If there's anything that screams autumn, it's apple picking. After last weekend's failed attempt at visiting an orchard, yesterday was a successful afternoon of apple picking. My hubby and I journeyed to the town of Watsonville to check out Clearview Organic Orchards. Unfortunately we always seem to be a little late in the game when it comes to picking apples, and the trees were pretty picked over. We still found some good apples, and supplemented the rest of our bag with apples that had already been picked from the trees earlier. When the guy at Clearview Orchards told me that he "robs" the bee hives every week to get the raw local honey that they sell, I knew I'd want to nab a jar for myself. I put honey on everything lately! You may have already noticed this with my recent recipes - ... [Read More]
muffins
Banana Apple Cinnamon Mini Muffins
Lazy Sunday mornings are the perfect time to play around in the kitchen. After sleeping in late today, I decided to procrastinate cleaning my house by first doing some baking. Ever since I nabbed a mini muffin cup tin a few weeks ago, I've had mini muffin ideas floating in the back on my mind. The recipe started with a ripe banana and Granny Smith apple... Hi, how cute are these mini muffin cups?! I couldn't resist snapping a picture with a few of the sunflowers I picked up at the farmers' market yesterday for $3 [FABULOUS]. I love the idea of mini muffins because they're small enough as a baby snack or part of breakfast, but big enough in size to be a nice little dessert to satisfy a sweet tooth, and also easy to grab on-the-go. I love the combo of apple, banana, and cinnamon, and so ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
Lately I've been borderline obsessed with eating pumpkin - everything from pumpkin smoothies, pancakes, and ice cream, to smearing pumpkin cream cheese or butter on my toast and sprinkling pumpkin pie spice on anything my heart desires. Pumpkin is such a quintessential fall-time flavor. The funny thing is that I never really liked it until last fall, and my how my taste buds have changed! Last week I was talking to my cousin Noelle, and she requested I come up with a pumpkin cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting. Well, you don't have to ask me twice! ;-) In the midst of baking my pumpkin goodies, I decided that I wasn't really making cupcakes, but more so muffins. I then proceeded to get myself all confused in figuring out what the heck the real difference is between muffins and ... [Read More]
Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins
I awoke this morning to waves crashing against the shore... Yesterday our friends got married on the rooftop of La Jolla Cove Suites, and we stayed at the hotel overnight. Our room had the above gorgeous ocean view. It was a beautiful night to spend on a rooftop celebrating a great couple! Here are a few shots from the wedding: Adam and I had a lot of fun and probably too many drinks, so I awoke not only to the sounds of the ocean... but also to a not so nice headache. Photo evidence of our good times: Since neither of us were feeling too hot today, our Sunday was definitely a lazy one that involved a lot of football watching and couch lounging. One productive thing I did was experiment in the kitchen and come up with these babies: I've had baking on my brain since I recently picked ... [Read More]
Banana PB & Jelly Muffins
Late last night I decided I was in the mood for making muffins. I resisted the urge to bake right before I went to sleep, but may or may not have been deciding what kind of muffins to make and concocting a recipe while laying in bed. My requirements were that they came out yummy and moist, yet under 200 calories a piece. First thing this AM before beginning work, I whipped up these babies: Banana PB & Jelly Muffins Makes 12 Ingredients: 1 c whole wheat flour 1/2 c all purpose flour 1 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed 1/4 c brown sugar 1/2 c peanut butter 1 c (soy) milk 3 TBSP (light) butter 1/4 c fruit preserves (I used raspberry) 2 TBSP baking powder Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin cups. In a saucepan, combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugar ... [Read More]
Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins
Hope you're having a fabulous Thursday. I'm blogging to you as I sip my first glass of wine for the night - a yummy California Chardonnay: Backing up to last night's jewelry party, we had a fun relaxed ladies' night. Besides the chocolate Kahlua cake I talked about yesterday, we had a few other goodies: Roasted Red Hummus Platter - Champagne punch bowl - FYI, that fun ice/strawberry ring in the middle is pretty & decorative for the punch bowl, but not very practical. We had trouble getting it out of the way to scoop out punch with the ladle. [Note to self: come up with a smaller ice chiller next time!] My best friends Meaghan and Danielle came to the party: And this close-up photo of Meg and me is hilarious (Thanks for the photography styling, ... [Read More]