Being the budding domestic ungoddess that I am, frequently I get the hankering for some muffins. Not just any ordinary muffins will do. It needs to be from scratch blueberry muffins. The recipe I use is one that I found via Kitchen Wench aka Ellie who got the recipe from Cream Puff’s in Venice aka Ivonne. (Both blogs I adore btw so be sure to go and check them out.) So its basically a foodblog heirloom recipe you see. When you make them you’ll understand why they’ve been so fervently passed from one to another. They’re flavorful, moist and just the right amount of sweetness. They last perfectly well in an airtight container for several days if I don’t scarf down the whole batch by the end of the night. The best part about this recipe is how easily adaptable it is to accepting almost any variant of fruit, Ellie made them with strawberries for example. One thing that is for certain is that they are absolutely to die for.

Apparently they are nicknamed Lawsuit Muffins because they are so good you’ll want to sue somebody. This, I can definitely vouch for. They are without a doubt eyes rolling in the back of your head, moaning good. Try them, you’ll thank me…and Ellie…and Ivonne. lol So lets get baking!

First thing we need to do is preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Once we’ve got that settled, measure out a half cup of vegetable oil.

Next up is one and one third cups of brown sugar. There is no other sugar in this recipe so don’t get all ZOMG THAT IS SO MUCH! on me yet. It gives it a nice, molassey, rich sweetness that is absolutely amazing.

Alright next up is either 2 tsp lemon juice or 1 1/2 tbsp citrus zest. Because I love the flavor of blueberry and orange together I use orange zest. I keep meaning to try grapefruit zest in one but that’ll have to wait for next time.

Beat one egg lightly and add it to the rest of the ingredients:

Then stir it all together. I like to use a fork because it helps break up the packed brown sugar but do what you’ve got to do in order to get it to a smooth-like consistency.

After thats nice and smooth measure out a cup of buttermilk and two teaspoons of vanilla extract. fifteenth Reminder: Get more good vanilla. *headdesk* Stir it up and add it to the sugar mixture.

Resume with the stirring.

Once that’s nice and combined add a half teaspoon of baking soda…

And two and a half teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt…

Now for the record. This is not the traditional muffin making method. Traditionally you add the wet to the dry rather than vice versa. I do them this way because it means less bowls to wash and I can’t taste the difference anyway. So add in two and a half cups of flour.

Then stir, just until combined. It’ll be this nice caramel color. Yum.

Next we deal with the fruit. Please for the love of God and all that is holy pick thru your fruit. I found this many icky blueberries. Groooooooooosssssssss!

Dump the keepers into the bowl. I used two half pints but about 2 cups is a good measure.

GENTLY!!!!! Stir them in. If they pop while baking that is good. If they pop while stirring all you get is blue batter.

In a greased or lined or lined AND greased muffin tin spoon out the batter. Fill them to 3 quarters full for nice puffy muffins.

Once you’ve got that covered set them aside because its time to make the streusel topping.

I use 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 6 tablespoons butter which looks like this once you hand crumble it together:

Generously, and I really mean generously, top the muffins with the streusel topping.

See I’m so serious about the generously thing that I gave you two shots. When they bake they’ll expand and who wants to eat muffins with stingy streusel. I sure don’t!

Pop em in the oven for 14 minutes. When that time is up kick the heat back to 325 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.

When that time is up pull em out of the oven. Have you seen anything more heavenly in all your life. I say nay.

Will you just take a look at those oozey blueberries? Oh and see what I mean about the streusel. Perfect amount now!

Split it open and serve it up with some butter.

Enjoy guys!

For someone who cooks on almost every night, most of my guilty pleasure foods are ones that require little to no cooking. Be it fast food, freezer food, junk food, etc. Stuff I absolutely love to eat but feel guilty about having because I’m not serving a home made meal.

1. Sonic. Simply that. While I was in Alabama we must have had Sonic twice a week. I don’t think they’ve got a bad item on their menu. I weep because the nearest one to me is somewhere in South Jersey - a day’s drive away.

2. Nutella. This stuff is heinously bad for you (caloriewise) but its so damn delicious. I love it on toast, on pancakes, in muffins but more often than not…I’m eating it straight from the jar with a spoon.

3. Krispy Kreme. Nobody makes a doughnut like Krispy Kreme. Another one of our Alabama staples that we managed to push to only once a month. Thank the heavens because I really would have weighed 1 ton by the time I got back. But they’re so delicious. Every time I visit a Krispy Kreme I wish that I could somehow run myself under the icing waterfall. I believe I hath devulged too much.

4. Totino’s Pizza Rolls. 2 minutes in the microwave and they’re a relatively tasty dinner. High brow, hells to the no. Yummy in an IM STARVING kind of way. Yes.

5. Graham Cracker Sandwiches. This is something my family always did and I continue to love. Take two honey graham crackers and spread one side with softened butter. Top with the other graham cracker and serve. This is endless comfort food for me and takes literally 2 seconds to make. However its probably going to clog my arteries faster than 1 & 3 put together.

So those are my Top 5 guilty pleasures. What are yours?

Being my mothers daughter, there are very few things I love more than a good steamy bowl of soup and some nice crusty bread for dipping. If you need further evidence see here. The difficult thing is that I don’t always have 2 hours to spend preparing said soup. Sadness and woe ensue on any given weeknight when I need a warm bowl of pick-me-up. That is, until I sat down about a week ago to peruse my Giada’s Family Dinners Cookbook. What before my eyes did appear? Pasta e Fagioli! This looks easy, hearty and full of flavor! I made it and I was in heaven. The fiance mentioned that it tasted much like French Onion Soup but without all the icky strips of onions.

So follow along with me my fair friends on the wonder that is 30 minute Pasta e Fagioli.

First thing first, get a piece of cheesecloth out. What? You don’t have this hanging around your kitchen? For shame! Martha will smote you tonight in your sleep. You could always use a tea-ball or actually just chuck it into the pan sans-protection when the herbs are called for. Just make sure you fish them out when we pull said sachet. Anywhoo, lay out 2 good sized fresh rosemary sprigs, about 4-6 fresh thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf or two. Mine are bottom of the bottle bay leaves so they’re tiny. I used two-ish.

Now tie it up. I like to do this by tying the diagonal ends and then the other two diagonal ends to voila! make a pouch.

Giada calls for a cup of onion. I use about a half of a large onion and chop it pretty finely. I’m not so much for the huge chunks of onion. I wanna taste it but not have these big honkin pieces on my spoon.

The recipe calls for 3 ounces of pancetta. Unless you’re like me and have a food scale at home you’ll have to guesstimate. I had the deli cut it pretty finely and 3 ounces when I weighed it on my food scale ended up being this much:

I like to chop it up pretty finely but you could leave it as large or small as you like it.

Next up is garlic. Because I’m a garlic-o-holic I like a lot. I used about two large cloves and chopped them pretty finely. The good news is that when the apocalypse comes you can be pretty confident that I’m not a vampire. So at least I’ve got that goin’ for me.

In a heavy bottomed pan or stockpot add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil. Yes, I’m aware that there is fat in the pancetta. Yes, you could probably leave these out. But it adds a great flavor to the soup and if you want to omit it, sacrificing taste is up to you.

While that heats up, now is the time for the big guns. Dig out your largest measuring device because we need 5 and one half cups of chicken stock. Wow, I know.

By now the fat should be melted, drop in the onion, garlic and pancetta. Make sure you keep the heat at a medium/medium low temperature. I’d say 4-4.5 on most stoves. Just make sure they’re sweating and not browning because super brown onions are not good eats.

While that cooks, open a can of red kidney beans. Giada has got to be a freak of nature with the most strong intestinal tract on the planet. She originally called for two cans of kidney beans for this soup. I made it this way the first time…yeah. Trust me. Go with one can. Give them a good rinse until the water is running clear.

Next the original recipe called for a 3/4 cup of elbow macaroni. Because I omitted the second can of beans I upped the noodles to a whole cup. This worked out nicely and the texture/consistency of the soup stayed about the same.

By now, the veggies/pancetta should look like this. Next time I might cook the pancetta separately so that it got a bit crispy instead of wilted.

Now add in the beans and give it a good stir.

Add in the bucket of chicken stock and stir again.

Drop in the herb sachet, herb tea-ball or loose herbs now.

Kind of shove it down into the broth so that it really starts to infuse the soup with its super yummy flavors. Then crank the heat up to high.

While that comes to a boil, get out your blender or stick blender. After a few seconds/minutes it should be up to a rolling boil.

Pop the lid on, turn the heat back to medium and let simmer for 7 minutes. Why seven? Giada said so. Duh. When that time is up take a cup’s worth of the soup (beans and veg included) and put it in the base of your blender or in a container to stick blend with.

Give it a whir until its nicely puree’d. Somewhat like below and add it back to the soup.

Add the noodles and cook according to the package recommendations.

When thats finished extract the herb sachet, herb tea-ball, loose herbs.

Then all thats left to do is dish it up! Before I handed it to a very hungry fiance I sprinkled it with some yummy Parmesano Reggiano. I know, Giada would have been proud.

I think its at Its best when served up with some nice crusty bread for dunking. Yum! Enjoy guys!

Now let me say that I don’t love these. I’ve never really been a big fan of paper thin pancakes or paper thin anything for that matter. The fiance however, loves these like they were a big fat slice of chocolate cake. Or a Krispy Kreme and those are some supremely fattening but oh so delicious good eats. Ahem…back to the crepes. I make them the super easy way. My way doesn’t require a fancy schmancy (and expensive) crepe pan. It just requires about 30 seconds of prep, a blender and a small nonstick frying pan.

Keep in mind that you could easily fill these with fruit preserves, chopped fresh fruit, cheesecake filling, diced meats, cheeses or any combination of these things. You could probably fill it with Krispy Kreme’s if you got a wild hair up your pa-tooter. Luckily for me, Ged does not like them filled, he digs them stacked miles high with typical pancake accouterments. He swears they are the best thing ever. Having just asked him how he would describe these crepes he said they were “Effing Awesome” and “The best thing on Earth.” So there’s your testimonial folks. Read it and weep.

To make these bad boys we need to start at the beginning which means get your blender out.

Crack 4 large eggs right into the blender.

Next up is a half cup of milk. I usually use skim but if you wanna go all Paula Dean on me you could use whole or even cream.

After that a half cup of water. If you were serving this to fancy guests you could swap in orange juice or some other flavor of your liking. Water works just fine if you’re going for “traditional pancake flavor” though so I use it here.

Now to enhance the rest of the flavors, a half teaspoon of salt.

To give it some sweetness, 2 teaspoons of sugar. If you’re making savory crepes you could swap in oregano or basil or thyme or….well any other herb you’d like. Thyme would be super awesome for ham and gruyere crepes for instance. In fact those sound really fantastic right now. Anywhoo, back to the sugar and there being 2 teaspoons of it…

Next up is two tablespoons of melted butter, in she goes.

Now add in teaspoon of vanilla. Note to self: get some more real vanilla so I can stop using the fake stuff. Again if you’re making savory crepes either swap this out for another flavor or leave it out altogether.

We just need to pop the lid on and send it for a spin. Just let it go for a minute or until everything looks well blended and is a springy shade of yellow.

Thought I forgot somethin’ didn’t ya. Nope we add it now. 1 cup of flour into the mix.

Send it for a spin again.

Let it go for another 30 seconds or so until the flour gets absorbed and it looks like this when you open it.

Alright, batter. Check. Dig out an 8 inch non-stick frying pan or roughly that size. Only use a pan that isn’t nonstick if you’ve got a death wish and don’t want to actually eat any of the crepes you just made. Set it to medium-low to medium heat.

While thats heating get your fillings/toppings together. Since he likes them like a thin maple layer cake I pull out the maple syrup. Also, please make sure you’re using, you know, actual maple syrup. That maple flavored junk that Mrs. Butterworth hocks is well…junk. That is unless you’re eating it on Eggo’s. My brother and I have this whole theory that real food has to go with real maple syrup and junk food has to go with junk syrup. Hey it makes sense right?

Now that I’m off my maple syrup soapbox the pan should be nice and warm. Plop in a good teaspoon to half tablespoon of butter. You just want to get the bottom of the pan nice and lubed up with buttery goodness. Ahhh, nice and melty.

I usually use a quarter cup measure to dole out the batter. This way I don’t get overzealous and add too much or too little to the pan.

In it goes!

Now, swirl the pan until the batter stops swirling with you. Then set it down and wait.

See how the edges are starting to crinkle and the top is looking juuuuuuuuuuust set? Now is when you pull em.

I like to grab them with my fingers and slide them to the plate but they’re pretty hot so you could scoot a small spatula under them and coax them to the plate too.

Then either fill them or if you like them the way he does, sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar and top with about a teaspoon or two of maple syrup.

Then make a boatload more and keep on stackin’ until you’ve got a good sized pile that looks sort of like this.

Now because it looks fancy and takes .03 seconds I like to dust it with a little powdered sugar. I know Martha would be proud.

Enjoy guys!

Now this recipe is special my dearies. Its an Ina Garten recipe that I started making last year for Fourth of July. My mom has asked me to bring it to every occasion we’ve had since. Birthdays, holidays, even Christmas Eve! People absolutely devour the stuff. I mean literally inhale it. Even people who hate guacamole (my mom included) adore this recipe. The best part about it, is that it comes together in minutes. I’d say 10 at most if you’re having trouble with the avocado seeds.

Now I know you see the fancy new layout I’ve got goin’ on here (Thanks Stephteph!). See that little button above these words that says “Print this Post”. Do it. You’ll thank me when you’re shoveling your face full of this stuff. Plus even Miss. Priss Ellie Krieger would be proud. Its super healthy and its got lots of Omega 3’s. So its totally cool if you eat the whole bowl right? Right? With me on this? Nah I didn’t think so. Its still tastes good enough to eat the whole bowl anyway.

First step. Get out 3-4 good sized ripe avocados. If they’re under ripe put them in a brown paper bag and wait a day or two. They’ll get squishy enough to be useful. Plus if they’re under ripe the flesh is all hard and not creamy. Trust me, this is not good eats.

Next we need to half them. I usually just run the knife around the pit. DO NOT TRY TO CUT THRU IT. You will either make it supremely difficult to get the pit out or you’ll make it supremely difficult to ever write a letter again because you’ll have chopped off all your fingers.

Alright look at that, its nice and pretty. In order to get this nugget of yuck out of the center of the avocado you cup the half in your hand or set it on the board. Then quickly smack the thick end of the knife into the nut.

Twist and et voila! You’ve successfully ejected the nut from the awesomeness that is now the avocado flesh.

Now all you need to do is finish pitting the rest of the avocados and scoop the flesh out. Using a regular ‘ol spoon just slide it in between the flesh and the skin to release it. If it feels hard or its having a hard time coming loose from the skin. Forget it, its way too under ripe. Trust me a good 3 avocado guacamole is better than a hard 4 avocado one anyday.

Quickly slice a lemon and juice it over the avocado. This will help them keep their glorious green color. Just the thought of brown avocado gives me the dry heaves.

Next ingredient is hot sauce. I use Tabasco because Ina used it and she is my hero because it tastes good here. Use as much or as little as you like but don’t be afraid of it. Avocados are very cooooool and creamy. You need a little kick in there to keep it interesting.

Add some salt and pepper. A good amount because the hand of doom says so.

Now take your knife and slice thru the avocado. This is the key to having nice chunky guacamole without getting everything full of green goo. Just slice away thru the mixture until its the consistency you like.

This is how I like it. You might want it a little finer or a little thicker. The plus about making it at home is that you can have it your way.

You could leave it like this and it’d be perfectly okay. But why leave it at perfectly okay right? How about super awesome instead. If you’re going the super awesome route add about half of a medium seeded, diced tomato to the mix.

And about a 1/4 of a red onion chopped. Chop the tomato and onion about as finely as you like.

Now fold (or stir if you’re impatient like I am) it all in. Only thing left to do is give it a good taste.

Hmmmm, a little more salt, pepper and hot sauce should do the trick!

Stir it up and taste it one more time…Aye Papi! Thats perfecto!

Garnish it with some extra onion and tomato just because its pretty that way.

Now if you’re serving it for a party later in the day like I was just press some saran wrap right on the dip like you would with a pudding. Then store it in the fridge until your guests arrive!

Enjoy guys!