Two Days Later.....

This still makes me laugh.

Sweet Peach Muffins with Brown Sugar Streusel Topping

Our Aunt Nancy gave me a copy of The Foster's Market Cookbook last Christmas. Signed and inscribed to me by the author, it is truly one of my favorite cookboooks. It reminds me that I desperately need to invest in a cookbook holder, as I just dropped about half a stick of butter on the pages of such a special prize. Yes, I cussed. Loudly. At least I'll know which recipes I've tried by the flotsam on the pages.

At any rate, these are divine. As I cannot follow a recipe to save my life, the walnuts were replaced with pecans. And I put a little extra butter in the streusel. AND I doubled the dark rum. I'd take Sara's advice: these muffins are best when served warm.

Brown Sugar-Walnut Streusel Topping

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (OR PECANS!)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

• Combine the walnuts (OR PECANS!), flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl and stir to mix.
• Add the butter and mix well until blended.
• Set aside or refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to use.

Muffin Batter

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teapsoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 Tablespoon dark rum (divine!) or pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups peeled, pitted, chopped peaches

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners and spray the top part of the pan lightly with vegetable oil spray.
• Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
• Whisk the eggs, butter, sour cream, and rum in a separate bowl until well blended. Fold in the peaches.
• Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir just unil moist and blended. Do not overmix.
• Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan with a large ice cream scoop (1/3 cup scoop). The batter will come to the top of the paper liner or pan. Sprinkle with Brown Sugar-Walnut Streusel Topping and lightly press the topping into the muffin batter.
• Bake 30-35 minutes, until the tops of the muffins spring bakc when pressed lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and serve immediately.

Variations: almost any fresh or frozen fruit (except for very soft fruits like bananas, papaya, or mango) can be substituted for the peaches. Try blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries. In autumn, try chopped fresh apples or chopped pears.

Marvelous Medora

Check out what I won in a giveaway from the talented Hannah!

They are different and light and healthy and oh-so delicious. We highly recommend them!

My Second Favorite Chocolate Cake

I'm not a by-the-book kind of person. Never have been. Not a good thing, not a bad thing - just the way I am. It helps with some recipes, is necessary for some dishes, helps out a lot with ingredient flexibility, and screws some receipes completely up.

As baking involves precise science, it stands to reason that the recipes I screw up the most are those that involve baking. So when I was looking through Mom's Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1953 Edition, and found this Feathery Fudge Cake with Chocolate Satin Frosting, I was determined to slow down, focus, and follow it to the letter, technique and all.

2/3 cup soft butter or margarine

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups ice water

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla 'till fluffy (beat 5 minutes at high speed on mixer, scraping bowl occasionally to guide batter into beaters, or beat 5 minutes by hand.
• Blend in chocolate.
• Sift flour with soda and salt.
• Add to creamed mixture alternately with ice water, beating after each addition.
• Bake in 2 paper-lined 9x1 1/2 inch round pansin moderate oven (350 degrees) 30-35 minutes or until done.
• Cool completely, then frost.

3 1/2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

4 1/2 Tablespoons hot water

1 egg

1/2 cup soft butter or margarine

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

• Melt chocolate in mixing bowl over hot water.
• Remove from heat.
• With electric mixer, blend in sugar and water.
• Beat in egg, then butter and vanilla.
• Frosting will be too thin at this point, so place bowl in ice water.
• Beat 'till of spreading consistency (I beat it for about 9 minutes).
• Frosts tops and sides of two 9-inch laters.

Usually the first time I bake a cake, I'll do only a half-recipe, or one layer. I'll cut the layer in half and make a half-cake. That way if it's screwed completely up, it's still only half screwed!

And in case you were wondering, my favorite chocolate cake by far is Mom's buttermilk chocolate cake with fudge icing.

Miracle Apple/Pear/Potato Peeler, Corer, Slicer

It slices, it dices, it Julienne fries!

There's a silly Disney Halloween movie called Hocus Pocus. It's about three witches from the original witch burnings 200 years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, coming to the present. I remember watching it with Katy and Sarah and laughing 'till I almost wet myself at Sara Jessica Parker bouncing around singing, "We're going to run amok! amok! amok!" There's one scene in the movie when Bette Middler walks into a kitchen and says, "Oooooooh, this must be the torture chamber."

Well, this little gizmo definitely looks like something from the torture chamber, but it is oh so handy to have around! I noticed it at the Revell Ace Hardware one day during a jaunt with Leslie and have thought about it ever since.

This thing is a hoot & a half. It takes a little getting used to, but after some practice, it's definitely worth it. You can just peel, core and slice, or peel, core, and slice an apple, pear, potato, or similarly composed fruit all at the same time!

My favorite thing to do is potatoes. I'll leave the peel on and just run them through the slicer/corer, which produces a potato slinky! Not sure what I'll do with slinky potatoes, but they sure are fun. Any suggestions?

Photo courtesy of MiracleGrill.

Pear Chutney

Remember Cindy's yard with the pears? And the dogs who loved them? We were able to glean a bushel of pears. In spite of the dogs, that was the easy part: the hard part was finding a recipe suitable for them!

The winning recipe was this pear chutney from Worth Savoring: Literary, Visual, and Culinary Creations from the Hills of North Mississippi by the Union County Historical Society - New Albany, Mississippi.

25 large, firm pears
1 pound dark raisins
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon ground cloves
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
8 small, green, hot peppers
1 1/2 pints cinder vinegar
5 pounds sugar
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup salt
2 cups pecans



- Mix sugar and vinegar in very large pot in which you'll boil chutney.
- Peel and slice pears.

- Remove seeds from peppers and grind.

- Grind garlic.

- Mix well with spices (stir - do not mix with blender).

- Put all except for nuts in the pot with sugar and vinegar; stir.

- Keep nuts out until last.

- Boil for 30 minutes and add nuts the last 15 minutes.

- Pack in sterilized jars and seal.

Worth noting: this is wonderful served over cream cheese for an appetizer spread or is a delightful condiment for chicken or pork.

Be careful with those hot peppers. I used some mature jalapenos out of the backyard, and though they have made my hands sting a little bit before, I developed some pretty bad chemical burns this time. They stung and burned for about 7 hours after I was done with the chutney. I should've used gloves!

452nd (and currently my favorite) Use for a Spork