Refrigerator Sweet Muffins

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love making different muffins for my husband each week for a quick breakfast before he goes to work. If I know I have a busy week coming up I will make a batch of refrigerator sweet muffins. This batter keeps in the refrigerator for 5 days in an air tight container. You can scoop out as many muffins as you want and bake them as you need throughout the week. Another good thing about this batter is you can add in a variation of ingredients to each muffin, so you can have variety during the week. 


Below is the recipe for the basic batter, along with some of my favorite variations. I mix the ingredient right in the muffin cup itself. 


Refrigerator Sweet Muffins:
Makes 24 muffins


Chocolate Chunk Muffins






Pineapple Coconut Muffins

  Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs-slightly beaten

1. In a large bowl combine the following: flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; mix well.

2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add in buttermilk, vanilla and eggs. Stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter can be baked immediately or stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for 5 days.

3. When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners for desired amount of muffins. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full and add in any additional ingredients in each individual muffin. (See variations below)

4. Bake at 375 for 20-25 mins. Serve warm or cool on a wire cooling rack.



Variations: Feel free to adjust the amounts to your taste


Pineapple Coconut: Stir in 1 Tbsp canned crushed pineapple and 1 Tbsp shredded coconut to each muffin. Top with extra coconut. 


Chocolate Chunk: Stir in 1-2 Tablespoons of chopped dark chocolate to each muffin. You can also use chocolate chips. 


Jam Filled: Scoop 1/2 the batter into the muffin cup. Then add 1 tbsp of raspberry jam (or your favorite flavor)  spread evenly over the batter. Top with batter until cup is 3/4 of the way full. Add Streusel topping.


Streusel Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 4 tbsp softened butter and 1 tsp cinnamon until the mixture is crumbly. Spoon topping onto batter. 

"Lighter" Coq Au Vin

I try my hardest to cook healthy during the week. In my opinion, Cooking Light has some of the best healthy recipes for dinner and they always come out really flavorful. However, the other day I was reading one of their dessert recipes for brownies and it called for a 13 x 9" standard baking dish and the serving size was 60 brownies!!!! TRY 12! Some of the serving sizes, especially on dessert, are ridiculous and unrealistic. The dinner serving sizes seem to make much more sense. 

Coq Au Vin means "Rooster cooked in Wine", in this case it's chicken cooked in red wine. This recipe for Coq Au Vin was delicious and only 319 calories per serving! Hope you get a chance to make this..enjoy!

 Coq Au Vin
Serves 4 (Serving size 1 drumstick, 1 thigh and 1 cup of sauce and vegetables) 

Ingredients: 
4 slices of bacon, cut into 1" pieces

• 4 chicken drumsticks, skinned
• 4 chicken thighs, skinned
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 (750-milliliter) bottle red wine 
• 2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth 
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered 
• 6 ounces frozen pearl onions
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 
  
• 1. Cook bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings in pan. 
• 2. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and add chicken to drippings in pan; cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. 
• 3. Add onion and next 5 ingredients: celery, carrot, thyme, garlic and bay leaves; cook 5 minutes. 
• 4. Add tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Stir in wine and bring to a boil. Cook 10 minutes or until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. 
• 5. Return chicken to pan. Add broth; bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is done, turning after 20 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and cover with foil.
• 6. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat and coat with olive oil. Add button mushrooms and pearl onions; sprinkle with pepper. Cook for 10 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
• 7. Place chicken cooking liquid over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by half (about 10 minutes). Discard bay leaves. Stir in mushroom mixture. Return chicken to pan; simmer 5 minutes or until heated. Sprinkle with parsley and bacon.

My Favorite Kitchen Products

I began to enjoy cooking around the age of 19. Ever since then, my Christmas and birthday presents have consisted of mostly kitchen equipment and cooking supplies and I hope the theme continues forever. I don't know too many 19 year olds who jump up and down with excitement when their boyfriend buys them a crock-pot for Christmas, but I did!

Here are the top 5 kitchen products that I could not live without.

1. Kitchen-aid stand mixer

I use this for most of my baking recipes, as well as mashed potatoes and bread baking. I have the ice cream attachment to this mixer and it works great.

2. Onion goggles

 Couldn't survive without them!

3. Mircoplane

 I use this to zest citrus fruits, grate cheese, garlic, ginger and fresh nutmeg

4. All-Clad Slow Cooker

5. Good Quality Knives

 In my opinion you only need 3 knives: 6"-8" chefs knife,
pairing knife and 5" serrated utility knife.

Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms

My husband and I have been doing a "cheese night" for years now. For dinner we just have some good cheese, crackers and salad instead of a big dinner. We seem to be doing this more often now and its turning  into "appetizer night". Along with our cheese and crackers, I will make a bunch of different appetizers, for example, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms, breaded mozzarella etc...I enjoy doing this very much and experimenting each time.


Here is a recipe for stuffed mushrooms. I have adapted this recipe from Barefoot Contessa's cookbook: How easy is that? The recipe originally called for sausage but I decided to make it vegetarian and was very happy with the results.


P.S: Less than 2 weeks until Layla starts eating solid food :) 


Stuffed Mushrooms:
Makes 30-35 mushrooms (varies depending on size of mushrooms)

Ingredients: 

• 2 (8oz) packages of white mushrooms
• 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Marsala wine or sherry
• 6 scallions, white and green parts, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2/3 cup panko crumbs
• 5 to 8 ounces of mascarpone cheese
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 2 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

2. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them finely. Set aside. 

3. Place mushroom caps in a shallow bowl and toss with 3 tbps of olive oil and Marsala wine. Set aside. 

4. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add in mushroom stems and cook until soft 3-5 mins. 

5. Stir in scallions and garlic and cook for 2-3 mins more. 

6. Add in the panko bread crumbs, stirring until incorporated. Add in the marscapone cheese and cook until it is melted and creamy. 

7. Off the heat, add in the Parmesan cheese, parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

8. Fill each mushroom cap with the mixture and arrange caps on a large baking dish in a single layer. 

9. Bake until brown and crusty, around 50 mins. 

Braised Short Ribs

I will admit I am bit of a cookbook hoarder. I recently picked up the new Anne Burrell cookbook: Cook like a Rockstar and I am really happy I decided to buy it. The cookbook has rustic Italian recipes that are easy to cook but definitely make dinner something special. I have tried a few recipes and would like to share my favorite ones with you.

This recipe for braised short ribs is the best recipe I have come across so far. It was fairly simple to make but would recommend cooking it on a weekend because it takes around 3 1/2 hours to cook. Its a perfect recipe this time of year as the weather gets colder.

Braised Short Ribs
Serves 6

Ingredients:
6-8 bone-in short ribs (around 5 3/4 pounds)
Kosher Salt
Olive oil
1 large yellow onion- coarsely chopped
2 ribs of celery- coarsely chopped
2 carrots- peeled and coarsely chopped
6-8 cremini mushrooms- coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves-smashed
1 1/2 cups of tomato paste (I did not have this much on hand, so I used around 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
2 cups red wine
1 bunch of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
Fresh horseradish and chives for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Season the ribs generously with salt. Coat a large pan with olive oil and bring to high heat. Add the ribs and brown very well on all sides. (Important step) This could take up to 20 mins.

3. While the ribs are browning, put the onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms and garlic into a food processor and puree into a paste. Set aside.

4. When the ribs are brown on all sides, remove them from the pan. Remove any excess fat from the pan, and add in a little fresh oil. Add in the pureed vegetables. Season generously with salt and cook over med-high heat for 8-10 mins, They should turn brown and form a "crud" on the bottom of the pan. Scrape the bottom of the pan a few times as they cook.

5. Add in the tomato paste and prepared horseradish and cook 1-2 mins.

6. Add in the wine and bring to a boil. Scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking 3-4 mins until the wine has reduced by half.

7. Return the ribs back to the pan and cover with enough water to barley cover the meat. Toss in the bay leaves and thyme bundle and cover with aluminum foil. Place in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

8. Check the ribs every 45 mins to make sure the liquid had not reduced too much. If it has, add a little more water. Turn the ribs after 1 hour of cooking.

9. Remove the foil for the last 20 mins of cooking time in the oven to let the sauce reduce. When the meat is done, it should be very tender and falling off the bone.

10. To serve, remove bay leaves and thyme bundle. Garnish with grated horseradish and chives.