Mix It Up Friday - December

from Tracey G

Here it is again! Another Mix It Up Friday! One of my favorite things we do - because while it's always fun (usually, lol) to bake from scratch, there's something equally fun about a mix as well! I love trying them and seeing if they can pass for homemade, even if it's not my intention, that is always my underlying ulterior motive, lol. I may not even do it consciously, but that's always something I'm looking for regardless. So far, King Arthur Flour has yet to disappoint!

Every mix I have tried would pass the homemade test, and this one this week is no exception. The Essential Goodness Cinnamon Sugar Puff Muffin Mix is wonderful! It really does remind me of a cinnamon sugar doughnut! I think there is just the right combination of nutmeg (once again they are putting one of my favorite spices to use!) and cinnamon in the muffin that combines wonderfully with the cinnamon sugar topping.

The extra ingredients you bring to the party for the muffins are eggs, butter or vegetable oil and milk. The only additional ingredient needed for the coating of cinnamon sugar is melted butter. Since I am watching my cholesterol intake these days, I used the vegetable oil option in the muffin mix instead of the butter, and they were still yummy as can be. I imagine the butter would add an extra layer of flavor (or just that little something you can't quite put your finger on), I do hope to try that variation one of these days, lol. And the other thing I did, was only dip the tops of the muffins in the cinnamon sugar mix. That is because I used foil liners for the muffins, and didn't feel like peeling them all off for the coating, lol.

 So, bottom line is this is another winner in the Essential Goodness line of mixes from  King Arthur Flour. And don't forget, that for every Essential Goodness mix purchased,  King Arthur Flour will donate the cost of a meal to Feeding America! And that's something you can feel good about!

If you're like me and have limited places to shop, you can purchase any of the Essential Goodness mixes right from King Arthur Flour's website. Here's a link right to the purchase page: Cinnamon Sugar Puff Muffin Mix


from Kris B

My taste buds and the scale say that I have had enough sweets lately.  I was surprised to discover that King Arthur Flour carries soup mixes.  The Indiana Harvest Sausage and Lentil Soup Mix is manufactured by Frontier Soups and sold by King Arthur Flour as well as on the company's own website.

As Tracey said, most of the time we are committed to cooking from scratch. but every now and then it is handy to have a "mix" on hand.  The Indiana Harvest Sausage and Lentil Soup is described as a hearty meal and has a made from scratch flavor.  The "mix" contains the lentils and a spice packet.  So really, the convenience is in not having to forage through the spice rack and measure everything out.  The package instructions call for you to brown and add a pound of Italian sausage,  broth, three diced zucchini, and a couple of cans of petite diced tomatoes.  Since this was my first time to try this mix, I made it exactly as was instructed, but now having done that and eaten it, I can see the potential for lots of variations.

Though the name is sausage and lentil soup, I think that the Italian sausage could be omitted and vegetable broth substituted for the beef broth without compromising the overall flavor of the soup.  And, as is the case with almost any soup homemade or otherwise, whatever vegetables that you happen to have on hand could be added.  The next time I make this, I am going to try adding some spinach and or kale.

I do have a warning...this recipe makes A LOT of soup!!!  The package says 8-10 servings.  I'm not sure what they consider a serving size, but Weber and I had a dinner and two lunches with generous portions, plus I froze several containers for lunches once I go back to school.  It's a good thing we liked it! lol!

And what goes with soup?  Of course...a nice loaf of hot out of the oven bread!  I made the Everyday Whole-Grain Bread from the King Arthur October Bakealong Challenge.

I have not seen this soup mix in any of my local grocery stores, but as I said above, it is available on their King Arthur Flour website.  It is the prefect meal for these cold winter days ahead!

*****

On a completely different note,  we want to let you know that this will be our last post to Pixels, Plates, and Lols.  No, we did not have a falling out over crumbs and drips or no crumbs and drips in our food photos, or over Times verses Arial (We both have that argument with Blogger!), or PS over LR.  All is good with us!  With a new year comes  new things.  Watch for new things from us with the dawning of 2017  We love all of you who have followed us from the beginning or who just stop by occasionally.  

Please don't go away!  we will be right back!  

Until then, drink lots of coffee, take lots of photos, and laugh, laugh, laugh!

We wish all of you and those you love a happy and healthy new year!

XOXOX Tracey and Kris

Food Friday - King Arthur Bakealong Challenge!

from Tracey G

This week we're having a little fun... I discovered the King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge (click the link to go their page on it along with the links to this month's recipe!) on my Instagram feed. As soon as I saw it, I immediately sent a text to Kris saying that this would be a fun thing for her and I to do, just because. At the time I wasn't thinking of the blog. Then, one day last week, it hit me that it would be fun to incorporate it this week into our Food Friday post, if she was game! Since we were a month behind, we each took a recipe to make this time around. I couldn't locate the proper sun-dried tomatoes needed, so I asked Kris if she'd mind making the Bakealong Challenge Recipe #1, the Pane Bianco and I'd make the #2 recipe, Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins. It was a deal!

Well, it was fun! I enjoyed trying something new - and let me say that as soon as I find the proper sun-dried tomatoes I am making the Pane Bianco because it looks yummy and fairly easy! I am finding that I am now looking forward to the next month's recipe challenge. We also have been bantering back and forth on how to incorporate the King Arthur Bakealong Challenge recipes every month on the blog. I know we'll come up with something fun to do with it because was a fun experience and will be a fun one to share too! If you make it, let us know! Or tag it on Instagram with the King Arthur Bakealong tag, #bakealong and mention us so we can see your creations!  Our Instagram id's are @allinadaykris and @traceann24. You'll see us there, so join in on the fun!! And the treats!

Now, on to the recipe. It was super simple to make and let me tell you it's one of the yummiest muffins ever and has spawned some ideas in my brain of using the technique on other muffins - think carrot cake with the frosting on the inside! And I really enjoyed making it, although for some reason I was totally unorganized feeling! I have no idea why, but it just felt like I did everything out of order - but even then, they came together beautifully and perfectly! I think it's one of the times I actually was pleased with how they looked after they were baked off - I thought they looked lovely! And I did use the cookie scoop as they suggest and wow, did it make it easy to make the whole thing, every stage, the scoop was great!

Here's the link to the recipe walk-through, on the Kind Arthur blog:

King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge #2 Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins Walk-Through

And here's just the recipe:

King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge #2 Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

I have a feeling this is going to be a lot of fun!!! Enjoy!


from Kris B.

I’m almost up for a challenge, especially when it involves food and or photography.  To find one that includes both is like hitting the jackpot.  As Tracey said, she found out about the King Arthur Bakealong Challenge two month’s into it.  That’s OK; it gave us each a recipe to try!  Deciding who would do which one was easy…Tracey had the ingredients on hand for the pumpkin muffins and I have two basil plants with enough leaves to make pesto for the entire state of Texas so I was happy to make the Pane Bianco. At the least, it gave me another use for some of the basil!  Sadly, we did not have homegrown tomatoes this year so I did have to buy sun-dried tomatoes.  But, there’s always next year for the homegrown….

This is one of those recipes where the final product makes it look much harder than it is.   The bread requires just a little cutting and shaping of the dough to give it an artisan look.  All you need to know is how to make the letter “S.” lol!

The recipe says that the dough will be a “soft” dough.  Mine was not.  It was a bit dry when first combined.  I kneaded with wet hands and that helped.  My first rise time was almost double what the recipe indicated.  I’m not sure if the differences I encountered were due to the flour (I did use King Arthur bread flour.), the weather here in Dallas, or user error, but in the end, all was well.  The bread is absolutely delicious!!!

Try the recipe as is or stuff it with some of your favorite ingredients.  Several of the posts on the King Arthur site suggested that black olives would be a nice addition.  I’m not an olive fan so I am perfectly happy with the recipe as is.  Whatever you use, the recipe warns not to over stuff. Cooking is all about having fun and being creative!  

Here's the link to the recipe walk-through, on the Kind Arthur blog:

http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2016/08/08/pane-bianco-bakealong/

And here's just the recipe:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/bakealong/pane-bianco.pdf

If you make either of these recipes we’d love for you to share pictures of your projects.  No worries…you don’t have to share your muffins and bread!  As Tracey said,  on IG #bakealong and mention us, @traceann24 and @allinadaykris so we won't miss your creations!

Happy baking!

Food Friday - Breakfast On the Go

from Kris B.

Tracey and I do our best to share recipes on Food Fridays that we both enjoy making and eating and our hope is that you will find a few that you like as well.  There is no question that we both enjoy the cooking, photographing, and then eating whatever it is that we share in these posts as well.  But honestly, often the “behind the scenes” conversations that we have about what we are doing is the most fun of it all!  I am going to share a bit of this week’s text messaging about our progress toward getting this week’s post done.  You guys will either lose complete respect for us (assuming you ever had any, LOL!); or, you will wish you were part of our circus!

One of my favorite things to think about is text messages that are sent that if were read and of context are either hilarious, frightening, or grounds for a stay in a mental health facility.  Here is one such exchange between us this week.

Me: I need to go shoot muffins.

Tracey: “And what did you do on Saturday?  I shot some muffins!”

Me: It is hunting season, right?

Tracey: Small game I think, so that would be mini muffins…

Me: Uh oh!  I am shooting jumbo muffins…without a license!

Tracey: I won’t tell the DNR!

I am so glad that I have a friend who has my back!  Oh, and this whole conversation was going on amidst another conversation about cup sizes…and not measuring cups!!!  You are going to have to wait for Tracey to share that one with you!!!  Trust me.  You won’t want to miss it!

Now for this week’s recipe, which I believe originally came from Taste of Home…

I have been trying to get up early enough on school mornings to have a nice, calm slow breakfast that involves multiple cups of coffee.  (Nope! Not coffee cup sizes either.)  This works fairly well on the days when my first class is a 9am.  Tuesdays and Thursdays when class starts at 7:30, it’s a once cup morning, with that cup being a travel mug, and sometimes a grab and go breakfast.  These Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins are a great compromise when my taste buds want oatmeal and my schedule say, “Not today, sweetheart!”

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 Cups quick cooking oats

 1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp  baking soda

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 Cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 Cup milk )I used almond milk)

3 TBS canola oil

1 egg white

For the topping:

1/4 Cup quick cooking oats

1 TBS brown sugar

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon (I probably used closer to 1/4 tsp)

1 TBS melted butter

Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, excluding those used for the topping.  In a second bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated.  *Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 of the way full.  

Mix all of the topping ingredients together and sprinkle evenly on the tops of the muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes.

This recipe yields 10 regular muffins, 6 jumbo muffins, or 20-24 mini muffins.  Choose responsibly depending on whether or not it is muffin hunting season in your area!  

And, using muffin liners negates the need for greasing the tins. :-)

One more thing...There is great debate in food photography as to whether drips and crumbs should be left in photos.  I am a realist.  I think they should.  And, I can't get muffins in the tins without dripping somewhere. So, I left the burnt on drip.  That is me!  If you are a perfectionist and secretly, or not so secretly, want to be Martha Stewart, clean your pans carefully before you bake and photograph.  Or, become a Photoshop whiz!  I have neither the real skills of Martha nor the PS skills to make me look like a fake Martha. Therefore, drips it is.  

Enjoy!

from Tracey G

Ok, I'll admit it - after reading through my friend's post first, before I sat down to write mine, I realized I am a drip-wiper-upper before I bake! LOL! There's never really been any thought to it, it's just something I do, whether I am photographing it or not! Now I wonder if it's not some other manifestation of my tendency toward the perfectionist regime...something to think about for sure as to my motives to do so! Ha!

My post has been quite the project for me this week - not the making of or photographing of, but the getting-it-done-and-all-put-together done kind of thing. I've had a nasty cold and other another illness, involving needing antibiotic, that's been making me feel yucky as well. Geesh, when it rains it pours! So, my attention span has been really shallow, due to feeling tired and just plain blah and icky. It's hard to think when you just want to vegetate and sleep! So, I apologize now for it being later than usual!! Unfortunately, it now seems to have morphed again into a sore throat thing, which is not pleasant at all to deal with and making me rather annoyed, I just want to be back to normal healthy! LOL And here I thought I was starting to feel better....silly me! I should have known better!

I am still in my mode to find things that can be convenient to eat and convenient to store - preferably in the freezer until they're needed and can then be heated and eaten. No muss, no fuss. I found a few recipes for breakfast items that can be an individual serving right out of the oven or the freezer. This one is my own version of a few breakfast-in-a-muffin-cup kind of things. I adjusted ingredients and amounts to suit  my tastes, so that should tell you that you too can do the same thing. Adjust it, add to it - make it yours. Among the variations in my research, things like chopped onion or chopped green pepper can be added to change it up. I am thinking I am going to try a "Greek Version" using feta and spinach, and possibly chopped tomato in the egg mixture. I've lots of ideas for this one, and decided that if the child didn't like them, it didn't matter because I did - and this is something that can help me be on the healthier eating straight and narrow. It's quick and easy to make, and to reheat to eat later - especially if it's one of those times I'm rushed and would be tempted to turn to something either processed or not-so-healthy! And they even are good for brunch/lunch, not just for breakfast, I tested that out as well, lol.

So, here we go, here's the super simple recipe that could potentially have quite a few variations! Let me say here though, that I had a heck of a time getting them out of them out of the muffin cups, even though I sprayed them well. I am thinking that next time I make them, I may use the foil cupcake liners. I'd just have to make sure to remove the foil liner BEFORE I reheated in the microwave!

Egg and Sausage Muffins

Makes 12

1/2 lb bulk pork sausage

12 eggs

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese (or more to taste! Or even a different cheese if you prefer!)

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. In a skillet, cook sausage, breaking into crumbles, until no longer pink; drain.

2) In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add garlic powder, salt, onion powder and pepper. Stir in sausage and cheese.

3) Prepare muffin tin by spraying with cooking spray. Spoon egg mixture into muffin cups, about 1/3 cup in each. Bake for about 20-25 min, or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Freeze Option: Cool baked muffins completely. Place on wax paper lined cookie sheets and freeze until firm. Transfer to a resealable plastic freezer bag (or another tightly covered freezer container) and store in the freezer. To use, place in greased muffin pan, cover loosely with foil and reheat in a 350°F oven until heated through. Or microwave each muffin on high 30-60 seconds or until heated through.

Nutritional Information (approximate), per muffin: 160 calories, 12g fat, (5g saturated) 207mg cholesterol, 346mg sodium, 137mg potassium, 1g carbohydrate, 11g protein

Food Friday - Merry Cranberry Christmas!

from Kris B.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it is now December!  I so enjoyed November, the month of intentional gratitude and thankfulness, but haven't yet made the transition to being in the Christmas spirit.  At this point my energy is being consumed by trying to finish up the fall semester at school.  Two more weeks!  Then maybe I can get some Christmas decorations up and actually enjoy the process rather than feeling stressed because there are so many more pressing things that I really should be doing.

During November, as I was making my gratitude list, one of the things that kept coming to mind is how thankful and grateful I am for my friends- those that I see regularly and those that I keep up with primarily via Facebook.   There is no greater gift in life than a caring and loving circle of friends.  One reason that I am particularly grateful for friends right now is because some of them have infused a little bit of Christmas into my otherwise Scrooge-like present life.

Some of our closest friends have an annual Christmas party on the Saturday evening after Thanksgiving.  Because my husband smoked our Thanksgiving turkey and my oldest daughter did all of the side dishes for our Thanksgiving meal, I had virtually no cooking responsibilities for that day so, I volunteered to help cook and prepare food for my friends' party.  I really enjoyed making twelve dozen cookies and hummus and chocolate mousse for forty.  The green and red sprinkles made an appearance as decoration for the sugar cookies.  That was the first touch of Christmas at my house.  (Don't worry;  cookies, hummus, and mousse are not all that we had to eat.  They did have some of the food catered as well.  Lol!).  The party itself was a festive celebration with lots of food, fellowship, a home decorated from top to bottom and a Christmas carol sing-a-long.  

Also, a colleague asked me if I would bake something for her to give as gifts.  Enter this week's recipe.  Last night I baked fifteen loaves of this Apple Cranberry Streusel Quick Bread.  Because she wanted them packaged as Christmas gifts, I was forced to unearth some red and white curling ribbon.   So there you have it...Christmas colored sprinkles and red and white curling ribbon are the total extent of Christmas at my house at this point.

I will get there.  We will get the tree up and the stockings will be hung by the chimney with care.  Wrapped packages will appear under the tree and brunch will be prepared for Christmas morning.  Right now, the process seems a little overwhelming, but it always does for me at this time of year.  I always feel better when a take a few minutes a slow down.  Today that happened with a cup of coffee (or three) and a piece of this delicious bread.  I needed fifteen loaves for my colleague and it just so happened that the math worked out that I made sixteen.  One for us, too!

Apple-Cranberry Streusel Quick Bread

INGREDIENTS

For the Streusel 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

For the bread

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/2 cups chopped apples, any variety

1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter 2 9x5–inch loaf pans or use 4 unbuttered 3x7 waxed disposable baking pans.

In a medium bowl, prepare the streusel topping first.  Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Add  the butter with a pastry cutter.  Mix in the chopped pecans.  Set this mixture aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda. and salt 

In a large stand mixer bowl, cream the butter.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture by alternating it with the buttermilk until you have a smooth batter.  Stir in the cranberries and apples by hand.

Equally divide the batter into your prepared pans. Top each loaf with the streusel mixture.

Bake 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of bread comes out clean.

This recipe can also be halved.



by Tracey G.

I'm with Kris, I can't believe it's December already! It's just flown by, I barely remember November, lol. Seems like it was just the other day I was sitting on the beach! This year has me so behind and I'm not quite sure why - well, now that I think about it, I'm really not that behind in everything - I just have that horrible feeling that I am. Usually I have all the Christmas shopping done by November, I have none done. It doesn't help that Harry has given me nor Santa any ideas other than a few things that are still debatable. So, I know I need to buckle down and get that done this week - I hate last minute shopping, it makes me crazy! But on the flip side, I'm ahead of the game as far as the tree goes - we don't usually get it until about 2 weeks before Christmas, but today I sent Jeremy and Harry out with the task to get the tree - I had to trust them that they'd get what I want, lol. I'm an artificial tree kind of girl, but when we had Harry I started giving real trees a chance, and now that's all Harry wants, so I'm out of luck as far as ever having my perfect artificial tree anymore, lol. They did really well, came home with one I can live with - I wanted a bit taller and fluffier, but they did a good job and I really can't complain. :-)

I'll admit it -  I love McDonald's Cranberry Orange Muffins, lol. They're my favorite and I get one every chance I get. I finally decided since I love that combination so much, I really needed to start making them at home, lol. So, I searched around and found a recipe I really liked and tweaked it a bit, of course, lol. Now, there were complaints from the Peanut Gallery that they're not sweet enough, so I think next time I make them I will adjust the sugar up a bit, OR get some coarse sugar to use as a sprinkle on top of them before I bake them. I liked them a lot, the only thing I thought it could use was more cranberries! So, again, that might be something I'll adjust next time I make them. I also omitted the nuts, Harry doesn't like nuts in things like this, so I skipped them. I will though be making a batch of them one of these days WITH nuts though for  myself!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

2 c flour

3/4 c packed brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1-2 tsp grated orange peel

2/3 c orange juice

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c cranberries, coarsely chopped

1 c chopped pecans

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, orange peel and baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add orange juice and oil; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in cranberries and pecans. Spoon into 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (cups will be almost full). Bake at 375° F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on wire rack.