Valentines Day and Strawberry Cupcakes!

Happy Valentines Day!  I hope you all have spent the day treating yourself to something nice and perhaps spending time with a special someone (or some chocolate and a great book.)  Today, I didn't do anything special except go to school so obviously I don't put a lot of emphasis on the holiday except for one thing - baking!  I was able to make these delicious cupcakes for my classmates today and they were a fantastic hit!  Everyone loved them and the cupcakes were gone within an hour of my arrival at school.  

This recipe is courtesy of the lovely Christina of Oven Adventures (with a few edits of my own) and you can view her original recipe here.  Just so you know, this recipe takes a little while so just make sure you have a fair amount of time to make these!  Personally, I made the batter and frosting one night and baked/frosted them the next.  If you think you're up for the challenge - read on for the recipe! 

Nana's Pecan Pie Recipe

As promised, today I'm bringing to you a recipe for the pecan pie that I made yesterday for my family's Christmas party.  It was such a hit that I had to post the recipe for you all to enjoy if you care to make it (it's incredibly easy.)  Plus, I got the recipe from my step-grandmother, a lovely southern woman who makes the best pies and cakes - so let that add to your decision about whether or not you want to try this!

Nana's Pecan Pie Recipe

Prep time - about 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of melted butter
• 1 cup of light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light Karo syrup
• 2 eggs beaten
• 3 tbs flour
• 3 tbs milk
• 1 cup pecans - partially chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pie crust - I used Pillsbury's frozen crust that you can just roll out 

Instructions:

• Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk.  I suggest you put the butter and the pecans in last (in that order.) 
• Unroll the pie crust and pour the inside the ingredients from the bowl
• Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes
• Let cool and then enjoy! 

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, I sure did.  Today I'm blogging from a Burger King (can you believe it? there's nothing for me to eat here so i'm sipping a bottle of water) because I'm spending the holiday with grandparents in North Carolina and this is the closest wifi place.  So today I'm blogging about some cookies that I made for thanksgiving that have quickly become one of my favorite cookies to bake.  They look a lot like sugar cookies but then when you bite into them it's an explosion of maple syrup, butter, and nutmeg.  Delicious!  I got this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen, where I've discovered a lot of great baking recipes in the past.  So read on and give them a try perhaps for a holiday party (tis the season!)

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies:

Makes around 40, total time to prepare/cook is about 30 minutes (with at least 2 hours to chill the dough)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter (two  sticks) at room temperature
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup (I used grade A but if you can find grade B it's even better)
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg of 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of salt 

My two little helpers

Instructions:

• In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together
• Keeping the mixer going, slowly add the maple syrup and the egg yolk
• In a separate bowl, combine flour, nutmeg, and salt.  Mix up using a whisk

• Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well using the electric mixer
• The dough will be pretty clumpy so gather it all together and wrap in some cling rap and put in the freezer.  You can keep it in the freezer anywhere from two hours to two days.  Before taking it out to bake, put it in the fridge for about five to ten minutes so the dough thaws a bit.
• Preheat oven to 350°
• Flour a surface to roll out the dough.  What I did was cut the dough ball into fourths and roll out one fourth at a time, putting the rest of the dough back in the freezer until I was ready for it)
• Cut into your favorite shapes (mine were bats this time because for some reason we couldn't figure out what happened to all our cookie cutters.  All that were left were the Halloween ones)
• Arrange on baking sheets and bake for 8-11 minutes each, or until the cookies are golden brown on the edges
• Once cooked, let them cool and enjoy! 

Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins

As a part of my blog, I'm now adding some of the things I make at home to eat!  Today, I'm featuring a recipe for Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins (original recipe from here)

For breakfast, I've been trying to find good ways to get in some type of carb before I go for a run or a bike ride, but every once in a while I decide to make up something yummy for breakfast - this time I made muffins!

Near my own house, there's a lovely vegan bakery, called Wildflour, where they serve Lemon Blueberry Scones.  I decided to go off of what they made and find a muffin recipe with the same idea.  This is what I came up with!

I've also been trying to spend more time at local farmers markets, and then craft my weekly meals around what I find there.  (List of this week's farmer's market haul is at the bottom of the page)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour (I used 2 cups wheat, 1 cup white)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups blueberries (I used fresh)
• Juice of 2 lemons (or about 1/3 cup)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk (I used almond)
• 1/2 cup soy yogurt

Topping ingredients:

• 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar or raw sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• Zest of 1 lemon

Directions:

Set oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the topping and stir with a fork. Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) and then stir in the blueberries.  In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (lemon juice, zest, milk and then yogurt last)  Then, begin to whisk the dry ingredients into the large bowl containing the wet ingredients.  Be careful - don't over-mix!  Spoon into muffin tins with muffin liners.  Fill the cups about 2/3 the way full, then put about a teaspoon full of topping on each muffin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown, then enjoy! :)

Additional Info: 133 calories per muffin 

Farmer's Market Haul week of 7-9-12

Fresh blueberries

Fresh baked wheat bread from Provincal Bakery

Green beans

Strawberry Peach Jam