I love these muffins — for they helped me use up some zucchini and the pepper and parmesan is a nice change from the typical zucchini bread spices. Also, sliced in half with a sausage patty in between makes a great breakfast!

You could also easily turn this into zucchini bread, just start checking on it’s doneness after about 35 minutes or so. If I had to guess, I’d say 45 minutes for bread.

Zucchini Basil Muffins
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp vegetable shortening, softened
1 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (add more if it doesn’t seem moist enough — I think I used somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup)
1 1/4 cup coarsely grated, well-scrubbed and drained well zucchini (about 2 medium)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp + 2 tsp Parmesan cheese

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, 2 tablespoons of cheese and the pepper.

In a bowl cream together the shortening and the sugar, beat in the egg and the buttermilk, beating until the mixture is combined well. Then, stir in the zucchini and the basil. I find it helpful to drain the zucchini before adding to the mix by gathering it in a tea towel and squeezing, squeezing and squeezing.

Add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture, stir the batter until it is just combined, and divide it among your buttered (or canola oil sprayed) muffin cups. Sprinkle a little of the remaining cheese on the top of each muffin and hit it with a little oil spray.

Bake the muffins in the middle of a preheated 400 degree F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean, turn the muffins out onto a rack, and let them cool.

As mentioned earlier, for a tasty breakfast sandwich, halve the muffins horizontally, spread one of the cut sides with a little Dijon mustard, and add a cooked and browned vegetarian sausage patty. Maybe even throw on a few leaves of spinach. Go crazy.

This month’s Sugar High Friday challenge is hosted by The Passionate Cook and the theme is going local. So, being in the Pacific Northwest and all, I thought coffee. And the one coffee dessert I have always wanted to make but never have is Tiramisu!

So, Sunday afternoon, jwa and I walked to one of the coffeehouse closest to our house — Haven — and got 8 shots of espresso (that’s about a cup total). Woo! On the short walk home, it was very hard not to take some slurps of the espresso but I made it — all the coffee made it back for use in the dessert.

I’m not sure tiramisu counts as a local specialty — does Portland have a local dessert specialty? But, Stumptown coffee is definitely a local specialty, so hopefully that’s close enough. Besides, a dessert that requires about 8 shots of espresso? Yeah, that seems very Portlandesque to me.

The recipe that I based this on is one by Sara Moulton (minus the the hazelnuts). This rendition of tiramisu which uses both marscapone and low-fat ricotta, turned out quite well. I used two bigger than single serving glass bowls and made out 3/4’s of the recipe posted below — which made about 4 servings total.

Stumptown Tiramisu
1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
3/4 cup marscapone cheese
1 tbsp dark rum
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups very strong espresso or good quality coffee, cooled
1 tbsp kahula
16 ladyfingers
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, for dusting
Optional: 1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped for the top — this makes it extra Oregon-y!

Beat the cheeses, rum and sugar with until light and creamy and set aside.

Pour the espresso into a large shallow dish. Quickly dip one side of half the ladyfingers into the coffee and lay closely together with the dipped side down over the base of a large flat-based serving dish or smaller, single serving cups.

Spread half of the cheese mixture evenly over the ladyfingers. Dust with half the cocoa then repeat layers with coffee-dipped biscuits and cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight. Dust with remaining cocoa and sprinkle with the toasted hazlenuts just before serving. I accidentally dusted with the cocoa before storing it in the fridge. You should wait and dust yours before you eat it — but mine turned out just fine dusting with the cocoa earlier.

Unfortunately, per the announcement, I don’t know any spooky stories about tiramisu or Stumptown coffee. I wish I did, that’d be really cool if I had a spooky espresso story.

Thanks again so much to The Passionate Cook for hosting this round of SHF and thanks to Portland for having such great coffee!

So, for this week I’m going to try really, really hard to post more frequently. I’m going to shoot for three posts this week. Let’s all cross our fingers.

A fairly quick and healthy dinner. Minimal cheese. Spinach. Beans. Carrots. See? Pretty healthy. We had this meal two Sundays ago, after we got back from Port Townsend. I believe I used roasted garlic hummus but you could use any kind you like. You could also, of course, make your own hummus or hummus-like dip.

The Parmesan cheese on the outside of the breasts give it a really nice and tasty crust. The sprinkle of Parmesan on the inside is just for fun. Fun!

Hummus and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup hummus
8 or so spinach leaves
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup chicken broth
Optional: Your favorite spice blend — for instance, I used a little Sunny Paris (probably about 1 teaspoon total)

Spread a piece of plastic wrap out over a cutting board and lay a chicken breast down. Fold a layer of the plastic wrap over it and pound the breast out until it’s much thinner. Repeat with the other breast.

Sprinkle a little seasoning mix if using and lay down some spinach leaves on each flattened piece of chicken. Divide the hummus between the breasts. Sprinkle each with a little Parmesan.

Roll up. It might be a little messy but you should be able to get it into a rolled shape.

Sprinkle each chicken roll-up with some salt, pepper, a little more seasoning mix and some Parmesan cheese. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Then, add the chicken, seasoned and parmed side down. Go ahead and season the side facing up and let it brown for a couple of minutes.

Flip it over and brown the second side. Add the orange juice and broth to the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cover partially and let cook until the chicken is done (165 degrees — make sure you are checking the hummus temperature too).

Remove the chicken and cover with foil to rest. While it’s resting, turn the heat up on the pan and reduce the sauce by about half — 5-7 minutes. Serve the chicken with a little orange sauce drizzled over it.

Now the carrots came about like this: while in Port Townsend, jwa and I were walking around the Uptown area after the Farmer’s Market had ended. One of the vendors was having trouble getting the door up on the back of her truck. jwa and I helped her get it attached and she gave us a bunch of carrots. Awesome.

That night, when we got home I whipped up this side dish to go with the chicken.

Good Samaritan Carrots
1 bunch carrots, preferably procured through a good deed
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Clean the carrots and cut off the tops. I like to scrape off a bit of the peel but you don’t have to. Cut up into about half the size of baby carrot snacks. Peel the garlic and slice thinly. Heat a pan on medium heat and add the oil. Add the carrots and pan roast slowly, for about 5 - 7 minutes, until they start to get a little color. Add the garlic and continue to cook about 10 more minutes, stirring frequently. Don’t let the garlic burn but it should have a nice golden color.

When the carrots are tender and done, remove from the pan and serve with the chicken.

For Weekend Cookbook Challenge #19 the theme is dinner and a DVD and is being hosted by Chef Girl. For this WCC, I pulled out my brand new copy of The Joy of Cooking and thumbed through the seafood section as one of the movies we had at the house via netflix, was, “Lady in the Water.” It’s a little bit odd, unexpected, it makes you wonder if it’ll be any good or not. Then there’s the movie. Hahahahaha. Just kidding.

And, if I hadn’t just started a new job, I would have picked a well-loved and favorite movie for this and not just used the most recent netflix option but, hell, I am tired — Lady in the Water it is. Although, we are at some point planning a Rushmore / The Royal Tenenbaums dinner film festival soon. It just didn’t happen for this WCC event.

Anyway, vanilla bean in a coconut-y, somewhat Asian-inspired shrimp dish — could it work? Let’s find out!

Vanilla Coconut Shrimp
Based on a recipe in The Joy of Cooking, although, I added the garlic, shitake and red bell pepper
1/ 4 cup olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
12 shitake mushrooms, sliced, stems removed
1 red bell pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 14 1/2 oz coconut milk
2 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I had a bit under this amount — 10 large shrimp total — worked fine)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
cooked rice or pasta

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, mushrooms and belle pepper (it’s a lady pepper!). Cook about 5 minutes and then add the wine and vanilla bean. Bring to a simmer ad reduce the wine by half — about 7-8 minutes.

Next, add the broth, coconut milk, ginger, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer again and reduce sauce by half — about 8-10 minutes.

Th shrimp goes in next. Turn it once while cooking, for a total of about 8 minutes.

Also, don’t forget to cook your pasta or rice. Hey — what’s this in my pasta water? Oh, it’s a Stash lemon & ginger herbal tea bag for a little extra flavor.

Serve the shrimp and coconut-vanilla sauce over the pasta (or rice) and top with the basil. Pop your movie in and pour some wine.

We found that yelling out, “I’m not drinking any fucking merlot,” periodically throughout the movie (especially during suspenseful moments) is much fun — and we were drinking a sauvignon blanc so it was factual as well.

Both jwa and I were pleasantly surprised by how well the vanilla and coconut milk came together. This was a very good meal made even better by a simple yet delightful dessert of vanilla frozen yogurt, peaches and port. Did that have anything to do with the movie? Not really, it was just tasty.

As for the movie, I thought it was okay. It was definitely missing that creepy in the ordinary, atmospheric vibe that I expected but Paul Giamatti carried it the best he could.

Thanks again to Chef Girl for such a great theme!

Too hot outside? Yep. I agree. If you can suffer through the boiling water and the grill pan (if you choose to add the tuna), this is a great meal. I just serve it room temperature. It’s delicious. I usually use frozen albacore tuna from Trader Joe’s — just defrost it the night before in the refrigerator and it’s ready to go.

Instead of the basil and dill, you could also use different herbs — really whatever you like. Plus, with all the veggies and white beans, this is very healthy. Hooray!

Summer Spaghetti
1/2 lb spaghetti
1/4 cup green or black olives (I used green, stuffed with feta)
1 bell pepper, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Englished cucumber, diced
1/4 tsp dried oregano (or more fresh if you have some)
1/2 cup feta (or more)
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
Olive oil
Splash of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Fresh Dill, chopped (about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper
Optional: Grilled albacore tuna, lemon

Add all the veggies and beans in a big bowl. Add the herbs, garlic, some salt and pepper and a little olive oil.

Cook the pasta. Toss with the veggies. Let come to room temperature and if you are using, grill the tuna (salt and pepper first). When it’s done, give it a squirt of lemon juice.

When the pasta and veggies have cooled a bit, add a bit more oil if desired, a bit of red wine vinegar and the feta. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. I typically slice the tuna up and then add to the top.

The leftovers also travel very well for the next day’s lunch.

Coming soon: WCC19, ricotta gelato and possibly even a pie. Now, as part of my new lifestyle, I will be going to bed soon so I can drag myself out of bed by 6:15AM. But, it is totally worth it as I love Stash Tea.