blueberry muffins

in my mom’s pretty cast iron muffin tin

turns out it’s impossible to find a recipe for whole-wheat muffins that uses butter (they all use applesauce or vegetable oil!)
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/100-Whole-Wheat-Blueberry-Muffins-632
I made this recipe but substituted one egg for the two whites (the egg was a light-blue one that came from our neighbor’s hens! Yum!) and 1/3 cup melted butter for the veg. oil. result is tasty but also gives the impression of being healthy.

gingersnaps

I made gingersnaps for the first time! I used this recipe but also added fresh grated ginger, a bit of cayenne pepper (in hopes of a zingy gingery bite!) and orange zest. The result is delish, it does not have any gingery spiciness but it does have a bit of nice orange taste. Next time I will add more fresh ginger and cayenne! I like both the chewy ones (9 minutes in the oven) and the crispy ones (12 mins).

Pumpkin Squares?

Because it’s both summer and Christmas, and because I was feeling too hot and lazy to make a proper pumpkin pie, I am currently conducting an experiment: Easy, summery lemon squares plus festive pumpkin pie equals Pumpkin Squares! I used the crust from this lemon square recipe (which I baked up last week with delicious results), and then made up this pumpkin pie filling (more or less) and the hybrid Pumpkin Squares are in the oven now. After dinner I will report back on the results.

results: awesome. this is super delicious. The pumpkin filling itself is not the tastiest ever, it’s a little bit eggy and I guess it could’ve used more spices (or perhaps it’s just because i used a butternut squash instead of a pumpkin – proper pumpkins don’t exist in argentina!) Anyway the whole concept was a success and the result was pretty good.

holy moly! whoopie pies!

I grew up on whoopie pies and they’re one of the top snacks I look forward to eating when I go back to Maine for a visit. (along with lobster rolls and Italians!) I was surprised to find that nobody in New York had ever heard of them… it turned out they were just a Maine thing. Until today, when I read in the New York Times that whoopie pies are suddenly popular all across the country.

“The whoopie pie would probably be Maine’s state dessert, if the state had one.” When my out-of-state friends visited came to visit Maine with me, I was always excited to introduce them to whoopie pies but had to remember to explain that you’d better not try to consume a full-sized whoopie pie in one sitting…
Here’s the article: New York Times whoopie pie article