Banana Blueberry Muffins.

I tend to procrastinate a lot. For instance the fresh blueberries I had planned on using had already rotted by the time I got around to making this recipe. I used some frozen berries, but was disappointed to find out I had less than half a cup. I should probably rename this recipe banana muffins with a hint of blueberries, since there were on average two berries per muffin. I was afraid these muffins wouldn't turn out well since they lacked an egg and the batter was pretty dry when mixing together. They turned out fairly well, despite being a little dense which I'm positive is a direct result of over mixing on my part. The flavors were tasty, though I felt like they were missing something - maybe vanilla or cinnamon. Still they were quick & easy to make and great for relaxing with coffee and the Sunday paper.

E-Z Banana Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping

3 ripe bananas

2 1/2 c. flour

1 c. sugar
1/4 c. canola oil

3/4 c. unthawed frozen blueberries

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. butter

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1. In a medium bowl combine bananas, sugar and oil. Mash well. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to banana mixture. Stir together until just combined. Fold in blueberries. Pour into a greased muffin pan or muffin liners.

2. In a small bowl, combine butter and brown sugar until coarse crumbles are made. Sprinkle over muffins.

3. Bake in 350 oven for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Yield: 12 muffins (I made 16)

Source: unknown

A BIG Breakfast.

I'm still full. We decided to take advantage of a lazy Sunday & the cold weather, by making a ginormous breakfast - well it was more of a brunch by the time we finished everything. On the menu: scrambled eggs, the husband's awesome fried potatoes, sausage & gravy and biscuits. Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day (especially when it's unhealthy) and this menu did not disappoint, we were definitely fat & happy after this meal. Though not exactly productive for awhile!

Sausage Gravy

1/2 lb. ground sausage
4-6 Tbs. butter
2 2/3 c. milk
4-6 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1. Brown sausage until completely cooked. Add butter to melt. Add flour and stir until mixed together.

2. Add milk, salt and pepper; stir. Boil over medium heat for 2 minutes or until thick; stir as needed. Add more milk if mixture becomes too thick.


Yield: 4-6 servings
Source: the Mother-in-law

My notes: This isn't the time to be healthy and watch your fat, you need a full fat pork sausage. The fat is what makes the gravy. Do not drain the fat off or buy a lower fat sausage, I did the first time I made this and it wasn't pretty. I reserve adding the salt & pepper until the sausage is fully cooked, it all depends on the type/flavor of sausage you get. Additionally, if you just get plain sausage feel free to add dried fennel & sage. Red pepper flakes are good too.


Biscuits

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 Tbs. chilled vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/4 c. buttermilk

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter and shortening in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in buttermilk until combined.

2. On lightly floured surface, knead dough until smooth, 8-10 kneads. Pat dough into 9-inch circle, about 3/4-inch thick. Using 3-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds of dough and arrange on prepared baking sheet. Gather remaining dough, pat into 3/4-inch thick circle, and cut out remaining biscuits. (You should have 8 biscuits total.)

3. Bake until biscuits begin to rise, about 5 minutes, then rotate pan and reduce oven temperature to 400. Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool.


Yield: 8 biscuits
Source: Cook's Country, April/May 2008

Test Kitchen Notes:
*If you don't have buttermilk on hand, whisk 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 1/4 cups of milk and let it stand until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

*Stamp, don't twist the biscuit cutter! Twisting the cutter when stamping out biscuits pinches the dough, resulting in an uneven rise. Using a well-floured cutter and pressing down with equal pressure on both sides of the cutter (not twisting) ensures that the biscuits will rise evenly.

My notes: This has just become my go-to recipe for biscuits. They were perfect - light, fluffy, thick & delicious. I don't have a biscuit cutter and didn't have any luck using a glass, the dough is too thick. I ended up using the cut-n-seal from Pampered Chef, which is a little larger than 3-inches. It worked out great, but only gave me 6 full sized biscuits and 1 randomly shaped one.

Buttermilk Pancakes.

Yesterday for breakfast I wanted to make pancakes and use up the buttermilk I bought, but never used. Homemade pancakes are fast to whip up, and so much better than the boxed pancake mix. I think buttermilk pancakes are my second favorite type of pancake, after cornmeal. Delicious! After eating & cleaning up the kitchen, I went back to bed. Being sick sucks big time & this is why there have been no blog updates either!

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 Tbs. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 beaten egg

1 c. buttermilk or sour milk (see tip below)

2 Tbs. cooking oil

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; set aside. Combine the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Add additional buttermilk to thin batter, if necessary.

2. For standard-size pancakes, pour or spread about 1/4 cup batter into a a 3" circle onto a hot lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are golden born, turning to second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings

Recipe obtained from: Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook

Nutritional Information (for all varieties): 114 cal., 5 g. total fat (1 g. sat. fat), 28 mg chol., 202 mg sodium, 15 g. carbo., 3 g. pro.

Whole Wheat-Buttermilk Pancakes: Prepare as above, except substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour and brown sugar for sugar.

Regular (or plain) Pancakes: Prepare as above, except substitute milk for buttermilk, increase baking powder to 2 teaspoons, and omit baking soda.

-Making sour milk - If you don't have buttermilk on hand, substitute sour milk in the same amount. For each cup of sour milk needed, place 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup total liquid; stir. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Berry Oatmeal Muffins.

I found this recipe in a magazine at the Grandparent's cabin while on vacation a few weeks ago and thought it not only sounded good, but was fairly healthy too. When thinking of what to take a friend who just had a beautiful little baby girl exactly one week ago, I thought these muffins would be a good idea. I'm thinking she's not going to have the time, or energy, to make breakfast and muffins are an easy and delicious grab and go breakfast. I told the husband I think these are my new go-to blueberry muffin recipe. I hope my friend and her husband enjoy the muffins and I can't wait to deliver them and visit with the new family!

Berry Oatmal Muffins

1 1/2 Tbs. + 1 c. old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, divided

1 1/2 Tbs. + 1/2 c. packed brown sugar, divided

1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1 Tbs. + 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, divided

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, to taste

1 c. fat-free raspberry yogurt

4 Tbs. melted butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray or line it with paper baking cups.

2. Combine 1 1/2 Tbs. oats and 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar in a small bowl and set aside. In another small bowl, gently toss blueberries with 1 Tbs. flour and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine remaining oats, sugar, flour, baking powder, an cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Gently stir yogurt mixture into flour mixture until dry ingredients are moistened, but batter is still lumpy. Gently fold in blueberries.

4. Fill muffin cups almost to the top. Sprinkle reserved oats and brown sugar over muffins. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve muffins warm, or if they are cool, slice in half and toast.

Yield: 12 muffins

Nutritional information: 186 calories, 4g. protein, 31g. carbohydrates, 5g. fat, 3g. saturated fat, 29mg. choesterol, 2g. fiber, 62mg. sodium.

Recipe obtained from: Diane - The Curves Magazine (unknown publication date/issue)

My thoughts: I ended up getting 14 muffins out of this recipe, though I could have probably filled a few of the cups a little fuller. You could make these even healthier by using whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour. Any berry would work in place of the blueberries.

Warm Pancakes For A Cold Day.

I simply adore pancakes, they really are one of my favorite foods. I especially love pancakes when they are slightly crispy on the edges and still a little undone in the center - a technique I have yet to master. It's a technique my Grandpa had down pat and is generally served in the best greasy spoon diners. Even though I haven't mastered this technique yet, these pancakes still delivered a hearty and delicious breakfast. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination would also work wonderfully in this recipe.

Blueberry Pancakes with Maple-Orange Syrup

1 egg

1 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. milk

1 Tbs. sugar

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed and well-drained)

Margarine, butter or shortening to grease griddle

1. Make maple-orange syrup (below).

2. Beat the egg in a medium bowl with a fork or wire whisk until yolk and white are well mixed. Beat in the flour, milk, sugar, oil, baking powder and salt just until smooth. Gently stir in the blueberries.

3. Heat the griddle to 375 or heat the skillet over medium heat. To test the heat, sprinkle the griddle with a few drops of water. If the bubbles jump around, heat is just right. If the griddle or skillet is non-stick you can cook the pancakes without any margarine. Otherwise, melt 1-2 teaspoons of margarine each time, before pouring the pancake batter onto the hot griddle.

4. For each pancake, pour a little less than 1/4 cup batter from a measuring cup or pitcher onto the hot griddle. Cook 2-4 minutes or until edge of pancake is golden brown and slightly dry and bubbles begin to appear on the surface. Run a turner under edge of pancake, and flip pancake over. Cook other side of pancake about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batter.

5. Serve pancakes immediately, or keep warm by placing pancakes in a single layer on a wire rack in a 200 degree oven for up to 15 minutes. Serve pancakes with syrup.

Maple-Orange Syrup

1 c. maple-flavored syrup

3 Tbs. orange juice

3 Tbs. margarine or butter

1. Heat the maple syrup, orange juice and margarine in the saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until warm.

Yield: 4 servings (two 4-inch pancakes each)

Recipe obtained from: Betty Crocker's Entertaining Basics

Nutritional Information: Calories 580 (calories from fat 180), fat 20 g. (saturated 5 g.), cholesterol 60 mg., sodium 780 mg., carbohydrate 94 g., fiber 1 g., protein 7 g.

What I did: Using a little less than 1/4 cup of the batter this recipe made 11 pancakes. Next time I would half the syrup recipe, it made a lot.

Quick Breakfast = Muffins.

Today I decided it was time to make a few more batches of muffins to freeze for those hurried mornings when you need to eat on the run. There are some clever people, like my mother, who never eat on the run. My mother manages to sit down and eat a proper breakfast every morning and if you are like her, you can can enjoy these muffins on the weekend - without having to bake anything.

These muffins split 50-50. The banana blueberry muffins were heavenly and the husband and I nearly ate all of them on Sunday alone! I think the key was the pureed banana which gave the muffin a subtle flavor. Substituting blackberries or raspberries for the blueberries would also be good. The coffee cake muffins weren't bad, just not what I was hoping for. The muffins were more dense than I like them, which I admit could be a stirring error. Overall they just felt like they were lacking something, perhaps chopped nuts included in the batter and more spices would make them better.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

2 extra ripe, medium bananas
6 Tbs. margarine
6 Tbs. brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 c. frozen blueberries, rinsed & drained

1. Puree bananas in a blender (1 cup)

2. Beat margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in bananas and egg.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon peel. Blend into banana mixture just until moistened. Fold in blueberries.

4. Line 6 large muffin cups with paper liners. Coat lightly with vegetable spray. Divide batter evenly.

5. Bake in 375 oven for 20-25 minutes.

Yield: 6 muffins
Recipe obtained from: Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook

What I did: I had enough batter to fill about 9 cups and I didn't use liners - just spray & fill. I also used fresh blueberries, because that's what I had and there was no issue.

Coffee Cake Muffins

3 Tbs. all-purpose flour
3 Tbs. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. butter or margarine
3 Tbs. chopped walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 butter or margarine
1 beaten egg
1/2 c. buttermilk or sour milk

1. Grease twelve muffin cups or line with paper cups; set aside.

2. For topping, in a small bowl, stir together the 3 Tbs. flour, brown sugar, and the 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Cut in the 2 Tbs. butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts; set topping aside.

3. In a medium bowl stir together the 1 1/2 cups flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, the 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt. Cut in the 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4. In another bowl combine egg and buttermilk. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy)

5. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each one-third full. Top with half of the topping, the remaining batter, and the remaining topping. Bake in a 400 oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.


Yield: 12 muffins
Recipe obtained from: Better Homes & Gardens

Nutritional Information (per muffin): 180 cal., 8 g. total fat (4 g. sat. fat), 34 mg. chol.,196 mg sodium, 25 g. carbo., 1 g. fiber, 3 g. pro.

What I did: I had less than 12 muffins and used walnuts.

Banana muffins.

There have been three banana's laying on the kitchen counter for about a week now. Each day I look at them and think I should make something. But I've been busy and am just now getting around to using them up. Initially, I was going to make some banana apple bread, but decided at the last minute to go with something else.

I wanted to make the Banana Crumb Muffins I found on All Recipes, mainly because I'm a sucker for streusel topping! I followed some of the suggestions posted and added cinnamon to the batter as well as using oil instead of butter. Other than those two items, I followed the original recipe exactly. The recipe turned out 10 beautifully delicious muffins, which were light and airy and had a nice combination of banana and cinnamon flavoring. The crispy streusel topping was delicious!

A Duo of Muffins.

I've been waiting most of the week to bake some muffins to freeze for those hurried mornings, that are likely going to start creeping up even more! I decided to make some healthy oat bran applesauce muffins and since I had a lot of very ripe bananas to use up, I went with the strawberry banana muffins from Annie's Eats. Both batches of muffins turned out well & tasted great, and will great to grab from the freezer when we don't have time for a proper breakfast.

Coming in with 6g each of fiber and protein, the oat bran muffins provide a big nutritional punch in the morning. These muffins were delicious and had just the right touch of sweetness. A spoonful of homemade apple butter on top made them even more delictable! I love finding new recipes that are both healthy & delicous! The recipe for the oat bran muffins is from Hodgson Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal, and can be found on the back of the box. I'm going to reprint the recipe for those that may not have any oat bran on hand or at least not this brand.

The strawberry banana muffins could also be considered fairly healthy and could easily be played around with to make even healthier. I'm not generally a big fan of combining bananna and strawberries, so I did have some reservations about these muffins - thankfully, I was won over by this particular flavor combination! Like the previous muffins, these also had just the right touch of sweetness and had a delicate note of banana - nothing overwhelming like some bananna baked goods can be. I'll certainly be keeping both of these recipes in my muffin rotation.

Oat Bran Applesauce Muffins

1/2 c. Brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 c. Oat bran cereal

1 1/2 c. Unbleached white flour

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Baking soda

1/2 tsp. Salt
2 eggs or 4 egg whites

1 c. Applesauce, chilled

4 Tbs. Vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease muffin cups.

2. Blen together dry ingredients. Add eggs, chipped applesauce and vegetable oil. Mix until well blended. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Bake 15 inutes or utnil golden brown.

Yield: 12 muffins

Recipe obtained from: Hodgson Mill

What I did: I used 2 eggs, only because I was to lazy to seperate the whites out. I used natural applesauce & think using a flavored applesauce would also be good. I might even experiment with apple butter in place of the applesauce next time. I also thought about trying out different spice combinations - ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. or even some dried fruit or nuts. Lastly, I used canola oil in place of the vegetable oil with no problems.

Vacation Wrap-up.

The husband & I, along with six of our friends headed down for a week on Lake Cumberland last week. We all had a great time lounging in the water, skiing, tubing, wake boarding and of course drinking! The Grandparent's came over a few nights for dinner & to hang out around the campfire. Everyone had a great time and we're already starting to look forward to next years trip!

I was a bad food blogger and only took a few food related pictures, but my excuse was I was on vacation! So using pictures & recipes where I have them, here's the food wrap-up for the week.

Monday

The Grandparent's came over to the cabin and we had brats & sauerkraut, baked beans, and Paula Deen's pasta salad. I think the pasta salad needed to sit a lot longer, which was our fault for not making it earlier, and I thought it needed more of the sauce.

Tuesday

We had the Grandparent's over for dinner again and had steak, macaroni & cheese, marinated cucumbers & tomatoes and grilled French bread.

Wednesday

I made Paula Deen's overnight French toast casserole, it was really good and easy to make.

It's somewhat of a confusing drive through Deliverance territory to make it back to the cabin, combine that with it being pitch black & no cell phone coverage and we thought it best to meet our other two friends at a restaurant in town. We were the only people there at the time and everything seriously took for-ev-er! We should have just went to McDonald's. Some liked their dinners & other's didn't; the Grandparent's have eaten there before and never had that problem. Oh well.....

Thursday

K & J made awesome breakfast biscuit muffins with sausage, cheese, egg and tomato. This recipe is pretty similar to what they did. The muffins seemed easy to prepare and were delicious to eat!

For dinner they grilled pork chops and we had baked potatoes & corn. A delicious meal!

Friday

E & M made one of my favorite breakfast's, bagel sandwiches with scrambled eggs, cheese and ham. If my metabolism would allow it, I could eat one of those everyday!

Their dinner was delicious and is going to find a new spot in my 'go-to' meals! They made grilled blackened chicken, which for some reason I've never made before, Spanish rice and chili beans. Personally, I thought this was the best dinner of the week!

Saturday

B made another one of my favorites, sausage breakfast casserole. This isn't the exact recipe, there was also a can of cream of mushroom soup, but it's pretty close.

For dinner the husband & I made grilled ham & Swiss burgers, herbed potato salad with green beans & tomatoes, sauteed squash & zucchini and marinated tomatoes (which we had at every meal, since we had about 30 pounds of tomatoes).

Aside from your bathing suit, which I forgot to pack - thank the lord for Kmart, stocking up at Liquor World, or the Sam's Club of beer & liquor as a friend calls it, is the most important thing to bring to Lake Cumberland. All of the counties surrounding the lake are dry, though some restaurants are starting to serve alcohol. Stopping here, to stock up for the week is always a production and this trip was no exception! Needless to say we had many bottles of liquor - including a new favorite Sailor Jerry Rum and lots of cases of beer. We even picked up a few cases for the Grandparent's! The important thing is we didn't run out. This story doesn't involve Liquor World, but it's amusing.

Many of the drinks we made were random concoctions of various liquors & mixers we had on hand. We did have Bloody Mary's one morning and a batch of pineapple mojito's one night - they were both delicious. For the mojito's just add pineapple juice to your regular mojito recipe

Willpower...Its What's For Breakfast.

Yesterday's blah dinner left me very hungry this morning and it didn't help my cause that I woke up with a pounding headache. I wanted a bad for me breakfast this morning in the worst possible way - thankfully those type of places don't deliver. It took me awhile to talk myself into eating breakfast at home, the husband thinks I'm crazy when I tell him stuff like this -it's probably another one of those girl things. Our breakfast supplies are really low too; no yogurt, milk, bread and the only fresh fruit we have is cherries - leaving me few options and growing increasingly hungrier by the minute. I discovered some Morning Star Eggs Florentine Veggie Bites in the freezer and decided to give them a try. I figured they'd be tastier in the oven, as opposed to the microwave, so I brewed some coffee and waited for them to cook. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how good these things were! Very crisp on the outside and packed full of eggs, spinach and cheese on the inside - they even had the right amount of spices. Hooray for willpower!

One serving equals three bites, which I thought was a good portion size. They have 180 cal., 8 g. fat, 560 mg. sodium, 2 g. fiber, 3 g. sugar, 10 g. protein.

Have berries, will bake.

I woke up early this morning to let Carson out and we were greeted with a dark, dreary, rainy Thursday. The kind of nasty morning that makes you want to crawl back into bed with a hot cup of coffee and a warm muffin. I had a pint of blackberries that were dying to be eaten, so I decided to make blackberry muffins. Knowing I had a very limited amount of flour and having no desire to leave the house for any ingredients, I needed to find a recipe making use of what I had. I found a few that looked delicious, but needed sour cream or something else I didn't have - I did save those for making later. Eventually I found a recipe on Recipe Zaar using exactly what I had on hand and a mere 25 minutes later I had wonderfully warm and delicious blackberry muffins!

These muffins use wheat flour and brown sugar, so they're not as sweet as a lot of muffins you get - but it's sort of what I was looking for this morning. I made up for my piece of buffalo chicken pizza I ate first thing this morning, with a muffin, some fruit and yogurt. I might have to go back for another muffin though........


Blackberry Muffins
1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 c. frozen blackberries


1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Mix all dry ingredients together. Toss blackberries into dry mixture, coating berries.

3. Mix together wet ingredients.

4. Pour wet ingredients into dry mixture & mix until just moist.

5. Spoon batter into ungreased muffin pan.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until done.


Yield: 12 muffins
Recipe obtained from: Recipe Zaar


What I did: I used fresh, not frozen, blackberries, which worked fine. Next time I might chop them in half, just to have some more berries floating around in the muffins. Some walnuts would be a great addition too, maybe some lemon zest too.

Platinum Chef Challenge - Round 2

For my second entry in the Platinum Chef Challenge I needed to use blueberries & citrus, but I wasn't sure what to make. When the husband said he was going to work from home today, I knew I wanted to make something for breakfast. I eventually decided on citrus waffles with blueberry syrup, and even though it took much longer than I anticipated and I made two mistakes with the syrup - everything turned out fabulous. The waffle batter was delicious, with just the right amount of citrus flavoring. The blueberry syrup was so simple to make - I don't think I'll ever buy it from the store again.

Citrus Waffles

Folding the beaten egg whites into the batter properly will help ensure your waffles turn out light and tender. Initially, fold in only a small amount of the whites; this will lighten the batter, allowing the rest of the whites to be folded in more easily. Fold just until the mixtures are evenly incorporated. Over mixing will deflate the egg whites.

3 eggs, separated

3/4 cup milk

8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup sour cream

Finely grated zest of 1 lime, 1 orange and 1 lemon

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. sugar

1. Preheat a waffle maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Whisk in the milk, butter, sour cream and citrus zests. Over a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture and whisk until smooth.

3. In another large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold 1⁄2 cup of the egg whites into the batter, then carefully fold in the remaining whites.

4. Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve hot with maple syrup.

Serves 4 to 6.

Recipe obtained from Williams-Sonoma.

What I did: I followed the recipe exactly, except I didn't finely zest the citrus - I just zested them normally and it turned out fine. My waffle maker makes four at a time and I ended up with nine waffles.

Blueberry Syrup

6 cups blueberries, picked over

3 cups sugar

1/2 lemon, zest removed in strips with a vegetable peeler

1/8 cup fresh lemon juice

1. In a large saucepan combine the blueberries and 3/4 cup water, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer it, covered, for 10 minutes. Puree the mixture in batches in a blender or food processor and force it through a fine sieve into a bowl, discarding the solids.

2. In the pan, cleaned, combine the sugar, the zest, and 1 1/2 cups water, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and boil it, uncovered, until a candy thermometer registers 200 degrees F. Discard the zest, add the blueberry mixture, and boil the syrup, stirring, for 1 minute. Let the syrup cool, skim off any froth, and stir in the lemon juice.

3. Pour the syrup into glass jars with tight-fitting lids. The syrup keeps, covered and chilled, for 3 months. Serve the syrup warm over pancakes or ice cream.

Recipe obtained from The Food Network.

What I did: I made two, what I thought to be crucial, mistakes when making the syrup - however it turned out great, so I'm not even going to bother mentioning what I did wrong. I halved this recipe, and it still made a lot of syrup.

"No......," I told Tyler Florence

Biscuits weren't something I grew up eating, my family was (and still are) toast people. The husband's family are biscuit people all-the-way. Up until recently, I had always thought making biscuits from scratch was something that took way to much time - time better devoted to drinking coffee and reading the Sunday paper.

While working out this week, I was watching Tyler Florence on the Food Network, an oxymoron I know, and he was making biscuits. He swore they were easy to make and he didn't seem to be lying as he made them. It was then I uttered "No.........they can't really be that easy. Can they Tyler Florence?" It was then and there, running on the treadmill, that I decided I would step up to the plate and make my husband biscuits. Looking in the trusted Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, I found a freakishly simple recipe - so simple I was embarrassed I had never made them before. I cut out 11 nice circles and several smaller ones and was extremely pleased with how they looked. I put them in the oven and 12 minutes later...well you can see from the picture they didn't really resemble the typical fluffy biscuits. More like a sugar cookie. I believe my problem was in how thin I rolled my dough. I was happy with how they tasted, so next time I just need to roll the dough thicker.