Mini Blueberry Lemon Scones

My niece and I threw a baby shower brunch for my daughter a few weeks ago and I was so busy trying to get everything done on time that I forgot to take pictures. I think my daughter took this one,  I snatched it from Facebook.  There were yogurt parfaits, mini blueberry lemon scones, three types of finger sandwiches, veggies in hummus and chocolate coconut cupcakes to finish.  We matched the food to children's books.  

Broccoli Mushroom Tofu Frittata

A frittata is, essentially, an Italian baked omelette.  I made this broccoli mushroom tofu frittata as a quicker, lower calorie version of my broccoli mushroom tofu quiche.  A quiche is just an omelette baked in a crust.  Either way, my version is dairy, egg and cholesterol free, and delicious!  

Whole Grain Brown Sugar Banana Scones

When I have weekend guests, I like to make something special for Sunday breakfast.  A treat they can enjoy with coffee and the Sunday paper.  Last weekend I made these whole grain brown sugar banana scones.  Sometimes, whole grain pastries can be dry compared with those made with white flour, but these were tender with a wonderful nutty flavor that complemented the bananas.  My guests had seconds.

Cranberry Nut Muffins

These cranberry nut muffins are perfect for a holiday morning breakfast  They're made with whole grain flour, coconut sugar and tomato juice so they aren't too sweet and the nuts add protein.  I can hear you say "tomato juice?" Yes, these tasty muffins are made with tomato juice, but they don't really have a tomato flavor.  The acid in the juice helps to activate the baking powder and soda which allows them to be egg free.  I love the science aspect of cooking, I find it fascinating.

Blackberry Ricotta Cornbread

I saw this recipe on a blog, The Best Remedy, and thought it was a wonderful combination of flavors.  Since I had all of the ingredients on hand, I felt compelled to "veganize" the it and bake up a batch.  I have tons of blackberries ripening in my garden, most of which I'm freezing for use later, because there is no way we can eat them all now.  I also have most of that container of Tofutti non-dairy ricotta sitting in my fridge as well as an ear of corn.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Quick Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was - Lis!  Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own.  She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Spring is in the air in my part of the world so I wanted to choose flavors that complimented the season and would be appropriate for an Easter Brunch.  I chose to make a pineapple coconut quick bread.  I love this combination of flavors because they always remind me of summers on some tropical beach.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk.  Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat! 

Povitica (pronounced po-va-teet-sa) is traditionally served during the holiday season.  The best description would be: amazingly tender cinnamon nut swirl bread.  I would imagine that you could get very creative with the filling, maybe substituting with poppy seeds or by adding some chocolate chips or cranberries and it would be just as good. 

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Croissants

The Daring Bakers go retro this month!  Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child! 

Tofu Scramble

Tofu scramble is one of my favorite comfort foods.  When I get home late from work or I’ve had a bad day or it’s still RAINING and it’s June already, I turn to the tofu scramble for dinner.  It’s inexpensive and quick to make and it’s very good for you.  

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast.  Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Maple Almond Granola

I was going through some old recipes the other day and I found my old “crunchy granola” recipe from the seventies.  Yes, I admit it, I made granola in the seventies, and we called it “crunchy granola”.  It was really good granola, the kind with big clumps, and I made it often as you can see by the recipe card.  I had edited the original version but I don’t remember where it came from.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Christmas Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking.  She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen.  She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Stollen bread was first made in Dresden, Germany in the early 1400’s.  It was shaped into a loaf to represent the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes.  The early stollen breads were rather tasteless because they were made during Advent, when the use of butter or milk was banned.  Eventually, the Pope allowed the use of butter and eventually dried and candied fruits were used to sweeten the bread.

Peach Breakfast Tarts

We planted a peach tree two years ago and this year we probably picked 30 peaches.  It’s still a relatively small tree so I was surprised by the number of peaches we got this year.  We did pick off the smaller ones in the spring (like they tell you to) to encourage the others to grow bigger.  We’ve been eating peaches morning, noon and night.  We can’t get enough of these sweet, juicy, tree ripened beauties.  

Broiled Blackberry Corn Cake

This is one of those situations where you get lemons so you make lemonade.  I was intrigued by a recipe from Jeremy Jackson’s The Cornbread Cookbook for caramel corncake.  It sounded very tasty so I thought I would give it a try with the addition of blackberries.  

Celebrate Earth Day with a Green Smoothie

It’s Earth Day today, so I know your heads are full of thoughts about how you can decrease your impact on the planet...right??  I hope you’re thinking about how to use less foods and products that come in plastic containers, less chemical cleaners, herbicides and pesticides and how to use less energy and fossil fuels.  I also hope you’re thinking about recycling more and supporting local organic farmers.  While you’re contemplating your external environment, I also think you should give some thought as to your internal environment.  How can you make better food choices?

Lemon Poppy Seed Pinwheels

It’s Sunday morning and the sun is shinning..or attempting to shine.  It seems like we haven’t seen blue sky in weeks, just rain and fog and more rain.  To celebrate the sun,  I felt inspired to make something special for breakfast.  I’ve still got a number of Meyer lemons in my fridge so why not lemon poppy seed something.  I love that combinations of flavors, so I whipped up a batch of poppy seed paste.

Lemon Pine Nut Muffins

I was given a gift of some Meyer lemons last week and I’ve been wondering what to make with them.  After eating so many sweets during the holidays, I decided to make something a little more savory.  Meyer lemons are a sweeter, less acidic cousin to the more common varieties available in most stores.  They were brought to this country by Frank Meyer, a US Department of Agriculture employee, in 1908.  They’re thought to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, which explains their rounder shape and more orangey color.

Pear and Chocolate Scones

This photo of my pear & chocolate scones was taken by Kathryn Hill of Apartment Therapy’s “The Kitchn” when she visited my kitchen to do a photo shoot for their website.  Since then I’ve had several requests for the scone recipe, so here it is.  To see the photos on The Kitchn, click here.

Multigrain Morning Muffins

I’ve been making these multigrain muffins for years. The original recipe came out of one of the first cookbooks ever given to me, Cooking with Gourmet Grains by Stone-Buhr.  I’m sure the Stone-Buhr rep must have given it to me, but it was so long ago, I just don’t remember.  Many of the first things I ever cooked, living on my own, came from this book.  It has lots of sentimental value.

Sunrise Smoothies

Whenever I go on vacation, I tend to eat things I wouldn’t normally eat.  I like to try new things.  I also like to eat locally, eat the traditional foods of the region.  Sometimes the foods I would normally eat just aren’t available.  And, I admit, I like to treat myself.  This vacation was no exception.  Cape Cod is all about fried seafood and Sundae School Ice cream, foods that I normally don’t eat every day.