More baking!

One of the best parts of summer is all the free time available for baking. We had a bunch of strawberries just sittin' in the fridge, getting mushy (perhaps that 4-lb. clamshell was ill-advised?), and I wanted to find a creative way to use them. Voila! Strawberry buttermilk muffins. Here's the recipe, copied & pasted from the Body and Soul website. (The recipe originally appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Body and Soul, which I found lying on the coffee table. Just so you know.) It is true that I posted this link on my facebook page, but I am so enthusiastic about these muffins that I thought the recipe deserved two postings. In all honesty, these delightful muffs will change the way you think about strawberries, and buttermilk. The end. 

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Using a potato masher, lightly mash berries; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy 4th, everyone! We celebrated by hittin' the gym (which was mostly empty: hellz yes), bumming around the house, and getting dinner at the Holy Land deli, which serves a badass Greek salad. (I know Greek salads sometimes get a bad rap, but this shiz is authentic & delectable.) 

Speaking of Greek, I accidentally created the most perfect [Greek yogurt-based] snack last night and could not wait another day to share my find with the in-ter-net. I was hoping to have Fage with almonds and a drizzle of honey, but no such luck - the honey was one big crystallized mess. Still wanting something sweet,  I found some Ghiradelli dark hot chocolate and added a scant tablespoon of chocolate to about 1/3 cup of Fage. I blended the two until the yogurt had the consistency of mousse, and topped with finely-chopped almonds. Srsly, people, this was the best snack of my lyfe. Try it! 

(Aside: the Ghiradelli isn't very good as cocoa. I can't articulate why - it just doesn't taste cocoalike. )

Also:

dude, why won't this publish my entries in the correct font?

[Live & active] culture shock

 I was not predicting much (if any) culture shock upon reentry into MN - after all, the Twin Cities are pretty progressive. Parts of the cities, anyway. Lo, was I wrong in my prediction! I went to the local Cub Foods this afternoon in search of Fage 0%, and the employee working in the dairy section had never heard of Greek yogurt. I subsequently went to Rainbow (the other major MN grocery chain), where there was one (1) tub of Fage in the "Natural Foods" section. This singular tub, whose sell-by date is a paltry five days from this day, sat lonely beside some "Italian" gelato and like, two varieties of Kashi frozen entrees. I bought this singular tub, even though it was $2 more expensive than its MA counterpart, and even though it is not as fresh as I'd normally prefer.

I don't get it: I thought Greek yogurt was popular nationwide? I believed (wrongly, perhaps) that its creamy texture and high protein content were major selling points, even among suburbanites wary of anything with "Greek" in the name. But, I was wrong. 

Also notable here is the lack of Vera Bradley products and Sox Gear. (The latter, at least, is understandable. GO TWINS!) 

From "Whip-Poor-Will"

...It is good
to wake early in high
summer with work to do,
and look out the window
at a ghost bird lifting away
to drowse all morning
in his grassy hut.


(Donald Hall)

Today has not been so productive. It's 1:50 PM EST, I'm unshowered and groggy, and my house is a mess. The shower thing will be easy to remedy; the house thing, less so. The bad news is, I stayed out later last night than I have all year (& consequently slept until 10:15 ), but the good news is that I've already packed three boxes of kitchen stuff today! And I cleaned up all the bacon pans left over from last night's [early this morning's] boozy bacon extravaganza. The extravaganza was not my idea - I was a mere spectator - but it was greasily hilarious! Eric and Darren cooked and ate a pound of bacon, then commenced a series of arm wrestling competitions! HA!

The cleanup was not hilarious, but I survived.

Finally it is sinking in that I'm leaving Western Mass, and I am going to miss a lot of people and places. People, you know who you are, and you best come visit me in Wisconsin. I will bake you pies and take you out for boots of beer. Among the places I'll miss most are the bike path (Norwottuck Rail Trail), the Smith Gardens, Forbes Library (where I spent many an hour editing the old thesis), and the Hangar, which serves the best boneless wings in the country. I'm not joking about that: I do not joke about chicken wings.

I did not sign up for this weather package

(and other tales of New England meteorological discontent.)

What a week! What a weekend! Highlights (chronologically, not in order of importance):

1) Thursday, Ali and I made an awesome batch of blueberry muffins. Alright: I did the prep, baking, and cleanup, but Ali kept me company and later taught me the basics of needlepoint, so we're even. I'd be remiss if I didn't include the recipe for said wundermuffins:

Blueberry Oat Muffins
(Yield: 18 muffins)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2 cups fat-free or low-fat buttermilk
• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp. grated orange zest
• 1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

1. Combine oats and buttermilk in mixing bowl. Cover; let stand 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin pan cups with nonstick cooking spray or use pleated paper liners.
3. Combine buttermilk mixture, flour, sugar, oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs and orange zest in second mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Fold in blueberries and walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared cups, filling them 3/4 full.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; place on wire rack to cool.

(Recipe taken from Vegetarian Times, January 1, 2005. And yes, we did use walnuts.)

Not only were the muffins ueber-easy to prepare (I grated orange zest and measured the other ingredients while the oats and buttermilk sat, undisturbed), but they're healthy, too - 130 calories each without the nuts, about 155 with. They are also unstoppably delicious.

2) Also on Thursday, I began my first ever cross stitch project: a small hamburger! I only have a few rows of stitching thus far - packing has sort of taken over my life - but I think I can finish the project by the end of the week. Maybe.

3) This weekend, Cecily and Chris got married. The ceremony, held in an orchard at Quonquont Farm, was simple and beautiful. Congratulations, C & C!

4) Today I started a RunningAHEAD account so I can track my runs (and bike rides). I was hesitant to open an account before, mainly because I was running like, 1.5 miles and felt (perhaps inaccurately?) wusstastic. But today I overcame this mental block and joined the site. My name is Garky. If any of you all are on the site, friend me! (If that is an option.)

A small, mid-year goal of mine is to update more frequently, rather than having these giant, dump-truck posts. But when there's so much happening, it's difficult to find the time, yes? Excuses!