FOUR SEASONS CAFE

Strawberry Muffins

 I think this was one of the first muffins I made for our brunch, like 10 years ago! I never get tired of it, but I only make it in the spring and summer, mainly due to the fact that we don't have too many fresh berries in the heartland in the wintertime.

Strawberry Muffins:

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten.

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1-1/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together vegetable oil, eggs, sugars, and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix gently until moistened.

Stir in the strawberries and pecans.

Either grease, spray, or line muffin pan with paper liners.

Using an ice cream scoop makes the perfect amount for the cups, so I put 1 scoop in each cup.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool a few minutes and then put on wire rack to finish cooling.

FLAVORED BUTTER:

1 stick of butter

4 tsps. brown sugar, or more

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Soften butter and mix in sugar and cinnamon.

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ETA: I'm glad you posted this recipe, Mom, bc these are HANDS DOWN the best muffins I've ever had.. the cinnamon butter puts them over the top!

Pico-Margarito!

Back in March I posted (on my other blog) about how I made some pico de gallo with blue corn chips and a Margarita Pizza, and they both turned out wonderfullly! (This is the post if you'd like to read it.)

Soon after, I received an email from someone asking me how Margarita Pizza got its name. So I did a little Googly-ing and found this out: legend has it that over 100 years ago, a man who was visiting Queen Margherita of Naples made this pizza to honor her, and used the colors of the Italian flag: red tomatos, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil. So I suppose the correct spelling of this pizza would be Margherita Pizza.

Tomato-tomAHto.

Anyway, give this a try! It's SUPER easy, and your family will love you for it.

MARGARITA PIZZA

1 Boboli Thin Crust pizza crust
3 or 4 Roma tomatoes
6 slices of Provolone cheese (not smoked)
Basil (I just use dried)
Garlic powder

Slice your Roma tomatoes really thin and spread them in a single layer, each of them touching, all over the top of the pizza crust. (This substitutes the sauce.) Lay your Provolone on top of the tomatoes, again in a single layer. Sprinkle the top with  your basil and garlic powder, and then slide it all in the oven. You can just put the pizza on the oven rack by itself, but I like to put a piece of parchment paper under it, and then slide the whole paper-and-pizza out onto a sheet after it's finished baking.

I just follow the baking instructions on the Boboli package... I can't remember what it says to put the oven to (450 degrees?), but I know I baked it for about 10-12 minutes, until the cheese was slightly browned. It was soooooo goooooood...

Vanilla Blackberry Muffins

Mom and I haven't had one of our brunches in a long time, but when we do we usually have some sort of muffins on the table, along with our coffee and stitching and gardening chats. I decided to use up the rest of the frozen blackberries I had this morning, and came up with this...

VANILLA BLACKBERRY MUFFINS

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 c. butter, softened
1-1/4 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
2 c. frozen (or fresh) blackberries

Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs, beating well. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into creamed mixture, along with the milk. Fold in the blackberries.

Grease a muffin pan and fill the cups 2/3 full of batter. Sprinkle the tops with sugar (and throw a few walnuts on top if you're so inclined). Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden and muffiny. (Of course "muffiny" is a word!)

Serve warm, with coffee. :)

 

Delicious! And oh, so simple.

Welcome!

Thank you so much for stopping by! My mom, Marsha, and I have been talking about putting together a recipe blog for a long time, and we've finally gotten around to actually doing it. (Okay, I'll admit, she's been after me for a while about it.. she's generally much more prompt about things than I am.) I hope you find this a cozy place to visit, stopping by once in a while with your hot cup of coffee (or tea) to see if we've actually been in the kitchen. 

We'll also be inviting my sister, Audrey, to post some of her recipes, bc for all her crazy shopping excursions, some of her stops do include the grocery store... and believe it or not, she knows her way around a kitchen. (I wonder if she can talk her sweet hubby Shaun into contributing one of his amazing outdoor grill recipes?)(I'm sure he's shaking his head now, thinking, "Recipe? What's a recipe? I just cook stuff.")

Anyway, it's great to see you here. Thanks again for visiting. :)