Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tippy Tops

Sunshine, seventy degrees, green plush grass and the beautiful (I know they're annoying) dandelions are finally upon our senses. I love Spring and the following promise of Summer. Just the other day while I was out hiking I wanted to lay in the grass. I wanted to enjoy the fresh green hues and the perfect sunshine. Of course I didn't but, it was a nice thought.

With the great weather change comes some freshly illuminated inspiration. The tastes of sweet fresh berries, juicy watermelon and the mouth watering crunch of homegrown vegetables are on the tip of my tongue and vibrant in my eyes. Inspirational, Mother Nature is.

With all this inspiration and the tastes present from memories past, I'm excited to have created a new BOTG (Breakfast On The Go) recipe. It's a splendid sweet and tart breakfast. I've recently become a fan of combining blueberry and lemon. While I've always loved the distinct flavors on their own, WOW are they great together. This recipe is only the first for these two flavors being combined in treats. I must come up with a delicious cupcake. I must!

Anywho, right now I present to you, a scrumptious Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tippy Top recipe. It's guaranteed to satisfy in the morning (anytime of day, really). This recipe can easily become muffins, if you so choose. I made a crumble for the top to add a little extra pop of sugary sweetness. The tart, plump and deep blue berries were a perfect combination with the tangy kiss of the lemon peel and juice. To balance the tart I used brown sugar for a deeper sweetness. It creates a perfect bite each time. I am truly pleased with these Tippy Tops and I am extra pleased to share the recipe with you!

As always, feel free to leave comments below and let me know how you treats or meals turned out. Furthermore, I'd love to hear if you changed the recipes and why.

Go bake and enjoy some time in that kitchen!

Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tippy Tops           [Printable Recipe]

Makes about 18 Tippy Tops

Muffin Tippy Tops:

2 1/4 cups flour 2 Tbls set aside for blueberries

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, room temperature 

1/2 cup milk, room temperature 

2 tsp vanilla

Juice of one lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

1 pint fresh blueberries

1 recipe Crumble Topping (recipe below) 

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a mixer combine and beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. 

2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and lemon peel. Set aside. 

3. Toss blueberries in 2 Tablespoons of flour, set aside. 

4. Combine eggs, milk, and vanilla in a measuring cup. 

5. Alternately add the flour and milk mixtures to the butter/sugar. Starting with the flour. 

6. Mix in lemon juice.

7. Fold in blueberries, be sure not to add the extra flour from the blueberries. 

8. Scoop mixture into prepared pans and top with crumble topping. 

9. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

10. Enjoy! 

Crumble Topping:

2 Tbls butter

3 Tbls flour

3 Tbls brown sugar

Crumble Topping Directions:

1. With a fork combine all ingredients until pea sized crumbles form. Set aside.

Blueberry Lemon Muffin Tippy Tops - Coming soon!

After a little "vacation" from blogging and working in the kitchen, I will be returning with new posts this week. To start I decided to do a new recipe for Muffin Tippy Tops. Due to a great switch in the weather (Hello warm sunny days!) I've been inspired and picked a bright and delicious combination...Fresh Blueberry and Lemon. Check back this week! 

Mini vacation to Madison Indiana

If you haven't heard of Madison, IN you are certainly not alone. It is a gem that many don't seem to know about. Madison is located in the southeast corner of Indiana right along the Ohio River bordering with Kentucky. It's a little historic town full of charm and a very relaxed vibe. I highly recommend checking it out. Today I'll share some photos, must visit shops/restaurants/locations, and local food from my trip this year. 

This is "Hanging Rock Road" where you can drive under the rock and waterfall. If you wish to visit this spot the road name is Cragmont Street.

This year was my second trip there to spend a weekend. After visiting Madison for two years in a row, I almost want to start making it an annual mini vacation. During this visit we managed to eat at only local restaurants and we ventured out to discover more of what the area had to offer. In our adventures we found some good food, genuinely nice people, a twisty (slightly scary) road through some forest covered hills that had some amazing views once you made it to the top, and some decent wine. That's just the short story of what we discovered this weekend. Again, I highly recommend checking out Madison. 

When you visit Madison (I know you will!) I recommend a few strolls down Main Street. It's full of historic buildings and great shops and restaurants. I highly recommend you check out Hinkles Hamburgers. They are perfect little sliders for a late evening meal or a lunch snack. The Downtowner offers a good atmosphere, service and delicious food (they're famous for their large cookies). I stopped into Galena Garlic Company this time around and I can't wait to test the ingredients I purchased there (more on that later). In a short drive out of downtown you can find a decent winery (Madison Vineyards) and a few fun places to visit. I purchased two wines, one to drink and one for a dessert, from Madison Vineyards. They offer free wine tasting and their prices are reasonable per bottle. I will be working on recipes this week that include the ingredients pictured above. I'm most excited to create both a savory and a sweet recipe out of the Chocolato pasta! Check back soon for those recipes.

One of many waterfalls in Clifty Falls State Park.

The highlight on both trips for me has been the time I spent in Clifty Falls State Park. There are numerous trails through this beautiful park. The range in difficulty and views. On our visit this year the weather was PERFECT for hiking and photos. Below I will share some of the photos I took along the hike. Enjoy and check back soon for new recipes inspired by my trip!

You can actually walk across this small waterfall. 

There's nothing like standing at the edge of a cliff/waterfall and taking a picture. haha

As a true foodie I couldn't help but have my photo taken next to Cake Rock.  Yes, I was working a weird face. 

While it's still early Spring there were flowers popping up here and there. Beautiful. 

Trail 8. It was so nice to see the start of color popping up all over the park.

One of the coolest paths. It dead ends now as the rock has fallen, but it leads to a good lookout point to a waterfall.

Thank YOU!

Thank YOU, thank YOU! 

I can't thank the viewers enough for stopping by and checking out Creandé.

I've been a bit quiet this week because I've taken some time off to address some things on the home front AND I took a mini vacation to Madison, IN. A much needed weekend away with my dear Best Friend to relax (maybe a little celebration of my upcoming birthday) has led to some great photos and recipe ideas that I'll be sharing. Tomorrow I'll be bringing you some of those photographs taken this weekend. I will also tell you a little about a few places I ate and shopped that have inspired me to work on some new recipes. I can't wait to share and get back in the kitchen! Stay tuned. 

As always, feel free to leave comments/suggestions/share stories here on the blog or over on Facebook. 

Adventures in Donut Making

Last week I bought some clearance donut pans and I couldn't wait to try them out. Baked Donuts have been on my mind for a while, I just never bought the pans to make them. Now that I have them, let the baking begin!

I snapped a few pictures while I was baking some Very Vanilla Donuts yesterday. I'm still recipe testing so there is no recipe to share in this post. Once I come up with one I love, I'll share. I promise. 

Very Vanilla Donuts w Chocolate Glaze and Toasted Coconut

Very Vanilla Donuts w Chocolate Glaze

This is the milk, vanilla, and vanilla bean mixture (YUM!) and the browned butter (double YUM!)

Recipes coming soon. I've also been working on an ice cream! Excited to share some new recipes and adventures with you all.

Ham and Cheese Scones with Photo Tutorial

BOTG - Breakfast On The Go or a key element in the equation of a busy life.

We're all told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I agree! I enjoy something for breakfast or brunch everyday. I really enjoyed my two previous recipes (Banana Maple Muffin Tippy Tops and Apple Cranberry Muffin Tippy Tops) so much that I ate them up quite quickly. haha It was time to try something different though. I was inspired, due to a recent baking adventure, to make scones. I had the idea for some savory Ham and Cheese scones to start the day with a cup o java. After a bit of looking around, this is what I came up with.

I am no expert in making scones, that I will admit. One thing I know that is key in successful scones is COLD butter. When the butter cooks it's what makes the delicious explosions inside the pastry. To get the best butter, I do the same thing for pie crust, I use a grater and butter RIGHT out of the fridge. Also, I place the butter in the freezer while I prepare the remaining ingredients. 

I managed to snap a few photos along the prep stages and then a lick your screen worthy photo of the scones from the inside. Delicious! 

Here's the recipe and the photo tutorial follows...

Ham and Cheese Scones

adapted from: CookingLight

Makes 1 dozen scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon fresh Basil
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, grated
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup small ham cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400º and line baking sheets with parchment paper

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and basil in a large bowl.
2. Add butter and blend with a pasty blender or a fork until well blended (see photo).
3. Add ham and cheese, mix with fork.
4. Combine buttermilk and egg whites, whisk well. Add to pastry mix and stir just until combined.
5. Turn dough onto a floured surface. The dough will be sticky, but no worries. It's supposed to be. Don't go crazy flouring it.
6. Form into a rectangle and cut in half and then into 12 triangles.
7. Place on prepared baking sheets and bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.
8. Serve warm.

Whisk dry ingredients and basil.

Blend in that COLD butter.

Blend in the cheese. YUM!

Mix in the ham cubes.

Combine the buttermilk and egg whites with a whisk. Combine them with the dry ingredients and mix just until moist.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and shape into a rectangle.

Cut dough in half and then into 12 triangles. I used a pizza cutter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400º

Look at that delicious scone! 

Spring Cupcake How To

                 

               Dreaming of this...

...this is what we see.

Even if there are inches of snow on the ground in these early days of Spring, I'm still imagining the scent of blooming flowers and fresh cut grass. Not to mention the array of beautiful colors and new life that Spring brings. Since I can't look outside and enjoy the scenery I want, I decided to make some cute cupcakes to celebrate the days to come!

When I was asked to make a dessert for a Relay For Life event I instantly thought of cupcakes. Perfect treat for people to pick up and they aren't too messy at all. Perfect. Apparently everyone thought they were perfect as well...they sold out! The choice of decoration was obviously well received. The pictures I shared over on Facebook got some love too. The Birdie Cupcake was favored so I decided to put together a quick tutorial on how I made them. 

I used basic decorating tips to make these cupcakes and they truly are simple to do. I did learn that I should have went with my original idea of making the birds out of fondant. I think they would look better by being more round...Next time! haha For now, this is how you can achieve these cute cupcakes. They are perfect for upcoming Easter dinners! 

What you'll need:

- Your favorite cupcakes

- Buttercream or Whipped Frosting, colored as you wish

- Decorating bags with couplers 

- Decorating Tips (2, 3, 12 (all previous are round tips) and 233 (grass tip))

- A little creativity and imagination 

Here are the steps:

Starting in the center and working out swirl the nest and build the sides as you go around the outer edge.

Once you've built the nest, add a little detail by randomly pipping with the grass tip.

Fill a bag with the #12 tip attached with blue frosting. Pipe one bird at a time. It will have a pointy top, you'll fix that in a few steps.

In each nest place three blue birds. After you've pipped all the birds let them dry for a few minutes. To smooth out the pointy tip on the birds, with a glove on, use your finger to smooth it out. Lightly press each tip down. This will leave a base for the itty bitty yellow beak. 

Prepare a bag for the yellow frosting with the #3 tip and reuse the brown frosting by attaching the #2 tip. Pipe the upper and lower parts of the beak on the base impression you made in the previous step. Once you've added the beak to each bird on each cupcake go back and add the eyes. Do so by adding a very small dot. Do not squeeze the bag too much, you don't want to add a blob of brown for the eyes.

This should be your final product. How cute!

I also made some Spring flower cupcakes. These were even more simple. Pipe grass on to the cupcake as the base. Using various tips and colors, get creative and pipe on some pretty flowers. Fun!

Basic French Toast and Baked Bacon

BACON! 

Who doesn't just love bacon? If you don't, I'm sorry. Bacon has to be one of my favorite things to eat. I don't often eat it, we all know it's not so good for us, but when I do I feel like I'm in heaven. haha What's even better than just bacon? A hearty breakfast of Bacon and French Toast. Give me a bottle of real Maple Syrup and I'm gone. Lost in some other land called foodie heaven. Yum!

As much as I love bacon, I've always hated cooking it. There is, to me, no mess like a bacon grease mess. It gets everywhere, on everything, and cleaning it up is not what I want to do after a healthy serving of breakfast. So, I was pleasantly (I smiled from EAR TO EAR) when I saw someone share this baking bacon trick on Pinterest. I would have never thought. I'm glad someone had this genius idea. It's the easiest way to cook bacon, ever! And the cleanup...rolling up the foil, tossing it in the trash and a quick clean of the pan(s). I can deal with that. Not to mention, the bacon comes out almost perfectly flat. See below. 

I use a half sheet cake pan that I stopped using for cakes. It works perfect.

Yum!

Go on, give it a go. The instructions are below.

In the case of breakfast this bacon needs a pairing. A simple French Toast is perfect! I usually just throw French Toast together, but I figured I'd write my basic recipe and share it. The French Toast pictured above was delicious but only in part to the mix it soaks in. For the first time I used Challah bread (thanks to my significant other for the brilliant idea) instead of Texas Toast. I will never go back to Texas Toast! The Challah bread is slightly sweet and a perfect consistency for French Toast. I recommend tracking it down (or making your own) for this breakfast dish. You won't be disappointed. 

Challah Bread. Look at that baby!

Both recipes are below. Enjoy!

Easy French Toast

Ingredients:

Challah Bread, sliced 3/4-1 inch thick

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

Butter

Maple Syrup

Directions:

1. In a medium shallow bowl combine, with a fork, all ingredients but the bread.

2. Soak the bread slices, flip it twice in the batter, one slice at a time.

3. Place 2-4 slices, depending on the size of pan, onto a buttered hot flat fry pan. 

4. Cook just a few minutes on each side until nice and golden brown.

5. Serve warm with butter and real maple syrup.

Baked Bacon

Items Needed:

1 pound bacon
large pan, or 2 9x13
aluminum foil

Directions:

Do NOT preheat oven.

1. Line pan(s) with aluminum foil.
2. Place bacon evenly in pan(s). There will be some overlapping, that's fine.
3. Place pan(s) in cool oven and heat to 400º for 15-20 minutes. *Keep a close eye on the bacon towards the end of cooking.
4. The result you will love! Flat, perfectly cooked bacon and little mess to clean up.

Gma D's Meatloaf w/ Creamy Lemon Pepper Quinoa and Aspargus

I've been putting a little (really not NEAR enough) work into putting together a family cookbook. I posted about this a while back and shared a family cookie recipe. You can find that post here. However, Life has certainly been busy my way and I've failed to do enough work on getting this cookbook together. It's time to change that! 

I'm starting the change right here and right now! Well, really it was a few nights ago that I started, but today is the day I share it. I hope to be working on the recipes, stories, photos, and the book overall in the coming months. I will share a few recipes here simply because I love this food and I want to spread the joy. I have such great memories to go along with the family recipes too. I grew up eating this food, what seemed to be, every Sunday at family lunch. I still love it to this day. 

One version of the book cover.

I've restarted my quest of the family cookbook with a hearty and delicious comfort food meal. I followed the recipe completely, but I added a little topping and delicious sides. Gma D's simple meatloaf was the perfect cold weather fixer comfort meal. It was so delicious I ate ALL of the plate I have photographed below. If you know me, that's out of the norm. It must have been good and I hungry. 

I have a few memories with this meatloaf but I have to say the first one that pops into my mind is not some great story. I can remember being very picky about meat growing up, I used to hate hamburger. One meat I could never fathom eating was deer. Not Bambi! I can't do it! Those were my thoughts and Im not ashamed to share them. (Side note: Curse you Disney for making me cry when I watched your movies! Pure torture. Haha) I just could never imagine eating deer meat. I vividly remember finishing an, as always, delicious Sunday dinner and being asked about the meal. I was asked how much I liked the meatloaf and if I noticed a difference...I was smart kid and knew where this was going after the difference question...then the bomb was dropped...I had eaten DEER MEAT! I completely blacked out and I don't remember a thing! I threw a terrible tantrum and cried for hours. Not Bambi!!

Okay, not really but that sounded like a good ending to the story. I do believe I made comment about Bambi, but it really wasn't all that dramatic. In the end, I enjoyed that meatloaf and that's what mattered. Sorry, Bambi. I have since learned to love some deer meat, but only in summer sausage form. Trust me, I can devour some deer summer sausage with cheddar and jalapeños. Yum! 

I think THIS is the face they got for making me eat deer meat. haha!

On to the recipes now that I've made you laugh, I hope at least a smile. A simple recipe and simple preparation. This isn't the best meatloaf on the planet but I thoroughly enjoyed it as a kid and I still love it to this day. You can't go wrong with a Grandma's cooking! The aroma of it baking brings back many memories of those Sunday lunches with the family. I hope you enjoy the recipe and create some everlasting memories of your own.

An added recipe for you to try is the Creamy Lemon Pepper Quinoa. DElicious! The Asparagus recipe can be found here.

Enjoy! 

Gma D's Meatloaf       [Printable Recipe]

Yields: 1 meatloaf or 3 mini loaves

Meatloaf Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1/3 cup quick oats
1/3 cup saltine crackers, crushed (I used Ritz)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup sliced green onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup milk

Optional Parmesan Topping:

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
1/3 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Form into a loaf or loaves and place into pan(s).
3. For the last 10 minutes of baking add the topping (simply mix both ingredients in a bowl) and finish cooking until crust is slightly browned.
4. Bake at 350º for 35-40 minutes.

Creamy Lemon Pepper Quinoa        [Printable Recipe]

Ingredients:

1 cup dry Quinoa, tricolor or regular
2 cups water
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lemon
Pepper, fresh cracked is best
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Prepare Quinoa as directed on the package except add the lemon juice with the water.
2. Once the quinoa starts to cook add pepper, to taste, and finish cooking.
3. When the quinoa is done, add the lemon zest and cream. Cook until slightly thickened.
4. Serve warm. This also reheats well and is even better tossed with some sautéed veggies.

Banana Bread w Spiced Maple Glazed Pecans

1 banana 2 banana 3 banana 4! Yes, 4 bananas in this recipe! That's a banana per loaf, if you're making the mini loaves.  This banana bread is hearty with a good banana flavor, subtly sweet and full of spiced pecans. I don't really have a go to recipe for banana bread so I thought I would look around and start testing. AND I'll need to keep track of the recipes I use. I failed to save the recipes I've used in the past. 

Simple ingredient list results in a delicious bread.

When I started looking for a recipe I knew that I wanted a basic recipe that I could build on. I feel like I accomplished just that. A few additions and adjustments worked out just as I had hoped, aside from the addition of the maple syrup. While the maple flavor didn't come through as I had hoped, this bread is still delicious. Having glazed the pecans in maple and added some to the batter in place of milk I really thought it would shine through a little more. I still think it adds to the bread, but isn't as pronounced as I would like. The spice was a bit high for what I was going for as well. I made the adjustment in the recipe you see to cut that back. The adjustment will let the other flavors be more balanced. 

Spiced Maple Glazed Pecans. On the right, the chopped pecans for the bread.

The changing weather, cold one day and warm the next, around good ole Indiana made me crave this spicy and subtly sweet banana bread one cool day. Even if it's not cold, this bread makes a great breakfast with a hot cup-o-java or as a delicious snack! 

Enough chit chat form me, go get BAKING!

Banana Bread w Spiced Maple Glazed Pecans            [Printable Recipe] - both recipes at link

Recipe adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-bread-recipe

Makes: 4 mini loaves or 1 large loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup dark brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 real maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Maple Spiced Pecans (recipe below)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease/flour 4 mini loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar until lighter and fluffy. About 3-4 minutes.

Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients. Set aside.

Once the sugar/butter mix is ready, add eggs one at a time, mixing slightly after each egg. Add the vanilla.

Add the maple syrup just until combined. Add the mashed banana and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches mixing just until combined after each addition.

Pour batter equally into the prepared pans. Bake for 1 hour.

Spiced Maple Glazed Pecans

1 cup pecans halved
1/4 cup Real Maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg

In a small skillet combine all ingredients over medium heat. Cook until maple syrup is thickened. Pour pecans into a wax paper lined baking sheet and cool.