Salad Week - Day 5 - Fresh Raspberries!

I had some raspberries that were fast moving toward a moldy death in my fridge. Rather than let that happen (again), I decided to take the last group of them and make a salad. I wanted to have fresh berries on my salad, and also to make a dressing out of some of them.

Here's what I used: spinach, raspberries, avocado, cubed rosemary goat cheese, chopped cucumber, diced red onion, and lemon-basil chicken. I topped it with a super easy homemade raspberry vinaigrette.

For the chicken:
Medium sliced lemon (I used 2 rounds for each piece of chicken)
Fresh sprigs of basil (enough to cover each lemon round)
Minced shallots (I used 1 medium shallot for two breasts)
Fresh ground pepper and salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lay the lemon rounds down on a piece of foil. Cover the rounds with basil. Sprinkle half of the shallots on to the lemon/basil. Separately, season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Lay breasts on top of lemon/basil. Pour remaining shallots over the top. Fold the foil up around the chicken, and bake for 45 minutes. Warning: You might want to bake for more like 35 minutes. My chicken was not fully defrosted. Let rest for five minutes before slicing.


For the vinaigrette:
1/2 cup macerated raspberries
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Combine the ingredients, and add sugar (or sugar substitute - I used splenda) to taste.


This is a tasty easy salad. Definitely something you can throw together during a work week without feeling stressed.

Real Muffins!

So, in reading Alton Brown's book on baking, I discovered a horrifying truth. Okay, that may be an exaggeration. But I did learn something I was a bit disappointed about. I have never made real muffins. Ever. First, I almost always use a mix. Second, I always over mix everything. So, on a fine Saturday morning, I set out to do what I had never done before. I was going to make muffins.

I decided to make this a double experiment. I figured making muffins didn't seem that intimidating, so I also decided to test different liner options. First, according to Alton, you should always use both a lubricant and a liner. He says not to use butter, because it will release water, which will result in steam, and may change the way your goods bake. He recommended shortening, and that is just what I used. I lined 6 muffin cups with foil muffin liners. I lined 3 with paper liners. And I didn't line 3 cups at all.

The basic recipe for muffins is really pretty simple, so I don't know why I always buy a mix. I mean, I guess the mix is easier, but I get a lot more credit for doing it from scratch. I mixed my dry ingredients in my food processor (WAY better than sifting!), and mixed all my wet ingredients together, seperately. I had a hard time deciding whether I should use a liquid or dry measuring cup for the yogurt. With the liquid, I had less than I needed, with the dry, I had more. Sigh. So I also added a tablespoon of skim milk, in case it was not wet enough. I combined my two add-ins (chocolate chips and fresh, slightly macerated, raspberries) with the dry ingredients, then added in the wet ingredients until they were just combined. Juuuuuuust combined! Scooped the batter into the muffin tin and popped it in the oven.

I had a hard time figuring out if I had the right temperature. My thermometer is crap. Time to get a new one. Eventually I decided that the tops of the muffins looked "done", and I took them out. **NEW TIP!!!** When you take muffins out of the oven, you should immediately tip them all sideways in their little muffin cups. This releases the steam that may be trapped in the cup, and keeps the bottom from getting soggy. (Or you could use foil...see my experiment results below.)

Experiment Results:
All of the muffins tasted pretty delicious. The smaller ones were a little more dry than I would have liked, because my muffins were not uniform in size. Next time I'll make sure to fill all my muffin cups to the top. But they were all pretty delicious. And when I broke them open...MUFFIN CONFIGURATION! Woot! I made muffins!

So, as far as liners go. The clear winner was the foil. It was easy to get out of the muffin tin, and it didn't stick to the muffin, either. The muffin stayed more moist, as well. Second place in my book went to the no liner option. It was a bit hard to flip the muffin on its side, but not terrible. And the no liner muffins all had a nice crispy edge to them, even on the muffin bottoms. The big loser was the paper liner. Both the no liner and paper liner options had absorbed all of the shortening in the tin, which is not something I was thrilled to see. But the paper liner also really stuck to the muffin, so that when I peeled it off, it took some of the muffin with it. Dislike.

So....foil! Winner! This was a big muffin win for me! Muffin win!

The Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare the muffin tin with shortening and liners, if you so choose. Once you combine all ingredients, bake for 18 to 20 minutes, internal temperature should be 210 (or 180 if you are my thermometer :( ), or a toothpick inserted should come out clean.

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of Salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup plain yogurt

Add-Ins: you can add 1 to 2 cups of whatever you'd like. I went with 1 cup macerated raspberries, and a heaping 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Back blog 5...I <3 Tart!

Okay, okay. I didn't make a tart. I made a fruit cobbler. But it was a tart fruit cobbler!

I had a really great cobbler at a French restaurant in Denver this summer. Bistro Ven Dome. Fantastic. Their fruit cobbler was served in a metal measuring cup. It had raspberries, blueberries, and mango. Really fantastic combination of tart, sweet, and exotic. And it was also served with honey ice cream. Mmmm.

So, when I got home I decided I would attempt a fruit cobbler. And this was a good stab. My biggest complaint was that I actually prefer a drop crust, and this was a biscuit type crust. And I didn't own a rolling pin at the time. Or any cookie cutters! Yikes. So, the reason there is a heart on top is that I had to cut the thing free-hand. And cutting a heart is much easier than trying to cut a star. All those lines and angles! Yeeesh.

Anyways, the flavor on this was really nice. I think it could have cooked a bit longer to reduce some of the liquid a little further and make it settle better. It also may have seemed more like a cobbler with more crust. But as a fruity compote that could be used as a topping for ice cream, or enjoyed on its own, it was a pretty good attempt.

Here's the recipe: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/peach-and-berry-cobbler-recipe/index.html