One of my readers (June, from Nova Scotia) emailed me to tell me the video I’d uploaded was about golf, not about grocery lists. It took awhile for me to figure out I’d uploaded the wrong Jeanne Robertson video. SO, if you click below, and you want to enjoy the laugh about her grocery list saga, it should be loading the right one now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Here are the tastingspoons players. I’m in the middle (Carolyn). Daughter Sara on the right, and daughter-in-law Karen on the left. I started the blog in 2007, as a way to share recipes with my family. I’m still doing 99% of the blogging and holding out hope that these two lovely and excellent cooks will participate. They both lead very busy lives, so we’ll see.
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BOOK READING (from Carolyn):
Music of Bees, Eileen Garvin. Absolutely charming book about a woman in midlife, lonely, who raises bees, also makes unlikely friends. Heart-warming and very interesting about beekeeping.
A Postcard from Paris, Alex Brown. Really cute story. Dual time line, 1940s and present day about renovating an old apartment in Paris, things discovered.
Time of the Child, Niall Williams. Oh such a good book. Very small village in Ireland, 1960s. A baby is left on the doorstep. The town all whispers and helps. I listened to an interview of the author, which made me like him and his books even more.
Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy. If you like animals you’ll swoon. An old woman who really wants to die finds a tiny mouse in her house and befriends it and finds a reason to live. Utterly charming book.
The Forger’s Spell, Edward Dolnick. True story. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of Johannes Vermeer.
If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now, Christopher Ingraham. Could hardly put it down – about a journalist who takes on a challenge to move to small town in Minnesota and write about it. He expects to hate it and the people and place, but he doesn’t. Absolutely wonderful true story.
The River We Remember, William Kent Kreuger. 1950s, Minnesota. A murder and the aftermath. Could hardly put it down. Kreuger has such a vivid imagination and writing style.
How the Lights Gets In, Joyce Maynard. An older woman returns to New Hampshire to help care for her brain-injured son. Siblings and family, lots of angst and resentments.
The Filling Station, Vanessa Miller. Every American should read this book. A novelized retelling of the Tulsa massacre in 1921. Absolutely riveting.
The Story She Left Behind, Patti Callahan Henry. Love this author. Based on a true story. A famous author simply vanishes, leaving her husband and daughter behind. She had invented a mystical language no one could translate. Present day, someone thinks he’s solved the riddle, contacts the family. Really interesting read.
The Girl from Berlin, Ronald Balson. Love anything about Tuscany. An elderly woman is being evicted from a villa there, with odd deed provenance. Two young folks go there to help unravel the mystery. Loved it.
The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks, M.D. Nonfiction. The dr is intrigued by a remote Pacific island where most of the inhabitants are colorblind. He also unravels a mystery on Guam of people born with a strange neurological problem. Medical mysteries unveiled. Very interesting.
The Bookbinder, Pip Williams. Post 1914 London. Two sisters work at a bookbindery. They’re told to not read the books. One does and one doesn’t. One has visions beyond her narrow world; the other does not. Eventually the one gets into Oxford. Lovely story.
The Paris Express, Emma Donoghue. 1895 on a train to Paris, a disaster happens. You’ll delve into the lives of many people who survived and died in the crash.
A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Richard Grant. This is about Arizona. Author, wife and child move back to Arizona where they once lived. Part memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place.
The Scarlet Thread, Francine Rivers. A woman’s life turned upside down when she discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Kathryn McMurray, a young woman who was uprooted from her home only to endure harsh frontier conditions on the Oregon Trail.
A Place to Hide, Ronald Balson. 1939 Amsterdam, an ambassador has the ability to save the lives of many Jewish children. Heartwarming.
Homeseeking, Karissa Chen. Two young Chinese teens are deeply in love, but in China. Then their families are separated. Jump to current day and the two meet again in Los Angeles.
North River, Pete Hammill. He always writes such a good story. A doctor works diligently healing people from all walks of life. His wife and daughter left him years before. One day his 3-yr old grandson arrives on his doorstep.
A Very Typical Family, Sierra Godfrey. A very messed-up family. Three adult children are given a home in Santa Cruz, Calif, but only if the siblings meet up and live in the house together. A very untypical scenario but makes for lots of messes.
Three Days in June, Anne Tyler. The usual Anne Tyler grit. Family angst. This wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was entertaining and very short.
Saved, Benjamin Hall. Author is a veteran war reporter. Ukraine, 2022, he nearly loses his life to a Russian strike. Riveting story – he survives, barely.
Grey Wolf, Louise Penny. Another Inspector Gamache mystery in Quebec. She is such an incredible mystery writer.
All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each. Could hardly put it down.
Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Winner of 2024 Booker Prize. I don’t usually like those, but I heard the author interviewed and she hooked me. This is not a normal book with a beginning, a story and an end. It’s several chapters of the day in the life of various astronauts at the ISS (Int’l Space Station). All fictional. She’s been praised by several real astronauts for “getting it” about space station everyday life.
The Blue Hour, Paula Hawkins. An island off Scotland. Inaccessible except when the tide is out. Weird goings on. An artist. A present day mystery too.
Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger. A judge is murdered and a boy is missing. Riveting mystery.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Ricks Brunt. 1980s. A 14-yr old girl loses her beloved uncle. Yet a new friendship arises, someone she never knew about.
Four Treasures of the Sky, Jenny Zhang. 1880s, a young girl is kidnapped in China and brought to the United States. She survives with many hurdles in the path.
The Boy Who Fell out of the Sky, Ken Dornstein. Memoir, 1988. The author’s brother died in the PanAm flight that went down in Lockerbie, Scotland. A decade later he tries to solve “the riddle of his older brother’s life.”
Worse Care Scenario, T.J. Newman. Oh my. Interesting analysis of what could/might happen if a jet crashed into a nuclear plant. Un-put-downable.
Song of the Lark, Willa Cather. Complicated weave of a story about a young woman in about 1900, who has a gifted voice (singing) and about her journey to success, not without its ups and downs.
Crow Talk, Eileen Garvin. Charming story which takes place at a remote lake in Washington State, about a few people who inhabit it, the friendships made, but also revolving around the rescue of a baby crow.
The Story Collector, Evie Woods. Sweet story about some dark secrets from an area in Ireland, a bit magical, faerie life, but solving a mystery too.
A Sea of Unspoken Things, Adrienne Young. A woman investigates her twin brother’s mysterious death. She goes to a small town in California to figure it out, to figure HIM out.
The King’s Messenger, Susanna Kearsley. 1600s England, King James. About one of his trusted “messengers,” and his relationship with a young woman also of “the court.” Lots of intrigue.
In the Shadow of the Greenbrier, Emily Matchar. Interesting mystery in/around the area of the famous resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Isola, Allegra Goodman. Hard to describe, survival story on an island in the 1600s.
Save the Date, Allison Raskin. Rom-com, witty, LOL funny. Clever.
The Sirens, Emilia Hart. Numerous time-lines, Australia. Mysteries abound, nightmares, abandoned baby, weird allergies.
Red Clay, Charles Fancher. LOVED this book. Mostly post-Civil War story about the lives of slaves in Alabama during Reconstruction.
Stars in an Italian Sky, Jill Santopolo. Dual time line, 1946 and recent time. Love stories and a mystery.
Battle Mountain, C.J. Box. Another one of Box’s riveting mysteries. Love his descriptions of the land.
Something Beautiful Happened, Yvette Corporon. A memoir of sorts in Greece, tiny island of Erikousa, where the locals hid Jews during WWII. All elusive stories told by the author’s grandmother.
The Jackal’s Mistress, Chris Bohjalian. 1860s Virginia, about a woman who saves the life of a Union soldier. Really good story.
Song of the Magpie, Louise Mayberry. Really interesting story about Australia back in the days when it was mostly a penal colony. Gritty strength of a woman trying to thrive with her farm.
The Boomerang, Robert Bailey. A thriller that will have you gripping the book. About a lot of secrets surrounding the president (fictional novel, remember) and his chief of staff and about cancer. A cure. Such a good story.
Care and Feeding, Laurie Woolever. Really interesting memoir of a woman driven to succeed in the restaurant business. She worked for Mario Batali and then Anthony Bourdain. Gritty stories.
Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green. Maybe not a book for everyone. A real deep dive into the deadly tuberculosis infection, its history. I heard the author interviewed and found the book very interesting.
The Book Lovers Library, Madeline Martin. Fascinating read about Boots’ drug stores’ lending library. And the people who worked in them.
The Arrivals, Meg Mitchell Moore. LOL funny, about a middle-aged couple whose children (and their various family members) return to the family home and the chaos that ensues.
My Life as a Silent Movie, Jesse Lee Kercheval. About grief. A big move to Paris, finding herself a new life with a new set of real blood family.
Escape, Carolyn Jessop. Another memoir about a woman really in bondage in Utah, Mormon plural marriage.
Tasting Spoons
My blog's namesake - small, old and some very dented engraved silver plated tea spoons that belonged to my mother-in-law, and I use them to taste my food as I'm cooking.
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Posted in Desserts, on August 8th, 2009.
A friend of ours was celebrating a birthday. Bob is not up to his usual snuff right now and his wife Irene is caregiving. And she’s certainly not up to doing a celebration of some kind. SO, I offered to bring a birthday dessert, and we invited a group of their friends to join in on a little pomp and circumstance to honor the birthday guy. I asked Irene what Bob likes best? Chocolate. Most definitely chocolate. No problem in my book.
Since I needed to serve a larger crowd than usual, I had to hunt for a recipe that would work for this occasion. Finally found these cocoa cupcakes that I’d clipped out of the April ‘08 issue of Food and Wine. It can serve 16. Great, because that’s about how many we needed. The recipe came from a bakery in San Francisco, called Miette (at the Ferry Building Marketplace).
These are quite simple – sift the dry ingredients, whip up the butter and sugar, add the eggs slowly, then alternately add the dry stuff (I used Penzey’s high fat dark cocoa) with some crème fraîche. Pour into muffin cups (foil liners preferred) and bake 15 minutes or so. Cool slightly and top with a dollop of additional crème fraîche. Very easy. I made them about 30 minutes before we drove to our friends’ home, so the cupcakes were still warm when I served them. The recipe indicates serving with crème fraîche, which I did, but Bob is a big fan of ice cream, so that went alongside as well. I just used less crème fraîche, that’s all. I think the ice cream was a distraction. I’d prefer this just as is – with the crème fraîche or perhaps some lightly whipped cream on top.
And the results, you ask? Oh yes, delicious. Really good chocolate flavor. Very tender crumb. I would make these again just because they’re so EASY. They have a little tang to them (from the semi-sour crème fraîche) which I liked. Do serve them warm – I think that was part of the attraction. Give them about 10 minutes to cool down enough to handle, remove the paper wrapper and dig in while they’re still soft.
printer-friendly PDF
Cocoa Crème Fraîche Cupcakes
Recipe: Meg Ray and Caitlin Alissa Williams in Food & Wine, April, 2008
Servings: 16
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
7 ounces unsalted butter — 1 3/4 sticks
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup crème fraîche — at room temperature and stirred until runny, plus more for serving
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil baking cups. Put 4 additional foil cups on a small baking sheet.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. At medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating until each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla. At low speed, alternately beat in the dry ingredients and the 3/4 cup of crème fraîche in 2 batches.
3. Spoon the batter into the foil cups, filling each one two-thirds full. Bake the cupcakes for 15 minutes, or until springy when gently pressed and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly, then remove from the pan. Place a dollop of crème fraîche on each cupcake and serve.
Serving Ideas: This might serve just 12 if you fully fill 12 standard cupcake liners. But if you are judicious, it will make 16 cupcakes. If you don’t have more cupcake pans, just use additional foil-type liners and set them on a separate cookie sheet to bake.
Per Serving: 225 Calories; 15g Fat (56.7% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 77mg Cholesterol; 204mg Sodium.
Posted in Essays, on August 7th, 2009.
Actually, I’m very blessed to have a husband who LIKES grocery shopping. In fact, he will always do my shopping for me if I just tell him what I need. (For those of you who are new to my blog, my hubby’s parents used to own a gourmet grocery market in Ocean City, New Jersey, when he was growing up, so his interest in food started way back.) Anyway, we’re having a big dinner party here at our house tomorrow (more recipes will be coming up), so I created the grocery list a couple of days ago, and he happily went off to about 4 different stores to buy everything I needed. Yesterday morning I started working on some of the menu items – to get them done ahead of time – so I’m not so stressed tomorrow.
But, we always have a discussion about the list before he leaves. I’ve learned to be VERY specific. With brand names, ounce-sized cans or bottles, shapes, colors or labels, with basil or without, tubes. It’s taken some years to “train” him. Yes, it’s true. But I luv him and am very appreciative that he does this chore for me, week after week. (I’ve told you before, I have a wonderful husband – he even does all the dishes too.) But there are mistakes. Maybe not every week, but often enough. Some have been funny. Mostly he’s good about taking something back. Sometimes not very, especially if I haven’t been specific ENOUGH.
A couple of weeks ago I asked him to find some cans of shoe peg corn (for the Corn & Black Bean Salad we had at our friends’ home in Oregon). He couldn’t find it. Nor did he know what it was (I did explain about it before he left, and he phoned at least twice to ask more questions about it). Three stores didn’t have it. (I finally found it at an independent grocery store the following week – it is a little elusive – but now I have two cans on the pantry shelf.) Last week I made Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins, and discovered I had no canned pumpkin. Therefore canned pumpkin (2 cans) was on my grocery list. Without calling me, Dave made a management decision and bought the only thing he could find – Pumpkin Pie Mix. Oh, dear. I really hated to tell him I couldn’t use that.
He actually paid me a huge compliment when he said “honey, you’re such a whiz at baking, I knew you could make this work, since this is all I could find.” But when it comes to the chemistry of baking, I decided no, I couldn’t adapt it. Maybe I could have researched on the ‘net to find some kind of alterations to adapt a pumpkin pie (using pie mix vs.. canned pumpkin) but for muffins I didn’t want to take that chance. Besides, the spices were wrong in the pie mix. So, those had to go back. I phoned our local independent market; sure enough, they had it, thankfully. Dave happily went to pick it up for me. He paid me an even greater compliment this morning when he said he’s learned an enormous amount about food and cooking from having to do the shopping.
So if you watch the video, I mean no disparity against male grocery shoppers, or readers of grocery lists. Just some good humored jibing. I laughed out loud. Thanks to my friend Chris H, who sent me the link to the YouTube video.
To tell you the honest truth, I’ve never been much of a plum fan. I’m not saying I don’t eat them (none so far this summer, actually). I do eat them, but not often. I don’t seek them out is what I’m really saying, but I know that’s a mistake. After reading the chapter on plums in Russ Parsons’ book, How to Pick a Peach, I’ll be on the lookout for some specific varieties (Greengage primarily, or Wickson). My parents had a red plum tree in our backyard. A very prolific plum tree, actually. And I can recall, as a mid-age young girl reaching up to the low-hanging branches to taste the first fruit of the season and being sorely disappointed because of the sour skin. Mostly my mother just stewed the fruit with a little sugar and water. I have no recollections of a plum pie. Or cake. Or anything else with plums, for that matter. Just stewed plums. Maybe that’s another reason I didn’t develop a fondness for them.
Even I have noticed lots of plum varieties – yellow plums, green plums, red plums, scarlet plums, purple plums, and almost black plums. But by and large, most plum varieties taste the same, despite the variations on skin color. Mostly it’s just a sweet and tart flavor. The Elephant Heart is an herbaceous type, and the Wickson contains a golden honey tang. The greengage is the sweetest.
Did you know that plum trees are promiscuous? Yup. They cross-pollinate with wild abandon, so 
Parsons says. Yet the early varieties were mostly developed by the great Luther Burbank. Even though we have countless schools here in California named after Luther Burbank, I knew very little about him until I read his brief story at Wikipedia. With no more than a 5th grade education, he was fascinated with nature, plants and flowers, and eventually moved from Massachusetts to California. Then he began, in earnest, to hybridize a variety of vegetables and fruit, most notably the plum. [Just as an aside, Burbank developed the Russet potato – it was originally called the Russet Burbank potato, on which McDonald’s relies for its famous french fries. He also developed the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Freestone peach, the white blackberry AND both the Santa Rosa plum and the Wickson plum. Burbank was not highly regarded in his time because he didn’t use accepted scientific practices – note-taking particularly – in his research – he merely wanted the results and didn’t care a whit about how he got there.] Burbank actually developed 113 new varieties of plums and prunes. Amazing. He died in 1926.
Since then, another agricultural scientist named Floyd Zaiger took up Burbank’s banner. He’s the guy who crossed the plum and apricot, to create the pluot. He also developed the Aprium, which has a more apricot-ness than the pluot, which is more plummy. There are several varieties of these – the Dapple Dandy, the Dinaosaur Egg, Flavor King and Flavor Supreme.
Growing: Most plums are grown in California.
Choosing: Find the more deeply colored, shiny and firm, but not hard. Don’t worry about any of the white powder on the skin – that’s normal, called a “natural bloom.”
Storing: If unripe, leave out at room temp for a day or two, then refrigerate. If you chill them before they’re ripe the quality suffers.
In the book Parsons has detailed recipes for a Spiced Plum Ice Cream and a Cornmeal Buckle with Plums.
Parsons included one simple recipe:
Simmer 1 cup of red wine, 1/3 cup sugar and a sachet containing
4 whole cloves, 1 tsp black pepper and 1 cinnamon stick. When the mixture is clear and fragrant, add 1 pound pitted and quartered plums. Simmer until they soften a little, then refrigerate until chilled. Remove the sachet and serve over vanilla ice cream.
Simmer 1 cup of red wine, 1/3 cup sugar and a sachet containing
4 whole cloves, 1 tsp black pepper and 1 cinnamon stick. When the mixture is clear and fragrant, add 1 pound pitted and quartered plums. Simmer until they soften a little, then refrigerate until chilled. Remove the sachet and serve over vanilla ice cream.
A year ago: Summer Shrimp Salad (very refreshing dinner type salad)
Two years ago: Grandgirl’s Fresh Apple Cake (oh my, yes, delicious, a Paula Deen recipe I believe)
Posted in Desserts, on August 5th, 2009.
My friend Norma needed a new supply of puddings (I make them for her by choice because she’s a dear friend, and not because she asks me). I hadn’t made chocolate pudding for her. Her only caveat was that, although she usually is a dark chocolate fan, she can’t handle it right now, so would I prepare the pudding with milk chocolate instead? Sure, I said. An aside here, I had to BUY milk chocolate, because I didn’t have even an ounce of it. I never, never, ever buy milk chocolate! No matter. I used all of what I bought in this recipe (5 ounces).
Sometimes the internet is just an amazing resource, isn’t it? I don’t know how I ever lived without it, and yet we’ve only HAD the internet for about 16 or so years, right? Positively astounding, to me, how much stuff is available now. And I only research a tiny segment of it. Mostly about food, history, books, travel, animals, cultural activities.
I finally chose a cornstarch-based recipe found on the epicurious.com website (from a Gourmet issue in February of 2007) that was ever-so easy to make. You combine cornstarch, a small amount of sugar, powdered cocoa and salt, then whisk in milk and cream. Once it comes to a boil, it’s simmered for a full two minutes, and you’re basically done, except for dropping in a few ounces of milk chocolate and a splash of vanilla extract, and stirring it gently. How easy is that?
Dark chocolate is my choc-of-choice, but even I thought this tasted really good. I did use Penzey’s high fat cocoa (not regular store-bought) and it has really good flavor, but you can use whatever you have on hand.
Even Dutch process would work fine (it’s milder). If you need a dessert in a hurry, and you have the ingredients on hand, this is a no-brainer. Don’t expect this to taste like pots de crème, which is decadently rich. This is a much lighter version, but with decidedly good chocolate taste. I’d make this again.
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Milk Chocolate Pudding
Recipe: Adapted from a recipe on epicurious.com (Gourmet, Feb. ’07)
Servings: 4
NOTES: Pudding can be chilled, covered with plastic wrap after 2 hours, for up to 3 days. If the pudding has lumps, press it through a sieve before adding the chocolate bars (or run it through a blender to smooth it out). The chocolate bars just melt into the hot pudding, so use gentle stirring.
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups 2% low-fat milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 ounces milk chocolate — fine-quality, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sweetened whipped cream to dollop on the top
1. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk and cream. Bring to a boil over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, 2 minutes. (Mixture will be thick.) Remove from heat. Whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.
2. Transfer to a bowl and chill pudding, its surface covered with wax paper (to prevent a skin from forming), until cold, at least 2 hours.
Per Serving: 379 Calories; 24g Fat (54.8% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 55mg Cholesterol; 120mg Sodium.
A year ago: Dinner at Charlie Palmer’s (local restaurant)
Two years ago: Pineapple Upside Down French Toast (a great holiday dish, make ahead, good for holiday mornings)
Posted in Uncategorized, on August 4th, 2009.
In our family we usually share hints from family members, even from the giftee, about what he/she’d like for a birthday gift or for Christmas. Two of our immediate family had been notably silent about asking me what I wanted this year for my birthday (it’s today). Usually I refer them to my Amazon wish list for ideas. Or I’ve even sent an email to family members a month or two ahead, when I knew about something I really, really wanted.
Sara, our daughter, and Karen, our daughter-in-law hit a home run with the gift this year. A beautiful tray. Inscribed with the Tasting Spoons logo. When I opened the gift I was totally surprised, overjoyed – and nearly cried – and then I noticed they’d even managed to get the logo type too. They’d had a back and forth email going with the gal who made the tray, and she was able to figure out the font by sleuthing on my blog site, in the header.
To say that I luv this gift is an understatement! I luv-luv-luv it. Thank you, Sara! Thank you, Karen!
Posted in Breads, on August 3rd, 2009.
With blueberries in season, I’m trying to find ways to use them. They’re so inexpensive right now. Even if I freeze them, I should buy more! For my DH’s men’s Bible study group this week I made these old-time favorites. But it’s been years since I made them the last time, I think. The original recipe came from an ad for Libby’s pumpkin. Decades ago. It’s not on Libby’s recipe website, although I found it on several other blogs.
The only change I’ve made to this was substituting unsalted butter instead of shortening. That’s it. Otherwise, the recipe below is true to the original.
The batter is a simple and ordinary batter – except for the addition of pumpkin, of course. It uses brown sugar for sweetening it, which always gives baked goods a deeper flavor. And the only spices used are cinnamon and allspice. The blueberries are tossed with a tablespoon of flour to help keep them intact. The muffins are very moist – so you either need to use the paper liners, or use a silicone pan (like the one above) which makes for an easy removal.
Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins
Recipe: Adapted slightly from a magazine recipe by Libby’s Pumpkin
Servings: 12
NOTES: These freeze beautifully. They also are quite tender muffins, so be careful handling them until they’re cooled. I have a silicone muffin pan, so I don’t use the inserts. These muffins are very moist, so that’s why the recommendation to line the pan with paper inserts.
MUFFIN BATTER:
1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup pumpkin, canned
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar — packed
1 whole egg
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon flour
STREUSEL MIXTURE:
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
1. Combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Combine pumpkin and evaporated milk in another bowl and set aside.
3. Prepare streusel mixture and set that aside too.
4. In large mixing bowl combine butter and sugar, add egg and mix until blended. Add flour mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture, beating well after each addition.
5. Combine blueberries and flour. Gently stir into batter.
6. Fill 12 paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle streusel mixture on top of muffins. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Per Serving: 228 Calories; 10g Fat (37.8% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 33g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 42mg Cholesterol; 243mg Sodium.
A year ago: Peach Pudding Cake
Two years ago: Artichoke Bruschetta
Posted in Miscellaneous, on August 1st, 2009.
Oh, was this ever delish. I’d bought some fish (lingcod) for dinner, and needed SOMEthing to go on top of it. With cauliflower as a side dish, I definitely required a colorful something to go with it. I have a cookbook I don’t refer to very often – Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook. With recipes and advice regarding everything fish and seafood. I was going to lightly slather the top of the fish with some mayonnaise (gives it moisture), so under the mayo section I found this recipe for the blueberry ginger salsa. It comes from Ray’s Boathouse, a paragon of Seattle cuisine. A trusted name. And, happily, I had all the ingredients!
Once again I grabbed my fabulous little mini-chopper. The white chopper you see pictured at left is about 6 inches long, and the grid in the middle is tiny – itty-bitty tiny – blades. It makes SUCH quick work of mince. Luv this thing. Although I will tell you, it’s a bit tedious to clean. It has an insert that helps pull out the stuck-in pieces in the bottom of it, but it doesn’t get the tiny residual miniscule things that get stuck in the blades. But it’s oh-so worth it if you need to finely mince something to a uniform size. I don’t use it for onion because it just doesn’t cut it all that well.
It took little time to make this salsa. Half the berries are pureed, the other half left whole. It has fresh ginger in it, garlic, balsamic, a little sugar (I used agave nectar), some red bell pepper (that’s what’s red in the pictures), fresh lime juice, MINT and salt and pepper. See, I told you. Easy. Once it sat for about an hour it made some lovely-colored juice, and here’s what it looked like on the fish:
I’d make this again anytime. My friend Donna raved about it. The only thing I might change is to add just a little bit of heat – minced jalapeno, for instance. This salsa would be great on chicken too, I think. And pork. Maybe even lamb. And salmon for sure! With blueberries in season right now, this would be a great way to use some of them!
The next night I baked some fresh Alaskan salmon for dinner, and used up the remains of the salsa. It was great on this fish too – maybe even better than on the white fish. Make this, okay?
printer-friendly PDF
Blueberry & Ginger Salsa
Recipe: Adapted from a recipe by
Ray’s Boathouse (in the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook)
Servings: 4
NOTES: I use pomegranate balsamic vinegar for this, but use whatever you have on hand. If the balsamic is very tart, you may want to reduce the amount of lime juice or add more sugar/agave nectar. Taste and adjust. Add a bit of minced jalapeno if you’d enjoy the heat.
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
1 small garlic clove
1/2 cup fresh blueberries — for pureeing
1/4 whole red bell pepper — minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar — fruit-type if available
1/2 cup blueberries — left whole
1 tablespoon agave nectar — or brown sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice — freshly squeezed
2 tablespoons fresh mint — minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1. With a food processor running, drop in the garlic, then the ginger. Then add the first amount of blueberries. Process until the mixture is finely minced. It won’t be wet at this point.
2. Scrape the contents into a small non-metallic bowl (use plastic or glass). Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, then set aside to allow the flavors to develop and to help the blueberries to juice-up, about 30 minutes. Will keep for about 2 days.
Per Serving: 37 Calories; trace Fat (3.9% calories from fat); trace Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 3mg Sodium.
Two years ago: Peppered Pecans (a favorite in salads, as an appetizer)
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