Monday, October 27, 2008

Quintessential Recipe Books


When I was about 16 years old my Dad got me this recipe book thats called "The Classic Cookbook" AKA "The Cook Books BIBLE" along with "The Dessert BIBLE". I really liked this recipe book because the author Christopher Kimball gave reasons why he liked the recipes, and the history behind them and what made them better than all the other recipes out there. I suggest everyone get it.
Also I just got a couple more recipe books in the mail from my dad (who's a chef) which i find to me staples to have in a cooks kitchen. One of them Being a french cook book called the "Silver spoon"



A Baking Book called "Baking from my home to yours" By Dorie Greenspan has fantastic recipes. And the last but not least "Starting with Ingredients" by Aliza Green is a beautiful recipe book.



And of course the simplest homiest to the point recipe book called "Better Home Cook Book"

Blueberry Muffins!



I really like this recipe. Not too sweet and packed full of blueberry's. Also I usually buy organic blueberry's because they seem more juicy, and when you bake then all the juices seem to come out and make them more delicious. (but that could be just me). Anyways, I usually subsitute white sugar for brown sugar in a lot of my baking recipes, brown sugar just seems richer. So here's the recipe! (I found it on All Recipes.com)
(O and it makes about 8-10 servings, depending on how full you fill the cups)

1 1/2 c Flour
3/4 White Sugar (I subsituted for Brown Sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 c milk (I added about 1/4 c more to mine)
1 c fresh blueberrys
1/2 white sugar (or Brown sugar)
1/3 c flour
1/4 c butter
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

1) Oven 400, line muffin cups
2) Combine 1 1/2 c flour, 3/4 c sugar, salt and baking powder. Place veg. oil into a 1 c measuring cup. add the egg ad enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in Blueberry's. Fill muffin cups to the tip top, and springle with crumb topping.
3) Now for the crumb topping i did it a bit different, but i think its just person preference. I'll just give you what they did though...
Mix together 1/2 c sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1/4 c butter and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle on muffins before baking.
4) Bake 20-25 min or until done.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

O the Joys of life

Isn't life just great! It's busy and its crazy and its stressful, but its beautiful and happy. Thats all i have to say. And these are some of the people that make it wonderful....