Pecan Pie Muffins

What’s the difference between a muffin and cupcake? Well, according to Greedy Gourmet, "A muffin contains less sugar and doesn’t have icing on top". Ok, perfect - let's just enter this to the Snackshot 3 that features .... "muffins".









I thought I would do something I really like doing - blog hopping. I came upon this recipe at RecipeZaar for pecan pie muffins. The comments were all raving about how they resembled pecan pie and everyone was giving it a 5 star rating. With only a few ingredients I thought I had nothing to lose by giving them a try. I'm telling you - if you have the ingredients in your house - make them now and then get ready to make a second batch. They really do have a pecan pie type of taste to them with a muffin texture. So good. They're minis and pop right out of the mini muffin tins and directly into your mouth. It's funny how that works. I had to throw them in freezer bags immediately otherwise today could easily have been a 3000 calorie day - noooo problem.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Combine everything in a bowl
3. Spray 2 mini muffin tins about 3/4 full
4. Bake 18 minutes

Could it get any easier

Passover Crunchies

Passover begins Saturday the 19th at sundown. Basically, the celebration of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, this is a time when families and friends come together to recant the history of this exodus with stories and foods symbolic of this time. Now that's a really rough explanation but for those of you who have seen the Ten Commandments - the epic Charlton Heston movie - you'll have a sense of the history. It's important to note that it's not only Jews in the world who celebrate this time of year. Catholics also celebrate The Passover, although the symbolism and tribute to events is varied.

As the Jews left Egypt they were unable to leven bread and created an unleaven flatbread called matza (matzo, matzoh -everone spells it differently) To this day, during the period of Passover, it is forbidden to consume foods that contain leavening agents. It's kind of like a Jewish lent if you will. Matzoh is a pretty bland, tasteless cracker type of bread that takes on interesting appeal when mixed with large quantities of butter, eggs, jams etc. For those who have never seen it, here's a package of matzoh.




My good friend shared a confectionary recipe with me that's super simple, perfect for Passover and has kind of an almond roca kind of flavour to it (well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch - but it's good anyways).

Matzoh crunchies are so easy to make, and even easier to eat and you'd never know it was made of matzoh. We're entering this recipe for:



Lori Lynn at Taste With The Eyes sets the most beautiful table for her guests to celebrate Passover. Do make a point of checking out her blog - easy on the eyes and beautiful recipes too.

Ingredients:

3-4 (more or less) unsalted matzohs, enough to fit on to and completely fill your rimmed cookie sheet
1 cup unsalted butter (1 cup = 1/2 lb or 2 sticks)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (or more) chocolate chips
toasted almond slivers or slices

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Line a large cookie sheet with foil over the top edges and fold under; then cover the tinfoil with parchment paper



3. Place the matzohs onto the baking sheet, breaking as necessary to fit. It's okay if they overlap a little.



4. In a saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar and cook over medium heat (stirring constantly)



5. Remove the butter/sugar mix from the heat and pour it all over the matzoh, covering completely



6. Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 350 F
7. Bake 5-15 minutes checking every few minutes to make sure the mixture is not burning. If it's browning too quickly, reduce oven temperature or open the oven door for a minute. It should be bubbling all over and starting to turn colour.
8. Remove baking sheet from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips all over the bubbly mixture matzohs. Let stand for a few minutes until chips start melting. If you're impatient like I am, turn heat off oven and just put pan back in for a couple of minutes to melt the chocolate chips.



9. While chocolate is still soft and melted, spread with spatula for even coverage and sprinkle with toasted almond slivers/slices






10. Put into the fridge to cool and harden (about 10 minutes) and then break into pieces. You have matzoh brittle!!

Stuffed Artichokes

I had alot of fun with the last roundup at Joelen's Culinary Adventures" . The general idea is to highlight a different kitchen tool each time to show the versatility of the roundup's chosen tool. This time we're looking at the many uses of scoops. Without even knowing it, I've been using my mellon baller for a variety of things other than mellons. If you get an opportunity, it's a real learning to see how people use their kitchen tools. Stop by Joelen's Culinary Adventure. Not only is she lovely but her blog is alot of fun to follow.

While shopping at one of my favourite (I have several) Italian markets, I picked up a few artichokes. Although a staple in Italian diets, most people I know are totally intimidated at the thought of even attempting this spiky little relative to the sunflower. I decided to stuff 4 just so I can say I'm really not a wimp.



I found this recipe in Eating Well


Prepping the Artichoke:

1. Cut off the top 1 inch of leaves from the artichoke.



2. Remove the outer layer of small, tough leaves from the stem end.
3. Snip all remaining spiky tips from othe outer leaves.
4. Cut the bottom stem to make a flat bottom, discarding the stem.
5. Starting at the outer layers and moving inward, pull the leaves apart to loosen.
6. Pull open the leaves at the centre until you see the lighter leaves around the heart.
7. Pull out the lighter leaves to expose the fuzzy choke.



8. Scoop out the choke (this is where I used the mellon baller)




9. Repeat process with all artichokes
10. Put artichokes in a large bowl of acidulated water (fancy term for water with lemon so the artichokes don't turn black)



The Stuffing:

1 - 1 1/2 cups coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs
1/2 cup finely crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed and finely chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
1 clove garlic, minced

Before I go on I have to share a new toy with you. While at the National Home Show I spotted this handy little gadget. It looks like a plate but rough on the inside. You take garlic or ginger or whatever you want minced and scrape it against the rough inside of the plate. At first I thought okay, how is this any better than a garlic press. Then I saw this "plate" in action. It actually creates a butter consistency of whatever it is that you're scraping.



Can you see the smooth texture? Imagine mixing this with butter and making garlic bread - ooohhh baby!!! Of course, I picked one up for Psychgrad and in her usual sarcastic tone said "gee Mom, how did I survive all this time without one". Clearly the sarcasm doesn't stop me from getting new innovations for her and in this case it doesn't really matter how small her kitchen is - it'll fit :).



1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients

The finale:

1. Spoon approximately 1/4 - 1/2 cup stuffing into the centre of the artichoke.
2. Stuff into the outer leaves toward the base using a small spoon.
3. Repeat with other artichokes

2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice

4. Heat 2 tsp oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
5. Add 2 cloves minced garlic to oil for about 30 seconds just to infuse the oil.
6. Add 1-1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
7. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice to liquid
8. Carefully stand the artichokes upright in the pan.
9. Drizzle each artichoke with a tsp of olive oil
10. Cover and transfer pot to oven and bake until tender when pierced down through the centre with a knife - approximately 50 minutes
11. Uncover and continue baking until the stuffing is slightly browned (approx 10 more minutes)
12. Remove from the braising liquid and serve (use braising liquid for dipping)



As a recap: This was my first time stuffing artichokes. I didn't have the coarse whole wheat bread crumbs so I used regular bread crumbs. In retrospect, I would have opted for the coarse.

A good tip is to use the largest artichokes possible. Th ones I used were in my opinion a little too small for stuffing - so alot of fussing for a moderate amount to eat. I couldn't have used this as a meal but it is a nice snack and fun finger food for when people are gathered around the table.

On a final note - I bought myself a gift this week and once I master it, you can be sure you'll be seeing some Moroccan dinners being blogged. Meet my new tagine - yet to be named.