Strawberry Orange Banana Muffins

These are the lovely things my husband woke up to yesterday morning. They are delightful! I got this recipe from the blog For The Love of Cooking.

Strawberry Orange Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

2¼ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 orange, zested and juiced

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

⅔ cup brown sugar

½ cup canola oil

1 tbsp vanilla

1½ tbsp fresh orange juice (one orange)

1½ cups of strawberries, chopped, divided

3 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°. Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and ½ tbsp orange zest together in a small bowl. Reserve remaining orange zest.

In another bowl, beat together the bananas, eggs, brown sugar, oil, 1½ tbsp orange juice, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined then carefully add 1 cup strawberries and gently mix together. Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Sprinkle the remaining strawberries evenly over the tops of each muffin, making sure to push them down a bit.

Combine the sugar and remaining1 tbsp orange zest together and sprinkle evenly on top of each muffin. Bake for 25-27 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. Enjoy.

Makes 12 muffins.

So good and stunningly pretty! I only changed one thing about this recipe. It originally called for melted butter instead of the oil. Butter is so expensive that I decided to try it with oil instead and they came out just fine.

I forgot to add the sugar/orange zest topping before shoving them in the oven. Oops.

The banana flavor is probably the least noticeable here, so if you’re not a big bananas-in-baked-goods fan, fear not. The orange came through more than I was expecting and I love how you can see the little flecks of zest in them.

I will definitely be making these again throughout the summer.

Ready for the oven.

Slow Cooker Ham and Beans

This is one of my favorite comfort food meals. And it’s also my favorite way to use leftover Easter ham. This recipe comes from my mom.

Slow Cooker Ham and Beans

Ingredients:

1½ cups dry great northern beans

2 cups diced ham

5 cups water

2 tsp salt

¼ onion, finely minced

Directions:

Place beans and ham in slow cooker. Add water, salt, and onion.

Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over warm cornbread.

Makes 6 servings.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that. I love the flavor of the salty ham and beans together with the sweet cornbread. And the beans come out so perfectly using the slow cooker; all soft and creamy. Mmm!

Using the amount of water listed above, you will end up with some liquid still covering the beans when it’s done. I like it that way because I drizzle a little bit of it over my cornbread so it’s not dry. If you like it drier, you can cut back on the amount of water.

I took the picture above the last time I made this and since I didn’t have leftover Easter ham, I just used a chunk of ham from the store. I like the look of the rustic bits of smoked ham instead of the cubes. I may have to take another picture of the batch I made yesterday.

Baked Egg Potato Boats

This is an adaptation of a recipe I got from the blog For the Love of Cooking, who got it from the blog Wives with Knives, who got it from the blog Thibeault’s Table. This recipe has definitely made the rounds! All of the previous bloggers included Canadian bacon in theirs, but when I saw it, I thought it would make a great meatless main if the Canadian bacon was excluded. So that’s how I made mine.

Baked Egg Potato Boats

Ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes

Olive oil

Kosher salt

4 eggs

Hollandaise sauce

Green onions, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat potatoes with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake until soft, about an hour.

Increase oven temperature to 400°.

Remove the top third of the potatoes and scoop out some of the filling. Make sure to leave some of the filling in so the potato will not collapse.

Sprinkle the inside with salt, then crack an egg and pour it inside. Season with more salt to taste.

Place the potatoes in a baking dish and place in the oven. Cook until the egg is set but the yolk is still soft, about 23 minutes, or until the egg is cooked to your liking.

Remove from the oven and top with Hollandaise sauce and green onions. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

The Hollandaise sauce wasn’t part of the original recipe, but the first night I made this, the head elder of our church called during dinner. After dinner, Jim called him back and said he didn’t answer because we were eating dinner. The elder, Scott, is a fellow foodie and is always interested in what I’m cooking. He asked what we had for dinner and when Jim told him, he said, “That would be really good with Hollandaise sauce on it.” Great idea! So now I make Hollandaise sauce to go with it. And Scott was right, it is really good. Thanks Scott!

In the past I included cheddar cheese in these because it was part of the original recipe, but now that I am putting Hollandaise sauce on them, the cheese seems a bit out of place and unnecessary. So I will leave that out in the future.

The baked potatoes, hollowed out and ready to be filled. Make sure you get really good-sized potatoes for this recipe. If the potato isn’t big enough, the egg white will spill out over the sides and make the potato stick to the baking dish.

Cross section. I love how the yolk is still a little bit soft in the middle. Just how I like it. If you like your yolk completely cooked, leave it in the oven for a few more minutes.

The first time I made this I served it with roasted broccoli and that was really good, but this time I had some asparagus (yay spring!), so I roasted that up to go with it. I think any roasted green veggie would be awesome with this.

Hollandaise Sauce

I made Hollandaise sauce for the first time the other night. I was a bit intimidated by it, but it turned out pretty well. I used this Tyler Florence recipe.

Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

Pinch cayenne

Pinch salt

Directions:

Vigorously whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl and until the mixture is thickened and doubled in volume. Place the bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Continue to whisk rapidly. Be careful not to let the eggs get too hot or they will scramble. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat, whisk in cayenne and salt. Cover and place in a warm spot until ready to use. If the sauce gets too thick, whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.

Makes 1 cup.

It was easier than I thought it would be. And it tasted pretty good. I didn’t have unsalted butter on hand, so I had to use salted. Even though I didn’t add any extra salt, the finished sauce was a tad on the salty side, so next time I will use unsalted butter.

I served it over my Baked Egg Potato Boats and roasted asparagus. Yum!

My three-year-old absolutely loved the Hollandaise sauce. She ate it all off of her potato and then said, “More holiday mustard, please!”

Flower Cookies on a Stick

This is the dessert I made for my Easter dinner this year. I saw them on the blog The Family Kitchen, and had to make them. They are so springy looking!

Flower Cookies on a Stick

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, at room temperature

½ cup canola oil

½ cup sugar

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2¼ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

food coloring

wood or paper lollipop sticks or long wooden coffee stirrers

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the butter and oil with both sugars until light. Add the egg and beat for another minute. Add the flour, baking soda and vanilla and beat on low speed or stir by hand just until you have a smooth dough. Remove about a third of it and set aside; add several drops of food coloring to the remaining dough and knead it in until incorporated. Wrap or cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. (This will cause the dough to spread less.)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Roll the chilled dough into marble-sized balls. On a parchment-lined cookie sheet, arrange one plain dough ball, place a stick with its tip underneath it, then place 5 colored balls around it. (They will spread, so they can be close together without having to touch.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until set.

Makes about 1½ dozen cookies.

I actually didn’t change anything about this recipe. The only thing I did differently was to make more than one color. My mom helped me make these, and we did blue, pink, and yellow. I thought it would be fun to have a few different colors.

I couldn’t find sticks at the store that were the right length, so I used wire cutters to cut some bamboo skewers that I keep on hand. I think between 6 and 7 inches is good; mine happened to be 6¾” long.

We made the first batch on a dark metal baking sheet and they burned. 😦 So after that we used an air-bake type baking sheet. I think they would bake nicely on stoneware too.

Herbed Bubble Bread

This is a recipe I got from my sister-in-law Amy, who got it from Taste of Home. It was part of my Easter dinner this year.

Herbed Bubble Bread

Ingredients:

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

¾ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dill weed

¼ tsp dried basil

¼ cup butter, melted

2 tsp minced garlic

1 loaf (1 lb.) frozen bread dough, thawed

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine cheese and herbs. In another bowl, combine butter and garlic; set aside.

Divide dough into 16 pieces. Roll into balls. Coat balls in butter mixture, then dip in cheese mixture. Place in a greased 9×5” loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Bake at 350° for 22-26 minutes or until golden brown. (Cover loosely with foil if top browns too quickly.) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Makes 16 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving equals 110 calories, 4 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 8 mg cholesterol, 212 mg sodium, 14 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein.

I haven’t made too many bread recipes, especially the kind with yeast. It intimidates me. So when I first tried this at Amy’s house, I didn’t think I could make it. But then she told me that it used frozen bread dough, so I thought I would give it a shot. I had never used frozen bread dough before. It was pretty easy to work with.

I changed the herbs a little bit. That’s the nice thing about this recipe. It’s really easy to change it to your tastes. The Taste of Home recipe called for rosemary and parsley, but I don’t like those herbs, so I used more thyme, dill, and basil. Also, I misread the recipe and used garlic powder instead of minced garlic and that worked just fine. (Another reviewer on the Taste of Home website said she had problems with the minced garlic burning near the edges of the pan, so maybe powder is better anyway.)

Mine got a little too brown on the bottom, but that’s because I had the rack on the lowest position because the ham was still in there. So make sure your rack is somewhere in the middle of the oven.

The dough balls before rising. I was going to take an “after” pic of them doubled, but I forgot. It was a busy day!

Thanks for the recipe, Amy!

Glazed Ham

My 2009 ham with cranberry spice glaze.

I have made a ham on Easter three years in a row now, but every year I forget how I made the ham the year before. So I am recording it here, more for my benefit than yours really, but you might enjoy knowing how I make ham also. It’s basically this method I saw in Food Network Magazine.

Glazed Ham

Ingredients:

9 – 10 lb. bone-in fully cooked smoked ham (butt or shank half)

1½ cups glaze

Directions:

Remove the ham from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325°.

Trim off any skin from the ham. Use a sharp paring knife to score through the fat in a diagonal crosshatch pattern without cutting through to the meat.

Put the ham, flat-side down, on a rack in a roasting pan. Pour ¼” water into the bottom of the pan. Transfer to the oven and roast until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the ham registers 130°, about 2½ hours (about 15 minutes per pound).

Increase the oven temperature to 425°. Pour half of the glaze over the ham and brush to coat. If the water in the bottom of the pan has evaporated, add more. Return the ham to the oven and roast, basting every 10 minutes with the remaining glaze, until glossy and well browned and 140°, about 45 more minutes.

Makes 12 servings.

Pretty easy. Hams are already fully cooked, so you’re basically just warming it up and browning the outside. I always forget what temperature ham is supposed to reach when done, so now I have it in writing so I won’t forget next year!

The first two years I used Cranberry Spice Glaze and this year I used Mustard Orange Glaze. They are both super tasty and I highly recommend them both.

My 2011 ham with mustard orange glaze. (Forgot to take a pic before carving. Oops!)

Mustard Orange Glaze for Ham

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a nice holiday. It’s always the busiest time of year for us, but we had a great day yesterday. The weather was actually very nice and we had family in town to help us celebrate the holiday. It was my third year making an Easter dinner; a nice tradition I have started. I go pretty traditional with my Easter menu: ham, some sort of cheesy potato dish, green bean casserole, bread, and sometimes a carrot side dish too. The first two years I used the same ham glaze, Cranberry Spice Glaze for Ham, but Food Network Magazine had four different ham glaze recipes in this month’s issue so I was inspired to try a new one this year. They all look great and I want to try them all eventually, but I started with the mustard orange one.

Mustard Orange Glaze for Ham

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup brown mustard

9 – 10 lb. bone-in ham

Directions:

Zest and juice orange. Combine orange juice and zest with brown sugar and mustard. Pour half of glaze over ham when ham registers 130°. Brush with remaining glaze every 10 minutes until ham registers 140°.

Makes 1½ cups glaze.

It was really good. I had to take a picture of the ham after we carved it because I forgot to while it was still whole. But if you click on the picture, you can see the glaze on the edges of the ham.

It’s the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. It’s a nice twist on the usual honey mustard flavor profile. The original recipe called for dijon, but we like brown mustard better. I didn’t have quite enough of that, however, so this one ended up being half brown mustard and half dijon.

It was a hit with my family, so it is definitely going to my ham glaze rotation!

Melissa from I Was Born To Cook chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in November 2012.  Click on the button below to check out her post!

Fudgy Brownie Trifle

Today is my birthday. I don’t have a birthday cake, so I am going to live vicariously through my blog and post a really yummy dessert recipe. This is a dessert I made for a family gathering at Christmastime. It’s a Betty Crocker recipe.

Fudgy Brownie Trifle

Ingredients:

1 box fudge brownie mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box

1 tbsp instant coffee granules

1 box (4 serving size) chocolate fudge instant pudding mix

2 cups cold milk

1 bag (8 oz.) toffee bits

1 container (8 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

Heat oven to 350º. Grease bottom only of 13×9” pan with cooking spray.

Make brownie mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs and adding coffee granules. Spread batter in pan. Bake as directed on box. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Cut brownies into 1” squares. Place half of the squares in bottom of 3 quart trifle bowl. Make pudding mix as directed on box for pudding, using milk. Pour half of the pudding over brownies in bowl. Top with half each of the toffee bits and whipped topping. Repeat with remaining brownies, pudding, toffee bits and whipped topping.

Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

Makes 20 servings.

Oh man, this thing is so good! How can you go wrong with fudgy brownies, chocolate pudding, and toffee bits? Yum! I know that in the picture it looks like it has chopped nuts, but those are the toffee bits.

It’s a good thing I don’t have the ingredients for this on hand right now, as I would be tempted to go make it and have it for breakfast!

Multiple layers of yumminess!

Ginger Baked Chicken

This is one of my new favorite chicken dishes. Chicken breasts are marinated in what seems like a really odd jumble of flavors, but they all combine to make some really tasty chicken. Ginger is definitely the predominant flavor, though. We absolutely love ginger, so this one’s a keeper. I got this recipe from BHG.com.

Ginger Baked Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast cutlets

1 large shallot, finely chopped

½ cup orange juice

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Nonstick cooking spray

2 cups cooked white rice, optional

Directions

Place chicken in a plastic bag set in a shallow dish. In a small bowl combine shallots, orange juice, brown sugar, ginger, oil, garlic, coriander, paprika, salt, and cinnamon. Pour over chicken; seal bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 6 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly coat a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange chicken in the prepared baking dish; pour marinade over chicken.

Bake, uncovered, about 30 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Stir the juices remaining in baking dish into cooked rice, if desired. Serve the chicken with rice.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Facts

Per Serving:

Calories: 290

Fat: 5g (1g sat.)

Cholesterol: 66mg

Sodium: 209mg

Carbs: 30g

Fiber: 1g

Protein: 29g

Vitamin C: 33%

Iron: 12%

BHG.com calls this recipe Ginger Spiced Chicken, but it’s not spicy, so I feel that’s a little bit misleading. I really like how this dish is baked; it’s so easy to dump the bag it marinated in right into a baking dish, throw it into the oven, and forget about it for half an hour.

I only changed one thing about this recipe. It originally called for green onions instead of shallots. I tried it that way the first time I made it and I didn’t really like how the green onions got all wilty looking. They really looked unappetizing in the finished dish. I think that ginger and shallots go together really well, so I tried that this time and I liked it much better. To compensate for the missing little bits of green, I garnished it with chopped cilantro.

Instead of the rice, I have also served this chicken with my Asian Noodles. The flavors in each dish really compliment each other.