What's Cooking.

At the beginning of May Adam and I took a two week trip to California. You can see all the photos here. One thing that's different about previous trips we've taken is that I didn't bring my DSLR camera, I only brought my iPhone. There's certainly a noticeable difference in quality, but the trade off was that I didn't have to carry a big camera. I'm not ready to give up my camera entirely, but it was nice not to worry about another electronic something or other. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite shots:













We got back a month ago, but I already can't wait to go back. Since then, we've had a lovely visit from family, including this little heartbreaker, who I only have blurry photos of, because he is in constant motion.



That was the day we had donuts for breakfast and ice cream for dinner in an attempt to show the whole family the best that Somerville has to offer. Yeah, I think he enjoyed himself.

After a bout of kitchen malaise when we got back from California (where are MY 8 for a dollar avocados?!), I've been finding my way back to cooking in the last few weeks. I made these excellent muffins (mmm, molasses and raisins), and there are three jars of rhubarb rosemary jam on my counter waiting to be labeled. Last week I threw together a pistachio chimichurri and we've eaten it on fish, beef, eggs, pizza and grilled veggies: one bunch of parsley, one bunch of cilantro, a couple stalks of spring garlic (or a clove or two of mature garlic) 1/3-1/2 cup of roasted pistachios, salt and enough olive oil to make it as loose as you like it. Chop the pistachios in the food processor, then add the herbs, and pour in the oil while the machine runs. Use it on just about anything (my favorite was on grilled steak).

Farmer's markets have been open for a couple of weeks, and our garden is in bloom, now too. The tomatoes are starting to flower, and I've been able to use the chive blossoms to pretty up salads of local greens and baby tomatoes - even if the avocados are $2 a piece and come from across the country.



What have you all been up to? What's cooking with you?

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Muffins

Hurricane Sandy was, for us, a non-event, for which I am incredibly thankful. School was closed so I didn't have to go to work and Adam went in for a few hours but was home by 11:30, as the T stopped running in the early afternoon. I had anticipated our power going out mid morning, so I got up and showered as usual and then cleaned the whole house (including folding and putting away four loads of laundry!) and then everything on my list was done. By 9:30 in the morning. By 11 I was certain the power would be out any minute, but I wanted chocolate chip muffins (Perhaps I saw someone eating one on TV or something? Who knows where these whims come from). So I set to baking. The batter for these was done in less than ten minutes and they were out of the oven 15 minutes after that. Awesome.

Mini Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Muffins
adapted from an old Gourmet recipe
makes 18-20 mini muffins

This is a dessert muffin for sure, but since it doesn't have frosting (and therefore isn't a cupcake) it's totally ok to eat it for breakfast. I used coconut instead of walnuts because I felt like it, and I only had sweetened coconut so these are not a subtly sweet muffin, and they are incredibly moist. You could bake in traditional size muffin tins and then you'd get six instead of 18 and they'd be longer in the oven.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (1/2 a stick)
1/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup rolled oats, toasted slightly
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl combine the egg, milk and butter. Pour the liquid stuff into the dry and mix until it's almost combined, add the oats, coconut and chocolate chips in and mix just until there's no dry stuff showing.

Line a mini muffin tin (or two) with paper liners. Use a tablespoon to fill each tin with batter just to the top, about a tablespoon for each. If you're using disposable mini muffin tins, put them on a cookie sheet for ease of transfer and stick them in the oven. Bake for ten minutes, rotate the pan and bake for 2-5 minutes more, until a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffins from pan and cook on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp. Mini muffins keep in an airtight container at room temperature, for 5 days.