Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins

Taken from Allrecipes.com

Tested by DH, DC, and YCGP

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 cup milk

Topping:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, diced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons flour over blueberries, and set aside. (This simple trick will keep you from having "purple" batter)
3. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, and stir in vanilla and lemon zest. Fold in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries. Remember, fold gently, don't stir. Spoon batter into prepared cups.
4. For Topping:  combine flour, sugar ,and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut inbutter with fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle over batter in muffin cups.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack.

Guinea Pig Rating:  ***** (5/5)

What I did:  I followed the recipe, except for the lemon zest and salt.
What will I do next time:  Add a 1/4 cup more milk to make the dough a little thinner, but it still tasted AWESOME!!!!

Broccoli & Cheese Soup

Broccoli & Cheese Soup
Taken from the WIC 2010 Try Something NEW! Calendar
Tested October 6, 2010 by DH, DC, and YCGP

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli
1/4 cup celery; diced
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups milk
2T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated swiss cheese

Directions:

Place vegetables and broth in saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook until vegetables are tender.  In a bowl, mix milk, cornstarch, salt, and pepper.  Add to cooked vegetables.  Cook, stirring constantly until soup is lightly thickened and mixture just begins to boil.  Remove from heat.  Add cheese and stir until melted.

Guinea Pig rating: **** (4/5)

What I did:  I didn't have any celery in the house, so I just added extra broccoli.  My husband took over cooking the soup halfway through.  He added some mozzerella cheese and powdered milk (not sure how much...sorry) to help it thicken it a little more.  He likes his soup thick.

What will I do next time:  Oh, there is definetly going to be a next time!  I will use cheddar cheese instead of swiss and mozzerella.  I will also add the celery in there AND I will use whole milk (per my husband.  He just doesn't care for 1%).

Happy Labor Day!

I am visiting my parents for Labor Day, but I just finished making pizza for all of us.  So I decided that I should share the pizza dough recipe!

Pizza Dough Recipe
Taken from my mom
Tested by so many people I can't name them all!

Ingredients:

1 packet of yeast (1 Tbsp)
3/4 cup of warm water
1/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp of oil
2 cups of flour

Directions:

1.  Stir yeast into water and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
2.  Mix sugar and oil in large bowl.  Add water mixture and stir.
3.  Add flour and stir until flour is mixed in.
4.  Sprinkle extra flour onto counter and dump dough out.  Knead dough until dough no longer sticks to the counter.  Place into greased bowl and cover with damp towel.  Let rise until dough has doubled in size.
5.  Preheat oven to 425*.  Place dough in greased pizza pan and top with favorite toppings.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Cool slightly; cut and serve.

Guinea Pig rating:  *****  (5/5)

What I do:  I use my Kitchen Aid dough hook and let that knead the dough for me.  If I want to make more than 1 pizza, I double all the ingredients, except the yeast!  When you bake the 2 pizzas, switch their postitions halfway through cook time to ensure both pizzas get cooked evenly.

What would I do differently next time:  I love trying new toppings and changing thngs up a bit.  Right now I am on a sauceless trend with veggies and feta on it.  When doing a sauceless pizza, spread garlic and oil in place of sauce, before putting on other toppings!  YUM!