Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Did you grow up with lots of muffins in your household? I didn’t. In fact, I don’t remember having them around at all. Cakes? Yes. Pies? Yes. Cupcakes? Yes. Muffins…no. Maybe that’s why I love them. I’m making up for lost time.

Now, my favorite muffin is hands down the Peanut Butter-Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffin I make often. It’s more labor intensive and fits the bill when I have ripe bananas available and want some chocolate in my breakfast. It’s really fantastic.

I do have one criteria for breakfast muffins. I don’t want them over the top sweet. These Streuseled Honey-Butter Breakfast Muffins fit that bill perfectly. And the streusel makes the perfect crunchy-crunch. Just look at it. This is so good with my black coffee, it’s “off the chain”…as someone said to me on Facebook the other day. I love that Triple-D saying.

Anyway, these are also one of those exceptional looking muffins. They pop up and rise into a perfect dome shape, don’t brown too much and stay moist. They are keepers forever, I hope you try them soon. 

It rains constantly here in the winter so comfort food is always something we crave. What is it about dreary weather that makes you want to eat? And not just eat anything, it has to be goood. And warm. And full of flavor. Cheesy and buttery helps too.

I also crave easy to make dinners. Lately I’ve found myself saying “this is my busy time of year”. But I’m finding I’m saying that all year round. The wheel basically never stops turning. Part of me thinks I’d like to jump off, but then what would I do?

So now I have my busy times (which is always) and my busier times, (which is 25% of the time). Help! I know everyone is busy, I just don’t ever remember so much craziness. We are all living the over-scheduled life. Anyway, just like you, I always have to find a way to make dinner easier, faster and better. And everyone in my family seems to have an opinion on how I could do that. They are so helpful:).

This pasta dish is one of my go to recipes. It starts with having extra cooked chicken breasts around. I always cook more than I need when I’m making a chicken meal. I leave the extra breasts plain, stick them in the fridge and cube them up the next day for a dish like this. You could also cook up the chicken especially for this meal, it just takes more time (but it’s doable). Leftover rotissere chicken is also an option.

I love scones, but I don't enjoy making them. There I said it.  Kneading the dough, shaping it...maybe that sounds lazy but right now life is busy with no extra time for little things like, kneading and shaping dough.

That's what I love about these scones, you gently stir the batter together, mounding up each scone individually. So easy!

However, the trick with scones remains; over-handling the batter will make them tough. Mixing must be kept to a minimum for optimum results.

These scones were quite toothsome with their mix of blueberries, cornmeal and lime zest. Lime juice was also added to the glaze to really bring home and incorporate the flavors at play.

Overall, a lovely, easy breakfast to enjoy. Not overly sweet and perfect with coffee or tea.

Day 26 of 31 Days Of Pie is a Macadamia Nut Pie

If you’ve noticed a theme here (other than pies), you’ll notice a love for the nuts+pie combo. Perhaps it’s a contrasting textural thang, or maybe it’s a way of rationalizing eating so many pies (i.e. nuts are healthy, right?) At any rate, this pie is a tropical breeze in a pie shell, using macadamias for crunch on top of sweet vanilla pie filling. It’s a good one from Epicurious. Enjoy!

Macadamia Nut Pie

Ingredients
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie crust
2 cups roasted unsalted macadamia nuts
Vanilla ice cream (optional)