Blueberry Streusal Muffins

I have two favorite kitchen items: my stand mixer and my calphalan one ginormous sauceuse (large, deep pan thingy). Purr.
I like to send MB with breakfast a few times a week, and the super yummy cupcake like muffins from fresh direct were becoming prohibitively expensive. So I searched for blueberry muffins I could make on my own, and found this receipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, chilled

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.
Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over unbaked muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean

I package them in little two muffin baggies, and freeze them because I made about 18 of them. They last a few weeks and he really seemed to enjoy them (and the one I snuck was pretty good too!).






(They're extra brown on the top because of the brown sugar topping)

Chicken Parm

I am scared to cook without receipes. I want to be one of those people that can look in the fridge and say "Hmmm, let's throw these three unrelated but awesome ingredients into a great dish." Chicken parm, however, is cooking for dummies. I had an egg that was almost ready to get tossed, breadcrumbs leftover from the meatballs, sauce and cheese. So, I dumped the chicken in the egg, coated it in breadcrumsb, cooked it in a pan, then finished it off in the oven topped with sauce and mozzarella. This, like the meatballs, was an MB dinner, as I just got in from a run and was feeling like some chicken on a salad was the best course to take. MB, however, loves cheese, sauce and breadcrumbs.

Lemon Chicken

I feel like each of my posts are turning into nostalgic trips through my sort of boring history. This one is no exception.

The very first "receipe" I made for MB and I upon our sinful cohabitation in Oct. '05 was Chicken Scallopini with Lemon Caper Sauce. I thought it looked gross, but MB had this cute "she's trying to take care of me" look on his face and told me it was lovely. I still think it looks kinda icky but tastes pretty great. I wind up putting lemon slices in while cooking, it gives it a little extra zip.

You'll need:
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/2 cup fat free chicken broth
1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp drained capers, 1/2tsp olive oil

You dredge the chicken in 2 of the tbsps of flour, pepper and chili powder. Combine the other ingredients (except the olive oil).
Cook the chicken, turning once, in pan (my personnel favorite the subject of an upcoming post).
Take out the chicken, and cook the sauce until it thickens.
I add lemon slices while the chicken is cooking. It makes the pulp fall out and become part of the sauce.

Meatballs!

While on the plane to England for my semester abroad, I vowed to no longer eat meat. That was six years ago, and I haven't eaten a cow or pig since. I'm still a gigantic chicken and fish fan, though. However, my sweat Meatball is a protein lovin' red-blooded American male, so he definitely misses the meat stuff. In connection with this blog (and because organic ground beef was on sale) I took the big step and made that for which he is named: meatballs. Most have been frozen, three have been saved for the "testing" which I am sure will occur sometime after my glass of pinot has rendered me comatose on the couch.

The basic receipe is as follows:

2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tsp of worstesheeeeer sauce
1 1/2 tsps of salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 pounds lean ground beef.

Beat eggs and add everything except the meat. Mix together then add meat. Shape into 1 inch balls and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.



In theory, you can freeze them for three months. Except that this batch didn't last that long. At all.