Pie-Brain

So, I've been eating these delicious peaches I got at the Farmer's Market on Monday (note to self, ask Matt about his client with the peach trees, ie, HOW'RE THOSE PEACHES COMIN' ALONG??), and since I still have pie-in-my-mind, I think I'm going to go to the one after Mass tomorrow morning and get a bunch more, and make a PEACH PIE. And then probably eat the whole thing myself.

Here's hoping it's not too hot tomorrow, since I'd also like to make banana muffins again. Not for us, for some people hosting a dinner party tomorrow night. If there's one "hostess gift" that's been a consistent hit, it's providing "breakfast for tomorrow" for the hosts of what will probably be a very late night.

Breakfast Prep

Breakfast Prep
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

You may find the recipe - and the philosophy behind this method - over here.

This pie was a huge hit, both with our camping buddies, and with our fishing guides, on our recent camping trip. I do recommend a pie for breakfast when you're camping. Nothing better than a slice of pie and a hot cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) on a cool morning.

Preparing for Camping

So we're off tomorrow into the wilds of North-Eastern California (according to Maps.google, it's almost exactly halfway between here and Death Valley, a coincidence that is not at all lost on me.)

I've been in the kitchen all afternoon, preparing some home-baked supplies for the next three days. This trip is a fishing/camping trip for ourselves and another couple. Matt has been talking about fishing in the early morning, and the early evening, with time during the day for naps and hikes. I plan to get up to start breakfast after he leaves, which means they'll be going off with nothing in their bellies, unless they want to fortify themselves with:

Teresa F.'s Grab-n-Go Breakfast Cookies.

1/2 c. softened butter or margarine
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 14 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained well*
3 c. quick-cook rolled oats
1 c. whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. raisins, or dried blueberries, or cranberries**
1 c. walnuts, or pecans, or almonds, chopped***

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Beat butter and sugars with mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, and beat to combine. Add pineapple to mixture, and beat to combine.

In large bowl whisk together flour, oats, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture, and beat just enough to combine. Mix in dried fruit and nuts by hand.

Drop 1/3 c. of dough on cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. With a damp hand press cookies to 1/2" thickness. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. These freeze well.







*I don't like pineapple, and I can't have it anyway (triggers contractions, or something), so I substituted some canned peaches that I ran through the blender real quick.

**I, for whatever reason, was out of raisins, so I chopped up some dried apricots, threw in a handful of dried cranberries, and topped it off with some dried coconut.

***Half cup of chopped pecans, half cup chocolate chips. I couldn't help it...

On the Prowl

Today, I am hunting for pie recipes. So far, an apple pie looks promising, along with a no bake berry pie...

Mother's Day Lunch

Mother's Day Lunch
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

Herb Salad with Goat Cheese; Strawberries on Kiwi Slices (Mama T's donation!); Caprese Salad; Cheese-and-Baguette; and (Matt's Favorite) ROUND TABLE TAKEOUT! :)

Holy Crap, you guys.

I'm speechless.

Also, I want it.

Muffin Mania!

I've been eating fruit nonstop since we got The News, but even my voracious appetite sometimes has trouble keeping up with the natural process of ripening going on in the fruit bowl. So Thursday and Friday were spent "salvaging" soft fruit, by baking it all into muffins!

On Thursday, I took the soft pears, and made Pear-Walnut-Raisin Spice Muffins. The original recipe can be found here. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular, and added a dash of ground cloves, allspice, and a sprinkling of ground ginger.

On Friday, keeping in mind the bunch of bananas that were never touched, I trawled the pages of Google returns, finally settling here for the PERFECT banana muffins. The recipe calls for white chocolate, and since I had to go out and get white chocolate, (and since Baby Brain is NOT a myth, this first necessitated a shower, and then drying my hair, finding something to wear that would kind of fit, finding my keys when I was looking for my wallet instead, finding my wallet, losing my keys, and then wondering if I'd actually put on deodorant (I probably put deodorant on five times a day, so great is my horror of forgetting)), it was well past noon by the time I got to the drugstore (I'd ordered scans of the ultrasound, and they were being printed there), and then they didn't have ANY white chocolate that didn't have coconut in it, so not only did I use wheat flour, I used white chocolate with coconut in it!

I brought samples of both kinds to my toenail painting appointment, and they were gone by the time I was done, so I suppose they're good! (I've had several of the pear muffins, but I don't usually like baked-banana things, so I haven't tried those yet.)

Here are the remains:



I will definitely fill the cups more when making the Pear Muffins (that's the one sad little one, there, in the middle). I have such a fear of overflowing tins that I usually don't fill them up all the way. The recipe said there would be eighteen muffins, and I ended up with twenty-four, due to my timidity. I did not, as you can see, repeat this mistake with the banana muffins!