Recipe Review: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Blueberry Muffins

"I'm going to make muffins."
"The recipe with the cranberries you've had open on your browser all week?"
"Yeah."
"I won't be eating them."
"Why?"
"Cranberries don't belong in food. Muffins with blueberries and chocolate chips are better."
"That sounds pretty good, actually."
"I still won't eat them, though, because they have oats."

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Coconut & Lime

• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1 c buttermilk
• 1 c old fashioned oats
• 1/3 c canola oil
• 1/3 c dark brown sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• chocolate chips
• dried blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line or grease and flour one 12 well muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oatmeal, egg, oil, buttermilk, and sugar. After it is thoroughly mixed, add in the flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir to combine. Fold in the remainder of the package of dried blueberries you have been snacking on all afternoon. Add enough chocolate chips so that the batter looks well-studded.

3. Divide evenly among the 12 muffin wells. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, serve.

As long as you aren't completely against oats, these are really delicious muffins. The ones I brought to school today disappeared quickly. Bringing food is definitely a good way to make friends.

Recipe Review: Beer-battered Cod and Onion Rings

Yesterday, on our drive back home from Universal Studios (whose slogan could be "We like to squirt you with water at every opportunity"), R mentioned that he had a hankering for onion rings. I recalled to him that I had a recipe for beer battered fish and onion rings, and so the great onion ring making event began.

Okay, so it wasn't an epic journey. Still, it took about an hour and a half (with R and the roommate pitching in), which is somewhat epic in terms of the cooking that goes on around here, and involved a pan of boiling oil. How did the beer-battered cod and onion rings turn out, you ask? Quite nicely. The batter probably could have used a bit more seasoning, but this recipe will be staying in the cook book.

Recipe Review: Onion and Pancetta Quiche

This quiche is one of the suggested variations on the Onion and Cumin Quiche, as found in the Chocolate & Zucchini cookbook. Aside from cooking the onion, it was a really fast recipe (especially since I used store-bought puff pastry for the crust instead of making my own), so I'm thinking I need to find a quiche recipe without onions. Nevertheless, very tasty.

Onion and Pancetta Quiche
Serves 4-6 as a main course, 8-10 as a starter
From Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen

• Puff pastry, thawed according to package instructions
• 1 T olive oil, plus 1 t for greasing the pan
• 2 pounds yellow onions, about 6 medium, thinly sliced
• 1/2 t fine sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 c light cream
• 1/4 t ground pepper
• 1 1/2 c grated Comté, about 5 oz (substitute Gruyére)

1. If you want to make your own crust, do that now. Otherwise, set the puff pasty out to defrost.

2. Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, sprinkle with 1/4 t salt, and stir. Cover, turn the heat down to low, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the onions are soft and translucent. Remove the lid, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until most of the liquids have evaporated. (This can be prepared up to a day ahead.)

3. Preheat oven to 350^oF. Grease a 10-inch ceramic quiche pan with 1 t olive oil. Working on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough in a 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough into the pan, prick the bottom all over with a fork, and press on the sides with your fingers so the dough will adhere. Bake for 7 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven (leave the heat on) and set aside. Meanwhile, sauté the pancetta until crisp.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Season with the remaining 1/4 t salt and the pepper. Fold in the cheese, onions, and pancetta, and pour into the tart shell.

5. Bake for 35 minutes, until the top is golden and the center of the quiche is still slightly jiggly. Turn the oven off and leave the quiche in the closed oven for 10 minutes, until the filling is set. Serve warm, with a salad of butterhead lettuce. You can make the quiche a few hours or a day ahead and reheat it for 15 minutes in a 350^oF oven to revive the crispness of the crust.

One additional note--if you ever want to quickly and thinly slice a pile of onions, get yourself one of these babies. I couldn't believe how easy it made things (I'm such a gadget freak).

A short talk about my butt

I just found out today that I have irritable bowl syndrome.

Okay, I kind of figured I had it ever since a friend of mine brought it up last May, but today a doctor finally confirmed it. I can't describe how relieved I feel to know that there is, in fact, something wrong with me. My body is odd for a reason.

So far, knowing hasn't changed much. The doctor didn't want to put me on low dose anti-depressants, which apparently also affect the intestines (I wouldn't have wanted to go on them anyway), and was wary of all the other medications used to treat IBS, as they have all been taking off the market at various times for having nasty side effects. Therefore, my treatment is basically avoiding the foods that make my intestines upset, which I was doing anyway due to said problems. The doctor gave me some medication to stop intestinal spasms, but that won't really prevent anything. I did start taking acidophilus pills, at the doctor's recommendation, to improve my intestinal flora. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday night doodles

My arm, the Zen garden. I definitely needed a bit of Zen, too. A whole day of parent-teacher conferences, while better than a week of them after teaching, is still a grueling ordeal. Particularly when you have as many failing kids as I have. Fortunately, most of the parents were fairly understanding. Seeing as their kids were turning in incomplete work, or none at all, most of the parents accepted the situation and resolved to make their kids make up the work (I'm pretty sure that's why they give the students Friday and Monday off after the conferences). I did have one parent, though, who really tried to shift the blame over to me. Yes, the majority of the class did fail the last test. However, it only tipped the scales to failing if the student already had a poor grade in the class, which meant that they weren't turning their work in previously, which explains why they didn't do well on the test. Hmm... whose fault is that again?

In any case, I think the previous test was really a case of the students figuring out what I expected of them (namely, to know the covered material), and the next one should be better. Coupled with a bit of in-class review and a study guide (plus the packets of make-up work that should be arriving from some students after the weekend), test scores should be on the rise.