Normally, I hold off on pumpkin muffins until fall, but last week Matt was begging for these. They are supposedly 2 or 3 Weight Watchers points, and are the easiest muffins you will ever make. They literally take 7 minutes to mix up and 12-15 minutes to bake!

Ingredients

(makes 12 muffins)

1 box Spice Cake mix

1 15 oz. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 c water

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c golden raisins (optional)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix the pumpkin puree and Spice Cake mix.

• Add water, baking powder, and vanilla.
• Add the golden raisins and mix well.
• Pour into a lined muffin tin.

• Bake for 12-15 minutes! Insert a toothpick or a knife and make sure it comes out clean! They are excellent when they are warm  with vanilla ice cream too

Last night Matt had to work pretty late, so I decided I’d surprise him by baking some chocolate chip cookies for him to have when he got home. His absolute favorite ones, sadly, aren’t mine…they are the Wegman’s chocolate chip cookies that are almost soft, chewy, and dense. The one difference I’ve noticed in their ingredients list is the use of shortening instead of butter.

I figured I would use the normal chocolate chip cookie recipe I always use–the Toll House Recipe and substitute shortening for the butter, and go from there in perfecting the Wegman’s chocolate chip cookie.

The flavor of the cookies was spot on in compared to the Wegman’s cookie. The difference was in the size and the composure of the cookie, if you will. They were chewy, but not nearly as thick or dense. I think that if I let the dough rest overnight it would turnout better and make thicker cookies…but that is to be determined, and I will keep you posted.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 c light brown sugar

3/4 c white sugar

1 cup butter flavored shortening

2 eggs

2 1/4 c flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 c chocolate chunks

1 c chocolate chips

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
• Cream the shortening and both sugars in a mixing bowl. Once they are well mixed, add the eggs.

• Slowly begin to add the flour to the bowl.

• Once that is well mixed, add the baking soda, salt, and vanilla.
• Mix in the chocolate chips and the chocolate chunks well!

• Separate into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet.

• Bake for about 12 minutes until golden. You might need to rotate the sheet once to make sure they brown evenly!

Enjoy!!

If you’ve ever been to Annapolis, you probably remember that it’s a town absolutely crazy for their crab and Old Bay Seasoning…not that I blame them at all for either of those obsessions.

We pretty much ate our way through Annapolis this weekend, with a number of our meals focusing on crab or Old Bay, no complaints. Saturday, we had Naval Bagels for breakfast with Old Bay cream cheese…delicious. Dinner Saturday…sushi with…you guessed it, crab. Sunday brunch…a cup of cream of crab soup and a crab souffle, which was essentially a warm, crab-filled pillow that made me want to do nothing more than take a nap.

The three of us, Matt, my mom, and I, devoured the soup. Once we were done, Matt and I telepathically decided we both needed cream of crab soup for dinner. The cream of crab soup I made was unbelievably easy, and surprisingly healthy. I used no cream (only skim milk and fat free half&half)

Lighter Cream of Crab Soup

(Serves 6 as an appetizer or 4 as a meal)

Ingredients

4 TBS butter

4 TBS flour

1 onion (finely grated)

1 TBS minced garlic

1 TBS Old Bay

juice of 1 lemon

3 cups skim milk

2 cups fat free half and half

1 TBS xanthan gum

1 TBS Worcestershire sauce

10-12 oz crab meat (I used backfin)

1/4 cup of sherry

more Old Bay to taste

Directions

• Finely grate onion. I first chopped mine and then placed it in the food processor.

• In a large pot, melt the butter, be careful not to burn or brown. Once it is melted, add the flour to create a roux. Make sure to whisk well and break up the lumps of flour! Add the onion and the garlic. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent.

• Next, add the Old Bay and lemon juice.
• Add the milk and half and half, whisking well. Make sure all of the flour, onion and garlic is broken up well.
• Bring to a quick boil and turn back down.
• Slowly add the tablespoon of xanthan gum, making sure that it is evenly dispersed and completely dissolved. It will thicken the milk and half and half.

• Add the Worcestershire sauce and the crab. Simmer for at least 15 minutes. do not bring to a boil.
• Once the soup is poured into the bowls, pour desired amount of sherry into the bowl, and add more Old Bay if desired!

Note: Corn starch can be substituted for xanthan gum.

Told you it was an easy crab soup recipe!

I was going to make a lime tart, copied from Thomas Keller’s Lemon Tart in Bouchon, but then I thought I didn’t have any almond meal on hand. Epic fail, Meg. Then I decided I would make Rocky Road Brownies from Michael Recchiuti’s cookbook, which only made sense because I had his chocolate on hand too. But while sifting through my pantry…I found almond meal. Back to square one.

Lime Tart

Loosely adapted from Thomas Keller’s Lemon Tart in Bouchon

Ingredients

Almond Meal Crust

(The recipe in Bouchon makes 3 batches of Pine Nut Crust….I used almonds and I halved the recipe and used it all. It worked well for my tart!)

1 c almond meal

1.5 c wheat flour

1/2 egg (I beat one egg well in a measuring glass and used 1/2)

1/6 c white sugar

1 stick of butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Lime Sabayon

2 eggs cold

2 egg yolks cold

1/2 c lime juice (5-6 limes juiced)

3/4 c white sugar

6 TBS unsalted butter, cut

Lime green food coloring (optional)

Directions

• For the crust, combine the almond meal, sugar, and flour. Combine well! Add the butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix with your hands or a stand mixer. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate prior to using.

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the dough has been chilled, mold into the bottom of a tart pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove and cool.

• Prepare a double boiler and begin to boil the water.
• Prior to setting on top of the boiling water, whisk the sugar, eggs, and yolks well. Set the bowl over the pot and continue to whisk, while turning the bowl. After 2 minutes when the mixture is frothy, add 1/3 of the lime juice. Continue to whisk, when the mixture thickens again, add another 1/3 of the lime juice. Whisk again, add the final 1/3 of lime juice. Once the last of the lime juice is added, whisk, and allow to thicken one final time.

• Turn off the heat, but leave the small bowl or pot over the hot water. Add the 6 TBS of butter, one piece at a time, whisking each piece as it is added. Add the food coloring this time, if you would like.

• Turn on the broiler to high. Pour it into the tart shell, and set on a baking sheet.
• Broil the tart for 2-3 minutes, making sure to check on it often until a nice color is formed on top. Do not let it burn! (Thomas Keller recommends keeping the door open!)
• Refrigerate for at least an hour before devouring!

I remembered I had seen a recipe for a cold asparagus salad on Food Network a few months back, and I decided to give it a go.

Recipe adapted from Food Network’s Chilled Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

(Serves 4 as a side dish!)

1 lb of fresh asparagus, washed

heavily salted water for boiling

6-8 oz diced pancetta

2 TBS white sugar

2 TBS lemon juice

1 1/2 TBS dijon mustard

4 TBS olive oil

2 TBS apple cider vinegar

Directions

• Once your pancetta is diced, fry it up in a large skillet or pan, drain it, and set it aside. I saved the grease for Bear’s food…it makes his coat prettier

• Begin to boil a large pot of salted water. Wash your stalks of asparagus and trim the ends off…about an inch or so. Prepare an ice bath in the sink for your asparagus.

• Once the pot is at a rolling boil (I always get incredibly impatient when waiting for this!) Add the 2 TBS of sugar to the water. Prior to looking at this recipe, I had never heard of adding sugar to boiling water prior to blanching, and to be honest, I can’t tell you if it made a huge difference or not.  Add the asparagus, and boil for about 8-9 minutes.
• Remove the asparagus from the boiling water and place in an ice bath to shock it.

• While that is in the cold water, mix up the dressing. Add the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, and lemon juice. Whisk well, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

• Remove the asparagus from the ice bath and cut into 1/2 in pieces.

• DRY. DRY. DRY. Make sure your asparagus is DRY before adding the dressing to it.  
• Add the dressing to the asparagus, toss well, and top with pancetta.

Please disregard the fact that I am potentially an airhead and neglected to take a final picture with the pancetta on the top I can assure you it was delicious!

But who in their right mind eats chili without corn bread?

So…I looked through my recipe book/box and found a recipe for corn bread that seemed to fit the bill.

Ingredients

(makes 12 corn muffins)

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c cornmeal

1 c white sugar

2 eggs

1 c milk

1/2 c butter, melted

1 TBS baking powder

1 tsp salt

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line a muffin pan with liners. I used silicone because I couldn’t find anything else on hand.

• In a large bowl, add the eggs, flour, cornmeal, sugar, milk, and butter. Mix well!
• Once that is mixed well, add in the salt and baking powder.
• Pour the batter into the muffin pan and place in the oven.

• Take out of the oven after about 25 minutes or when the tops are golden brown.

Whenever he brews beer, I try to take the leftover grains (spent grains), dry it out, and make it into dog treats. Dogfish and a number of other breweries sell them at their stores. I used spent grains and flour in my treats, though you can use almost ANY combination of flours in these And your dog will be SURE to love them!

Final Product in Bear's Cookie Jar!

Ingredients

4 cups spent grains, or flour

2 cups flour

2 eggs

1 1/2cup peanut butter (I was very liberal with this)

1/2 cup of fat (bacon grease, butter, oil, etc.)

Note: This recipe can easily be halved to produce the same product! I just wanted to use everything we had!)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Measure out all necessary ingredients, and mix them in a bowl.

• Once all ingredients are added, give your dog the left over peanut butter jar since you can’t eat the batter anyways

is going to become a big brother!!

Again, excuses…coupled with the fact our AC is broken (hottest week of the year so far ugh!), I have been more than MIA. Regardless, I will be back later today

Stumped I tell you. I know I wanted a finger food, but I could not decide what. Cookies? Well I have chocolate chip cookies planned for the near future, but I wanted to save those for Matt. Brownies? Nah, too easy, everyone will be bringing brownies. An appetizer? I had a couple easy ones up my sleeve, but I wanted something GOOD. I wanted to make something that people would walk away thinking, “Wow, she can clean her house and bake?!”

So I thought and thought, and decided upon chocolate donuts. Then my biggest issue was deciding what pan I would cook them in. Why can’t anything be easy? I didn’t want big donuts, because I know I wouldn’t want to shove my face with donuts the first time I met 40 new people…so I decided on my mini cake pan. I figured they were bite-sized and easy for a large group.

The pan has 30 mini-cakes in it

Chocolate Donuts with Peanut Butter Glaze

(makes about 60 mini-donuts, and 24-30 large donuts)

Ingredients

For the Donuts

1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour

1/2 c 100% cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 TBS vanilla

1/2 c canola oil

For the Glaze

1/4 c unsalted butter

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

3/4 c- 1 c confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBS milk

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl or your stand mixer, combine all dry ingredients and mix well.

• Mix well. Add in the 2 eggs, canola oil, and vanilla. Continue to mix until there are no lumps.

• Grease your donut pan or mini cake pan extremely well, so when they are done baking, you can flip the pan upside down and they fall out…just like magic
• At this point, once the batter was mixed, I transferred the batter to a measure cup with a lip that would be easier to pour, so I didn’t make a huge mess.
• Place in the oven and bake 10-12 minutes. The donuts are done if you shake the pan, and they don’t jiggle

• Once the donuts are done, take them out of the oven. Let them sit for 2-3 minutes, and then flip the pan upside down on a clean surface, where they can continue to cool. Not all of my donuts were flat on the bottom, I cut off the rounded bottoms and made them level. Once they are cooled completely, arrange them where they will be served and begin the glaze.

• In a sauce pan, melt the butter. Be careful not to burn it! When almost completely melted, add the peanut butter and whisk well.
• Turn off heat and add in confectioner’s sugar (slowly), vanilla, and milk. Start by adding 3/4 cup and add more if it needs to be thicker.

• Pour desired amount of glaze over the donuts and serve. I will be honest…I was only going to put a dollop of drizzle on each one. Then I tasted it. The peanut butter glaze is addicting, and there will never be enough on the bite-sized donuts. So you can bet I piled that drizzle on

Serve and enjoy!

One of these days, I’ll stop lying to you and telling you I’m going to post every day, and then not follow through. I am hoping it’s in the near future. I’m running out of excuses.

I hope you had a good Easter We did–family came down for dinner which was nice. And I made a lot of stuff, and neglected to take pictures of 99% of it. Typical.

Everyone in my family and Matt’s loves cheese. Any one who doesn’t, is kind of an outcast. My mom in particular, loves pimento cheese. She constantly buys the small containers of it from Wegman’s to use as an appetizer, or goes as far as to have her sister bring “authentic” pimento cheese from Kentucky. As a result, I decided to make my own.

It is adapted from Southern Living’s pimento cheese recipe, but it is lightened up a lot. Instead of using 1 1/2 cups of mayonnaise, I used 1/2 cup and doubled the pimentos, and it worked! Also…we don’t have diced pimentos in the stores around here, so I simply took the roasted red peppers and diced them up evenly! Eat up, because there WILL be copious amounts of leftover pimento cheese.

Ingredients

8 oz extra sharp cheddar

8 oz sharp cheddar

1/2 cup light mayonnaise

1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp finely grated onion

1 tsp garlic powder

12 oz jar roasted red peppers

Directions

• Start by grating all 16 oz of cheese. I have a nifty little Salad Shooter that I use. It really is the coolest thing ever.

Behold! The Power of Cheese!!

• Finely dice the red peppers. Add them into the bowl with the cheese.

Not appetizing...I know

• Add in the mayonnaise and remaining ingredients. Mix well and serve with crackers. It keeps up to one week!