More muffin mania

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

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!

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!

It's one of those nights

It's 1:24 am and I can't sleep. It's one of those nights were I start to drift off and then suddenly I get a surge of adrenalin that wakes me up again....I believe it's called "anxiety"...WTF?

"Why do you have anxiety?" you may ask? Great question...Uggh.

The bright side

So, I've been in a major funk lately. Actually, it's more of a rut. I can't explain it but I'm pretty sure it has to do with:

- Getting rejected from two jobs this summer,

- Being in over our heads in credit card debt (entirely my fault too),

- Having to keep waiting to start trying to get pregnant (wrap your mind around that one),

- Feeling like I'm not doing a good job at the job I already have,

- Feeling like I'm not maintaining the house like I should,

- Having a constant upset stomach (need to go to the doctor for this one),

- Not taking care of myself by making a doctor's appointment for my constant upset stomach,

- Feeling like I'm trapped in the house for days on end,

- My freakin' herbs are dying because our apartment is a dark cave (I loved those herbs),

- ...

Wow, what a sad little list...Okay, seriously. I could definitely be worse off. Here is the bright side:

- I have an effin' job that I love and that pays me much more than I would make working at a retail job like Banana Republic (I will never work retail again!),

- I have a wonderful husband who likes to give me crap at every turn, but who really knows what makes me happy,

- I applied to the perfect job at UNC two days ago and though it doesn't close until November, that leaves me with a full month of positive thoughts that I will get an interview,

- It is absolutely beautiful outside right now...and yesterday too. I actually took a blanket and sat out in the sun/shade of a tree in the park and it was wonderful (see pictures below).

So, I will continue to endeavor to see the bright side of life (and I guess I'll make a doctor's appointment, too).

Guy reading on bench...



















Pretty trees...













Wow, I've got white legs...

Truth v. Truthiness

I just read a pretty interesting article written by St. Petersburg Times media columnist, Eric Deggans, about the difference between "truth" and "truthiness" in journalism today. I think he raises an excellent point that we must all be aware that most of the media are no longer in the business of reporting straight facts, but rather, reaffirming beliefs already held by their viewership. I think this is inevitable given the increasingly tough competition among media outlets to attract viewers/readers. Anyway...food for thought.

Here's the link:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/when-news-feels-right-it-might-be-the-truthiness-not-the-truth/1039173

I L-O-V-E fall...and cookies

Fall has got to be my favorite season. It's even more apparent to me how much I love the fall now that I live in a place that actually experiences fall-like weather. It will be 55 degrees when I wake up tomorrow morning (compare to the 90 degrees in Florida) and will not rise above 70 degrees. How lovely!

The hubby and I have been laying low for the past few weeks due to our financial situation (which will improve after we get paid tomorrow...whoop whoop!) so I've had to opportunity to explore my domestic side, which has really come into its own since we moved here. Well, to be fair, it does help that I work 10 hours less a week than I was in Tampa (and that I work from home!).

I've been baking like a madwoman lately and have been really enjoying it, except for the fact that we are both gaining weight...ha! The perils of being a domestic goddess, I guess! I've been on a cookie kick and have made three different batches of cookies in the past TWO weeks. Cookies, I'm convinced, are absolutely the perfect thing to eat on days like today (or any day, for that matter). I've made chocolate chip cookies twice and shortbread cookies this past weekend. The brown sugar and pecans in the chocolate cookies are so yummy. And when they're eaten after cooling for 10 minutes or so, they get a little crunchy around the edges and stay soft and chewy in the center.

I have to spread the love, so here's the recipe:

(One thing to note: You don't have to make the whole batch at once! Roll the dough you make up in parchment paper and slice off dough two or three cookies at a time as you get a craving...I used our toaster oven to bake them so I don't have to pre-heat my giant oven.)

Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies (This is the original Toll House cookie recipe)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I might try substituting whole-wheat flour for these next time)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 pound (2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips the first time I made this and my husband preferred them to the semisweet)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

1) Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2) Either by hand or with electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed. Scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Add eggs, vanilla, and water. Beat until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl.

3) Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, 15 or 20 seconds. Add chocolate chips and nuts and stir until combined.

4) Drop batter by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing pieces of dough about 1 inch apart. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and front to back), until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges begin to crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks with wide spatula.

5) Get a cold glass of milk and enjoy!!