Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Sometimes I purposefully buy products I don’t want.  Recently I was in my local supermarket and asked the store manager for help finding pumpkin puree.  He took me to the aisle and pointed in the right direction.  When I still couldn’t find it I asked for his help again.  This time he brought me straight to the display rack and I found myself face to face with a can of pumpkin pie filling.  Not what I wanted.  After all the trouble he’d gone to on a very busy Sunday night I couldn’t bring myself to leave without buying it.  The problem is all of my favorite pumpkin recipes call for pumpkin puree and most of them say in big letters, “NOT PUMPKIN PIE FILLING.”  Since the pie filling is already sweetened and spiced it won’t give you the same result.

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Apple Peanut Butter Softies

I could bake all day, every day for several months and still not bake every recipe that’s caught my eye.  I must have close to a hundred recipes bookmarked from all of the food blogs I read, not to mention the six binders of recipes that I’ve clipped from magazines, and of course there are my cookbooks filled with colorful flags marking the recipes that I’d like to try.  And yet I still find myself sitting at home with a desire to bake and no idea what to make.  It was on one of these nights that I stumbled across this recipe while searching for something that would use up some of my CSA apples and satisfy my craving for peanut butter.  Read the rest of this entry »

Panko Crusted Fishsticks

I’ve finally hopped on the Panko bandwagon. For those of you unfamiliar with the latest rage in breadcrumbs, allow me to enlighten you: Panko is a bigger, flakier, and lighter breadcrumb than the typical American fare, and over the last year, has moved into the grocery mainstream. The product hails from Japan and is recommended, primarily, for breading fish, which is how I used them. Being the cheapies we are, my boyfriend and I bought the Panko at Ocean State Job Lot, a New England-based discount chain. This just proves their widespread availability.

I have not had fish sticks since I was a little kid. Back in the 1980s and early 90s, fish sticks were the only ‘fish’ my parents could convince me to eat. In recent years, I’ve had a slight change of heart, and after catching EIGHT!! sea bass in Cape Cod a few weekends ago, I knew fish sticks would be the perfect end to a perfect day. I’ve never made my own fish sticks, but I had a plan in mind: cut the bass into sticks, then season, bread, and fry them. The best part about fish sticks is that you can really throw in any spices you want.

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Lemon Lime Pound Cake

This year I received many wonderful birthday presents.  A bike charm necklace, a muffin pan charm necklace, an old fashioned bike print, a daily planner decorated with bikes, miniature whisks, salted caramels… my friends and family know me well.  As wonderful as all of my gifts were, a cake pan with a bike imprint really topped them all.  It’s the perfect combination of my two favorite things: biking and baking.

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Coffee Lover’s Cupcakes

Although I drink coffee on a fairly regular basis, I’m not sure I would call myself a coffee-lover.  I don’t need to have coffee to start my day, and when I do drink coffee the goal is to add enough half-and-half and Splenda that it has the taste of coffee ice cream.  I love the coffee flavor and aroma, but can not handle the bitterness.  Occasionally I’ll add espresso powder to chocolate desserts, but had never baked anything with coffee as the predominant flavor.  Last week I was trying to decide what to bring one of my best friend’s going away parties.  She loves lemon and I’ve made her many lemon desserts in the past, but what was on my mind was how much I’d miss seeing her around the office every morning with her Starbuck’s coffee and pastry.

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Coke Zero Birthday Cake

Last week was my good friend Andrew’s birthday.  I knew I had to make him a cake, but had some trouble deciding on a recipe.  He likes everything so no recipes were jumping out as the obvious choice.  I started browsing my cake cook books and came across a recipe for Coca Cola cake.  Of course!  Andrew is a Coke Zero fiend and I knew he’d get a kick out of it being in a cake.  This cake is delicious.  It’s really moist, fudgy, and chocolaty without being overly rich.  The cake doesn’t actually have the flavor of Coke, but I think it’s the carbonation from the soda that gives it such a great texture. Read the rest of this entry »