Persimmon Banana Nut Muffins

So I woke up in the mood to bake today -specifically muffins- and when I get like that, I have to get in the kitchen STAT! What's sleeping in on a weekend? I don't know. I try. I even got in the mood to do the dishes too...my least favorite part of being in the kitchen!

I have my own tried and true recipes but I felt like finding another recipe and tweaking it because that's just what I like to do. I love kitchen science. That and everyone has to have a few good muffin recipes lying around somewhere! So after searching and searching, I found a recipe with positive feedback that somehow made me want to experiment with.

It's Giada De Laurentiis' recipe for Banana Muffins. Also comes with a frosting recipe but I like to leave frosting for cupcakes. Copy and Paste the links/Recipe Below:

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2008/01/09/banana-muffins-2/ or http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/banana-muffins-with-mascarpone-cream-frosting-recipe2/index.html

Banana Muffins

(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

Directions:
Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly. The muffins may be eaten warm or cooled completely and frosted.

My thoughts
Only three things here in the recipe made me want to change it: (1) The oil content, (2)the sugar, and (3) the flavor. I felt the oil is too much for a muffin --no matter how big the batter ends up being and the sugar was also just too high for me. Why not let the fruit add to the sweetness of the muffin? And I love utilizing spices in my baking. I'm no plain Jane. :)

This is what I did

♥ 2 cups sugar = 1 1/2 cups = 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar

I love the different flavor brown sugar gives on top of its sweetness. I prefer to add more brown sugar than white in most of my baking recipes. The muffins were just fine the way they were. Not too sweet but not under sweet. The recipe, although it says it makes 18 muffins, I got 24 out of it so I didn't want to chance taking out too much sugar.

♥ 1 cup vegetable oil = 1/2 vegetable oil and 1/2 cup milk

Perfect lowering of oil and love the addition of milk. Could have eliminated the oil and used applesauce but I'm not completely a fan of that. That and I would have had to wait awhile to bake if I ended up making the applesauce! I processed two soft persimmons just to add to the moistness of the muffin (mentioned below).

♥ 1 tsp salt = 1 tsp sea salt

Just for the heck of it. I only use sea salt now. Salt is not really good for you but sea salt is better than that iodized salt if you're going to use it.

♥ 4 ripe bananas = 2 bananas mashed and 2 bananas, chunky

Because I like muffins with chunky fruit.

Now you can leave the recipe as is and go ahead and bake for yummy and moist banana muffins or you can continue on and do more.

My add-ins to the recipe
♥ 4 persimmons = 2 firm persimmons peeled and diced. 2 soft persimmons, peeled and processed in the food processor

I like persimmon and banana together. There are other good combinations of course, but today I used persimmon. I processed the two persimmons because I lowered the amount of oil and sugar so I wanted to make sure I made up for that.

♥ Chopped walnuts. Yes please!

♥ And I added: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, and Ginger. Got the hint of them but not overpowering at all.

The result?
Perfectly flavored and moist muffins. Fruity. Spiced up. Can't get better than that. Giada had a good recipe but I just made it a tad bit healthier and got a little creative.

Now to go outside and enjoy this beautiful rain...

Pinterest Recipe Testing

Instead of the usual work potluck, someone at work thought it would be fun to test recipes that people pin on Pinterest and see if they are any good and actually 'pin-worthy'. Great idea except I never follow recipes and had to this time. So I ended up testing out the recipe, "Nutella Brownies". This was the first time I tried Nutella. I think I'd be fine with only eating Nutella this way!

Here's the link to the recipe. Copy and Paste:

http://m.instructables.com/id/Nutella-Brownies-Three-Ingredients/

The result?
They were really good. Simply devine. Chocolate craving satisfied. Moist yet more cake-like. Stomach pleasing. Mood enhancer. One of my favorite combinations: hazelnut and chocolate. Seriously, what girl doesn't love (semi-sweet (35%) to dark (70%)) chocolate? Enough said.

I actually don't feel the need to adjust the recipe too much. I don't want to change the flavor and easiness of the brownies but I would probably add a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter and maybe take out a tablespoon or two of the flour for more moist brownies.

Would have liked more times given for different brownie methods instead of having to estimate the times. I gave the brownies about 15-17 minutes in the oven. That may be adjusted again if, or I mean, when I make them again. I personally would like to rewrite the directions too. I don't just throw things in a bowl and mash things up. You have to love what you are doing in the kitchen.

'Pin-worthy'?

Yes, but with some adjustments!

Happy Thanksgiving! One of my favorite days of the year. :) Gotta love all the food and always be thankful for what you have and who you have in your life. Appreciate life each and every day.

Mollusks

On the menu today: Baked New Zealand Green Mussels in Dynamite Sauce and Machas a la Parmesana

Baked Green Mussels in Dynamite Sauce
Why do they call it dynamite, you wonder?

When they are under the broiler, listen to the smelt eggs explode as they are heating up!

You can spend tons of money at a Japanese restaurant and get a few mussels or you could just make it at home and enjoy more than a few. And really, it is so easy that it's ridiculous to go to a restaurant and order them. To make this my own, I added one of my favorite seasonings to the sauce: Garlic. Garlic makes everything better! One time I used fish sauce and they were great as well. -Shrimp also goes well in this appetizer. Shrimp--Probably one of my biggest weaknesses!- And as for the mayo, you have to go with Kewpie, not regular mayo in the fridge. They aren't the same. And don't skip out on it because it has MSG.

Just estimate how much Kewpie mayo you'll need and squeeze it into a bowl. I'd say a cup shall do. Add as much garlic as you'd like. Start with a teaspoon of Sriracha and continue until it's to your spicy liking. And scoop a couple spoons of Smelt Egg/Masago.

Top each fresh mussel half with the sauce, more masago (or after broiling; whichever) and broil them in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. When ready, top them with green onion and masago and serve warm.

Machas a la Parmesana
Now this is one of the typical dishes you'll find in Chile. It's the only memorable dish that I recall eating in Santiago. The first thing I ate there. I strangely had a harder time in Chile with the food more than any other country I've been to. Can't really explain why that is though. Food is easy to find on every street and with plenty of options to choose from. Seafood is of abundance of course, but they say it's only good in the coastal towns from what I heard. I did get sick after eating a few seafood dishes after the clams. That I remember! Maybe if I read more into Chile's history, it'll help to understand their culture and food. It was a last minute trip from Ecuador so I didn't really read up on it until I arrived there. Beautiful country for sure that I definitely plan on exploring more and hoping to take that time to really taste their creations. Just gotta dig a little deeper.

Now this is an easy meal/app to make. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Shuck your clams and clean both the meat and shells. I'll be honest. I quickly steamed them instead of opening them myself because I was exhausted and just didn't feel like doing it! I'd say it's better to get a man with his strong hands and muscles to do it for you.;) I ended up using Manila clams. Money saver than the other ones available and the ones they recommend you use for this dish.

When the clams were ready, I squeezed lemon juice on them, freshly grated black pepper, added a small scoop of butter, and then freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

*Find a Parmesan that hasn't been aged for too long. It's preferred to use a milder cheese for this dish so I ended up using a Parmesan that was aged for 10 months.

Baked them for 5 minutes and they were ready to devour.

Best part of the day? None of the mussels and clams were dead! I did a good job picking them out. :) I've got good eyes and awesome guessing skills.

Peruvian Coca-Cola Chicken

I just got this recipe from a Peruvian mama at work the other day and I had to make it ASAP because it made my mouth water just talking about it. Really simple with few ingredients, but authentic and very tasty Peruvian food. The combination of Japanese and Peruvian is flawless. Peru has a decent number of Asians who have migrated there and have an influence in the Peruvian cuisine. You have the coke flavor with the hint of soy and it comes together naturally and beautifully. I'll be keeping this recipe around.

Peruvian Coca-Cola Chicken

Skinless chicken breast/thighs/legs (any)

Soy sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

Coca-Cola - size depends on how big or small the meal will be

2-3 T. Cornstarch

Rice, to serve


Marinate the chicken in soy sauce for up to 24 hours. Peruvian mama says the longer the better. I went with legs first because I already had some in the freezer.

Heat 2-3 Tbsp of oil in a larget pan. Crisp up the sides of the chicken on the stove before you add anything else since that will be the only time you can do that. You can keep skin on for flavor and then remove later.

Next, take the chicken out of the pan and throw in the finely chopped onion for a few minutes, until translucent, and then add the chicken back in.

On the side, combine a cup of coke with the cornstarch, then pour into the pan. Keeps the cornstarch from clumping in the pan. Then add enough coke to cover the chicken. I used about 2 bottles of coke for this meal.

Let it get to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, covered, or until chicken is tender and cooked thoroughly. Of course the time changes with the different parts of the chicken.

Pour some of the soy sauce marinade into the pan to season the sauce to your liking. Since the soy sauce touched the raw chicken, keep it on the stove and heat thoroughly.

Serve the chicken with rice and really enjoy this!

Taking it back to 2009

Iguazu Falls. Argentina side. February 2009

This is one of my favorite pictures to look at when I need cheering up or when it has been one of those days, year, or years. In this case, it's the last couple of years. I've been reflecting a lot lately and just want to be given a break, outside of traveling, just life, in general. For the most part, I am known for being happy, positive, and full of insight no matter what for all the lovely people in my life and always going out of my way to help anyone, which I will forever do because that's me, but maybe that's hurting myself. I hide my feelings and make sure everyone else is happy. I guess this is something I need to work on. Put myself first and seeing if things will go my way soon. I never complain and I'm not asking for much!!

With all that said, Iguazu/Iguassu is beautiful on both sides -Argentina/Brazil- and I highly recommend. Its beauty is indescribable.

Beautiful Landscape

Huayna Potosi. Cordillera Real. Bolivia. Because this and Bolivia's amazing biodiversity and natural environment is another reason why you should explore Bolivia, besides it's incredible food.