Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

For my last batch of muffins in February, I decided to go all out and make something chocolatey, which I had been avoiding for most of the month because it's much harder to feign eating a healthy breakfast with a chocolate muffin stuffed in your mouth. These muffins have chocolate and hazelnuts in them, as well as a dollop of Nutella inside which is melty and extra delicious if you eat these muffins when they're still warm. (Full disclosure, I actually used Korger's brand of Nutella because they have a crunchy version that has little bits of hazelnut in it, too. You can use whatever kind you prefer though.)

Cinnamon Donut Muffins

Have you ever had those little, pre-packaged, cinnamon-coated donuts? These muffins taste a lot like those except more awesome because they're homemade. I used to make them at the coffee shop all the time, and it was always hard to sell them to customers rather than eating them myself. They're that delicious. The secret to these muffins is butter. You dip them in butter and then roll them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Not only does this make the cinnamon-sugar actually stick to the outside of the muffins, it gives them a bit of extra moisture and a ton of extra richness. If you're looking to save on calories, you can just dip the tops in butter instead, though believe me, you'll be missing out on the extreme deliciousness of a fully-coated muffin.

King Cake

Happy Mardi Gras! Being from New Orleans, this is one of my favorite times of year, though it's always a little sad when I don't get to go home for it. To make up for it though, I always bake a couple king cakes throughout the season. The Mardi Gras season officially starts on Epiphany, which is January 6, and lasts until the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. (In case you don't know, Ash Wednseday is always 46 days before Easter, which traditionally falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. It's complicated, I know.) Depending on when that is, Mardi Gras day can fall anywhere from February 3 to March 9, giving me anywhere from just under a month to just over 2 months to bake king cakes to my heart's content.

At this point you might be asking yourself, "What is a king cake anyway?" Well, dear reader, a king cake is traditionally served during the Mardi Gras season--in case you hadn't figured that much out already. It's not really a cake per se; it's actually much more bread-like. Flavorwise, it's a bit like a giant cinnamon roll, though don't let anyone fool you into thinking that it is just a giant cinnamon roll because it's not. The differences are subtle, yes, but it's still not a cinnamon roll. A plastic baby is also placed inside the cake, and finding it in your piece is good luck (and symbolizes the wise men finding baby Jesus in the manger). Typically when we would have Mardi Gras parties in school and such, whoever finds the baby also brings in the next king cake, in which case you may not feel it's so luck after all. Also, take it from the voice of experience here, when you go to cut the cake, try to remember where you put the baby so that you don't cut it in half. Nobody likes finding half a baby in their cake.

Tea & Honey Muffins

This year Justin and I decided that instead of making New Year's resolutions that we had try to keep for the whole year, we would make monthly resolutions and try to stick to them for 30 days at a time. Then the next month we'd make a new resolution, continuing this throughout the year. I decided to take it a step further and make three resolutions each month--one food, one fitness, and one personal. My food resolution for February is that I will eat breakfast every day. Too often I have a habit of waking up, jumping on the compuer and killing a few hours, and then discovering that it's lunchtime and I've yet to eat anything. For these 28 days, I'm trying to be very cognizant of that and make sure that I have some form of breakfast each and every morning, even if that's just a big cup of hot chocolate; I just need to have some kind of caloric intake to start out the day.

My go-to breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal. I decided to try to change it up this month and try out some new recipes, as well as making some old favorites. One of my favorite breakfast options is homemade muffins. They're incredibly versatile and can be as healthy (or not) as you want them to be. A basic muffin recipe also lends itself well to the addition of a variety of mix-ins and flavorings. For these particular muffins, I've adapted a basic recipe from King Arthur Flour. Some muffin recipes come out too light, crumbly, and cupcake-y for my taste, but these are much more dense and hearty like a good muffing should be. Any strongly brewed black tea will work here. I used some of my favorite tea--an apricot-flavored blend of Ceylon and Darjeeling--that we had at the coffee shop where I worked, but plain black tea from Luzianne or Lipton or something would be just as good. Tea isn't known for giving a very strong flavor to baked goods, so the stronger the brew the better.

Chicken Breakfast Biscuits with Gravy

When Justin and I were trying to come up with dinner ideas, he randomly asked me, "Why doesn't anyone ever put chicken and eggs together?" I've seen a few omelets with chicken on menus before, but he's right that it's not very common. I don't know exactly why that is, but I do know that these breakfast biscuits we decided to make with both of them are quite delicious. I think they're going to be make frequent appearances on our meal lists.

When trying to decide how we were going to combine the two, I immediately thought of some sort of sandwich because at many fast food restaurants you can now get chicken breakfast sandwiches, in addition to the usual egg ones. If we just combine the two, voila! To tie it together a bit more, I decided to make some white gravy to go on the sandwiches--Justin's a little iffy about eggs and white gravy, but after giving this recipe a taste with just a little of the gravy, he piled on the rest of his portion of gravy and happily gobbled it all down.

Amish Friendship Bread

Justin and I went to our 10 year high school reunion this past summer. In addition to getting to hang out with people we haven't seen in 10 years, I also picked up a tasty new recipe. After leaving the official reunion, a few of us went back to a classmate's home where she offered us some Amish friendship bread. I'd never even heard of it, but I'm not one to turn down something that sounds awesome. It may be called bread, but it's really more of a cake--and I've hardly ever met a cake I didn't like. I'm glad I tried it because it really is quite yummy. I immediately asked for the recipe, and when the weather turned cooler this past weekend, it was the first thing I thought to bake.

The reason that this is called friendship bread (I'm not sure about the Amish part, and neither is Wikipedia apparently) is because you're supposed to make several cups of a starter mixture and then share the starter with friends so that they can make their own bread, retaining enough to make some for yourself as well, obviously. You can also just make the starter for yourself, one batch worth at a time, if you don't feel like sharing. I've included the instructions for both versions of the starter below, so you're free to make it however you like.

Jambalaya Grits

I don't know where my mom found this recipe. I just know that it's amazing. She started making this probably sometime when I was in high school, so even though it's not one of those "childhood favorite" kind of foods, it's still one of my ultimate comfort foods.

If you haven't gathered this by now, I love grits. Growing up in the south will do that to you. If you don't like grits, it's probably because you've only ever had the bland kind they serve with breakfast at restaurants. Grits need lots of salt and lots of love to make them delicious. Jambalaya grits are special because they get even more love. They get chicken. And sausage. And ham. And mozzarella cheese. Oh my. I always make this as a dinner, but I suppose it would be just as delicious as a breakfast or brunch item. Be warned though; this recipe does make a decent bit of food, so make sure you're hungry--you'll want to eat all of it. I promise.

Blueberry Drop Scones

In my pastry-making days at the coffee shop, I made a lot of scones. The dough involved a decent bit of work, with all the frozen butter grating and dough rolling and whatnot. People really seemed to prefer our other pastries though, so a lot of times we'd end up having to throw some of the scones out, aka let the other employees fight over who got to take them home. I honestly think that was one of their favorite parts of the job--what did Leslie bake that I can take home today?

All that changed one day when for whatever reason--I can't remember if I was just being lazy or what--I decided that instead of rolling out the dough and then filling it with goodies before folding it up and cutting it into wedges, I would just mix the goodies directly into the dough and drop it by large spoonfuls onto the pan. I know that I had made drop biscuits a few times around then, so I'm assuming that's where the idea came from. I tried it out, and customers couldn't get enough of these scones. None of the flavors changed. We used the exact same recipe to make them; we basically just changed their shape, and people went crazy for them. It was so weird. They are slightly fluffier, I suppose, because the dough isn't rolled, but that's about the only difference. I only made scones this way after that point. I even made a double batch of these the morning of our wedding as breakfast for everyone who was helping us decorate.

Mellow Cheese Grits

Having grown up in the South, I love grits. I can eat them for any meal. They can be the whole meal. They can be a side dish. It really doesn't matter. One of my absolute favorite breakfasts/lunches/light dinners is a big bowl of grits and a tall glass of sweet tea with plenty of ice. The only thing better than grits is cheese grits.

Tilapia Omelet

Justin made something he wanted me to share with you all--a tilapia omelet. He broke the rule about not mixing cheese and fish, but I don't think he cared. He liked it, and that's all that matters. If you aren't as much of a rebel, feel free to leave the cheese out. There isn't that much in there anyway.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of fish. I love crab, shrimp, crawfish, lobster, and all that tastiness, but I just don't really like plain ol' fish. Never have. Therefore, I didn't partake in any of this omelet. Justin enjoyed this for a casual, one-man, weekend brunch. Like I said, he thought it was good enough to share with you all, so here it is.

Iced Coffee

When I was a kid, no one understood how I could eat coffee-flavored ice cream. Everyone thought that cold plus coffee equaled a bad idea. I don't know why. I loved coffee ice cream. I still do. It's because while, yes, actual cold coffee is disgusting, the intentional mixture of coffee flavor and cold refreshment is delicious. That's where iced coffee comes in.

Having worked at a coffee shop, I can be a little bit of a coffee snob from time to time--I apologize--and iced coffee is one of the areas where my snobbery takes over. Many otherwise respectable establishments and generally good people make hot coffee (either double-strength or not, depending on where you get it) and pour it over ice. This, however, results in bitter, acidic, cold coffee. The proper way to make iced coffee is to cold-brew it. It results in a much smoother, richer, tastier final product. Trust me on this. Or don't. Go try it yourself. Make a pot of hot coffee and pour it over ice. I'll wait here. Now try this recipe. Believe me. You'll like this one better.

Fake Frappe

One of the things I miss most about working at a coffee shop is the ability to make myself drinks whenever I want. Because it can get pretty warm hanging around coffee makers, espresso machines, roasters, and ovens--I made pastries, too--all day, my favorite drinks were always frappes. After the shop closed, I had to look elsewhere to get my frosty caffeine fix. (On occasion I even make a trip to the-coffee-shop-that-must-not-be-named when I'm really desperate. I hate the way their coffee tastes, but the frappuccinos aren't bad.)

Making fraps at home is a little tricky. As far as flavor goes, it's not too difficult. The problem comes from trying to achieve the desired consistency. Our fraps at the coffee shop started out with a powdered base that gave the frap the desired flavor but also a creamy, thick texture. We blended it with chilled espresso, 2% milk, and ice. One way to come closer to achieving this texture at home is to use ice cream, heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk in it. I, however, don't usually have any of those things on hand, and other than the ice cream, I don't really want to drink any of them either. I'm a skim milk kind of girl, and therein lies my problem: how do I get that creamy, dreamy consistency without changing to a different kind of dairy?

Crawfish Omelet

When I was a kid, we often got together for large, family brunches, lunches, and dinners with my mom's side of the family. Sometimes we ate at my grandparents' house, but often we went out--there are tons of great restaurants in New Orleans, after all.

One of the places we used to go was Elmo's. I remember that there were two older gentlemen who often played music while you ate--one played clarinet, but I can't for the life of me remember what the other one played. Flute? Keyboard? It doesn't matter really... I can specifically remember them playing "Blueberry Hill" while we dined at a nearby table. It seemed like those guys were always there, no matter when we went.

The best part of Elmo's though was the food, of course. From what I can remember, their menu was pretty much only seafood dishes, and about half of that was crawfish. I'm sure all of it was good, but I wouldn't know. The only thing I can ever remember ordering was the crawfish omelet. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Unfortunately, Elmo's is closed now, so there's no getting an omelet no matter how badly I want one. The only solution is to make one myself.

Crepes

I'd always had the impression that crepes were difficult to make. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it's what I thought nonetheless. While I was living alone in Indiana after Justin started his job out here in Virginia, I decided to give it a try and was amazed at how easy it is. Can you make pancakes? Then you can make crepes. It's basically the same process.