Monday, November 16, 2009

It's a video posting kind of day...

I've been doing some research on the best blogs out there for "a blog on blogs" and I came across this video embedded on a blog called "Bad Astronomy." It's from CollegeHumor.com so you know it's probably got bad language...but dang it's funny!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1797753

More muffin mania

Muffin video...sent to me by my good friend Stephen. Disturbing and hilarious at the same time.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Yummy muffin recipe

I just made the most delicious muffins. Had to share the recipe. For some reason there are more pomegranates at my local Kroger than I have ever seen at the grocery store in Florida. I'm guessing they are abundant in NC?

So, my husband suggested I make some muffins using pomegranates instead of blueberries or some other fruit. Here is the recipe. They turned out to be soooo good that my husband ate three right away!

Pomegranate Walnut muffins
The basic muffin recipe I used was from The Best Recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I added ginger, the pomegranates and walnuts and substituted brown sugar for regular to modify the recipe.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (you can also try crystallized ginger)
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar + 1 tablespoon for sprinkling on top of muffins
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
Arils (seeds) from one pomegranate
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Vegetable cooking spray or additional unsalted butter for greasing muffin tins

1) Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground ginger together in medium bowl; set aside.

2) Cream butter and brown sugar with electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in one-half of dry ingredients. Beat in one-third of yogurt. Beat in remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with yogurt, until incorporated. Add the chopped walnuts and mix with electric mixer. Add pomegranate seeds and mix gently with a wooden spoon so as not to break the seeds (called "arils").

3) Spray 12-cup muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray or coat lightly with butter (I used the cooking spray that combines flour into it. Works great!). Divide batter evenly among cups. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar evenly over muffin batter, once in muffin tin. Bake until muffins are golden brown. 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm.

ENJOY!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I'm baaack!

Okay, I know it's been a while since I've written anything for this blog, so I am going to rededicate myself to it. As we enter into the holiday season I know things will start getting crazy, so I will do my best to chronicle the season as experienced by a new citizen of North Carolina...

Let me just say that Halloween us HUGE in Chapel Hill. I had some idea that it would be big based on the fact that my husband and his colleagues were required to work that night, but wow. My mother and aunt came up to visit and we went down to Franklin Street to see all the kiddies (and middle-aged adults) in costume. W-O-W. I probably saw at least four sets of Super Mario Bros. and several naughty maids/nurses/police women, etc. I actually love dressing up in costume. Last year I went as Marylin Monroe. These people take it to the next level though. I took pictures, but didn't want to seem like a creepy-paparazzi, so they are all pretty far away and blurry...Oh well. Enjoy! (Also, I included a picture of the pumpkin I carved. I'm so proud of my carving skills!!)


Transformer??


Ummm...need to work on my photog skills for next year...




Happy pumpkins only!