks:

- Honey -> Corn syrup : This is the 3rd time I've used this recipe. 2 times before, I used it with honey. Now I used corn syrup instead. Result is the same. The point of using honey in this recipe is just to sweeten the cooked meat. This can be done cheaply and at the same result with corn syrup.

- Added: 1 tspn of garlic powder + the bottom part of scallion.

    (Sauce mix)

    (Browning)

    (Arranged on baking dish and sauce poured over)

    (All cooked and ready to be plated!)

    (Plated!)

It's served with steamed white rice and vegetable (eggplant, zucchini and broccoli with bell pepper garnish) stir-fry.

I rate this recipe 5x YUM! (out of 5 YUM!)

^0^~

Funnel Cakes - Healthy Tweak

Remember how I said I made a lot of funnel cakes with the recipe - in the last post?

Well, there's many ways to serve a funnel cake. Since I bought 1 pint of blackberries costing only $1.98 at IGA a couple days ago, I have been serving the funnel cake like this:

The funnel cake is also can also be garnished with strawberries and peaches :D