I don’t care for deception. And when one of my favorite food blogs claims a definitive recipe for blueberry muffins, by God, it had better deliver.

I don’t know; I mean, these were tasty, but perfect? Edible, certainly, but not my idea of perfect.

I humbly acknowledge that one’s mileage may vary, but a muffin recipe that doesn’t tell you to toss your blueberries with a little flour (if you don’t, they’ll just sink to the bottom like the ones above did) strikes a chord of suspicion with me. Also, they were incredibly small for the size of my muffin cups.

Proceed at your own risk. After all, who knows, you may have better luck with this recipe than I. I’ll stick to cobblers and cake.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated/Smitten Kitchen

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter , softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack (ha), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.

One of the dishes that set me on the long road to cooking was quiche, as dated and archaic as it may sound. It was certainly the first dish I made on my own, if I remember correctly, and therefore it holds a happy little place in my heart. I haven’t made one in ages so I opted to make one this week. The recipe used here I found in a Food Network magazine and I have only made two small adjustments to it.

Firstly, it calls for the use of a tube of refrigerated pizza dough. Ugh, I know it’s really not any less evil, but I’d rather you use a frozen pie-crust if you haven’t time to make your own. (And who the heck has time to make pie crust on a week night?) Lastly, I squidged a couple of dollops of goat cheese over the whole thing before shoving it in the oven. I had some leftover and frankly, I can’t imagine a dish that isn’t better served by a bit of it.

To go along with it, I made a simple tomato salad with cherry tomatoes from my garden.

I couldn’t quite get the salad cream to the thickness suggested by my culinary BFF, Nigella, but I must admit I was distracted with playing games on my iPhone at the time. Still, this has an incredible freshness best served in the summer. And yes, the chives scattered over top are from my garden, too.

Ricotta, Ham and Scallion Tart

1  tbl. unsalted butter

1 frozen pie crust, not thawed

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 large egg

2 to 3 bunches of scallions

3 tbl. chopped fresh parsley

2 tbl. chopped fresh dill or tarragon

freshly ground pepper

5 oz. deli-sliced ham, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Place a baking sheet on the top rack of the oven; preheat to 425 degrees.

Whisk the ricotta, cream and egg in a medium bowl. Mince enough green scallion tops to make 2 tablespoons; add to the ricotta mixture along with parsley and dill. Season with pepper. Slice the remaining scalliosn into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch pieces.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add the sliced scallions and 2 tablespoons water; cook until the scallions are tender and start to sizzle, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the ham. Spread all but a few tablespoons of the scallion mixture on the pie-crust. Pour in the ricotta mixture, then scatter the remaining scallion mixture on top.

Bake the tart on the preheated baking sheet for 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the filling is set. Rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove and slice.

Old-Fashioned Tomato Salad

from Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson

1/4 tsp. reconstituted English mustard or pinch mustard powder

1 heaping tablespoon pasta or AP flour

1 tsp. granulated sugar

salt and black pepper

1 cup plus 2 tbl. whole milk

1 egg, beaten

4 tbl. tarragon vinegar

1 tbl. sunflower oil

18 oz. good cherry tomatoes, halved

chives or green parts of scallions

Half fill a sink with cold water.

Combine the mustard, flour and sugar, with about a teaspoon of salt and a good grinding of pepper, in a heavy-based saucepan. Add a little of the milk and stir to mix to a smooth paste, then put on a gentle heat and keep adding the milk, and stirring as you do so. I find my immersion blender the best thing to banish lumpiness here, but it’s not a difficult operation whatever you use.

When all the milk’s in, add the beaten egg and vinegar and keep on whisking until it’s beginning to thicken. When the mixture’s got the texture of light cream, whisk in the oil then plunge the pan in the sink of cold water and continue whisking for a while. When it’s cool (you can pour into a bowl then the put the bowl over ice if you want speedy cooling), cut the tomatoes in half and arrange on one huge plate or two fairly large ones. Drizzle a few spoonfuls over (don’t drench: think Jackson Pollock) then add some chopped scallions or chives. Unexpected heaven.

from

Sunday mornings at around 8 to 9 a.m. are often always about just me.

Matt sleeps in, I stretch awake, make myself a coffee and read the paper. Even if it’s a grey morning and the only accompaniments are the cats and the CBC, I find I really enjoy it. It’s soothing for me to move about in the kitchen to make breakfast; it’s comforting to pull out the cookbooks or pull up the website and see what will blissfully occupy my time until my husband awakes, bleary-eyed and smiling. I do not expect to have an instant breakfast at the ready; this is why I try certain recipes on weekends, after all, but I do expect some modicum of ease. Frustratingly, these muffins weren’t not as accomodating. And when they are as delicious as they are, it makes for twice the frustration.

There’s entirely too much of the fiddliness here. There are instructions in the recipe that call for a pastry bag, for crying out loud. A PASTRY BAG. On Sunday morning. I don’t know about you but I am not at my sharpest on Sunday mornings and the use of a pastry bag for muffins seems cruel somehow. As I stated above, it’s a pity too, as these are quite delicious. The ricotta filling part of it didn’t work so well as I’d hoped—I blame that on overfilling the muffin cups—but the toasty pecans and whisper of fennel were very delightful. I liked them but definitely not going into my repetoire.

Ricotta Muffins

courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup (2 ounces) walnuts or pecans
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 cups unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup (4 ounces) ricotta cheese

6 tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream
Kosher salt, to taste

Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter a 1/2-cup capacity muffin tin.

Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned (though I like my pecans a darker brown, for better flavor), about 8 to 10 minutes. Shake the pan halfway through to ensure that the nuts toast evenly. Cool, chop finely and set aside.

Turn the oven up to 350°F.

In a small sauté pan over medium heat, toast the fennel seeds, stirring occasionally until they become aromatic and turn slightly brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Allow to cool and finely chop, crush or grind in a spice grinder, clean coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together to combine. Sprinkle in the fennel seeds. Make a large well in the center and pour in the yogurt and oil. Whisk together the liquids and gradually draw in the the dry ingredients, mixing until incorperated.

To prepare the filling: Place the ricotta in a mixing bowl and, if stiff, break it up wtih a rubber spatula to loosen. Stire in the crème fraîche and a pinch of salt.

Using a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip, a plastic bag with the corner snipped off or a spoon, fill each muffin tin one-third of the way with batter. Place one tablespoon of the filling into the center of each muffin.

(I suspect at this point that Silverton believes that your filling will be thick, and perhaps with a stiff ricotta and crème fraîche, it might have been, but my mixture, with store brand ricotta and sour cream, was more of a puddle that spilled out into a flat layer. While it didn’t matter in the end, it did make it harder to put the remaining muffin batter — which was stiffer than the filling — over the ricotta mixture with just a spoon and I ended up having to go the plastic bag/piping bag route to easily cover it. Grumble-gripe.)

Pipe or spoon the remaining batter into the cups, filling them to just below the rim. (Unlike you see in my pictures, as I overfilled the tins.) Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of the nuts over the top of each. (I had extra.)

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly brown and firm to the touch.

…or I’m sure I would if I’d ever been there. (Pro-travel tip I learned: plan your Parisian getaway for August. Most everyone has left the city and it’s quieter and cheaper then.) Next year maybe, though I am angling more for Marseilles these days. Anyway, one of my favorite all-time dishes to order in French bistros—besides my beloved frisee’ aux lardons—is  nicoise salad. There is a whole lot to love about a good nicoise salad: vinegary boiled potatoes, crisp haricots vert, teeny little nicoise olives, oily rich tuna, a hardboiled egg peeking out like a tiny sun.

Jeez, I’m salivating just thinking about eating a plate of it,  especially paired with a lightly fizzy white wine.

Anyway, I decided to experiment with my beloved nicoise salad by putting it in sandwich form. And even better, adding some more cold goodies to the mix. Chopped artichoke hearts, sharp red onion, arugula and a homemade red wine vinaigrette….!

I was good and didn’t pair with the fizzy wine I was dreaming of. I was slightly more virtuous and made a nice avocado-snow pea slaw instead. When do I get my halo?

Parisian Tuna Sandwiches

3 large eggs

3 tbl. red wine vinegar

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 small ciabatta rolls, or other soft rolls, halved

1 medium bunch arugula or 2 cups spring salad mix

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup jarred artichoke hearts, well drained and sliced

2 6-oz. cans oil-packed tuna

4 to 8 anchovy fillets, drained (these are classic for a nicoise, but you can make it optional. Not everyone digs these pungent little fish)

1/2 cup nicoise or kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

4 medium radishes, thinly sliced

Place eggs in saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and cool in a bowl of cold water.

Meanwhile, combine vinegar, 1/2 tsp. salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk in the olive oil. Put the rolls cut-side up on a work surface and lightly drizzle with a quarter of the dressing. Place the arugula on the roll bottoms. Top with the sliced tomato, onion and artichokes. Season with salt and drizzle with another quarter of the dressing.

Drain the tuna, but leave lightly coated with oil. Toss the tuna in the remaining dressing, then divide among the sandwiches. Peel and thinly slice the hard-boiled eggs and layer the slices over the tuna. Top with the anchovy fillets, if brave and using, then the olives and the radishes. Cover with the roll tops, pressing gently but firmly. Wrap the sandwiches in plastic wrap and place a skillet on top to weight them down; set aside for at least 15 minutes so the bread absorbs the flavors.

Avocado and Snow Pea Slaw

Thinly slice 10 ounces of snow peas lengthwise. Toss with 2 thinly sliced celery ribs (add the leaves, too) and some toasted walnuts. Dress with olive oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Gently stir in a thinly sliced avocado and minced chives.

Ah, Fridays. Sometimes Matt cooks and sometimes we both just plunder fridge, freezer and cabinet to find whatever we can. Last night’s dinner was sort of like that. Some homemade jarred pesto stored in the freezer (thawed, obviously), leftover fresh mozzarella, lingering tomatoes and the very dregs of a bag of frozen peas. Add all that to odds’n'ends of pasta and you have…I don’t know; I never thought of a name for it.

The same application—only with leftover herb butter and some fresh garlic—was done to a nice large loaf of day-old bread.

Would you call what we did a recipe? I would call it: “I am starving and this is what we have. Let’s eat and play Dance Dance Revolution now, please.”

Exhausted from all the rich holiday food and such-like, I present to you a pictorial of things I made and/or ate. Scroll your arrow over the pics to see what it was all about.

Pfefferneusse that have not yet found their coating.

The pfefferneusse are complete.

A pasta dish made with wilted spinach, sun-dried tomato and sausages.

This is where I started slicing the hardened caramels to make treats.

Olive oil muffins. Yes, you heard me right. Don't look at me as though I were insane. They were delicious.

I burnt this bacon-onion stuffing. Can you tell?

And finally, the mouth-watering Christmas duck.

I will be back on Sunday for a whole new year of recipes, stories and what not. I hope your holidays were awesome.

I realize that it’s only the 14th but seriously, I feel so left behind. I bought these really cute cellophane bags with Christmas trees on them at the store so I have visions of me filling them gleefully with cookies and candies but I have yet to decide which recipes I am going to do those with. And guess what? Time’s a-wastin’. I should’ve started doing stuff Saturday but I was so hungry for pancakes—the delightful Matt had his dance card full so no help from that quarter—that I made my own pancakes. THEY TOTALLY SUCKED.

I used a recipe from the sainted Mark Bittman so I have no clue what I did wrong. I suspect that my electric griddle (hee, I love that word, “griddle”) wasn’t hot enough. Anyway, I include it below for sake of symmetry and nothing more. I had better luck with the BLT pizza I whipped for us Saturday night, though. I keep harping on this, my lack of homemade pizza-dough making, but the kind I am getting from the IGA works a treat. Pile some roasted chicken on there, along with bacon, sliced green onions, cubed tomatoes, add shredded cheese and you’ve got a treat. The “L” part? Some nice bitter arugula, which I heart.

One of the things I used to pick up all the time at Whole Foods was their gingerbread. I heart gingerbread big time. When it’s done right, it’s the perfect amount of sweet, the perfect amount of gingery heat with a pleasant moist crumb. For years, I thought about either trying to get the recipe from them or just finding one elsewhere that might give me the same result.

I think I found a keeper. I searched Smitten Kitchen (of course) and Deb has the gingerbread recipe from Gramercy Tavern. I’ve made it twice in the past two days. It’s what I’ve been looking for; it owes a lot of its rich depth to the oatmeal stout the recipe calls for. Seriously, don’t substitute it…besides, you get to drink the leftover stout you didn’t use.

Also: this recipes works well in smaller loaves, just keep an eye on it to make sure there’s no burning.

But wait, there’s more! Yesterday’s fancypants breakfast was migas with tomato-chipotle coulis. But you know me, I made some minor adjustments.

Bad Mexican that I am, I used—gulp!—tortilla chips instead of freshly fried tortilla chips. I can explain! I have a couple of huge bags of them in the pantry and decided to use them up.

Also, I increased the heat of the coulis by using a whole chipotle in adobo. By the way, what do you guys do with your leftover chipotles? I don’t want to waste them but I don’t have anything coming up where I need them. Can I freeze them?

So: I am a busy bee. But not too busy to keep you guys informed.

Everyday Pancakes
Adapted from Mark Bittman, New York Times 12/20/06

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
2 eggs
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter (optional), plus unmelted butter for cooking, or use neutral oil.

1. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1 1/2 cups milk, then stir in 2 tablespoons melted cooled butter, if using it. Gently stir this mixture into dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten flour; don’t worry about a few lumps. If batter seems thick, add a little more milk.

2. Place a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil on griddle or skillet. When butter foam subsides or oil shimmers, ladle batter onto griddle or skillet, making pancakes of any size you like. Adjust heat as necessary; usually, first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, after 2 to 4 minutes.

3. Cook until second side is lightly browned. Serve, or hold on an ovenproof plate in a 200-degree oven for up to 15 minutes.

Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread
Claudia Fleming

1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout
1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cardamom
3 large eggs
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Accompaniment: Unsweetened whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess. (She is not kidding about this. I used a nonstick pan with a butter/flour spray and still lost a chunk of cake. I will be more generous next time.)

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

Do ahead: This gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature. I am sure it will keep well-wrapped in the freezer even longer.

Sue Torres’ Migas (Mexican-Style Breakfast)
Adapted from Sueños Restaurant, NYC

Tomato-Chipotle Coulis

2 large, round tomatoes or best available
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 white or Spanish onion, minced (Torres says the white onion is more commonly used in Mexico)
1 chipotle en adobo, from a can (I used half of one and thought it had a plenty-big kick, you can always start with a quarter and add more if desired)
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Puree all of the above in a blender jar. Heat a sauce pan over high heat. Add oil to coat. Once the oil it hot, add the sauce. Cook for 15 minutes or so and season to taste.

Demonstration tip: Torres said that if you ever end up with a sauce too spicy, you can add a splash of cream to cool it off.

Migas
2 links Mexican or Spanish chorizo, removed from casing, diced or coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons oil (a mixture of corn and olive oil works best)
8 eggs, lightly beaten
20 corn tortilla chips, preferably fresh
Fresh cilantro for garnish

First, cook the chorizo. Heat a medium-sized stainless steel saucepan over medium-high heat and add two tablespoons of oil. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring frequently, until the chorizo is golden and cooked through, about ten minutes. Add the eggs and after a minute, the chips. Use a wooden spoon to crush the chips as you stir to cook the eggs. Cook for about five minutes (mine took less) or until almost cooked through.Remove from heat.

[Deb note: I'm a stickler about not overcooking/drying out scrambled eggs -- blech -- and always remove them from the heat while they still look a little damp; they continue cooking in their residual heat even once plated.]

Set up four plates for serving. Ladle some coulis in the bottom of each dish, top with some of the egg mixture and sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve immediately.

I made a variation on chili the other night; I browned some ground turkey, added salsa, kidney beans, frozen corn. I spiced it up with judicious use of chili powder because I like-a things spicy (like mice-y).

Add cheese and crumbled tortillas as well and you have something made of WIN. At least, WIN if you’re looking to make something hearty and easy. The leftovers were fantastic!

I know, I know. NaBloPoMo, right? Posting everyday for a month so that I can give myself that big ole congratulatory pat on the back? Well, life interferes sometimes so I guess that pat on the back can come later. This weekend I just wanted to have a weekend. Me, my husband and whatever food took my fancy.

I didn’t set out to make breakfast Saturday morning. I even toyed with the idea of waking Matt up and asking if we could go out for it. But thinking back on something I read in last year Saveur’s breakfast issue and something Matt has made me before, I went with baked eggs. Frankly, I love that I married a guy who has the sort of ramekins I need to do this. Essentially, I baked some bacon, crumbled it and set it aside. In an ramekin that should hold about 5 to 6 ounces, you crack a couple eggs. You can arrange some spinach as a bed before you do so if you like, but it ain’t necesssary. Got some tomatoes? Good, slice them into quarters and put them down in there with those eggs. Now put your bacon in, a little bit of fresh thyme if you got it (dried is fine if you don’t), salt and pepper and then cover everything with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Slide them into the oven at 375 for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how set you like your eggs. I think I will make this a go-to breakfast from now on.

Despite my breakfast-y success, Saturday night dinner was a disaster. I roasted these peppers because I was going to stuff them with some ground chicken and zucchini. Well, I was frying up the veggies and chicken when I asked Matt to come into the kitchen for a second. He obliged me, asked what I needed. I told him that the chicken smelled funky to me and not the kind of funky where you can get into the groove.

“I can’t smell it but if you can, we’d better not risk it,” he replied.

Into the trash it went. Left without my main plan, I went into Action Mode. I whipped up some couscous, peeled and sliced those peppers, added pine nuts and a really lovely creamy local feta to the whole thing and BANG!

It was a very satisfying vegetarian dish. Oh, and I added chopped kalamatas even though Matt’s not a huge olive fan. The best laid plans of mice and men…

Immediately after he cleaned his plate this morning, Matt looked at me and said, “That was probably the best breakfast you’ve ever made.” “Really?” I replied. “Better than the huevos rancheros last weekend?” He nodded solemnly, “Better than the huevos rancheros.”

What I did was take Wednesday’s leftover Mexican rice and fashion it into cakes (using a binder of egg, flour, sugar, salt). I then pan-fried said cakes on both sides, slid them on a plate and topped them with fried eggs.

I am now thinking of making this for a holiday breakfast this year but coming up with a salsa hollandaise of some sort. Because sometimes you’ve got to gild the lily.