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COOKBOOK REVIEW: Life in Balance

November 11, 2017

Cookbook review written & photographed by Stay-At-Home-Chef

Life in Balance is available for purchase at local bookstores. For more information on this book please visit Harper Collins Canada.

Dear Donna Hay,

Damn girl. How do you do it? Time and time again you put together these cookbooks with killer recipes that are straightforward yet impressive, relatively quick to prepare and taste amazing. This has created a bit of a problem for me because, you see, I don’t want to stop cooking from your latest book – Life in Balance. And sista I have bookcases full of other cookbooks waiting for a chance to be reviewed. Food blogger problems, I know.

Sincerely,
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Donna Hay’s cookbook are all coffee table worthy, with gorgeous photography that you want to jump right into so you can immerse yourself in the scenes they depict. Life in Balance has a different feel from her other books – dark and vibrant tones with content divided by colour to showcase the culinary rainbow of food. The premise of the recipe collection is healthy eating without resorting to diet food, everyday recipes that utilize the bounty of nature in a way that makes you feel good but still satisfies those cravings. You know the ones I’m talking about.

One of the things I love most about Donna Hay recipes is that they are easy to understand. You might look at the stellar photo of a particular dish and think there’s no way that you could ever make that, but thanks to straightforward instructions you will be taken step by step through the entire process and before you know it you’re eating what you never thought you’d be able to recreate. And it tastes GREAT.

Subsections throughout the book allow you to learn more about specific vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, while a detailed glossary at the end provides information about specific ingredients you might not know a lot about as well as pantry staples. Never cooked buckwheat before? No problem. Flip to the glossary and find out more about this popular seed related to the rhubarb family.

I am not exaggerating when I say I want to make every single thing in this cookbook. Honestly, the thought behind each ingredient results in the recipes reading like a burst of flavours that you can’t wait to try. The gorgeous photos will inspire you into culinary action. I for one will be returning to this book again, and again.

Never before have I given a cookbook full marks across the board for each of the three recipe tests. Until now. Yup – 5 out of 5 for each recipe I tested from Donna Hay’s Life in Balance. This is a historic moment folks – go out and celebrate by buying this book.

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Food & Wine Magazine: January Cover Recipe

February 19, 2017

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (well-balanced flavours that complement each other)

THE TEST: Let me start off my saying that my husband thinks I’m the victim of my own expectations. I think he may be right.

It’s no secret that since returning to the world of full-time work four years ago, my blog has suffered terrible neglect. Try as I might – finding a work/life/blog balance continues to elude me. But when the January issue of Food & Wine Magazine arrived in my mailbox and I laid eyes on the piri piri chicken and fries gracing the cover, I was filled with a strong sense of determination. This cover recipe must be made and will mark my triumphant return to the world of food blogging.

Yes – this was going to happen.

The entire month goes by and I start panicking. Quick phone call to our favourite butcher (insert shout-out to Pasture to Plate!) revealed they were sold out of chicken breasts and thighs so in an act of desperation I pulled a package of wings out of the freezer and left in the fridge to thaw overnight. My plan was to make the piri piri marinade in the morning before work and then leave the chicken to infuse with all that spicy goodness until we got home.

Of course in my mind things went a lot more smoothly than reality.

It didn’t take long for me to become flustered as I juggled getting ready for work, making lunches for the kids, micro-managing getting them dressed because after all these years it still seems to be a struggle to get socks on, while simultaneously trying to make the marinade. With my work phone in one hand responding to emails and the other pouring cereal for a hangry kid, things quickly spun out of control.

I managed to stage my first photo for the blog post but couldn’t find my SLR camera. Quick phone call to Mr. Spock confirmed it was at his office. No problem, that’s why iPhones have such a great camera – for times like this. I grab my cellphone and get ready to take the first shot only to find my memory was full. I hastily plugged it into my computer and started downloading all of my files to make room.

Meanwhile the kids are starting to stare at me in a weird way.

“Mom – are you okay?”

“Yup – just busy being the victim of my own expectations!”

“Okay. But I need you to sign my homework book and there’s a field trip form I need to return today….”

You get the picture.

I finally snapped my first pic and moved on to chopping the red Thai peppers (couldn’t find red jalapeños or fresno peppers to save my life), dried chiles de árbol, garlic, shallot, ginger and cilantro. Did I remember about the hot peppers when applying my make-up? Nope – not until I went to blend my eye cream.

Moving on.

I buzzed everything in the blender along with champagne vinegar, olive oil and sweet smoked paprika then seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with the chicken. A valiant effort went into trying to make the blender photo look Instagram worthy but I couldn’t get it right and in the end my eldest daughter took my phone away because by this point she was seriously worried they’d be late for school. So I quickly doused the chicken with the marinade and tossed into the fridge for later and hustled out the door.

#GoodTimes

THE RESULTS: After the morning mayhem I can’t tell you how lovely it was to have Mr. Spock pick-up the kids and start barbequing the wings, so that by the time I got home the house smelled delicious and all I had to focus on was the glass of wine he put in my hand.

I love you sweetie.

If you’re able to barbeque the chicken instead of bake in the oven I highly recommend going that route, as it really dialed up that smokey piri piri flavour. The kids found the chicken a bit on the spicy side but managed to eat it all. I opted to slather on more of the piri piri sauce and combined with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice the combination was perfect. The heat from the chillies complimented the acid from the lemon and tang of the vinegar, while the cilantro brightened everything up nicely. If I were to critique the recipe in any way it would be to suggest adding more vinegar as it got lost a bit with everything else going on in the sauce.

Despite all the drama in the end I’m happy I made this recipe because it’s a keeper, and I’m damn proud of the fact this post got up. Even though it’s February.

Cover Recipe:
Piri Piri Chicken with Crispy Potatoes

The mission of Food & Wine Magazine is to find the most exciting places, new experiences, emerging trends and sensations in the culinary and wine industries. From travel and entertaining to luxury and design, this magazine brings an energetic and stylish take on food and wine. For more information on Food & Wine Magazine, please visit www.foodandwine.com.

Also posted in Food & Wine Cover Recipes – 0 Comments

Goat cheese bootcamp

March 27, 2016

Written & photographed by Stay-At-Home-Chef

I have a confession to make – I used to hate goat cheese.

It’s one of those dirty little secrets I’ve kept to myself for years. For as long as I can remember I always detested chèvre, to the point where I would force my goat-cheese-loving husband to keep his stash in the bar fridge downstairs in the basement far away from any food I would be consuming.

There was nothing I couldn’t find to hate about goat cheese: The texture, taste and smell. I remember getting food allergy testing done when I was in my 20’s and preying goat’s milk would get flagged – at least then I’d have an excuse. But, alas, the results indicated goat cheese fell in my ‘go ahead and eat as much as you can possibly cram into your mouth’ category.

Now fast-forward to when I first launched this blog and began to lead a more serious life as a self-proclaimed foodie. This passionate dislike for anything goaty started to really weigh on me. I felt it held me back as an epicurean and I was ashamed. Anytime I would politely decline chèvre people would stare at me and proclaim “but you’re a foodie!” Yes. It was true.

So I came up with a plan of action that would force me to become a lover of goat cheese, creating a detailed step-by-step an approach that would not only acclimatize me to the taste but convert me into a fan. It was basically a glorified goat cheese boot camp.

And it worked.

I started off slowly; nibbling on über mild cream cheese textured options on salads, slathered on sandwiches or crumbled on pizza. At first I could only manage a bite or two, shuddering my way through and holding my breath. But ever so slowly I built up my tolerance and started experimenting with goat cheese dips served on top of strong flavoured crackers to help mask the taste, and then graduated to mild goat gouda and eventually more pungent flavoured cheeses masked under spreads and chutneys. With help from the cheese professionals at Benton Brothers Fine Cheese I discovered a newfound appreciation and love for chèvre. Not once did they bat an eye when I’d ask for a goat cheese for people who hate goat cheese. And not once did they steer me wrong.

It might have taken me more than a year but I can now say I’m not only a fan of goat cheese – I’m addicted to the stuff. Mild, creamy, hard, soft – I love it all. But my ultimate favourite is paillot de chèvre from Quebec. Its soft interior is quite runny at the rind but gets firmer close to the centre, the flavour mildly aromatic and slightly tangy. Oh and in case you were wondering it goes great with a chill glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Here’s a recipe I’m currently obsessed with making: Pepper-Glazed Goat Cheese Gratin. This started as a favourite for my weekly date night at home with Mr. Spock, but the kids soon caught on and now help devour this fantastic appy.

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Monthly Butter Challenge: Saturday Morning Cinny Buns

September 7, 2014

Interview conducted & written by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

The second recipe in our monthly recipe challenge was Saturday Morning Cinny Buns – specifically, peach pecan with bourbon glaze – one of many rotating flavours the folks over at the Butter Café make for their addicted customers once a week.

Unfortunately, I experienced ‘one of those days’ in the kitchen. You know the ones; no matter what you do something goes wrong and you start wondering if what the universe really wants you to do is get out of the kitchen and put your feet up with a big ol’ glass of vino.

A brief recap of my efforts:

During my first attempt I failed to read the instructions carefully (insert gasps of shock and horror here). I mean I did skim the steps, reading how flour and yeast were mixed with a melted combo of butter, milk, sugar and salt. What I didn’t read was that not all of the flour and butter quantities were to be used at once. So when I mixed the dough my ratios were off because I followed the total amount of listed ingredients and not what was specified in the instructions. Lesson learned.

My second attempt fared much better, but I have to say I decided to take a bit of risk with this recipe. Probably not the best idea when you’re already having ‘one of those days’. Because my eldest daughter is gluten-intolerant I decided to substitute a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix. I’ve had much success with swamping flours before, but it didn’t work out this time around. The dough barely rose which wasn’t too much of a surprise considering I was working without gluten. But the dough was incredibly sticky and difficult to work with when rolling out, and in the end although they looked pretty the results tasted rather ghastly.

The good news is that while I failed miserably this time around, Tina from The Pink Spatula enjoyed great success! You can read her post here.

Want to join in on the fun? Pick-up a copy of Butter Baked Goods and send me a photo of the month’s recipe challenge or send a link to your blog post. Recipe reviews must be posted before the 20^th of each month.

Next Monthly Butter Challenge: I told Tina from The Pink Spatula that her two daughters – Lauren and Katie age 12 – could choose the recipe for our next challenge. It was a difficult choice to make but the girls settled on (drum roll please) Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Cupcakes (page 177). Nice choice Lauren and Katie! For those of you baking with us don’t forget to send your pics or blog post links before September 20!

And finally, a big congrats to the winners of the Butter Baked Goods giveaway contest! Sandra, Buffi, Natalie and Sonja copies of the book will be sent to you courtesy of the wonderful folks over at Random House of Canada. Please email your mailing address to info@cookthatbook.com

Also posted in Monthly Butter Challenge – 2 Comments

Monthly Butter Challenge: The Dream Slice

July 21, 2014

Interview conducted & written by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

The past year has held a lot of change, including a big move into the city and a return to the world of full-time employment, and while all of these new adventures were welcome additions to our lives somewhere along the way I lost my food writing mojo. Looking for inspiration, it was while I was flipping through the pages of Rosie Daykin’s Butter Baked Goods book that I came up with the idea of baking my way through each of the heavenly looking recipes. There are a lot of baking challenges in the blogosphere, but there was just something oh so charming about Butter that inspired me and made me want to make (and eat) everything in its pages.

The first recipe we tackled was The Dream Slice. Described as the Butter Café’s most popular bar, I thought this was as good a place to start as any. And I was right. What a fun, tasty treat to kick things off! There are three separate elements involved in this recipe but the instructions are straightforward and approachable, even for those who may be just picking up their whisks for the first time.

A shortbread type base is quickly baked off before going back into the oven with a filling of walnuts, maraschino cherries (I used cherries that were naturally coloured – no chemicals here folks!) and coconut, and once cooled a topping of whipped buttercream icing is spread overtop as the finishing layer. Voila. Guaranteed to make your taste buds happy, The Dream Slice was easy to prepare and served up beautifully, perfect for that afternoon tea party or baby shower or simply eaten out of the pan at night after the kids and hubby are asleep. Not that that would ever happen. Ever.

So here we are – the first month of this exciting new challenge and I am happy to say I’m in fine company!

Tina from The Pink Spatula was the first person I mentioned the monthly challenge to, and once she said she was ‘in’ I knew this was going to be fun.

Kimberley from pinksiren.blogspot.com has previous experience with the Butter book and jumped right into the monthly challenge with tasty results!

Christina also kept us company this month and had the following to say:

Delicious bars that I would probably never have made on my own accord. 
They taste nothing like you would imagine with the ingredients listed. 
Everyone who tried them loved them. The crust was easy and turned out 
lovely. I will definitely make these gems again!

And finally, I’d like to give a shoutout to Deborah who was having ‘one of those days’ in the kitchen while attempting this month’s challenge. You know those days – where nothing seems to go right? But she’ll be back for next month!

Want to join in on the fun? Pick-up a copy of Butter Baked Goods and send me a photo of that month’s recipe challenge or send a link to your blog post. Recipes reviews must be posted before the 20^th of each month. To get things started, the wonderful folks over at Random House of Canada are providing five lucky readers with a giveaway copy of Butter Baked Goods! To be eligible for the draw, simply leave a comment below telling us what your favourite treat to bake happens to be. Winners will be announced during next month’s recipe roundup. Good luck!

Next Monthly Butter Challenge: Ooey gooey Saturday Morning Cinny Buns (page 53). Don’t forget to send your pics or blog post links before August 20!

Also posted in Monthly Butter Challenge – 12 Comments

Monthly Miettes: Crème Fraîche Scones

January 31, 2013

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Kicking off our return to Monthly Miettes, Aimée from Food, Je t’Aimée tasked us with making Crème Fraîche Scones. Apparently, these scones are no longer sold at Miette bakeries but due to popular demand the recipe was included in the cookbook. Crème fraîche is added in order to provide the dough with a slight tang to compliment the lemon zest, and also to keep the scones nice and moist. Delicately treating the dough along with the stipulated technique of freezing the scones prior to baking gives these Miette favourites their famed flakiness.

I was excited. My hubby loves scones and I had promised the girls a special tea party for their teddy bear picnic. The stage was set for success. Unfortunately things don’t always go as planned…

Right off the bat I knew the texture of the dough was off. I mixed the dry ingredients with the butter until it looked like cornmeal, but after adding the crème fraîche and heavy cream the dough was still too dry. The recipe says it should look “undermixed and crumbly” but with 3 ½ cups of flour with a mere 1/3 cup each of crème fraîche and cream there just wasn’t enough liquid. So I added more cream. And then some more. But despite the additional liquid when I pressed the dough into the pan I quickly decided it was nothing more than a hopeless mess.

Frustrated at yet another flawed recipe in a book that continues to underwhelm me, I cut my loses and dumped the dough.

But scones had been promised and scones were expected so scones there would just have to be!

In the end I found a fabulous recipe on epicurious which turned out so well I am adding it to my collection of family favourite recipes. Served with strawberry jam and some Devon cream it was pure heaven. As for the Miette recipe, I hope the other blogger have more success. I’m not ready to give up on this book! Let’s hope next month’s results are better.

For more information on Monthly Miettes or if you’re interested in participating, please visit Food: Je t’Aimée

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Muffin Monday: Maple Apple Muffins

January 27, 2013

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Maple. Apple. Cinnamon.

These three flavours are cast in lead roles for this week’s muffin recipe, and the results are definitely worthy of a curtain call!

The original recipe hails from The Sweet Chick, and is a straightforward recipe that blogger Carole created specifically for her daughter who wanted to bake apple cupcakes. Despite the initial inspiration to make cupcakes, purists can rest easy knowing that this recipe is not one that blurs the line between cupcake and muffin. There is no denying its muffiness in terms of texture and lack of icing.

The oatmeal/cinnamon/brown sugar/butter topper provides a nice crunch to the muffins without being overwhelmingly sweet. To heighten the flavour of cinnamon in the topping I decided to add cinnamon chunks, something I highly recommend trying with this recipe. The bits of apple softened beautifully after baking, and the Greek yogurt kept the interior nice and moist. Basically think apple pie in the form of a muffin.

Muffins don’t get better than this my friends!

For the original recipe we used in this week’s Muffin Monday, please visitBaker Street

Don’t forget to visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Also posted in Muffin Mondays – 7 Comments

Food & Wine Magazine: November Cover Recipe

December 11, 2012

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

As part of my culinary New Year’s resolutions, I have committed to creating each month’s cover recipe from Food & Wine Magazine. Joining me once again this month is our resident wine expert Kendall Harris of Wine2Three, who provided a fun pinot noir suggestion to pair with this delightful Herb-Roasted Turkey.

Want to join in on the fun? We’d love the company! Pick-up a copy of the latest issue of Food & Wine and get cooking. Be sure to send me an email at info@cookthatbook.com to let me know you made the cover recipe, and if you’re a blogger don’t forget to post a link to your post in the comments below.

Herb-Roasted Turkey with Wild Mushroom Gravy

Rating: 4 out of 5 (classic roast turkey, easy to prepare)

Initial Thoughts: Giddy up!

THE TEST: Throughout the year as I make each cover from Food & Wine Magazine, my mind flits over to the November issue and the predictable turkey dinner. Prior to embarking upon this monthly challenge, I had never tackled a whole turkey. Now – three years later – I have several turkey dinner notches in my belt. But despite past successes, the idea of making a full turkey dinner always makes me nervous.

Once I saw that November’s Herb-Roasted Turkey with Wild Mushroom Gravy was developed by David Tanis (New York Times columnist, award-winning cookbook author, past chef at Chez Panisse), my anticipation grew. The recipe is part of a feature article highlighting a California-style Thanksgiving feast at a Napa Valley ranch. The photos are stunning and the meal looks incredible! In fact, I’ve bookmarked each and every recipe for the future.

Preparing this turkey is dead simple, making it the perfect recipe for the holidays. In order to maximize flavour, butter seasoned with sage, thyme and garlic is rubbed inside the cavity. Additional sage and thyme are placed inside the bird before the neck flap is plugged with half an apple. The turkey is then rubbed with olive oil and placed on top of celery, onion and carrots. Honestly, this is the easiest turkey recipe I’ve tried and would be great for any home cooks suffering from turkey anxiety. You can’t go wrong. Although please ensure you have a digital meat thermometer on hand. Trust me – it makes life so much easier.

THE RESULTS: The turkey emerged from the oven smelling incredible and looking perfectly golden and crisp all over. Cue oooo’s and ahhhhhhs!

We let the meat rest for an hour, which helps to retain all of those lovely juices and frees up the oven for any side dishes that still need to be cooked. Because I knew that Mr. Spock and the kids would have split the instant I even said the word ‘mushrooms’, I decided to skip the wild mushroom gravy. But let me tell ya the drippings made fantastic gravy even without the fungus.

This recipe is one that I will be making again for Christmas Day, as it is simple to prepare and full of fantastic turkey flavour that is slightly sweetened from the roasted veg. When I do make it again, I am going to brine it for a day or two to really infuse it with maximum flavour. This recipe by Anthony Sedlak happens to be one of my all-time favourite poultry brines.

Despite my usual turkey related anxiety, this meal turned out to be amazing. And having dear friends whom we don’t get to see nearly enough gathered around the table was perfect. It was an evening of good food, great company, and waaaaay too much wine! Having everyone together in the kitchen pitching in with the preparations (whether making gravy, providing carving commentary, or reading stories and practicing demi-plié with the kids) highlighted the importance of community in our lives, and was a good reminder about the true meaning of the holidays.

This month, our resident wine expert Kendall Harris of Wine2Three had everyone abuzz with her suggested pinot noir pairing! Our guests were all pleasantly surprised by the heavy, smokiness of this particular wine. I will definitely be picking up a few more bottles for the holidays! As far as the turkey was concerned, there were a few people who would have preferred a more traditional crisp white to drink alongside the poultry but the majority of the table loved the way in which this wine brought out and deepened the contrasting flavours of the entire meal. And had I made the wild mushroom gravy, there is no doubt that the woodsy taste of the mushrooms would have paired perfectly with the pinot.

Cover Recipe:
Herb-Roasted Turkey with Wild Mushroom Gravy

Wine Pairing by Kendall Harris of Wine2Three

Pairing wine with a Thanksgiving meal can sometimes be challenging – so many different types of food being prepared, so many different flavours, not to mention different people with different palates! A classic food-friendly wine that has become a reliable Thanksgiving recommend is Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned grape, so the resulting wine is a lighter bodied wine, perfect with turkey meat. Also, Pinot Noir displays wonderful berry flavours that harmonize deliciously with the cranberry sauce present at many Thanksgiving tables. Finally, because of its nice level of acidity (which makes your mouth water), it’s an excellent food wine, and won’t overwhelm the meal with big strong sweet fruit flavours (like an Australian Shiraz).

Pinot Noir is called “the heartbreak grape” because winemakers have a tendency to fall madly in love with this varietal. It can be a challenging grape to work with; for example the thin skin of the grapes make it vulnerable in the vineyard and requires more TLC than other varieties. You may also remember the character Miles waxing poetic about Pinot Noir in the movie “Sideways,” one of my favorite wine movies!

I recommend this Leyda Pinot Noir from Chile because it’s absolutely delicious and much of Chile’s grape growing is done under organic or almost organic conditions. Because of that country’s climate, the kinds of pests and mildew problems that plague winemakers around the world don’t show up on Chilean soil. This Leyda Pinot Noir also happens to be well priced, so pick-up a few bottles. At a big holiday dinner, quantity is sometimes just as important as quality!

Cheers!

Kendall Harris is a wine blogger who shares her adventures in the wine world as Wine2three on Twitter & Facebook. She has an Advanced Certificate from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) and is passionate about sharing her wine knowledge with others. “Like” her page on Facebook for fun, informative wine posts!

Also posted in Food & Wine Cover Recipes – 2 Comments

Muffin Monday: Eggnog Snickerdoodle Muffins

December 2, 2012

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Ah. The holidays. Gotta love the level of indulgence this means for Muffin Mondays! This week Baker Street gave us a fun recipe for snickerdoodle muffins by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

As the name suggests, these muffins are a twist on traditional snickerdoodle cookies which are similar to a sugar cookie but are rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture instead of granulated sugar. Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, these cookies use simple ingredients but come up big in the flavour department. Unfortunately no one seems to know how they came by such a peculiar name.

Wanting to dial up the holiday theme with these muffins, I ended up replacing the 1¼ cup sour cream with eggnog. I also added ½ tsp of eggnog extract to help boost the flavour (but feel free to leave out if you wish). I also decided to use nutmeg instead of cinnamon, and mixed together brown sugar and nutmeg to sprinkle overtop of the muffins prior to baking.

These little beauties turned out wonderfully! Lovely and crisp on the outside, perfectly moist interior, and the flavour of eggnog really was perfect with this style of muffin.

Happy Muffin Monday!

Don’t forget to visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Also posted in Muffin Mondays – 15 Comments

Muffin Monday: Cinnamon Bun Muffins

November 25, 2012

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Our holiday edition of Muffin Monday continued this week with a recipe by King Arthur Flour for Simply Sinful Cinnamon Muffins. With the recipe calling for a sweet cinnamon middle and confectioners’ sugar glaze, I immediately thought of cinnamon buns. By adding additional flour in order to make stiffer dough, I managed to roll it out into a rectangle, sprinkled the filling overtop and rolled it into a log. Slicing off two-inch rounds, I placed the dough in the muffin pan and hoped for the best!

To be honest, the dough was a bit tricky to work with as I needed it to be stiffer than a regular muffin batter but not the thick bread consistency of cinnamon buns. Needless to say things got a little sticky but it all worked out in the end. When I pulled the muffins out of the oven I was happy to see they had retained their spiral shape.

Go big or go home. That should be the motto for our holiday muffins! So yes, I did end up icing these muffins with a cream cheese vanilla icing. I couldn’t help myself.

Wowsa – talk about an insanely tasty sugar high!

Happy Muffin Monday!

Don’t forget to visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Also posted in Muffin Mondays – 5 Comments

Category Archives: The Back Burner

COOKBOOK REVIEW: Life in Balance

Food & Wine Magazine: January Cover Recipe

Goat cheese bootcamp

Monthly Butter Challenge: Saturday Morning Cinny Buns

Monthly Butter Challenge: The Dream Slice

Monthly Miettes: Crème Fraîche Scones

Muffin Monday: Maple Apple Muffins

Food & Wine Magazine: November Cover Recipe

Herb-Roasted Turkey with Wild Mushroom Gravy

Wine Pairing by Kendall Harris of Wine2Three

Muffin Monday: Eggnog Snickerdoodle Muffins

Muffin Monday: Cinnamon Bun Muffins

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