Sweet and Sassy Muffins with Faithgirlz!

Jensie's church group, The Faithgirlz, met the other day at my house. I knew exactly the lesson I wanted to teach them...
My object lesson entailed making these Sweet and Sassy muffins.



We started the meeting off with one of my favorite childhood bedtime stories. My mom, Bobi, used to read this one to me a lot. I must have needed to hear it FREQUENTLY! The story comes out of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.
This story is about a little girl, Carolyn,who is nice at school, but turns into "Number Two Carolyn" at home. By this I mean - she shows love and respect while she's away - but at home she sasses her mom (Sound like anyone you know?)



The muffins we made use the same batter and you just change the ingredients to determine if they are going to be sweet or savory. Just like "Number Two Carolyn" - you can determine if you are going to be sweet or sassy - depending on what you put inside.



Sweet and Sassy Muffins
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add egg, milk and oil to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Do not overmix. Grease or line muffin tins with paper baking cups. Fill about 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Makes 10 to 12 muffins.

Add in's for Sweet:
1 cup blueberries,1 cup dried apricots, 1 cup chopped and peeled apples, 3/4 cup chopped dates, 1 cup mashed bananas, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup pecans, 1 cup flaked coconut, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup peanut butter chips, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup drained canned pineapple.

Add in's for Sassy:
1 can chopped green chilies, drained
Small can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup grated cheese (Cheddar, Muenster, Swiss, or Monterey Jack)
1/2 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
1/2 cup chopped green onions.

We added Chocolate chips to our sweet muffins and Bacon, Pepper Jack Cheese, and Green Onions to our Sassy muffins.
The girls loved making them and many even learned a lesson I hope...
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" - Abraham Lincoln.

Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies - They're so Sweet!

One more confectionary concoction from Curt (Gumpa) and his Sourdough Starter!


Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour, plus more if needed to make formable dough
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix sourdough starter, peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add to sourdough mixture, adding a little more flour if needed to form balls. Form into small balls, place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes.
Yields 36 cookies. For variation add 2 cups choc. chips. These cookies can also be iced with a confectionary sugar icing.



When my mom made these over Spring Break she mixed the ingredients and treated half the dough like sugar cookies and added chocolate chips to the remaining dough. Both were wonderful. This dough makes a wonderful soft and moist cookie.
Try some with your starter!

Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies - Jenny Mac Style!

I ran across a blog the other day that had the most interesting cookie recipe on it. I had all the ingredients on hand and a large dose of curiosity - so I was off to make a batch! I found the recipe on Jenny Mac's Lip Smack blog. Check out her Crazy Cookie Cake Chippers. She made hers beautiful. I made mine fast. Check out the difference.



Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies
Adapted from Jenny Mac's Lip Smacking Crazy Cookie Cake Chippers

18 oz Vanilla Cake Mix
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips and pretzels
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir dry cake mix, oil/butter, 2 eggs, crushed tortilla chips and pretzels until dough forms.
Spoon batter out onto cookie sheet (I use a mini ice cream scooper to make them a uniform size as shown below)
Bake for 8-12 minutes.
Remove from pan after a minute or so and cool on wire racks!



My oldest daughter, Logan, helped me whip up a batch in about 5 minutes. These were quick, easy and yummy!
Thanks Jenny Mac!



When I make them again - which I will - I will only put in the pretzels. I enjoyed them more than the tortilla chips!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Have I got another "Upscale" cookie for you? You bet! It may look
like just another chocolate chip but this has peanut butter. (I understand the peanut butter you buy at your grocery store is still safe.) For these I might even test fate.

World's Greatest Peanut Butter Cookie

1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 6 oz. package choc. chips (I always use 12 oz. - can you really ever have too much chocolate?)

Cream the butter and peanut butter together. Gradually add the white and brown sugars and cream until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until smooth. Sift flour, measure, then sift again with the baking soda. Add flour and soda to the creamed mixture. Beat until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop from a teaspoon onto a greased baking sheet. Bake in a 325 degree preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Makes 6 dozen two inch cookies.



Today I have to wish my mom, Bobi, a big happy birthday. She is 70 today and doesn't act a day over 25! She has more energy than I do and I can only hope that someday I look as lovely as she does! I love you mom for sharing with me your love of hostessing, your self deprecating humor, and most of all your love that you give so freely to everyone you meet. I am so lucky I get to call you mine! Now go make dad take you out to dinner!

Bobi's Bites: Esther's Orange Marmalade Cake!

This is the cake you bake if you want to hear oohs and ahhs. It is worth the time and the nine eggs. Two years ago my Mom read “Esther’s Gift" by Jan Karon, which had the recipe for Orange Marmalade cake. Since that time she has wanted to bake this cake. Esther made these for all her friends in Mitford at Christmas time. However, last year she purchased Jan Karon’s “Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader” which also had Esther’s recipe for Orange Marmalade cake but the ingredients were not the same.



This was the year she was determined to bake it and had to make the choice of which recipe she would use. The recipe calling for three large eggs was definitely tempting, compared to the one with nine eggs. There was another discrepancy – baking soda or baking powder.
She did decide on the one with nine eggs thinking that might be “showier” an expression used by Esther when describing her three layer cake as compared to her two layer cake.



The fresh squeezed orange juice didn’t even sway her opinion as she and my Dad have an orange tree with access to oranges (note picture above of Jensen in Florida on Thanksgiving break).



Because of copyright laws stated in each book she feels she can only direct you
to purchase:
"Esther's Gift, A Mitford Christmas Story" by Jan Karon or
"Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader".

You will love both books and they are a fun read.

Bobi's Fudge Bars

It's the end of the season and my mother feels like she is swimming up stream. It is time to close the cabin but what do you do with all the leftovers?? The flour, the sugar, the eggs, milk and butter are all waiting to be used up. Walla! – Anything chocolate is a winner in her home. In fact she just purchased yet another saying about chocolate –
“Every time I hear the word EXERCISE I wash my mouth out with CHOCOLATE !”
Dessert is made and the “larder” is getting empty and that is a good thing.



FUDGE BARS
½ cup cocoa.
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
½ cup boiling water
2 eggs
½ cup milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspn. Vanilla

Put butter in boiling water to melt.
Add sugar and cocoa, eggs and vanilla
flour and milk.




Bake in 10 x 15 greased jelly roll pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.



The best part about these fudge bars is that you can frost , powder, sprinkle, drizzle or leave them plain.
Adding whipped cream and a strawberry would be great but they are usually not in the fridg when you're cleaning it out for the winter.

Betty Crocker's Prize Coffee Cake

When I was in my 20's and trying to find the perfect gift for my mother one year for Christmas - I had the brilliant idea of "Salvaging" her cookbook. It was a 1956 (or so) edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. She had received it for a wedding gift and used it almost everyday for one thing or another. The pages looked like they had been loved for too many years and I was going to fix it for the perfect gift. I bought a bazillion page protectors and a binder and got to work. By the time I had inserted every page into that binder it was 3 times the original size and did not possess quite the nostalgia. My mother, being the incredibly sweet person she is, thanked me profusely and convinced me it was the best gift she could have ever gotten.
The next year Betty Crocker published the original 1950's cookbook - and as a surprise I put that under the tree for my mother. When Christmas day arrived we both had a chuckle as she had purchased the same gift for me! Ah - great minds think alike!



This is a picture of my copy which I refer to all the time.



I always get a chuckle at the pictures inside. This is the Appetizer section and this....



is the picture of the salad section. Everything looks plastic - like it should be under the glass of an old cafe with dust all over it. Although the pictures are quite dated the recipes are timeless. Everything is from scratch and just good, old, home cooking. This is the coffee cake my mother always made from her famous recipe book. Tasted just as good today as I remember it.
Thanks mom and Betty Crocker!



Prize Coffee Cake

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sifted gold medal flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together the sugar, butter and egg. Stir in the milk and flour mixture (flour, baking powder, salt).
Spread batter in greased and floured 9 inch square pan. Sprinkle with desired topping. Bake until wooden pick thrust into center of cake comes out clean. Serve warm, fresh from the oven.

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Bake at 375 for 25 to 35 minutes!

Tastes just like mom used to make!

* For an orange variation of this coffee cake follow the recipe above - except use orange juice for half of the milk, and add 1 1/2 tsp. grated orange rind. Sprinkle top with Crumb Mixture, given above, adding to it 1 1/2 tsp. grated orange rind.

Cindy's Healthy Muffins

Are you mesmerized yet? Doesn't this picture look like a muffin Willy Wonka would serve at a tea party?



My good friend, Cindy, brought this yummy morsel to my doorstep the other day and I was blown away. Let me tell you why.



Cindy is my "Healthy Hero". She only puts healthy food into her cute little body. I am amazed when we go out for lunch and I order up my onion rings and she orders her house salad, dressing on the side - no meat please! Such restraint, such will power for such a little woman! I have seen her drink green concoctions for lunch that would make your head spin.



Since my little "episode" last year, I have been trying to eat a healthier diet. It is hard, but Cindy is so encouraging! When she brought me this muffin the other day, I have to admit, I was a bit scared. A whole lot of healthy is packed into each bite - but wow they are so yummy! It tasted like a little individual carrot cake - YUM! If healthy tastes like this - pass the muffin with a shot of that green stuff to wash it down!

Here is the recipe for the muffins. They are SO healthy, full of fruit and even veggies, especially when you substitute Sucanat ($2.99 at Target) for the sugar. Again, if you are not expecting them to taste like Krispy Kreme donuts, they are very moist and yummy. Hope you like them...

Morning Glory Muffins cooking light 6/99

2 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
1 cup brown sugar (I used Sucanat)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded apple
3/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup coconut
1-8oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup apple butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (thru salt) in large bowl.
Stir in carrot and ingredients thru pineapple.
Make a well in center of mixture.
In another bowl, combine oil thru egg whites. Stir with a whisk. Add oil mix to flour mix. Stir until moist.
Spoon batter into coated muffin pans. Bake 350 for 25 min. or until springs back when touched in center. Remove immediately. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 2 dozen