Thursday, July 9, 2009

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.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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. )

Friday, July 3, 2009

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!)