Blueberries!

Get ready for the best blueberry muffins ever.  Yes, they really are the best.  My boyfriend and I both love blueberry muffins for breakfast, so I decided to make my own this time.  We got the blueberries at a local farm and orchard.  I looked around online and found a recipe that looked good, so I went for it.

Muffin Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened 

1 egg, beaten

2 1/3 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup blueberries

Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 cup butter

Start Cooking:

1.  Pre heat oven to 375 degrees

2.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter.  Then add the egg and mix.  

3.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Then add the creamed mixture a little at a time, alternating with the milk.  

4.  Stir in vanilla, then fold in blueberries.  

5.  To make the topping, combine all dry ingredients and then cut in the the butter.  

6.  Spoon into greased muffin tins, or use paper liners.  Then sprinkle the topping evenly on the muffins. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Tips and Hints:

1.  Fresh blueberries are the best, but if it is out of season, or you don't have any, frozen blueberries will work.  

2.  Don't over mix!  Over mixing is the worst thing you can do to muffins!

3.  Can't eat them all before they go bad?  Freeze them!  

4.  They are best when served warm. 

Enjoy!

Potatoes!

Before I get to the potatoes... I have decided that I need to be a more consistent blogger.  School is almost done for this term, so I will have some more time to blog.  And then school will start up again come end of September, and who knows what will happen then.  But I'm going to try!

Ok, so now to the potatoes.  I don't think that I've ever met someone who doesn't like potatoes.  My boyfriend and I both love them, and I'm always looking for new ways to cook with potatoes, just to spice it up a little bit.  I found a recipe in a cooking magazine for grilled potatoes with rosemary.  Well, we don't have a grill(yet).  So I changed the recipe around a little and made it work for roasting in the oven.  This recipe has fresh rosemary in it, and my boyfriend isn't much of a rosemary fan.  But he tried the potatoes and loved them, as did I.  This is the recipe from the local foods post.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound small new potatoes, or red potatoes.  DO NOT PEEL
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 sliced green onions(optional)

Start Cooking:
1.  Cut the potatoes in to quarters.  Then parboil in salted water until just tender.  You should be able to poke a fork into them easily.
2.  Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees and mix all remaining ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
3.  Drain the potatoes and place in a baking dish.  Pour the oil mixture over the potatoes and make sure they are all evenly coated.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until a little bit browned.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Fresh rosemary can be hard to find and is a little pricey.  The fresh herbs will make the best potatoes, but if you can't get them, use half the amount dried.
2.  I served the potatoes with chicken and green beans and it made a great complete meal!

Enjoy! 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I remember my mom making this bread when my sister and I were little.  I think she thew in the chocolate chips to get us to eat the bread, but it's really yummy :)  Zucchini is going nuts this time of year, and after awhile, there is only so much that you can do with it.  This recipe is a great way to use up all that zucchini. You could make it into muffins, or in a loaf pan.  You can also freeze the bread or muffins and have great bread after zucchini is out of season.
This is now officially boyfriend approved!  When I told him what I was going to make, he said "that sounds nasty."  So I made it anyway, and had him try it.  And he said "That's really good"  : )

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1 egg white
1 whole egg
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup zucchini, finely grated
1 teaspoon vanilla

Extra Ingredients:
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  I always start by grating the zucchini.  Use a hand grater, as this allows the natural moisture from the zucchini to be added to the batter.

3.  You will now need two large mixing bowls for this recipe.  In the first large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon.  Then in the second large bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients together.  

4.  Next you need to pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Mix just until everything is incorporated.  Now you can add the extra ingredients: chocolate chips and nuts if you want.  

5.  Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  This is very straight forward.  But the most important thing about making breads is to only mix as much as needed. Don't over mix!  

Enjoy! 

Dessert Quesadillas

The other week I had a bunch of tortillas that I needed to use up.  So the boyfriend and I had quesadillas for dinner!  I still had some tortillas left and I didn't know what to do with them before they went bad.  You can only eat so many quesadillas :)  So the crafty Angela, the boyfriend's mom, suggested making dessert quesadillas.  I had never heard of dessert quesadillas before, so I went for it.  Basically, it's a s'more on a tortilla.  And it was great!

Ingredients:

2 tortillas

chocolate chips

mini marshmallows 

Start Cooking:

1.  You will need a large non-stick skillet to make this recipe.  It is up to you how much chocolate and marshmallow you want to add.  

2.  Set the pan on medium heat.  Place one tortilla in the bottom of the skillet, then put the chocolate chips and marshmallows on top of the tortilla.  Then place the 2nd tortilla on top.  

3.  Cover the skillet with a lid and cook for about 2 minutes.  Check the tortilla to make sure it's slightly browned and the chocolate has started to melt.  Then flip the quesadilla and cook on the other side.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  Serve warm!  

Enjoy!

Local Food

Summer is great for so many different things.  One of my favorites: cooking with local produce.  There are so many different fruits and veggies in season right now, why not take advantage of it?  So this summer I decided to explore some different local farm markets.  This past week, we went to Paulus Farm Market in Mechanicsburg, PA.  They also have a stand in Dillsburg, PA.  This was a little bit of a drive for us, but well worth it.
My boyfriend and I really enjoyed our day out at the farm.  We are a young couple, still in college, and money is tight.  We used our day at the farm as a "date."  Pick your own is a cheap way to get great produce and it's something we can do together.  Then we go home and cook together =)
This farm market has a pick your own flower field.  We picked two buckets of flowers, then arranged them all over the apartment.  The cats really liked them too :)

We were going to pick our own blueberries, but were too late... the pick your own closed at 1 PM and we were there around 3PM.  So I just bought blueberries already picked.  I also got some potatoes and zucchini.

So what am I going to make?  

Blueberry Muffins

Roasted Potatoes 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I'll be posting the recipes soon!  

Peaches

A few weekends ago, the family had a cook out for my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.  It was really cool to celebrate an amazing, long lasting relationship.  Everyone was given some part of the meal to bring, and I was given dessert.  I like to cook with in season food as much as I can, so I went out and bought some local peaches and blue berries and make a cobbler.  The cobbler was a big hit and everyone loved it.  I found this recipe online.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
3 cups fresh peaches- peeled, pitted and sliced
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons coarse granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Start Cooking:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, and baking powder.  Mix in milk and 1/4 cup butter until smooth.
3.  In a medium saucepan, stir together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and water.  Mix in the peaches and blueberries.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  Mix in 1 tablespoon butter and lemon juice.  Continue cooking until the butter melts.  Pour into a ungreased 9"x13" baking pan.  Evenly spoon batter in mounds over the hot fruit.  In a small bowl, mix the coarse sugar and nutmeg,  and sprinkle over the batter.

4.  Bake cobbler for about 35 minutes, or until bubbly and a toothpick inserted into the crust comes out clean.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  We served the cobbler warm with vanilla ice cream.  It was great!  

2.  This one is really easy, I didn't have any trouble with it at all :)

Enjoy!

Green Beans!

I love green beans.  They are probably my favorite vegetable.  I found this recipe for a two bean salad and had to try it.  This is served cold, so it's not boyfriend approved(he "doesn't like cold green beans").  But I loved it, so I thought that I would share.

Ingredients:
12 oz green beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 can (15.5 oz) white beans, drained and rinsed

Start Cooking:
1. Boil green beans until just tender, about 8 minutes.  Drain, then rinse with cold water.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, pepper, mustard and salt.  Slowly whisk in oil.  Stir in onion and oregano, then let stand 10 minutes.
3.  Add green beans and white beans to dressing, toss to coat the beans.
4.  Serve at room temperature.

Tips and Hints:
1.  The original recipe that I found called for tomatoes.  No one in my house likes tomatoes, so I left them out.  If you would like, add 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes when you mix in the beans.
2.  This makes 6 (1 cup) servings.

Enjoy! 

Brownies

I'm sorry, I didn't get a picture of these brownies before they were all gone, but I wanted to post the recipe anyway.
My sister and I have been making these brownies for years now, and we haven't been able to find a better recipe.  We haven't ran into anyone who didn't like them yet!
This recipe is from Kids Cooking: a very slightly messy manual and is titled Disgustingly  Rich Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup coco
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Grease 8x8 baking pan.
2.  Stir coco and sugar together.  Then add melted butter, eggs and vanilla: stir together.  Add flour and salt, mix until smooth.
3.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Don't like plain brownies?  Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, nuts, anything you like to put a different twist on your brownies!

Enjoy!