Apple Crunch Muffins

Since we didn't have enough muffin recipes on here, I thought I needed to add one more!  Since school has been out I've been making breakfast more often and we've had fun with all the muffin recipes.  I was not able to get a picture before my children ate them all!

• 1 large apple - cored and chopped into small pieces - about 1 cup
  
• 1 and 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/4 cup butter - softened
• 1 egg
  
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• For Topping:
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  

Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Prepare 12 regular muffin cups with muffin papers or a light coating of cooking spray. - these don't stick so don't be afraid to skip the muffin papers.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Cut in the butter by hand until the texture is like wet-sand.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the milk and mix well.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined and moistened. Then fold in apple pieces.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Sprinkle topping evenly over the muffins.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Careful not to overcook - my walnuts on top were almost burned.

Lemon Sponge Puddings

I haven't posted any recipes in quite a while but I haven't made anything new. I have been canning already and threatened to post a picture of my pickled beets with the recipe and my pie cherries. Janet is home so I am cooking more and it is raspberry season so we are enjoying them in some new desserts. Here is one of the new recipes I tried. It was yummy but very rich. I got the recipe out of my Woman's Day magazine.

1 1/4 cups whole milk (I used almond milk and it worked great!)
3 large eggs, separated
1 T. grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 T. butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour

Heat oven to 325. You will need eight 4 oz. ramekins and a roasting pan large enough to hold them.
In a medium saucepan, heat milk just until simmering. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, whisk yolks to blend, then gradually whisk in hot milk. Whisk in lemon zest and juice, then butter until butter melts. In a small bowl whisk sugar and flour until blended. Whisk into lemon mixture just until smooth.
In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently whisk half the egg whites into the lemon mixture. Whisk in the remaining whites until blended.
Ladle into ramekins. If mixture in bowl starts to separate, gently stir, then proceed to ladle mixture into remaining ramekins.
Place ramekins in roasting pan. Carefully add very hot tap water to pan to come about halfway up sides of ramekins.
Bake 25 minutes or until puddings are firm to the touch and very light golden. Remove from water to a rack to cool. Let cool 30 minutes before inverting or cover cooled ramekins and refrigerate up to 2 days.
I put a little sugar in my raspberries before putting on top. Enjoy!

Southwest Enchiladas

Me and my best friend Melanie just kind of made these up and changed them and experimented all the time, and fell in love with them. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

1 large can of chicken
1/2-1 cup corn
1/2-1 cup black beans
1/2 block of cream cheese
2 cups pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
19 oz can of green enchilada sauce
1 can green chiles
10 tortillas

Soften the cream cheese in a sauce pan and then add the black beans, corn, chicken, green chiles, and cilantro. Get it all mixed and then load your tortillas up and put in a 9 x 13 pan with a little bit of the enchilada sauce on the bottom. Then pour over the rest of the sauce and put cheese on top. I bake at 350 uncovered for like 20 minutes.

Swiss Chicken Sandwich

I love the taste of grilled chicken marinated in Italian dressing and I love melted Swiss cheese so one day I decided to try them together and boy am I happy I did!  For me this is a simple, spur of the moment dinner idea that tastes great.

 

Swiss Chicken Sandwich

As many chicken breasts as desired
Italian dressing
Sliced Swiss cheese
Toppings as desired, we like:
                  tomatoes
                  lettuce
                  avocado
                  occasionally pickles

Cover your chicken in Italian dressing and let marinate for at least a half of an hour. (I  usually shoot for at least six hours, if I can remember)
Remove chicken from dressing and grill. After flipping chicken over, place a slice of Swiss cheese on each piece.

Place on sandwich buns and top as desired. (last time I made my own buns using the French bread roll recipe with half wheat flour, they were incredible!)

Strawberry Cream Puff Pie

After trying Janet’s muffins , I checked out  The Girl Who Ate Everything and spied this yummy looking treat. I made it when your mom and Janet were visiting and just between us we ate two entire pies! We did have the missionaries over, so I guess that makes it sound o.k. (except for the fact that we ate more treats than the missionaries!) Yum, yum, YUMMY!

Strawberry Cream Puff Pie

2 cups or one carton of strawberries, sliced
Cream Puff Base:
5 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs
Cream Cheese Mixture:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy whipping cream (a MUST—no cool whip here!)
2/3 cup powdered sugar

For the cream puff layer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring the butter, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir quickly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is shiny with a satiny sheen. Don’t overbeat. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch spring form pan (or in a pinch, you could use a 9-inch circle cake pan).
Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture on the bottom and one inch up the sides of the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and prick pastry with a toothpick 10-12 times. Return to the oven and bake 5-10 minutes more until golden brown but not over baked (you can insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out with sticky dough, it still needs longer in the oven). Cool completely.

For the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar (sift if necessary) and beat with the cream cheese until mixture is smooth and light. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread onto the cooled cream puff shell.

Top with fresh sliced strawberries. Keep in the fridge until serving.

Banana Crumb Muffins

I guess Ive been a muffin kick this past week. Ive been wanting to make banana bread for awhile so when I stumbled upon this recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything I knew I had to try it. I made a few slight changes but I thought they turned out great. I love muffins with a crumb topping.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and applesauce. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

Mix together brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes.

Lemon Streusel Muffins

I love lemon so when I found this recipe I knew I had to try it. I was not disappointed. I found the recipe at sisterscafe.blogspot.com but I made a few changes. Try it. You wont be sorry. Sorry for the lame picture.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tb grated lemon peel
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Streusel:
3 Tb flour
3 Tb sugar
1 Tb cold butter

Glaze:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 Tb fresh lemon juice

Beat together the eggs, sour cream, butter, lemon peel and lemon juice. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix, just until moistened. Grease or paper line muffin cups and fill the cups 3/4 full.

In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar and butter. Using your hands mix until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter.
Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and remove onto a wire rack.
Mix together the powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to make a thin glaze. Drizzle over warm muffins.

Tamales

Tamale Filling:
1 1/2 pounds pork loin
1 large onion, halved
2 clove garlic
7 dried California chile pods
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tsp. mexican oregano(make sure it is mexican oregano)

Tamale Dough:
4 cups masa
2 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup lard
roughly 35 or 40 corn husks


Place pork, onion halved into a crock pot or just pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 2 hours. Remove stems and seeds from the chile pods(its okay if you break apart the chiles for this part). Put chiles and garlic in a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture, stir in salt, and oregano and set aside. Shred the cooked meat and mix in the chile sauce.
Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water. In a large bowl, beat the lard with a tablespoon of the broth until fluffy. Combine the masa harina, baking powder and salt; stir into the lard mixture, adding more broth as necessary to form a spongy dough.
Spread the dough out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place some of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and place in a steamer. Steam for 1 hour. Then they are ready to eat

We made a green salsa to put on ours with just a small can of tomatillo salsa, 1 serano chile seeded, a garlic clove, and cilantro and blending it in the blender.